My SITS Day!

I can't believe it ... it's my SITS day, and while they featured me on their page, I acknowledged it by sleeping in. Oops!  Sorry!

I've never known what I would write about on my SITS day.  I think probably the best course of action is simply to tell you a little bit about myself.

My name is Cristina.  I'm a girl that has lived in Texas my entire life, but raised by a very loud and hilarious Puerto Rican family.  I went to Texas A&M for college and had a grand 'ol time there, but decided I wasn't quite done with my education, so I went to law school and graduated from there approximately a year ago!

When I was 16, believe it or not, I met the love of my life...my sweet, brilliant, and supa sexy husband Evan.  Evan will be graduating from medical school in about 3 weeks.  He will be starting his Urology residency in Little Rock, so in approximately a month, we'll be moving there!  We are so excited!

 Evan, the doctor that ANY patient will be lucky to have

My blog mainly started because ... well ... about 2 months in to my 3rd year of law school, my boobs hurt.  Really bad.  My almost doctor husband said "you're pregnant."  Umm, is he crazy or what?  That wouldn't be what some people would call ideal timing.  But sure enough, 4 tests confirmed!

 18 weeks pregnant

After some shock on my part (my husband was thrilled ... he wants a basketball team of children), I was absolutely happy.  Liliana Rose was born 5 days after I graduated from law school!  She came approximately a month early but was nearly 7 pounds!  She was just ready to join the world!

 Liliana Rose, my beauty

Since Liliana's birth, I've decided to alter my career path let's say ... just a tad.  Next year in Little Rock, I will be teaching Economics, heading an Academic Support team, AND be legal counsel for a private school.  This job is truly perfect for me ... a little bit of everything.

And that pretty much leaves us to the present!  These last couple weeks have been rather tough for us as Liliana was diagnosed with Ureteral reflux.  This basically means she'll be on antibiotics until we can get this reflux to stop!  While it hasn't been easy for us to deal with this, we know it's just a temporary something that we'll have to deal with.

 I hope you follow along to see how our lives unfold!  I try to write about marriage, motherhood, being a working Mom, and just about everything under the sun ... I even review books and share recipes!  Thanks so much for reading!

Our happy family!

In Another Life

In another life, I'd own a bakery store.  The name of it: "One of those days."  Because after all, that's what desserts are for ... when you've just had one of those days and a slice of cake, or a scrumptious cupcake would make all those woes seem a little bit better.

I honestly love baking.

The hours to open this kind of shop would suck because you have to get up so darn early, but I just think it's something I would love doing.  I love discovering new recipes, and most of all, I love the look that people give me when they eat a dessert I've made.

I have it all planned out:  I wouldn't just open it from 10 - 6 like so many bakeries around.  It would be more of a 11:30 - 9 pm shop.  I think there's a big void for a dessert shop that's open later in the day.  Have you guys ever been sitting at home and say "I want dessert!"  That happens to me ALL the time but I'm limited to ice cream at the grocery store OR I have to start making a cake at 8 pm knowing full well that by the time it's done, I'll be ready to go to sleep! 

And if there was a shop with things such as ...

this available at 9:00 pm, wouldn't you desperately want a slice?

I'd make cakes such as:

 this chocolate indulgence cake ...

my delicious carrot cake that Evan drools over ...

OR my favorite cake that I've ever made ... Banana Sour Cream.

I wouldn't be limited to just cakes though. I have quite a fascination with cupcakes as well.  In fact, so much of a fascination that cupcakes is the theme of Liliana's first birthday party!  I'd DEFINITELY include these on the menu:

these Chocolate Chip Cookie dough cupcakes are TO DIE FOR.

Maybe one day I'll open "One of Those Days." 

In the mean time, I'll just keep prepping and experimenting in my own kitchen!

A Week That Went from Bad to Horrible

As I wrote about last post, Liliana was pretty sick with a fever.  When I typed that I would be updating you guys, I had no idea where my week would take us.  Unfortunately, the news was worse than I hoped.  This has been an incredibly tough week for us.  I am trying to stay strong in front of others, mainly because I don't want to take the time to acknowledge how unfortunate it has been.

