I feel so grouchy

Even though the title sounds like I"m going to vent this entire post, I'm not.  I just woke up grouchy. I tossed and turned all night and never got into deep sleep.  My husband and I putzed around the house all day until 1pm snacking, playing cartoons to placate our child, etc. when at 1pm I just snapped.  I HAD TO GET OUT OF THE HOUSE.  It was like I was suddenly possessed (hello PMS), If I didn't get outside and do something active and burn off Mimi's energy I might just punch something, like the wall...or my husband...You've had those days right?

So we packed up some stuff, hit a taco joint on the way and went to the Barton Spring and had a swimming/picnic adventure.  Now we're home and bathed and Mimi is refusing her nap for the 2nd day in a row, while my husband keeps telling me how to get her down for her nap....wow I forget he stayed home with her ALL day EVERYDAY, of course he should tell me how to get my toddler to sleep, cause he does it so often right!? (see the PMS coming out?!)

Anyway....Enjoy some photos of our afternoon while I go wash my car and escape.

Using up old fabric scraps.....

So after living here over a month now I finally too my sewing stuff out.  I just had this sewing itch.  Like I just had to sew something.  I finished a watermelon patterned summer halter dress for Mimi which I will force her to model tomorrow, and I did two headbands for myself out of some scraps.  One is a scrap from a blanket I made for a friend's baby and one if from a nursing cover I made for my other friend.  I think when I visit her I'm going to wear it, just so that MY headband matches HER nursing cover. How cool would we be?! Right!?

Well you can tell I'm not working on my dissertation cause I"m bloggin' like a mad women these days.....but remember July is my wash month!

So here's some pics of the bands--just used 1/2 inch white elastic for the back, they came out pretty cool for using scrap fabric and taking under 5 minutes each.

Me without a cool headband...I look hot at 10:30 at night right!?

Awesome teal one left over from fabric from Courtney's nursing cover....

Happy Lasagna Day!

Did you even know it was National Lasagna day!? What!? You didn't!? Me either.  I found a coupon on this website my husband referred me to.  I love free stuff.  Especially free food.  This website is awesome, especially for people new to the area who don't know about this stuff.....

Some other cheap fun (and different) things Mimi and I have planned coming up:
1.  Austin Zoo and Animal Sanctuary (found 1/2 priced tickets on saveology)
2.  Running at Town Lake (with some duck feeding mixed in)
3.  Creative Dance classes for Mimi (Starting August 15)
4.  Austin Children's Museum (bought my season pass yesterday)
5.  Ride on Thomas the Tank Engine (Sept)
6.  Exotic Animal Farm (over 500 animals!!!)
7.  Dino Park (I see this being a fun place for photos)

Sounds like Mimi and I are going to be busy!

Turned out to be a good day

So today started off poorly.  I would call this morning a "I don't feel like being a mom of a toddler morning."  Do any of you have those?  You wake up (to your kid climbing in bed with you saying "Momma GIT UP") and you just feel like UGH, I cannot entertain this rambunctious creature today.  After a spinach and cream cheese omlet and a rather large shot of espresso I hoped things would get less grumpy on the mom end.

I got to chatting with my friend Grace who just came off maternity leave and was pumping at her desk chatting with me.  She seems okay, but really not happy going back to work and leaving her littles ones.  And I thought, damnit Jen, perk up and play with your kid cause you're blessed to be at home with her!  So my new mom friend brought her daughter over and we swam for 2 or 3 hours.  Then the girls played and watched some Dora.  It really helped the day pass.

After they left it was like Christmas!  The office called and told us we had packages and that they would appreciate it if we came and got them rather soon.....VOILA! Go B.O.B. Revolution SE in plum has arrived!  Mimi also got a big ol' package of pullups from amazon (if you're not doing subscribe and save with the mom's club discount you're missing out on 30% off your diapers ladies....), and papa got a Kindle. My husband has to do a lot of reading for work lately and he wanted one and NEVER buys himself anything, so I ordered it for him and he was so psyched.  Good wife right?

