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With only 5 days before Christmas I must say I am shocked I have time to sit here and write this. Of course my blog posts are not written to be educational or inspirational for anyone - just a way to stay in touch with those who care. :-)

As you may know the arrival of our newest family member is approaching rapidly, I can hardly believe we will be holding our precious little Leah in just 10 weeks. And of course nesting mode is in full throttle - but no worries here...everything that needs to be done prior to "labor" day has already been completed. I am glad I am such an organized person, or else I would be pulling out my hair as we speak.

Where I spend most of my time, besides writing, school and being a mommy and wife is running my website. Things have been picking up and because of this - we are going to have some wonderful opportunities this upcoming year to help MORE military families! I do want to take this moment to send you over to my website the Homefront United Network (www.homefrontunited.com) - have I mentioned we turn a year old on December 25th? Yes! We have all worked so hard and are exteremely blessed to be able to stand here today with such amazing accomplishments. So if you haven't checked it out, head on over and let me know what you think!

So as you can tell from my blog posts in the past - they are all random and usually jump around onto different topics...which is okay because being a professional writer I sometimes need my own writing "style" where the rules don't apply. It is kind of like my escape from work.

I would like to close this post by wishing you all a very safe, blessed and Merry Christmas! And of course, here is to a great 2012!

Hooah!

Angela

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After sharing with you about my recent graduation many may be thinking what I will be doing next? Well there is alot so brace yourself................

Preparing for our newest addition to the Caban family has proven to be one of the biggest projects in this house. We recently moved in May and the crib was put away thinking it would be another year before we would need to use it. Well it is now sitting in the laundry room downstairs, ready to be brought up and built for our little girl. Yes, did I mention it's a girl?! We have some major re-arranging of rooms to do and some light painting, so the deadline to get this all done? January 2012 - just a month and a half before she makes her debut! :-)

Having my bachelor's doesn't change much for me since I am still attending graduate school. Is it hard? Not so much hard just a bit more time consuming. And even though I am taking classes part time, it feels like I am in class full time because of the excess work. It is all worth though and I have my children who I think about constantly when accomplishing this.

The Homefront United Network is going stronger than ever. I am so amazed at just how well the site has been received by others. As we almost reach our one year anniversary I am reminded of all the hardwork and struggle to put this site together. It was worth it all! With that being said there are so many projects we are working on as a team that I would love to share. But I promise that soon we are going to be able to reveal all the wonderful things coming for 2012.

Writing is also going well as I continue to contribute weekly to the Veteran Journal as well as many other projects. I have however had to turn some writing projects down due to the fact that I am starting to notice my lack of speed. Yes pregnancy does this and it's normal. No worries! I will pick up after the baby is here..I hope! :-)

What does this mean for the book? Not much other than I am still plugging away at trying to get it completed before the baby is born. I am not making any promises since my family is always a priority and lately I feel as if my son has more going on in life than we do. This of course does not count the numerous times that my husband has been away lately for training - the Army loves training! Being alone makes it easier yet harder - anyone know what I mean?

Well that is just a quick update on things and I have a feeling that these next few months will be a blur...guess I am glad I wrote it down so I can remember! :-)

Hooah!

Angela

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I recently wrote an article for my website the Homefront United Network called "Moving On". I encourage you all to read it as it describes how I am feeling about moving on and closing a chapter in my life. I don't blog often here as you all may know, but I do enjoy sharing my life with you in hopes that it may reach the right person and inspire them to do more in life.

In other news.......

I attended the 2011 Association of the United States Army (AUSA) conference on October 9th and once again was blessed with a wonderful trip to beautiful Washington, DC. I think I should just move there! It was a 4 day trip for me which meant lugging around heavy luggage and a lot of walking at 5 months pregnant. Was it easy? No! Was it worth it? Yes! I learned and obtained so much information, as well as making some very important contacts - and I must thank 2011 Military Spouse of the Year Bianca Strzalkowski for a wonderful time!

