P-Town and the M-Family

Hi all. Well, I keep meaning to post, but haven't had a chance. Everything is well. We are really enjoying our home. It is a work in progress, and will be for awhile I imagine. It is really great to be able to do as we please with something that is ours! M-Kid still calls it our "new home" when we go up the driveway and enjoys playing in the front and back yard. M-Dog loves making a mess in the back yard and M-Cat loves being back in P-Town. It's so perfect for our family in every way - we have really been so blessed. We even get to run to the beach every day after work with the dog and M-Kid in the jogging stroller! M-Kid is loving preschool. He has made many friends and is quite comfy there. All the children just love him too. Some of them will make sure to give him a hug as he is leaving school. He is learning so much and is becoming more independent. He will tell you how he wants to do it! He is starting to remember experiences, and will say "Mommy, remember..." It is great. He has also recently shown an interest in dinosaurs and is quite good at naming the different ones. He still LOVES cars and is still into trains, but not as much as before. We have had a few really warm and beautiful days over the past few weekends here as well. To the point where the parking lots and beaches are flooded with people and cars. Thank goodness we can just walk there! Our next goal in life is to figure out some sort of business that we can run in P-Town. So we wouldn't have to leave, could have flexible hours, and enjoy an even higher quality of life. The only trick thing is figuring out what that business is, getting the money to invest, and then making it profitable! Let me know if you have any ideas!! Haha. The only idea I have so far is to become professional photographers taking photos of the beautiful scenery. Now, that, would be the perfect job!

Happy Easter/Spring

Spring is officially here. I think Spring is my favorite time of year. Everything just feels so new and fresh. I love that the daylight is longer. I love being outdoors. It feels good. Funny that my birthday usually falls right around this time! Good way to start out a new year. It has been nice with family being around. Gran PD came up the weekend before my birthday. We all took M-Kid to see his first movie, went for some pizza and ice cream. Poor M-Kid wasn’t feeling so hot. M-Dad planted some tomatoe plants he gave us in the backyard. Easter was spent well. We of course started out the day by going to church, took our typical Sunday morning walk down by the pier, and made it up the mountain. M-Kid is such a trooper! He can do most of the walk on his own 2 little legs! He also had fun finding his Easter basket in our yard at his “new house” as he calls it. Then we spent the afternoon at Grandma & Grandpa’s house. Family, fun, and food. Nana A and Nana B also came to visit right around Spring Break time. We spent some good quality time together. Went to a children's museum that had animals and fun stuff for M-Kid to play on. We also hung out in P-Town and watched movies at home.

We Have Been Busy!

Hello everyone (my 2 readers)

I know, it has been awhile since I’ve written a blog. It has just been REALLY busy! So the main updates, obviously as many of you already know…

First and foremost. We achieved one of our lifelong goals/dreams…and it is a dream. We bought a home in a beautiful coastside town. We love it! It is absolutely perfect for our family. We are still in the process of getting organized, but visitors are always welcome!

Second, we adopted a doggy. We believe that M-Dog is some sort of shepherd/retriever mix. He is around 1 ½. He is pretty good so far, loves attention and is very protective of our home. He got off with a rough start with M-Cat but he is getting better. He is still afraid of him, but is also slowly warming up. We hope they will eventually become friends =)

What else…. M-Kid is doing wonderfully in pre-school. He recently moved up to the 3 year old class. He is in full sentences and continues to learn so quickly. He is a very good and sweet boy, he has his moments….but the terrible 2’s have turned out to not be so terrible (well, in my opinion anyway….of course I might totally be shooting myself in the foot…knock on wood!!). He is a total joy to be around. And...he still loves his trains and cars!

Trick-or-treat

I love this time of year. The holidays are approaching. We had a fun Halloween! We went trick-or-treating with Padrino, Tio Alex, and cousin Tyler in P-Town. M-Kid made out well on the candy (with the help of Ghost-Rider, I mean Daddy). Even Mommy got in on the fun as a kitty (my usual costume)! We were planning on having M-Kid wear his lion costume, the same one he wore last Halloween (still fit him), but he didn't want anything to do with it. So we dressed him in army clothes (army sweatshirt and army pants that he already had) and put some black paint on his face and spiked his hair. It worked. He knows he likes candy too, so we gotta be careful! He had fun though, going up to the doors, saying “trick-or-treat” and thanking the people for the candy. He did really well for a first-timer. He was one of the smallest kids out there too. Hope everyone is doing well. Here are some pics- the one where he is actually wearing the lion head is at the zoo when we went with Kuma...he only wore it for a few seconds though! And the last one Mommy is kissing Ghost Rider----scary! Hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween!