Anyway..back to what's important....how AWESOME the B.O.B. is. ....
It literally took 2 minutes to assemble, including installing the quick release wheels.  I had read a bunch about it and seen videos describing all the features so I showed Mimi all its buzz and whistles.  She instantly loved it and wanted to sit in it.  I showed her how it reclined and how the shade made it like a little hideout for her inside and she said "Momma I want to nap in it...." no joke.  Let's hope she's that thrilled with this thing when I strap her in it for 40 minutes to run 3.5 miles on Friday morning....

sorry for the crap quality, it's from my IPHONE, and don't mind the mess behind her lol!

My husband and I never buy nice things.  We have splurged just a little, but in all fairness, I did sell Mimi's radio flyer wagon, and most of the old baby stuff to offset the cost of this beast.  I'll let you know how it jogs.  When the hubs got home he was uber impressed with the fancy features and said if I don't go running with it I have to sell it. Fair is fair, it is meant to RUN with and it's rather bulky in our small place.  He was impressed how you can push it and turn it with one finger when the wheel's not in locked mode (for running).

My husband was working 4 long days and just switched to 5 normal days and he loves it. Now he's home by 4:30 and we actually can have an afternoon and evening together!  We went to the downtown Whole Foods, the flagship store and played around getting snacks and goodies in the bulk sections and then looked at soaps and vitamines.  Yeah we're weirdos who like Castille soaps and vitamins.  

I want to go there someday for lunch, the food looks (and smells) amazing!!!  There is another Whole Foods north of us, but it's not as big.

After our supermarket run, we decided to go have a beer at the beer co op at our place.  It was so nice, we had a beer outside and Mimi had this fun rootbeer that was so delicious. It had so much Vanilla in it!  She drank like 5 sips then ran off to play on the patio, so I drank most of it.  My husband and I talked about whether we should rent next year or consider buying another home.

We went home and had our dinner waiting for us in the crockpot.  

Dinners cleaned up, dog is walked, kid is clean and in bed, and I'm off to read and relax!  Tomorrow is national lasagna day did you know?!  My friend and I are taking out kids to a storytime at the library then to go get free lasagna!  

~Jen

Random Thoughts of Today

Today was super crazy.  I was supposed to meet my mom gang at the park for a swim at 10 then we get there and they tell us the pool is closed due to sewage issues (UM....YUCK), man you think they would lie and say it's over chlorinate or something....anyway, so I tell the mom gang to come to my pool at my apartment complex around the corner, which is empty except for Saturday and Sunday afternoons.  They all came and loved the pool and stayed until noon.  I made cookies and only on mom got a little snarky about feeding kids cookies at 10am....

After the gang left, one of the mom's stopped by my apartment to grab some dresses for her little girl.  I used to give stuff to my friend Courtney, but man her kid is the same size as mine now!  So it wouldn't do much good to pass down the dresses to her I guess.  Anyway, so I totally can't believe I let this lady see the state of my home.  Seriously y'all, it looked like toy boxes vomited.  I had made cookies that morning and stripped the bed and who knows what else was laying around.  What was I thinking?  She didn't seemed phased, must be her house looks like a toy boxed puked too.  I like this girl, she's younger than me, but way mature.  Her husband is a preacher, which freaks me out cause I'm afraid to swear or something in front of her.  I tend to not befriend people I feel censored around, but she is so sweet and kind and fun.

Then came Mimi's 2 year well child visit.  UGH.  I don't want to rehash it.  I felt nervous going in, I know my kid is giganto toddler, okay i'm exaggerating, I know my child is chunky above average in size and now that she's not a baby anymore, above average in size isn't always applauded as it was in the infant size when they tell you "an infant won't overeat, they stop when they're full......"  Sure enough this gerkface Pediatrician tells me Mimi is overweight.  I held back the emotional reaction that instantly flared up inside me, and just nodded and said okay.  He continued to tell me how many calories she should have, and how much calcium she needs , blah blah blah.  I'm not an idiot.  I feed my kid whole organic foods.  I never force her to eat, I don't fuel her with junk, I don't let her have soda.  Don't tell me what to feed my kid, or that she's fat.  If my friend hadn't called me when I got home I probably would have just laid down and cried.  I am really sensitive about Mimi's size.  I constantly question myself over what I feed her, how much I feed her, how much she plays, is she active enough etc.  I don't want her to have the childhood like I had, being the overweight child.  I also don't want to obsess over it and give her a complex.  I try to let her eat when she's hungry, I don't strictly adhere to a "feeding schedule."  I let her stop when she's full.  I fuel her with good food and keep her active, and that's enough right now.  She is still growing into her body.

