In Other News....

So I've been a little busy with life lately. Travelling, doing the SAHM thing, trying to finish my dissertation, growing a human life... you know all in a days work...

So okay, right now the human life resembles a gummy bear more than a human baby.  Gummy bear measured right on target at my first apt, and had a heartbeat of a whopping 175 bpm!  Mimi's little heartbeat wasn't ever that high I don't think.

So we're excited to welcome gummy bear (God willing) on or near December 24, 2012.  Awesome due date right?  I imagine when people ask me when I'm due I get to say "oh well Christmas Eve..."

If you're religious, say a little prayer that our gummy bear keeps growing strong.  I've been really anxious and uneasy about gummy bear's future for some reason this time around.  There have been a lot of losses among my family and friends lately, and I guess i'm just paranoid.  So far, all is well and we're just excited for every day that passes and I'm still healthy and pregnant!

More to come later on gummy bear....

Sweaty Berry Picking

Nice title right?  Some friends and have been meaning to go out to Sweet Berry Farms for awhile now to pick strawberries with the kids.  My friend Melissa had her baby in mid-April, then there were a plethora of birthdays to plan--so we finally made it out there today!  I'm glad we did, because berry picking season ends at the end of May.  It was over 90 today and sunny as heck.  The kids definitely were feeling the heat. They picked berries for about 20 minutes, then went to play under the shaded pavilion.  Those little buggers left us to finish the job.   I picked a few pounds of deliciously sweet and amazing smelling berries to make some freezer jam this week.  We had a nice picnic and then the kids napped as we drove home in the air conditioning.

Here are some photos....

We're Moving!

After a month of chasing down craigslist ads and scouring sites like Trulia, along with tons of neighborhood drive-throughs, we have found a rental house!  Renting a house in Austin is tricky.  The housing market didn't suffer here as much as Florida, and the rental market is brutally competitive.  The city has a 97% occupancy rate--this means only 3% of the available housing in the city limits is open for rent.

We wanted to stay on budget with what we're spending now, since we still have the same financial burdens and didn't want to cinch our budget too tight.  We wanted no carpeting, and at least 900 sq ft with basic amenities (no window ac units etc).  My husband and I had two or three main neighborhoods in central Austin we liked, so we looked and looked and looked.  Houses would go up on Trulia or Craigslist and be gone in a flash, or they didn't allow pets, or it was only a 10 month lease, or they wanted you to move in TODAY, not at the end of the month or next month.  Our lease here isn't up until June 23, so we expected to cover double rent for the month in order to secure a place we liked.

I run with two mom's at 6:30am twice a week, and one of the mom's mentioned that her and her husband bought a house and were moving out of their rental home. She raved about the landlords' good qualities and the quaintness of the house.  Turns our she's moving out June 10th, so she put us in touch with the landlord and were were able to secure the house for rent before the guy even put the "for rent" sign up! No one to compete against, no pressure to lease a month ahead.  The landlord was super friendly and chill and is letting us move in anytime after June 10th that we want.  He didn't even charge a full months' rent as deposit, which is nice.

Not having to cover double rent for the entire month helps out a ton!  It allows us to hire movers for the big furniture, and buy some new furniture to fill the additional sq footage!

So about the house....
It's 1200 sq ft (we live in 968 now)
Has a one car detached garage with built in shelving and cupboards
fenced backyard (yeah for our dog buddy!)
all hardwood floors and tile! (Yeah no carpeting!)
attic converted for storgage (can you say no more clutter!?)
3 bedrooms (yeah for having a separate office again!)
1.5 baths (not ideal, but i'm not complaining!)
washer dryer hookups in a HUGE laundry room!
big bright open kitchen with a vintage feel with eat-in area
dining room (yes! we can finally have friends over for dinner!)
TONS of closet space for a 50s house
Cute brick fire pit in the backyard
adorable front porch are with built-in flower boxes

the list goes on.....

I am beyond excited to have a home again--one with a driveway, and storage, and an eating area!  Mimi is really excited to have a new room (even though her room now is pretty swank) and we are excited to leave apt life!  About the only thing I'll miss is the amazing pool here!

Wish us luck! I'll share photos when we move in!

ttyl!

Trip to FL

A friendly message from a follower reminded me I haven't blogged in ages!  I'm sorry I've left you all hangin'!  Mimi and I went on a roadtrip to FL to tie up some loose ends. I presented my dissertation work at a conference, we re-leased our house, I met up with my advisor and edited a manuscript, and we visited with some great friends.

I think I could do an entire blog post about the do's and don'ts of taking a 17 hour roadtrip with your toddler....I don't want to relive it right now though lol.

I am so happy to be back in TX with my husband.  We have a busy two months ahead of us though.  We have decided to not renew our apt lease and to find a rental home instead.  This is stressful, as Austin has a 97% occupancy rate--rentals go fast and we're kind of picky now--we'll see how picky we get as time ticks away to our move-out date here at our apt.  Mimi is finishing the last weeks of her dance class and preschool, leaving me no time without her to get important errands done.

I'll keep you guys posted on those events and some others soon!

Enjoy some pics from our trip to FL.  I took Mimi to an environmental festival at a state park while I was in the panhandle of FL. There were touch tanks, fish painting and shirt making, scavenger hunts, and more! She had so much fun.

On to the next.....