I do want to talk about it all though, because writing is therapeutic, AND because I want to help other Mother's possibly going through the same thing with their kids.

On Tuesday, after I ate my cupcake, I put Liliana down for a nap.  When she woke up, she was burning and had a fever of 103.3.  I slightly freaked out, called my Mom (a pediatric radiologist) and she said that was awfully high but to try and wait until Evan got him for some advice.  An hour later, I took it again because the Ibuprofen didn't seem to be helping.  This time, it was 104.2. 

Evan gets horrible service in the hospital, so for the first time since he started medical school (which is basically 4 years ago) I called the hospital and told them to find my husband.  I stayed strong on the phone as best I could.  They told me that he was leaving RIGHT as I called.  Sure enough, Evan called me while I was saying good bye to the nurse.

As soon as he answered, my tears started.  I was so scared to see Liliana so red due to the fever and didn't know what was going on.  Evan rushed home while I packed everything up and on we went to the ER for the first time since she was born.  Fortunately, Evan knew the doctor on call and we were seen really quickly.  Liliana was diagnosed with a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) and an ear infection.  By the time we left the hospital, it was nearly 1 in the morning.  We started her on antibiotics that evening and went to bed concerned, but relieved that we had a diagnosis.

Wednesday proceeded with Liliana sleeping a lot.  We both thought we would be at work on Thursday.  If only ...

On Thursday morning, Liliana woke up with a fever of 104.2 again.  This time, I saw concern in Evan's face.  I trust Evan's medical opinion so very much ... after all, he'll be a doctor in approximately 3 weeks.  When I saw he was worried, I started going from worried to panicked.  We went in to see her pediatrician at 10:45.

Due to her severe fever, he decided to give her a shot of Rocefrin to truly treat the UTI.  He said she didn't in fact have an ear infection, but it was just that red because of her extreme fevers.  Then, he delivered the bad news.

He asked if anyone in Liliana's family had a history of UTI's.

I do.

I had plenty as an infant, and take medication any time after sexual intercourse to this day because I get UTI's so very easily.

As soon as he heard that, he ordered an Ultrasound and VCUG (I'll explain more in a second) on Liliana.

Fortunately, Dr. Tata (my Mommy) does this for a living so we decided we'd go to San Antonio to have the procedures done.  We quickly packed, closed on our house in Little Rock through mail (without even noticing what a big event that was) and were on our way.

On the way, my car broke down.  What are the freaking chances right?  This is another story in and of itself, but let me just say we have the best friends EVER.  They met us 30 minutes away from their home and let us use their car for the weekend so we could get Liliana's tests done.

We didn't end up arriving in San Antonio until nearly 1 a.m. because the trip took 10 hours instead of 6 due to car troubles.

The next morning, we went confidently to the hospital.  My Mom told us to relax because 5/6 of baby girls have normal results are having UTIs as infants.

Liliana's ultrasound was perfectly normal and that made me relax. Then the VCUG came.  For a VCUG, they put a catheter in Liliana and then inject a dye in to her bladder to make sure no urine moves.  A normal result stays in the bladder.  Liliana's was doing so with flying colors, but then I heard my Mom say ...

"oh no, she refluxed."

And sure enough, on the TV screen, I saw a line go from Liliana's bladder to her kidneys.  This is called stage 2 reflux.  The stages tell you how far up it goes in the body and range from 1 to 5.  While the results COULD have been SO much worse, they could have been better too.

I fully expected to be one of the 5/6 normal results.

We go see her pediatrician again on Thursday and he is going to start her on what's called prophylactic antibiotics.  These antibiotics ensure that Liliana will not have another UTI while she is taking them.  In another year we'll go back for ANOTHER VCUG and make sure that she has outgrown the reflux.  Hopefully, she will.

In the mean time, Liliana's antibiotics to get rid of the UTI have been helping.  It has been a tough week, not just because of this, but because of our car (what I'm assuming will be a HUGE unanticipated expense) and because of some other events that aren't my place to discuss here on this blog.

When I put Liliana to sleep the last few nights, I've had tears in my eyes because I feel at fault for these problems.  Liliana is SO much like her Daddy and the ONE thing that she got from Mommy was this health problem that VERY likely will go away ... but in the mean time, I'll worry.  Because I love that little girl more than words can say.