When my husband got home he could tell I was upset about it.  He reassured me that he looked JUST LIKE Mimi as a child and he never had any sort of a weight issue.  He reassured me that I'm a good mom and that we take good care of our little girl and those statistics don't mean our child is fat.  The day was so nuts, I couldn't even bring myself to cook dinner.  Mimi was conked out after her Hep A Vaccine, so we waited for her to wake up and went for dim sum.  I had the most delicious wonton soup I've had in my life (and I've had a lot of wonton soup folks), and Mimi was pretty well behaved all things considered.  My husband was pretty supportive and nice, when usually he can give me a little too much tough love over stuff I get upset about.  He helped me end the day on a positive note. Bless him.

On a random note---I call the people who live upstairs from me the spawn of satan neighbors, or "treadmill girl" because she' so dang loud it sounds like she's on a treadmill.  They are so loud tonight I wonder what the heck they're doing.  Seriously. FML for being in an apt again.  UGH.

Overweight? Seriously? So 2 year olds can't have ANY pudge?

My B.O.B. Revolution SE comes tomorrow.  So does my husband's Kindle. It's like Christmas for us!  I can run and he can read. We both could use some of both!  I'll have to upload photos cause I'm that excited about it.

Family Reunion and Mimi's 2nd Birthday!

This really should be two posts.  I have some wonderful photos to share of our trip to Michigan, and thoughts about how important family is, but then I have some many thoughts on the fact that my dear daughter is 2.  Two years of memories and growing.  I also wanted to let you know how the flights went with a 2 year old.  I think I will break this up.....

Michigan Trip

at the airport ready to fly out

For awhile now we've been saying that we needed to get to Michigan to see my husbands Grandparents.  They are in their mid-eighties and his grandfather actually lives in a nursing home.  He had a stroke many years ago and his grandmother couldn't care for him anymore by herself.  As morbid and it sounds, we wanted to see them and let them meet Mimi (their only great grandchild) before they were not longer with us.  We found out that his family was going to all meet their in July (over Mimi's birthday) so we decided this would be a good time to see a lot of the family with one plane ticket purchase (after all, it's not cheap to fly as a family of 3!).

We were able to bring Mimi as a lapchild on the way, but because she turned 2 while on the trip, Delta made us buy her a oneway ticket back.... I'll discuss the travelling on another post....

My husband worked a half day Thursday and has Friday's off, so it was a pretty nice setup for a long weekend trip.  We basically ATE the entire trip and visited with family (and I'm up 6lbs to prove it!!! UGH)  No plans, no itinerary, no expectations.  It was nice to have all the family around to help with Mimi.  It gave Franco and I a break from her without feeling like she was neglected.    They swam with her, ran the halls of the hotel, played in the rooms....she had a ball.  

At a very delicious Polish Restaurant

All in all, we had 4 different families, and 4 generations.  It wasn't the most exciting vacation, but It felt so good to share food and good times with family we barely see.  I try to focus on how blessed we are to have family that loves us and Mimi.

Franco with his two brother and grandfather (Mother's Father).  Gianfilippo, Anthony and Franco, isn't crazy how much alike they look?

Mimi with Franco's Nonna, his Dad's Mother from Italy.  She is 88.

It was a little hard for my husband to say goodbye, knowing he may not see his grandparents again.  It had been 9 years since he had seen them in the first place.  My husband is so blessed to have his grandparents (he had all 4 until last September hen his Nunno passed away).

Hopefully now that I'm not working out of the home, I can take advantage of cheap flights and take Mimi to see her grandparents (on both sides) more often.

I'll do a post about Mimi's 2nd Birthday and how it was travelling with her at this age on an airplane later.  Hope everyone is doing well!