How have I been so blessed to be able to experience these types of business trips? But seriously our next move will be to DC!

I missed my boys terribly, but my husband did a fantatstic job of holding down the fort. :-)

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It sure has been a while some since I have contributed to my blog, sad....... but I have been busy! By now I am sure many are aware that my husband and I are expecting our second child this March. We could not express the joy and blessing this has been for our family. We moved in May into this much larger home in order to expand our family and BAM! It all happened so quickly and we could not be any happier. My son has started full day kindergarten and although mommy misses him so much, he loves it! You can't help but to smile when your kid is so darn happy!

So besides being busy on the homefront, writing projects are picking up and the Homefront United Network is taking up much of my time. I love it that so many are expressing their interest in being a part of the site - another blessing! It took a lot of hard work to build this network and with the help of my team we have been able to provide support and encouragement to so many in need.

My husband and his military career have also been keeping me busy..... between the constant activations for Hurricane Irene and the flooding to his Army medic training for certification to work for the VA medical center, I barely see him, which is a total bummer but could not be happier that he is succeeding in his military career just as he has hoped.

I am excited to announce that I will be attending the 2011 Inc. Joining Forces Entrepreneur Fair in Washington, DC on September 22nd. I am honored that I have been invited to represent the HUN and be able to express my interest with so many important mentors on how I want the site to continue growing. Not to brag (hehe) but I will be rubbing elbows with 2011 Military Spouse of the Year Bianca Strzalkowski, 2010 Military Spouse of the year Lori Bell and Military Spouse Magazine founder Babette Maxwell....aren't I a lucky gal? ;-)

I am also prepping for my upcoming graduation on October 21st, after 3 years of hard work, sacrifices and tears...my time has finally arrived! I can't explain the feeling of being able to graduate with Summa Cum Laude honors, something that I hope my children will look back on one day and realize it was all for them! It doesn't end there, the following Monday I start my MBA program...nuts? Nope, just motivated! :-)

Wow, I just read all that I wrote and realized that I have been insanely busy - I am sure there are a ton more things I could sit here and write about, but I won't bore you...besides I will be maintaining this blog better since so many have been asking about my preganancy....no I haven't been sick - if anything I have felt fantastic! Thank you God!

Blessings for now - thank you for finding my personal life interesting.......I do sometimes! :-)

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The past few weeks have been hell. No that is not me being dramatic, it literally was HELL! Between moving, writing, attending the 2011 MilBlog conference and finals - my life has been turned upside down and I have had many teary nights.

But now all is settled and I am slowly getting back into the swing of things. We are so happy in our new home as well as our state. I feel as if the past 2 years in our old home were a blur because we were not happy being there. One of the happiest days of our families life was when we found out we were moving, it was a dream come true!

So as you know, I am not a blogger so I will not bore you with random ramblings about my life. I just wanted to give you all an update!

Catch you all soon!

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I haven't vanished off the face of this planet, I promise!

Crazy, crazy, crazy! That is how I would explain my life today and honestly, with all the work I have; writing, moving, school and family I don't have the time to sit here and write you a 10 page blog! :-)

It's just not logical and I have other important things to do than to blog, hope you all understand. So the reason for this pointless entry? Just want to let you all know I am still around, trying to catch up on the many emails I receive daily......I promise I will respond soon!

But nevertheless, I am here and so thankful to you all for the support and wonderful emails and comments, you are all truly fantastic.

Love and Hooah!

Angela

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So from time to time I will grace your presence with a blog.............