I Had a Bad Day (Part I): Thank God for Cupcakes.

As you guys know, Liliana started running a fever yesterday.  I hate seeing her sick and I hate not knowing what's wrong with her.

My day home with her started off fine: some grocery shopping, some meal planning, and during her nap I made these ...

The pictures don't do these justice.
They're the Martha Stewart Strawberry cupcakes.
They took two hours. They were worth it.  So very worth it.

After she woke up though, things started turning sour.  She was still burning hot.  I held her, fed her, and tried my best to console her.  Seeing her in pain broke my heart.  She started crying and the phone rang.  It was the title company in Little Rock.

Apparently I had been misinformed about the entire closing process and somehow WHILE at work, I am supposed to go to a bank, get a cashier's check, and go to my neighborhood notary to have the paper work signed.

She called me at 3:49.  The bank closes at 4.  I decided I would try to make it.  I quickly put Liliana in the car and pull in the parking lot at 3:59.  I had made it!

I got out of the car, was getting this gorgeous little lady out of the car, and look at the front door of the bank.

The manager sees us and CLOSES the door.  While I have a sick, feverish baby in my hands and while I am trying to take advantage of having a "day off" (aka my baby was sick, I don't get days off).

I immediately put Liliana in the car and go through the drive thru.  I ask if I can get my cashier's check there and they of course say no.

I tell her someone just shut the door in my face, at exactly 4, while I had an 11 month old baby in my hands.

The manager gets on the microphone and dares to tell me he hadn't seen my car (I was parked RIGHT in front of the door).  I quickly tell him we might be taking our business elsewhere and that I'd let others know about their amazing (sarcastic obviously) customer service.

Yep, I snapped at the drive thru lady and manager. 

Later I realized I probably over reacted.  But seriously, DO NOT close the door on a lady with a baby when they are RIGHT there.  I was less than 15 steps from being inside and it was EXACTLY 4 o'clock.

I went and had a great workout.  This took out some of my anger.  But what ultimately saved my afternoon?

All I have to say it Thank God for Cupcakes.

Part II?  Things turn sour for Liliana...stay tuned.

The Importance of NOT Saying "No"

Yesterday, like a conceited little know it all snot, I blogged about the importance of saying no.  And I have to admit, I was feeling rather cocky afterwards.  Like a know it all parent ... after not even a YEAR.

At dinner time, Liliana started fussing some.  She does the thing where she screams for no reason.  She's been doing it for weeks.  She's not crying.  She's just screaming.  For fun.  Lovely.

So last night she started her screaming thing.  Evan and I could hardly understand eachother as we were trying to discuss how our days went.

I decided it was time to start teaching her the word "shhh."  I put my finger over my mouth and said "Liliana NO. shhh."  She started figuring it out.  Evan and I felt pretty darn good about ourselves.  She, like a wonderful and good child quieted down.  She seemed a little perplexed, but we figured it was time to start teaching her that screaming in pubic isn't ok.

Later in the evening, I was hugging her and realized she felt awfully warm.  I told Evan and he said she felt fine to him.  Sometimes I overexaggerate things, so I chalked it up to that and kept on with our evening.

Fast forward to bath time.  As I'm undressing her, she STILL feels warm so I apologize to Evan for not believing in his doctorly advice and stick the themometer in the ... you know where.

Bam.  Fever of 101.9.

I told my child to quiet down and "no" and "shhh" and she was screaming to me that she didn't feel well.

I should win for worst parent of the year.

I'm home today with her because even after Ibuprofen last night, she had a slight fever when she woke up.

And today, after another hour of being on medicine, she's STILL running a slight fever.

So I suppose the point of this post is ... don't always just say "no."  Sometimes you should consider that they might be trying to tell you something. 

Like my parents said ... and they are so right ... there are NO books with all the rules on how to parent.  But from now on, I'll try my best to step back and ask myself "am I saying NO for the right reason?"

In the mean time, I'll be making Strawberry Cupcakes while she naps ... maybe eating some of those in the afternoon will let her forgive Mommy!!!