Early Morning Bloggin'

My husband truly is the most rude early riser. I can laugh about it today because I wanted to get up anyway and finish packing for our trip today, but on a normal day I am cursing his name all the way out the door.  He talks loud, turns on lights, tries to interact with me when I'm obviously STILL trying to sleep etc.  GRRRR  He says it's because when he was growing up it was his job to wake up his 4 brothers and sisters each day, and he's just a morning person.  I am NOT.  Although I must say having a kid does kind of force you to be a better morning person...

I always get so anxious right before a trip.  Travelling with a toddler is like gearing up to compete in the olympics.  You have to be lean, exact, trained, prepared.  My advice so far after travelling with Mimi on 5 or so flights (both alone and with help) over the last two years....

1.  Pack as light as possible.  Obviously you need the essentials for baby, but forget carrying on your baggage.  Save yourself the grief and fork over the $25 to check that carryon suitcase.  Do you really want to lug that AND your baby AND your stroller AND your essentials bag?  and forget bringing stuff for you to do on the plane, you're going to have your hands full do you really need to bring your macbook or pride and prejudice to read for the 20th time?
2.  Hand sanitizer. Hand sanitizer. Hand sanitizer.  Mimi gets the stomach bug almost EVERY time we travel.  Obviously I'm not following my own rule enough...
3.  Snacks.  Pack snacks, more than you know your kid will eat.  Snacks save me in clinch situations of tantrems.  "Mimi stop clawing me and you can have frosted animal crackers."  Who cares if they eat too many snacks on this one day if they're happy and not crying?
4.  Remember that you paid for your tickets too.  When you board the plane, people will be eyeing you saying to themselves "Please don't be next to me. Please don't be next to me...."  You know what!? Suck it up gerkface, kids are people too and I paid for my ticket too.  I'll do my best to keep my kid content, quite, and under control, and you do your best to act like a polite human being.
5.  Now this one is going to piss off some of you, but that's okay, because I'm being honest and it's muy kid.  Infant Benedryl.  Yes.  I said it.  I have in the past resorted to sedating my child.  I know I'm evil right? My approach is to not sedate my child with allergy medicine except as a last resort.  I flew once with Mimi by myself a few months after I stopped nursing (so after year 1).  Before that time, flying with her was a breeze as long as I had my boobs handy....anyway...so I"m alone on a flight cramped as hell, and Mimi isn't one of those kids that will fall asleep on your lap being rocked. She pretty much will ONLY fall asleep in her bed or in a car. No stroller naps, no holding her walking naps, NOTHING.  So she was screaming, thrashing, not responding to any toys or snacks and so overtired.  I tried to rock her, rub her back, anything. NOTHING worked.  I caved.  Benedryl adminstered midflight at 1/2 the recommended dose, 10 minutes later she was zonked out.

Well, now I'm off to the grocery store with my last minute list. Then it showers and airport time.  I'll report on how it went when we return from Michigan!

Have a great weekend (I know it's Thrusday, but I"m headed out peeps!)

Stop Dressing Like a Mom

I seriously am starting to fall into the trap of dressing like a stay at home mom.  I met this one mom at the park (however nice/friendly etc) she epitomized my mental image of a SAHM.  Old 5K shirt, workout capris, hat, sneakers, no makeup.  Wow I sound really judgmental. I'm not saying she looked bad, I'm saying that I do no want to fall into a habit of not putting some effort into my looks.  When I try to put a little effort into how I look, I feel better about myself.  I'm not saying I flat iron my hair and put on fake eye lashes to go sweat at the park, but I try to look one notch above rolling out of bed (at least lol).

If I don't watch out, I'll wear these  nike drifit shorts and t-shirts everyday.  The hat would be my everyday too, most days I put off showering in the morning knowing I'm going sit and sweat at the park or swim in chlorine with Mimi.  

I like this photo of me a little better. I took a dress from Target and added a necklace and belt from Forever 21.  Not expensive or flashy, but I just felt better about myself.

