New J-O-B!!

I am SO SO SO excited and happy to announce that I have resigned from my job and accepted an offer to join a mid-size Dallas-based firm in their labor and employment section.  I have been very unhappy at my job for more than a year now, and I am so relieved to be getting myself out of such a negative environment.  I feel like this job was completely misrepresented to me, and I think I have been treated very unfairly in terms of compensation.  However, I believe very strongly that God has a plan for me, and that he placed me in this job for a reason.  I learned so much working at this firm.  I learned how to be a lawyer, and, more importantly, I learned that I like to be a lawyer.  This firm gave me four months off after I had baby Lily, and this firm donated more than $10,000 in support of Monte after he was wounded.  I also met some great people, and I hope that we stay in touch.

I am very averse to change, and the unknown is a little bit scary, but, at the same time, I have changed jobs before, and I know that I will be fine.  I am not sure if the new place will be the right place, but I know that I need to get out of my current environment now.  I have been overwhelmed, unhappy, and depressed since going back to work in October, and I have contemplated and seriously considered quitting several times, even before I secured a new job.  Life is too short to live that way.  I have felt very unvalued and unappreciated, and I have not been motivated at all to do good work, which is hard in and of itself, because I always want to do my best.  Anyway, I am very excited for this new opportunity, and I am very hopeful that it will be a great fit for my family and my career.  The new firm is small, but the office will actually be about double the size of my current office, so it will be a different dynamic.  I really liked all of the partners I interviewed with, and I like that the atmosphere is more relaxed and informal.

Cheers to a new beginning!

Bath time buddies

These two have been having so much fun in the bath together lately!  Lily is getting so big, and we finally took her out of the baby bathtub and let her sit up like a big girl in the bath tub.  She LOVES it.  She loves splashing, and playing with toys, and playing with Frankie.  And he really likes "playing" with her in the bath too.  It has become a very special bonding time for the two of them, and it is a great way for me to get quality time with both kiddos.   Bath time has always been one of my most favorite times of day (especially on week nights) with the kids, and I generally always give them baths while Frank cleans up the kitchen after dinner (I definitely get the better end of that deal).

Valentine's weekend

Valentine's Day is all about love, and I really felt the love this week.  I am so lucky and blessed to have an amazing husband who loves me so much and whom I love to the moon and back.  Sometimes we get so caught up in the day-to-day craziness that we forget to take time to show each other how that amazing love, so I truly enjoy these types of holidays that remind us to make that special effort to show how much we care.

Frank surprised me with my favorite perfume, my favorite chocolates, some sweet cards, bath salts, and lingerie.  We also celebrated with a wonderful dinner out in Sugar Land at Churrascos.  My parents watched the kids so that we could have a night out together, and it was fabulous.  We also got to have a movie date on Sunday to go see Lone Survivor, which Frank has been dying to see.  I was not really too interested in watching it, but I actually loved the movie.  It was written, directed, and produced by Peter Berg, who also did Friday Night Lights (my all time favorite TV show), and I pretty immediately noticed a lot of similarities between the TV show and the movie, especially the music.  The movie also starred Taylor Kitsch (aka Tim Riggins).  It was a wonderful story, and the end of the movie left pretty much every single person in the theater crying their eyes out.  I won't spoilt it, but it was pretty inspirational and moving, and I immediately ordered the book when I got home and I cannot wait to read it.

Our little valentines had some surprises waiting for them on Friday morning too.  We gave Frankie a little craft box complete with pipe cleaners, modeling clay, googly eyes, paint, and GLITTER!  He was so excited, and he has been playing with it non-stop ever since.  He had a big party at school on Friday with McDonalds happy meals and lots of special treats.  He helped me bake chocolate chip/M&M cookies and red velvet cookies for all of his teachers and classmates.  Liliana got some new books and a card, which she enjoyed chewing on.

We picked the kids up from school on Friday and headed out to Houston for an impromptu visit.  The sunset view that evening was spectacular, and we enjoyed a very nice drive down to Houston (for once)!  On Saturday, Liliana seemed much sleepier than normal, taking 2-3 hour naps in the pack-n-play, which she has never done before.  She woke up from her second nap with a fever, and she was pretty fussy for the rest of that evening.  She remained very sleepy and feverish all day Sunday too, so we decided to take her to the doctor on Monday.  We drove home from Houston late Sunday night, and around 9:30 pm (when we were about halfway home), we came to a dead stop just north of Buffalo on I-45.  I pulled out my phone and looked at Facebook and noticed that one of my friends had posted 15 minutes earlier that she had been stuck in this same traffic for 40 minutes.  Ugh.  We ended up stuck for about an hour and fifteen minutes, and it sucked, but it could have been so much worse.  Miraculously, Liliana slept the entire time.  Frankie was awake, but he was pretty good and for the most part he stayed occupied watching his ipad.  Thank goodness we had stopped soon before to go to the bathroom and get drinks and snacks.  We finally made it home around 12:30.