Remember at Halloween I talked about how I "did the crap out of Halloween" and I was happy it was over? I kind of feel that way about Easter and spring celebrations in general. I'm relieved it is over and ready to move on lol.

Yesterday my husband volunteered us to go to Mass with one of his coworkers.  Usually I'm the one who nags my Christmas/Easter Catholic husband to go to Mass on his designated two days...this year I didn't have it in me to nag and actually looked forward to sipping coffee in my pajamas all morning on Easter. But alas, we rushed through breakfast and found dress clothes and trudged to one of the most crowded masses ever.  I knew it was going to be "standing room only" so I was pleasantly surprised that we this elderly lady found us this open seats way on the side of the church.  Luckily the church was really well air conditioned, because it was packed to the beams!  The choir was beautiful and the mass was a quick 45 minutes Hallelujah!  Wow I sound like such a crap Catholic right now, but seriously, show me one parent who enjoys taking a two-year-old to Mass!?

We survived without Franco giving me too many "control your daughter" looks.  Because the Mass was at 10:30 and not 11 am, we managed to beat the Easter Brunch crowds and we had a great breakfast at Kerby Lane.  Be still my heart, their food was delicious!

After Mass we hit the pool for a quick swim before nap.  After 2 hour naps we headed to a friend's house for dinner and an Easter egg hunt.  It was one of those get togethers where everyone just ate and chatted and relaxed.  We had such a great time and stayed until after 9pm!

When I got home it took me two hours, but I cleaned the heck out of my kitchen and bathrooms then watched Game of Thrones with my husband.  I slept amazing and am ready to start the week and be positive and productive all week!

Ps-Mimi's dress is from Gymboree and I LOVE it, thank god for the 40% discount....

Mimi's First Haircut

Most kids probably get their first haircut way before they hit 2 1/2 years.....I have been putting it off for a really long time.  For some reason it was hard for me to cut the big loopy curls off the bottom of her hair.   Part of it was fear that the curls would go away, part of it was that it was like the last untouched thing about her that was still "my baby."  I know that sounds ridiculous, because she has really long hair and is obviously not a baby, but I felt that way regardless.

see loopy curls I was afraid to cut off??

Well I finally broke down and agreed to let my good friend Tina cut Mimi's hair. It's been getting really tangled and hard to keep combed. Also she gets a horrible heat rash on her neck in the summer from her hairline sweating. Gross I know, whatever.

Funny enough, my friend Emily had never cut her son Laith's hair either.  We decided to do them both on the same day so they would both think it was cool instead of being sad/worried/upset. Mimi went first;  Tina chopped off about 3 inches of Mimi's curls and evened out her hair and gave it some shape.  Mimi loved it and so did I!

Laith went next, and needed a bit more convincing.  As Tina chopped off Laith's ponytail I thought his mom (Emily) was going to collapse on the floor into a pile of mush! She took her son's chopped off locks way harder than I did Mimi's.    Alas, they both sacrificed their loopy baby curls and several inches of hair and are ready for the HOT Texas summer.

I survived it.

the finished cut

Mimi loves her new cut

Laith getting his ponytail chopped

his mom trying not to cry as she holds his ponytail

Mini Trip to San Antonio

My friend Emily and I decided an overnight trip to San Antonio would be really fun.  We left on a tuesday morning and made the 1.5 hour drive down to San Antonio.  We stopped at her husband's restaurant and let the kids see the cool kitchen.  Her husband made the kids some sugar cookies, which I did try 1/2 of, despite their flour and sugar content lol. THEY WERE AMAZING.  It was like vanilla and sugar in perfect concert.

We walked around the riverwalk area, and then checked into the Emily Morgan Hotel.  The kids enjoyed the hotel experience.  We enjoyed the pool, and the kids got a pretty big kick out of riding the elevator. We had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, which is notorious for their fun atmosphere and horrible food, lol. No joke.  Mimi really enjoyed dining in the jungle with all the animatronic animals and fake rainstorms, my friends kid was terrified of the animatronic gorillas and hit under the table the entire time. The kids crashed when we got home from dinner and we all slept really well cozied up in down pillows.

Wednesday morning we successfully checked out of the hotel without wreckin' the place, and headed towards the zoo.  We stopped at Joseph's Bakery and Restaurant, voted #1 bakery in San Antonio. We found the place by accident on the way to the zoo and figured it was worth a try.  IT WAS AMAZING. The guy, Joe, who was behind the counter taking orders, is the baker, the waiter, the pastor of the church next door and an amazingly friendly guy.  We had an amazing (and affordable) breakfast, including some of the best frenchtoast I've ever tasted in my life.

We finally made it to the Zoo which, sadly was really crowded due to several school buses full of rowdy elementary school kids.  It's sad how much school bused full of kids really turn me off from being at a place, because I like kids. I just don't like kids that are poorly supervised and really unruly, destructive, and loud.  I digress...

We did enjoy the San Antonio Zoo, however I was really saddened by the state of some of the exhibits. The exhibits lacked shade, water, and vegetation.  Think giant concrete enclosures.  The Zoo was full of snack shops, gift shops, and restaurants instead of interactive signage and giant lush exhibits. I think I'm spoiled by the Jacksonville Zoo in FL (photos in this old post), which is large and lush.  The kids had fun exploring in the gorgeous weather.  We managed to see some pretty cool animals, and hit the road by 3pm to beat rush hour traffic in Austin.  All in all, a very fun and successful trip, just what we needed to break up the week.