CSA Subscription

So moving to Austin and only having one of us work meant we needed to have a budget and stick to it if we were going to have a comfortable life on one income.    We I sat down and created our new monthly budget.  This budget includes everything from costs associated with renting our property in Florida, to utilities, food, entertainment, transportation, debt, pets, investments/savings, etc.  One place you can really tighten up your budget with a little bit of organization is your food.  This includes the groceries you buy and the money you spend going out to eat.  We have noticed that there are two things in our month-to-month expenses that can kill our budget if we don't pay attention---Travel and Eating Out.

Double Whammy! Eating out in Austria!!! Sorry for the random photo....We took this trip in September 2010

In an effort to reduce food expenses we limit eating out to once or twice a month.  I'm not saying we won't stop and get an icecream cone and count that as one of our eat outs, but full on eating a meal out we limit.  We budget $100/month for such occasions.  The other thing we are really trying to tighten up is groceries.  With all the amazing grocery stores in Austin, it's really difficult to stay on budget.  With Whole Foods, Central Market, HEB, and farmers markets everywhere, we went a little crazy the first month.   In Gainesville, we were able to keep our grocery budget to about 70-80 dollars a week.  Now that is how much we spend to feed two adults, 1 toddler, and a dog.  We buy some products organic (milk, yogurt, apple products, tomato products, some fruits), and other non-organic.  We also only eat meat 1-2 times per week, dont' eat many processed foods, and don't drink soda or use paper towels.

We have been going to a few different farmers markets over the last 3 weeks and were spending ~$25-30/trip for a weeks's worth of produce (mostly organic fruit and veggies).  We found one specific farmer that had GREAT organic produce for a GREAT price.  They just started a CSA program and we grabbed their brochure.  We decided we would try it for a month and see if we actually can consume one portion each week without wasting produce AND do we mind not picking our selections.    The program costs $30/week, but if you buy more months in advance, you get significant discounts.  We asked the women to show us how much you get for $30 (which is what we were spending anyway on average) and it was MUCH more than we had thought.  So, we paid our first month and we're going to give it a whirl.  This leaves us $50/week to spend on non produce items such as dairy, eggs, meat, dried goods, and miscellaneous stuff like coffee and juice.

So each week we get a half-bushel box with a variety of 8-12 seasonal, organically-grown vegetables, fruits and herbs.  We are also getting locally grown food and supporting a local company.  Good warm and fuzzies all around right?

The only thing I'm scared of  is all of the winter greens.  My husband LOVES them, I HATE them lol.

Our Saturday

We ventured out today to a child-sized amusement park and met up with some of the families I've met at the local park.  It's really nice to make friends in a new city.  Especially when they have kids the same age as yours.

We met everyone at 10, and it was a beautiful overcast day.  I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but here in Texas man, the sun BURNS.  It wasn't rainy, just cloudy and breezy.  We bought our tickets as a group of 10 and got them 50% off, which was really cool.  All the parents were allowed to ride for free with one ticketed child.  They were all toddler-sized carnival rides.  Mimi looks miserable in the photos, but I swear she did have fun!

After the rides we decided to pass on lunch with the families and try to make it to our local farmer's market before it closed at 1pm.  We picked up some AMAZING organic produce, and for the prices of conventional vegetables at the local grocery store.  I think we will be joining the CSA of one of the particle farmers that comes to the farmers market.  We are loving their stuff.

Of course we had to get snowcones on the way home.  Can't be too healthy now with all of our smug organic produce right!?

Phew. After all this, I need a nap.  Later Gators....

I knew this day would come....

Now if you're reading this, please understand i'm just a little pissed off irritated right now.  When my husband and I decided that I would quit working and stay home full-time with our toddler (and future kids), he told me how happy it made him that I was game for it.  I have been in college since August of 2000 folks, non-stop, so 11 yes ELEVEN years.  I have almost 3 degrees.  I did not go to college to find a husband to take care of me.  I want a career too, I want to make the big bucks and feel really awesome about my job performance too.  BUT, I see the value (both monetary and other) in our choice, so I will put my aspirations of a career on hold and give my time and energy into something more important, our children.  Just because I stay home with our child all day, this does not mean I'm the house maid and chef full-time.