I took Lily to urgent care yesterday, and we found out that she has another double ear infection.  The doctor was concerned with how frequently she has been getting these ear infections, and we are starting to wonder if they are ever truly going away.  I think a trip to the ENT is in our future.  Poor baby girl was pretty fussy the last couple of days, and I can tell that she does not feel good.  I hope she starts feeling better soon!

Frank's first play

This weekend Frank took Frankie to see his first play at the Dallas Children's Theater.  Babies are not allowed, so Lily and I stayed home.  They saw "Go Dogs Go," and Frankie had a blast!  I love that Frank enjoys taking him to do things like this.  They frequently go on "boys only" adventures to restaurants, movies, museums, parks, aquariums, and other cool places.  It is great quality bonding time for them, and it gives me good quality time with Lily.  Right now, Frankie is really into art and being creative.  He also really enjoys "working," whether it is cleaning, pretending to use the vacuum, helping make dinner, or watering plants in the backyard.  He asks us to buy him things like glitter, googly eyes, paint, a real vacuum with a plug, and a computer.  So far, he is not that interested in sports, cars, or trains.  I know there is plenty of time for his interests to develop, but I love that he is creative and hard working and I hope that those traits do not change.

While Frank and Frankie had fun at the play, I was at home trying to teach Lily how to nap in her crib. It did not go well.  I tried to let her cry it out when she woke up after 45 minutes, but after thirty minutes of pretty bad crying, I gave in and got her up.  We will have to keep working on it!

Liliana - 8 months!

Liliana Mae is eight months old today!  She celebrated by practicing her new skill of waving "hi" and "bye-bye"!  She can now clap, wave, and mimic sounds and facial expressions.  She is SO PROUD of herself when she learns something new, and she will repeat it over, and over, and over.  At eight months, Liliana is....

-sleeping through the night consistently, yay!!  The swing stopped working, so we are working on taking naps in the crib now.  Her naps in the crib are significantly shorter than her naps in the swing, but at least she is napping.

-still wearing size 3 diapers and size 9 month and 6-12 month clothes.

-eating three stage two baby foods and four 6-ounce bottles a day.  She loves fruits and sweet potatoes, and she will only eat veggies with fruits mixed in.  She likes to blow raspberries while eating, which causes her to make an enormous mess!

-still not attempting to crawl or pull up.

-the most popular baby in her school.  Her teachers dote on her, and the teachers in the next class room tell us all the time that they cannot wait for her to move to the next class.

-a complete joy, unless she is extremely tired or hungry.  We love our beautiful girl!!

Another snow day!

It snowed again yesterday!   We have had the craziest weather this winter.  We swing from 60+ degrees one weekend to 20 degrees and snowing the next.  This snow seemed to come out of nowhere...or maybe I have just been too busy to pay attention to the weather.  Either way, the snow started coming down hard yesterday morning around 8:00 a.m., and Frank called me on his way to work and told me that I should stay home because the roads and drivers were not safe.  Frank had already dropped the kids off at school, so I "worked from home" and lounged around the house all day.  It was pretty nice.  The kids' school closed early, so Frank left early and picked them up and came home to spend some family time together.  Frank took Frankie sledding on his new sled (Frank must be psychic, because he ordered a sled for him just last week), we all enjoyed hot chocolate by the fire, and Frank cooked an absolutely delicious pulled chicken taco dinner.  After such a hard work week, it was very nice to spend some good quality time as a family.  

18 hours

Well, my horrible week continued all the way through Monday as I anticipated.  I was up at the office from 7 p.m. until 1:00 a.m. on Saturday night, worked on and off all day Sunday (and missed the Super Bowl), and worked on Monday from 5:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m.  That is right, I was at the office for 18 hours on Monday AND IT SUCKED!  Thankfully, things have slowed down considerably, so I should not have to work that crazy for awhile.  This mama needs a break to spend some time with my babies!