A brief exchange at lunch today:
Daniel: “Hey, are your jeans pulled up all the way?â€
Amanda: “They do get a little loose, when I’ve worn them a while without washing them.â€
Daniel: “Look, I took this picture of you. It looks like you are carrying a load. You used to fill those pants out. You must have lost weight. Good job, honey!â€
Amanda: “Um. Thanks.â€
Dave Ramsey calls when you do something stupid and then loose money because of it “Stupid Tax.” Well I paid some recently.
Since we are leaving the world of the D.I.N.K.’s, I have been very diligent on reducing our monthly expenses. I have shopped insurance providers, worked on reducing our grocery bills, tracked all expenses, and cut subscriptions. One place I thought I had a small victory was with our telephone bill. I noticed at&t was charging us $12.00 per month for “Long Distance Service”. Since we get free long distance through our mobile phones, we hardly ever use this service. I dutifully called and canceled this superfluous service to lower our monthly bill.
Then, last month we decided to call our good friends Don and Judy who serve as missionaries in Spain. While preparing for a previous mission trip to Spain we often made calls to them on our home phone line, using our speaker phone to have conference calls. These calls which were up to half an hour in duration would cost us between $3 and $5 a piece. No problem. Given this history we thought nothing of picking up the phone and dialing +34…
When the bill came last week I immediately thought there was some sort of error. Then I saw “AT&T Long Distance…” The call that used to be $3-$5 for half an hour was now $160.48!!! I immediately felt that sinking feeling in my gut. “Way to go smart guy!” I thought to myself.
Needless to say, next time we call Spain, we will use Skype as Don and Judy suggested.
Brief exchange last night:
Daniel: “Why don’t you change this one.”
Amanda: “I changed the last one.”
Daniel: “I changed the twelve before that.”
Amanda: “Ok.”
Today is Mother’s Day. I can’t believe it, I am actually a mom. Today is my sixth day being a mom and reality still has not sunk in yet. I keep saying to myself over and over again – I have a daughter and her name is Annabelle. I am sure it is normal to feel this way.
Right now I am just in autopilot mode. Doing what I have to do. I told Daniel I feel like I have been doing an Ironman Trialothon. Pregnancy was the swim portion, labor and delivery the biking portion, and now I am on the last leg – a marathon. I am tired and sore from the previous two legs, but I can see the finish line and God is giving me strength to finish. Soon Annabelle and I will have this breastfeeding thing down and we will be in a happy routine. Until then, I am going to take delight in my first Mother’s Day and be joyful about the most amazing gift that God could have given me – the privilege of raising His daughter Annabelle.
The hospital room at Methodist was nice, but 38 hours there was plenty. 
I certainly won’t miss the chair/bed and Amanda won’t miss the food.
We came home Wednesday night around 7:00.   After getting our discharge paperwork, we got packed up in the car and made the drive home. We’ve spent the past few days getting acclimated to life at home with a baby. We are all working on getting used to the feeding and sleeping schedule. One thing not may people tell you is that the first night is very challenging. We didn’t sleep much if at all, and Annabelle spent the time testing out her lungs.
Here are some pics from the last few days.
Good old silver camry
Marley making sure Annabelle is buckled up safely.
Momma and baby ready to go home.
Annabelle getting in some shut eye.
We wondered how our cat Elizabeth would react to our new arrival. Well this picture tells it all. I don’t think Elizabeth is taking too well to being replaced.
The good thing about private rooms is that you can have a few more folks in the room than the rules allow. We are social people and get energy from having people around, so it was nice to have a bunch of visitors yesterday.
Here are some of Annabelle’s first visitors:
Kara, Uncle Matt, McKenna
Cousin Samantha, Melia, Dr. Gallagher
Uncle Albert and Aunt Norma, Uncle Henry, Samantha and Aunt Denise
Barb and JD, Kelly and Ryan
Ian & Kara and Nick & Kay stopped by, but our nurse wouldn’t let them stick around. 
At the 3 a.m. feeding it hit me…Christine. We agreed on it this morning and 60 seconds later the Birth Certificate Office called. Annabelle Christine Espinoza.
Phew. Just in the nick of time.
For as long as I’ve known Jason, almost every time he’s around my camera, he leaves me a little gift – namely a picture with the frame completely overwhelmed by a closeup of his face. I thought about assembling a page with the multitude of pics, but the sheer magnitude was too much to bear.
We got a chance to babysit Jackson, and wouldn’t you know it, he dropped his binky and went straight for the camera.
You’ve got your framing down Jack Jack, but your focus needs a little work!
When I told him how much baby formula cost, as a reason to encourage breast feeding, JD replied:
“WHAT!?!?! For that price, I’ll start lactating!”
I will be sure to take pictures it if it happens