I feel that as my husband is providing our family's income, my way of giving to the family if by keeping up our home and raising our child.  I literally do everything for our home/life/finances/child, except go to my husband's job. I cook, I clean, I do laundry, I pay the bills, I take care of our rental property, the pets, our child, doctor apts, travel arrangements, taxes, I even took care of our entire move including single-handedly unpacking 150 boxes.   Doing all this is MORE THAN A FULLTIME JOB.

Tonight, after we put Mimi to bed after a day or errands, I sat on the couch and turned on the laptop and began to check messages etc.  The kitchen was pretty messy from last night's dinner (that I cooked) and we had been out all day since breakfast.  We have our new babysitter coming tomorrow so I told him I was going to get things cleaned up I just needed to take a break for a minute.  He looked the kitchen and began to huff and puff and do it himself.  I just let him.  Why not?  I clean the kitchen 3 times a day ALL WEEK LONG.  Just because he goes to a desk job all day he can't clean the kitchen once a week?

When I asked him what was wrong he told me it disgusted him that I left all those dirty dishes there since yesterday and that I didn't clean them up.  I think he forgot that he ate off those dishes too.  And he drank the coffees I made him etc etc etc.

It was liked he flipped a switch in me.  I instantly became so angry and defensive I wanted to scream.  What does he think this is I Dream of Genie?  What is he? my new Devil bossman?  I am going to start keeping a list of what I do all day everyday and count up the hours that I was constantly working and give it him. Like a SAHM punchcard.  I knew that someday I would face the reality of how husbands take their stay at home wives for granted, but after 3 weeks?  3 weeks and he's scolding me for leaving the dishes for one day?  I am mystified.  I am so irritated.

Image Credit

I know you think that I'm overreacting here ladies, but this is like a gigantic red flag to me.  I am not going to be treated like a little house servant.  I'm not perfect. Somedays I"m tired, or have a headache, and the dishes aren't always cleaned up straight away, but why should that overshadow all the other "work" I do?  Raising a kid (especially a 2 year-old) is way harder than my 8-5 job was.  There's more joy in it, but it's still a lot harder.  I feel exhausted at the end of the day too. I want to relax a little on the weekend too.

I want a serious apology.  Or at least a conversation about how I didn't appreciated how he came off and I want him to be truly receptive to my words, and not just appease me and give out some blanket apology so I'll "get over it."  My husband isn't a jerk, but sometimes he doesn't realize how the things he says can be taken very differently than he intended.

UGH

The 6 Month Plan

Do you think most women are just "planners?"  I know I am.  I know my friend Grace is (to the extreme! lol).  Grace used to tell me that on her lunch break she would go sit and eat at a restaurant by herself and I would say to her "well what did you do? just sit there and eat alone?" and she would tell me how she would read and list and budget and lay out her "plan."  (Grace I would link your blog but you've been a major blogger slacker!)I don't often sit and reflect on my "plan" anymore.  After having Mimi and falling off track of my 4 year graduation with my PhD, I lost my ability to plan my life.  Life just kept happening.   Now, today I'm sitting at a desk in Austin Texas in my pajamas drinking ice coffee with my almost two year old watching pbs with the most adorable bed hair I've seen in my life.  How did I get here?  Unemployed as a SAHM in Texas?  Franco and I look at each other almost everyday and we have this moment and we say "How the heck did we end up in Texas!?"  I think this kindred spirit might have had something to do with it!

a quick side note....
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One of my BFFs just had the most adorable friggin baby boy I've seen in my life!  When she resurfaces in a month and reads this blog post, I want her to know how much I love her and how proud I am of her!  I'm blessed to know her.  I can't wait to go visit her and see this adorable child.  Congrats 1,000 times to you and your family!
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So I sit here, once again sipping my ice coffee, and thinking of my "plan."  What is in store for me?  I used to have a 5 year plan, then a 1 year plan.  Now I'm shooting for 6 months.  I'm going to call this my 6 month plan.  Now I share this for two reasons, one it's my blog and kind of a journal for me, and two, to hold me accountable, in 6 months I want all of you ladies to gripe at me and ask me how the plan is going!!!

I have 3 major things I want to accomplish in the next 6 months.