The Importance of "No"

I'm not opposed to saying the word "no" to your children.  And personally, I believe in saying it early.  I am so sick of going to restaurants and seeing kids running around and disturbing others.  I'm sick of the saying "kids will just be kids" when the kids are in fact just being brats ... and continue to be brats for too long.

I've always had this opinion but when you don't have kids, you're not "allowed" to have them. Before Liliana was born, I would make statements such as "well when we have kids, we'll still watch TV while they sleep because they need to learn to sleep with some noise."  And all that I was told was "just wait until you have kids."  I can proudly report that as I type this, my TV is on, and Liliana is taking a nap.  Oh and before you ask, it's on at a reasonable level ... not on mute.

When Liliana started doing things, such as yanking on my necklace, I immediately started saying "no."  The first time she did it?  It didn't go well. 

She laughed.

At 3 1/2 months of age, Liliana laughed at me for saying "no."  And I did it in a stern voice too!

But with time, the "no"s have continued.  When she does something REALLY bad (like try to put her finger in the electrical socket) she gets a big NO and a little slap on her hand.  And I don't believe that I should say "no" and then give her another toy.  If she's trying to play with the remote (her favorite thing in the world after food), I tell her no and that's that. 

Yes, she tries throwing tantrums.  In fact, we get a face very similar to this:

But slowly but surely, the temper tantrums are lasting shorter and shorter.  If I tell her "no" she quickly takes her hand off whatever she's holding.  She KNOWS what it means already.  And she even shakes her head "no" sometimes too!

But I'd rather her TRULY know the meaning of it because the last thing you want is to realize they don't understand right AFTER they put a nickel in their mouth and swallow it.  OR in my case, right after Liliana ate the little gravel at the bottom of the fireplace. 

I think the word "no" is so very important with children.  And I know that when she's 2 or 3, it will get harder because it will start to be the ONLY word I get to use! ha. 

But I feel that starting from when they're YOUNG (you know, when they were 3 1/2 months and started trying to take your earrings out and yanking them so hard that you want to yell) is so useful. 

There isn't a parenting rule book.  That's something my parents always tell me.  And it's so true.  But I'm pretty sure that using the word "no" in a useful, not mean, but helpful style can definitely be in a rule book ...

The good news is that even AFTER you say no ... your sweet baby will still want to be with her Mommy and Daddy.

When You're Broke

You window shop.

I once saw a Gilmore Girls episode (fabulous show in case you guys haven't seen it) where Lorelie and Rory are broke so they decide to window shop.  They notice a couple of cute items in the Forever 21 window and think "there's no harm in window shopping right?"  So they enter the store and quickly exit with pain on their face saying "horrible idea, that just made the urge to shop even worse!"

Have you guys ever done what I just finished doing?  I went on the Forever 21 website and put about 15 things in my cart.  It totaled about $300 (and if you do the  math by the way, I was buying cheap things right?).  I did this entire thing knowing full well that (a) I don't have the TIME to be window shopping, (2) I don't have the MONEY to be window shopping, and (c) I don't have the heart to be window shopping!

I quickly exited out of the website and unlike Lorelie and Rory, it actually DID help me!  I got a little shopping bug out of my system, realized that really and truly I don't need anything, and thought to myself, well at least now I know that if for some reason our house would sell tomorrow, I could go to the mall and celebrate.

Want to see some of my imaginary purchases?

Cute little shirt for the weekend ... maybe going to the park.

Another casual shirt for the weekend.

Oooo ... loving this one!  I'd wear this to a picnic!

 How about some dresses?  Shall we?

I like dresses, a lot.  I could wear dresses every single day.  And this one?  I'd wear it on a date.

This one's so "easter-y" looking.  I think I'd wear this to a luncheon.

 

This one's a little fancier ... maybe for a nice dinner.

Maybe next time I get my shopping bug I'll go to Old Navy! After all, when you internet window shop, the world is your oyster!

April 12th ... already

Today marks the 19th anniversary of my brother's death. 

I hate April 12th.  It's a day I dread all year long.  I know that, for the most part, starting on April 11th, I'll be a basketcase.  And this year was no exception.