Happy October!

Happy October! We have been blessed with some great weather lately…a little bit of rain here and there, but mostly sunny and nice. It has been really busy getting used to all our changes, but we are pretty much settled in. I started my new job a month ago. I am working at a development firm that specializes in retail construction as an Account Coordinator. I really like it so far. Great company. M-Kid is in preschool full time and is having fun. He likes his teacher, and we really love the school. We feel like he is in good hands. Even though he protests in the morning when Daddy takes him to school, he is happily playing and excited to see Mommy when I pick him up. The best part of all- everything is closeby, practically no commute! I love it. We have been pretty busy on the weekends as well. We have been getting ready for Halloween, visiting a pumpkin patch, carving pumpkins, making candy apples, and putting some decorations up. M-Kid loves the Halloween decorations, at first he was scared, but now he asks for them. M-Kid has been talking in sentences a lot more. Everything is really coming together for him. His teacher says that he is really smart and has a great memory…he knows the daily schedule at school and if they get off schedule he will remind her what is next! M-Dad and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary this past week. We had a good time going out and hitting the town, just like back in college. I can’t believe how much time flies by faster as you get older. I also just went to my 10 year high school reunion this month which was a trip. Saw a couple of old friends, but not that many people went. Of course we mostly hung out with people that we still hang out with today! I am glad we went though. Pic of us at our reunion.

We made it

Just a brief update. We made it. M-Dad is working at his new job, we are living in a cute little house, I am interviewing (praying!!), M-Kid is starting preschool tomorrow (part time until I find a job). I found a really great preschool nearby, M-Kid didn't want to leave when we visited. They had lots of great learning rooms, outdoor play area, and of course the winner was the train table in the 2 year old room, lol! Still settling in....it's a process! Especially with a toddler :) It has been a huge transition for us all, but a good one. I feel really great here. So far, M-Cat seems to really like it. He already wants to go outside. Maybe eventually... It is nice to have light coming in from the windows in the house. Ahhh...windows...and ventilation. No more dungeon living! Might I add that it is nice not sharing walls and having the building manager knock on your door randomly. We have a small yard that M-Kid can run around in as well. The weather has also been quite nice. Still finding my way around here, streets, where the grocery stores are, etc. There is a library and a park nearby for M-Kid. A train passes by nearby as well, which M-Kid loves to go watch. There are also airplanes that fly overhead (airport is in the next town over), which he also loves. Whenever he hears a plane, he stops what he is doing and says "go see it" We have been quite busy this last couple months trying to make plans. A lot happened since I last wrote! Let's see, some things we did include: Camping and Disneyland as a family before M-dad left to start his job up North, Disneyland with Gran PD, and Disneyland with Nana B and Uncle R- wow we had a lot of fun, but don't think we need to go back for awhile! Let's see...what else. Say goodbye to the daycare kids, hang out with family, pack and clean up the house, enjoy our last walks and routines in G-Town, Mom's 50th birthday (Happy Birthday Mom!) and last but not least M-Kid's 2nd birthday! I am probably forgetting some stuff, but it has been a whirlwind. We had M-Kid's 2nd birthday at a Train Park. Lots of friends and family came to celebrate with us. We had a great time. Thanks to all who shared the day with us :) It meant a lot to us. Hope all are happy and in good health. Blessings!