1.  Finish writing the workable draft of my dissertation for Spring graduation.  I NEED to get this done.  My doctorate degree hangs on my shoulders like a 100 lb weight.  I need to finish it.  I (and others) spent a lot of time, money and energy on this.  After July is over, our home is settled and organized, it's go time.  I want to have a draft by January.

2.  Speaking of weight on my shoulders....I have 15 more lbs to lose.  I give myself this 6 month deadline to do it.  This would be 0.8 lbs per week.  I can do it.  I've started 5K 101 again, and I've cleaned up my diet a lot.  For once in my life I look at losing weight as the easiest task on my list.  I've already lost 80 lbs, what's 15 more?

3.  Hit our savings goal.  My husband and I have made this savings goal that would allow us to have 4-6 months of expenses paid in full, with all of our consumer debt gone.  Then if one of us is in a job situation like I was working for the devil, we can change jobs and not be financially crushed.  Also, we want to be able to ride those financials waves that hit you without drowning (car repair, new roof on our FL house, etc).  We're 41% there.

Hopefullly, when I check these three things off my list in 6 months, we'll be able to try for another baby. Sounds like a good plan right?

Mimi wants to give a quick shout out to her friend D, she misses her so much! Hope she's well!

Hallelujah! We have internet!

Seriously.  The internet was the only thing that was my husband's job to "take care of" when we moved.  I did everything else (on time) and 2 weeks after we've moved in, we finally have our internet hooked up.  I know what you're thinking, geesh Jen, it's just internet, let it go.  When you move to a new city, and have not idea where anything is, or what here is to do, or how to get there, the internet would have been helpful. Not to mention we do all our billing on line, and our bank cancelled our debits cards for "security reasons" and just merely emailed us to let us know this, and the list of reasons for me to complain goes on.....

So now, I am back and ready to update all 33 of my lovely followers lol.  I know you were all scratching your heads wondering where I had gone, rest assured, I am safe in my new weird apartment with a few boxes still kicking around the living room.

The drive here went well, actually better than expected.  Mimi watched about 10 hours of movies (including the most annoying "Max and Ruby" DVD I've ever experienced), we stopped in rest areas in 4 states, and saw two great friends and some family I hadn't seen in 10 years.  The rental Avis gave us (which was not what I paid for or reserved oddly enough) worked out fine and was pretty comfy to drive.  The dog was chilled out on his giant LLBean dog bed, and Mimi and I spent 17 hours in the car over 3 days.

We moved into our apartment, which is nice, but honestly is an apartment.  We already hate our upstairs neighbors, but who doesn't.  The place has huge bedrooms, bathrooms, and closets.  It has a pretty decent kitchen, and a nice pool.  After two weeks here, I'm really liking the location.  It is in Central Austin, so it's really easy to access all the different areas of city quickly and easily.   I already know that we'll be looking for a little house our townhome to rent next year though.

My husband loves his new job, and the 4-day work week.  I LOVE being unemployed.  Seriously.  I love doing consulting on a as-needed basis.  I feel really free.

Mimi seems to be taking the change really well.  She occasionally asks for her friend Dahlia and my friend Kim, but doesn't get upset when I remind her we live far away now.  I hope they both come visit though.  Mimi is loving having me home with her (at least I think so! lol).  The first week was rough.  We spent the week a little cooped up emptying boxes and getting lost when we tried to drive to the grocery store.   I tried to join a meetup, but the moms didn't talk to me or care to meet me. Meetup FAIL.  I found a local park this week and met some really awesome moms.   Seriously, they were so awesome.  They all had kids Mimi's age, and were so polite and welcoming.  Most of them go to this park daily around 10 and stay till 12 or 1.  We went 3 days and each day they remembered us and welcomed us back.  Each day new moms were there and wanted to get to know us.  I dont' know if it's how nice they were compared to the meetup moms, or my isolated loneliness, but this just made me feel so awesome.  They all seem like great women with such great kids.  They all are different ages, and seem to have different backgrounds, which is refreshing too.  I'll talk more about this nice group later.

So that's our update.  I have so many blogs I want to do, so I'll try not to get too annoying!
Miss you guys!