I am not really a blogger, I guess since I write so much - the last thing I think about is sitting down to blog. :-(

I figure that since my son is still at a young age, I need to focus my time on him, and not blogging about random things. I don't want to ever say "oh no I missed that, because I was busy blabbering about my day"! Nonsense! If I didn't write professionally, then that would be a different story! :-)

So after that is said and done, here is a random blog..... :-)

So I recently posted the link to the book project that kept me busy from December to January. I am so blessed to be able to be apart of this project and to get to work with so many wonderful authors. Here is the link in case you missed it: http://www.faithdeployed.com/coming-soon/

I have a few more projects left that are pretty big - one being my memoir, and the other things I am not yet allowed to mention. Soooooooo other than that, I hope that you are all members of the HUN page. If you have not yet done so, please visit y site and become a member, it only takes a few minutes! www.homefrontunited.com

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I would like to explain just exactly how important the Christmas season is for me and family, especially now that I have a family of my own.....

The fondest memory of my childhood has always been Christmas. The entire family would gather; my father's parents lived above us in a two family house, my cousins, aunt and uncle down the street, and my mother's mom and sister just a few minutes up the road. We had an abundance of food that would vary from our traditional Cuban cuisine to European and American dishes. The music, the plays I directed in which my cousins and brother starred in. Then walking in the snow passing the holiday lights to attend midnight mass at our church right across the street. Does it get any better than this?

It was never about the presents or material things; although I will say we were extremely blessed as a family. But even though the presents were many, we always valued and appreciated everything we had. We knew that Christmas was about family, love, giving and Christ. My parents worked to instill these values upon all three of us and today, I am striving to bring my son up with the same values.

I am lucky to have my entire family still around to share these family traditions, and although we now live further apart, the distance does not keep us apart for the holidays'.

I am looking forward for yet another Christmas celebration this year with my growing family, and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

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It's not every day that we use the word "Nachos" in the same sentence as "Military Wives!" I guess the only time would be during deployment and we are getting our craving for junk food. But all jokes aside, I must thank my mother for bringing this up to my attention; it truly is a cute and funny story about military wives and one of our most favorite foods of all time, nachos!

I bet many people don't think that the history of nachos has anything to do with the military right? Wrong!

In 1943, a group of twelve U.S. soldiers' wives that were stationed in Fort Duncan, took a trip to Piedras Negras, Mexico. After a long and tiresome shopping trip, the twelve military wives stopped at a restaurant for a bite to eat. Since the restaurant had just closed, the maitre d', Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya, prepared a special snack for them with the few ingredients left in the kitchen, tortillas and cheese. He cut the tortillas into triangles and added cheese over the top, heated them and added jalapeno peppers. The dish was named "Nachos Especiales" – translating to Nacho's special dish.

After the group of military wives tasted Nachos, they were hooked! The dish quickly became a hit all over Mexico and Texas. In 1959, nachos were served around the entire country.

Amazing to think that because this group of hungry military wives, one of the world's favorite snacks was created! Just another interesting military fact!

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I am in shock that as I sit here writing, there are only a few days until Thanksgiving. Where has the time gone?

The Christmas season is my favorite! Why? Because I hold fond childhood memories. Many may think its common, but I feel as if I were truly blessed to have lived such a happy childhood.

I am not as consistent with my blog as I would like to, but there are many reasons for this. I used to keep my readers updated with my monthly newsletter, but since its end, I have not updated anyone in what is going on in my life.

My graduation is finally approaching and this will mean one thing....SPARE TIME!

What is spare time? What will I find to fill that void? Oh yes that's right, back to school!

As my husband pursues his medical career, I will be continuing my education by pursuing my Master's degree. Exciting yes!

We have put so much on hold these past two years because of school and separations; a second child, moving, different schedules. And to think that we have this thought that things will slow down.....yea okay!

Television broadcasts, magazine interviews, columns.....the list goes on with the many projects keeping me busy these days. I was asked to contribute as an author to a book…excited, nervous and details coming soon!

So the launch.....

So friends, family and readers keep asking when the launch of the new site will be. Well I am submitting final documentation to the web designer and crossing my fingers that all should be ready to go in just a few weeks. I will definitely post the launch date on here.....be patient! J

Okay so I was obviously in the mood to jump around all sorts of topics, this is my life people! Always crazy, hectic, busy.....and I LOVE IT!

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