Knowing how much pain my family has endured causes me to be in pain for them.  My Mother was driving the car and SAW her son pass.  Her 13 year old son.  Her brilliant son.  Her son that was going to be a world famous scientist.  Her son, my brother, the one that always WANTED to babysit his 6 year old younger sister.

The pain that she must feel ... I can't imagine it.  And for the last two days, I've been crying not so much because he is gone (although that of course makes me cry), but mainly because I can't imagine the pain she as gone through.

I've only been a mother for 10 1/2 months.  And if anything would happen to my daughter?  I think I would die inside.  I really do.  I would never be the same person again.  A smile would be forced.  I would never genuienly laugh again.

And while I see EVERY SINGLE day that my Mom lives with this pain, she somehow has endured.  She is such a strong woman.  Sometimes, she's too strong.  Sometimes I wish she would feel more comfortable to break out and cry with us.  But I know she's trying to be strong for all of us...because she's our Mamma bear. 

I often wonder what he would be like.  I wonder what our holidays would be like.  I wonder how he would have reacted to his nieces.  I wonder if HE would have had kids himself!

I've cried this year more than normal.  I had a severe headache last night from all the tears.  And fortunately my husband just holds me and lets me cry. 

Today though, I went to work and tried to be distracted as much as I could.  It wasn't the best day of work.  I had a kid threaten me and to the best of my knowledge, he was arrested afterwards.  Of all days for me to feel vulnerable...

When I got home though, Evan and I watched "Tangled" to help keep my mind off things.  It was cute.  Did the trick ... even though a few tears still came through.  Then we had some sweet friends come over for dinner since they knew today was a tough day.  We made a delicious spaghetti dinner and shared some laughs.

On a day like today, I feel like it's important to admit why I've been so adamant and so upset at myself for not fulfilling on my promise to "live for today."  Because the fact of the matter is that on any day, your world can fall apart.

And 19 years ago, today, it did.

Father's Day/ Mother's Day Ideas

Over on Kelly's Korner "Show us your life" she is doing Father's Day and Mother's Day ideas.  While we have only been parents for less than a year, I thought I could add a little inspiration hopefully!

Last year, when Father's Day came around, Evan had only been a Daddy for approximately a month.  HOWEVER, he had taken about 45,000 pictures on his cell phone and was showing EVERYBODY pictures of Liliana.  I wish I was kidding, but seriously, he would pass people in a grocery store and start showing pictures.  As if anybody cared!  Anyway, I wanted to do something in this realm and so I bought him a little digital picture keychain and put about 40 of our favorite pictures of Liliana.  It was incredibly inexpensive ($8) and was SO cute.  He said that when he would get bored or when he really missed us while walking through the hospital, he would whip it out and start scrolling through all the shots.

 It looks a little something like this.  I got it off of Amazon.

As for Mother's Day, I wasn't actually a Mommy just yet.  HOWEVER, my husband is of course the sweetest guy ever and bought me a gift anyway.  I'm a BIG fan of Willow Tree and we have the husband and wife statue in our living room.  Therefore, to make our collection more complete, he bought me the family Willow Tree and put it on the shelf right next to the "us" one.  How sweet to see that progression!

 This is called "Our Gift" from Willow Tree. It's gorgeous!

Now, I'd love to tell you what I'm getting for Mother's Day THIS year, but unfortunately Evan won't even give me a hint!  I know he has the gift because he's been taunting me with it.  He's VERY excited about it.

I did come up with a couple of ideas for people though ...

For Daddy:

For Christmas, I bought Evan a necklace like this that says Liliana's name and date of birth.  When he's in surgery, he puts his wedding ring on the necklace.  That way, he has Liliana and I close to his heart all day!

(bought it off Etsy for $20 btw)

For a New Mommy:

I saw this at Target the other day and LOVED it.  I love the Chicken Soup series and I think that one of these stories per day should be required for all Mommy's to realize that they're not alone in this crazy new process.

Never Settled

I'm in this stage of my life where all I do is think about the future.  One of my New Years Resolutions was to "live for today" and I'm failing miserably.  All that I do is think "when is this going to happen? And when will this happen?  And what if this happens?"  Everything in my life ALWAYS feels like it's in limbo.  And quite frankly, I am so damn sick of it.

All last semester, I adjusted to my new career move and although I know I'm happier with the job, I must admit that it was a big blow to my ego as well.  I am not nearly as proud of myself to say 'I'm a teacher' as I was to say 'I'm a lawyer.'  Let's just say it doesn't elicit a very positive response when people found out I went to law school.

BUT now, with my new job (which by the way, I can officially announce is OFFICIAL because I signed my contract today) I'd be teaching economics and bethe Academic Support Coordinator (amongst MANY other things).  My degree will finally be used and I'm proud of this job.  I really truly am.  I got my dream job for this stage of my life.  And I think I'm pretty damn lucky.

I kept telling Evan that if I got that job, I'd feel content and settled.

BUT that's not the case.

Our house is still for sale.  We had SO much activity the first 3 weeks that we kept our heads held high. And now it's been over 3 weeks since we had a SHOWING!  No calls, no nada.  It's so depressing.  So even though we've both gained employment and even though I found Liliana a daycare that I'm content with in Little Rock, I just spend my time stressing while thinking about a double mortgage payment.

So now I keep saying "when the house sells, I'll feel settled."  But will I?  I'd love to say I would.  And I know for sure that the stress will go down greatly, but I'm sure I'll find a new thing.

I need to LEARN to live for today and rejoice for the good things!  I mean for petes sake, I got a freaking JOB!  In this economy, I got a job without struggle. I'm so fortunate.

So after the house sells ... yes ... that's my new goal.  I'll live for today once the stupid blasted thing sells.  In the mean time, we'll keep cleaning for HOURS every single weekend, staging the house every morning before we leave, and keeping everything in that "we don't live here" look. 

Home Sick AND Books 4 & 5

Since the middle of March, I've had this sore throat.  Towards the end of march, I completely and utterly lost my voice.  With time, I thought the runny nose and sore throat and cough would go away.  But last night, I coughed a MINIMAL of every 30 seconds until 3 a.m.  So naturally, when the alarm rang this morning at 6:30, there was no way I was equipped to head to work.  I am so incredibly sick of coughing up mucus (gross I know, sorry).

Through all of these nasty boogie Kleenex's I started reading a book ... after all, I need to complete 10 books as part of my New Years Resolution.

Have you seen the preview for this movie?

Something Borrowed is based on a book by Emily Giffin and I HAD to read it when I heard what the plot was about ... SO, I read it, and didn't really put it down.

Something Borrowed

By: Emily Giffin

Grade: B ++

How Long Did it Take To Read: About 4 days.  Hee hee.  It's a QUICK read.  AND, it's pretty addicting.

Why I Read It: I saw the preview and was wondering how the heck she would write this book ... 

First Thoughts: From page 30, I was hooked.  The entire time you read the book you think to yourself, "where the hell is this going?  Am I supposed to like the main character?  I kinda hate her ... is this normal?"

Plot: Darcy is engaged to Dex.  Darcy's BFF (Rachel) starts having an affair with Dex.  The rest of the book explores how Rachel feels semi-bad about the affair, yet keeps sleeping and having a relationship with Dex.  By the end of the book, you wonder if the wedding is going to be called off, if Rachel and Dex are going to end up together, if you want them to end up together, and who really is the big jerk in the equation.

At the end: With about 30 pages left in the book I had the "oh shit" moment.  I DEFINITELY didn't see the end coming.  I thought I had figured it all out and was so very wrong.  At the end though, I realized that nobody is perfect and there isn't ONE jerk in any story.  Everybody messes up ... I couldn't stop thinking that even if so, some mistakes are just unforgivable.  I think cheating is atrocious and especially if you're doing it with a friend.  Can't get over it.

Why a B ++: Honestly, I would give this book an A but feel really silly doing that.  This book isn't a masterpiece and isn't super intelligent by ANY stretch of the imagination.  But, it's entertaining as hell.  It's like Sex and the City in a book.  If you want a fun and quick read, READ THIS.  AND, don't make the same mistake I made ... order the next few ones too.  You'll want to jump right in.

Something Blue

 By: Emily Giffin

Grade: C+

How Long Did it Take to Read: 3 days! I went through this one quickly as well. 

Why I Read it:  I HAD to know how the story continued.  The first book ends without too many things resolved.  I was hoping the second installment would finish with a more conclusive ending, and it did.

First Thoughts: The books are each narrated by a different character and I thought that was a brilliant idea.  It starts with Darcy (the best friend that found out her friend was cheating with her fiance) narrating how her life was continuing when the first book ended.  It hooked me pretty quickly.  Since it was written by a different character, the writing style was completely different.

Plot: I can't say TOO much about the plot because it would give away what happened in Something Borrowed.  But, the book is mainly describing how Darcy handles losing her fiance.  She travels to London to live with a friend so that she could get away and try to figure things out.  While in London she tries to discover herself and get her life in order.

At the end:  There was no big twist in this one.  I saw the end coming about 200 pages earlier than it did.  It ends all happy go lucky.  And in my opinion, it was pretty unrealistic.  But I suppose that's to be expected.

Why a C +: I didn't grade this as high as I did the last book because I wasn't nearly as hooked.  It just seemed like a rather cheap continuation of the first one.  

Conclusion: Like I said above, I knew the ending WELL before the "twist" happened.  But that wasn't really the point of this one.  The point of this book was more of a "discovering yourself" theme and in that sense, it was done well.  Also, let it be known that the THIRD installment is already in the mail!! ; )

A Personal Post About SO Many Things

It's been a week since I wrote last and what a week it has been!  I have three announcements, and one is obviously the most important, so I'll start there:

(1) my best friend, Kristen had her baby on Thursday!  She was nearly 41 weeks when he made his debut, but he came out at a PERFECT 7 lbs 7 oz.  Baby Clayton is a GORGEOUS newborn!  I can't wait to meet him next week.

 It makes me sentimental to see this picture ... just a few short 10 months ago, I was taking a very similar picture with Liliana (except I didn't look nearly as poised as Kristen!)!

(2)  Remember how I mentioned I had a job interview in Little Rock a few weeks ago?  Well, I stayed rather mum on it, but now I can give you more (not complete disclosure) but more information.  I interviewed for what honestly, would be my DREAM job.  This school is ridiculously nice and pristine, the kids were brilliant, and the goal of the school awe-inspiring.  I went for a THREE hour interview.  I interviewed with the head of school, head of upper school, head of middle school, and head of an academic achievement center. I left hoping, praying, whatever else you can do, that I would get this job.  The head of school mentioned quite a few things he'd want me to do, and I had some that I wanted more than others, but more than anything, I just wanted to be THERE.  The next day, they called and wanted me to audition and teach a 40 minute class on Free Enterprise (Economics).  I immediately went to work and made a funny and cute power point, made a handout, and study guide for the students.  The last few weeks I've been SO anxious to hear back.  We've been going back and forth talking and finally I heard on Friday and it looks good!  I'll be teaching Economics, Music theory (I minored in music), AND do any legal work that would come up.  It truly is perfect. I get to use my passion for teaching, my love of music, AND my law degree to work!  How PERFECT!

(3) LAST, after MUCH consideration, I have decided to give the Monday Minute a break.  Honestly, I have a TON of stuff going on and it's so difficult to find time to do it.  PLUS, I feel like I don't get to blog about things I WANT to blog about anymore since I know I have the responsibility of the Monday Minute.  I've been straying from things I WANT to write about for some reason and have felt rather unmotivated by my blog for the last few months. I used to LOVE writing on my blog and the last few months, it has felt like a burden more than anything.  I want to go back to my days of carefree writing and I think eliminating the Monday Minute for a while (or maybe indefinitely) is a good first step at accomplishing this. If someone WANTS to take over the MM, just comment or email me.  I'd completely understand.  I hope you guys understand.  I'm going to start being ME more.  I want to write about what has been going on in our lives more: how distraught and concerned I am about the fact that our home is still on the market, how excited and yet financially worried I am about preparing and moving in to our next home, how I often feel like a bad  Mother, etc.  I need to write about those things, and starting soon, I'll hopefully get back to that.  Stay tuned.