Changes, New Oppurtunities, The Unknown

Well, lots of changes going on around here. I keep meaning to update....but it has been quite busy. The biggest update: as many of you may know, and some may not, M-Dad has accepted a job opportunity up North. It is similar to what he was doing at his last job (import/export/shipping company), but with better pay/benefits and hopefully a better boss! The main reason it was time to leave his former company was due to the fact that his boss was an extremely unfair, unreasonable, boss who had no clue how to treat employees. There were other employees who left for the same reason. But, that is all water under the bridge now....M-Dad got some good solid experience, and will move on to bigger and better things. M-Dad left G-Town today in order to start his new position tomorrow. M-Kid and I will be staying here for awhile longer, length of time to be determined....but probably a couple of months or so. We have things to take care of down here, and would like to make sure his job works out, and we find a good place to live up there, etc. Not to mention, I have to figure out what I will be doing. I think I am leaning towards going back into the regular working world, and sending M-Kid off to pre-school. I have enjoyed working for myself, working from home, running daycare, and spending my days with my M-Kid and the tots...but I think this might just be the right transition point for us to make a change. So, the details will need to be worked out. We are also working towards our future goal of buying a home (eventually, maybe not right away) hopefully in P-Town. This is where we want to be, live our life, etc. We have enjoyed our time living in G-Town. It has obviously been nice to live close to my family and be just a short drive away. It has been wonderful. Our location couldn't be more perfect. In walking distance from the mall, many shops, parks, and more. It will be really hard to move away from my family and the comfort we have here. We were really feeling like everything was in place, for the time being anyway. And it is just that. We knew we wouldn't be here forever. It just isn't the longterm place for us to be...the quality of life isn't what we want. The traffic, the poor air quality, the people (depending on the area). M-Kid updates: He will be 2 soon. We are celebrating his birthday down here at a train park (where else??!) He has been testing us a lot! He is talking a lot more, repeating words, using phrases, comprehending a lot, learning his numbers and letters, he knows most colors and shapes as well! It is amazing how much they can know and learn at this age. It has been so rewarding and such a blessing to see his progression and know that I actually taught him something! Anyway, that is all for now, as I need to go off to bed. Here is a pic of us from last night, M-Kid's last official night living in G-Town. We had a BBQ at our place, and then went to an awesome car show that was within walking distance.

Aaaah yes, it has been awhile. Let's see, not too much has changed. M-Dad is still at his job, continuing to gain experience in the import/export field. I am still at home running small-scale daycare, only 2 other children besides M-Kid right now. Doin' a few hours here and there with the consulting- picking up work where I can. Tomorrow I have a field job 2.5 hours drive away. Woo-hoo. A few updates... Well, a major one. Kuma and Brian got married this past weekend. A beautiful wedding! We had so much fun. M-Kid was the ringbearer (along with J-Kid, Brian's nephew), Kuma was a beautiful bride, I just barely managed to hold my tears back when she walked down the aisle. We have known each other for 15 years now. WOW! M-Kid is talking a lot more, using 2-syllable words, and putting words together. He is doing really good with learning his colors and shapes. We are still working on learning 123's and ABC's. Today he said "purple flower" He definitely knows purple, since we have so many purple flowers on our path to the park. We have a game that matches a shape to the correct flashcard, and he knows them all- heart, star, circle, triangle, square, rectangle, oval, diamond. His favorites are heart and circle. When he was coloring with his crayons, he drew a circle, and said "circle!!" He will also run in a circle and say "circle!" I was amazed. Something new everyday, he is so smart and learning so fast. Finally, wednesday was Uncle R's 16th birthday!!! I can't believe he is growing up so fast. I remember the day he was born. I was at school (6th grade), my aunt came and picked me up. He had been born right as I was getting out of school that day. We went to the hospital and there he was a little bundle of joy in the nursery. I was 12 years old! I loved helping take care of him. Happy Birthday Uncle R!!

Thanks be to God

Thanks be to God. The power of prayer is amazing. Padrino is still with us and we pray that he continue to gets better. Rewind to almost 2 weeks ago. We get a phone call that Padrino is in the hospital and might not make it through the night. We had plans to drive up north to the bay area for the Easter weekend the following day...but we immediately booked a flight when we heard the news so that we could be there for Padrino and the family. It was a stressful few days, but all we could do was pray. It was in God's hands. M-Kid had the best time of anybody though, hanging out with the R-fam and playing. Picture to the left is of us on the steam trains. The night before we left, M-Kid got his first real injury- he was bit by a little scruffy dog...in the face! It was very scary, but thankfully he healed up just fine. It could have been worse. Neosporin does wonders! In other news, M-Kid is 20 months! Wow, it seems so much closer to 2. He is talking a lot more, I can't even count his words anymore. He can basically repeat any word you ask him to, mostly just the 1 syllable words. He is working on 2 syllable words and phrases...still got some time for those. He answers questions with a "yeah" or "no" and is really starting to understand how things work. It is amazing! I am also currently working on numbers, letters, colors, and shapes with him. He is really into learning new things. I too, am learning a lot through the parenting process... about myself, about child development, and the importance of teaching them about how to live life.

M-Kid's Survey

My name is M-Kid I really like to go to the park, go for walks, play with my trainset, watch Thomas & Friends DVD When I grow up, I am going to train engineer or soccer player My biggest talent is dancing, throwing a ball, doing animal sounds You will most often hear me say Mama, up, help (when he wants his trains connected), bye-bye, wawa (water) My best line so far is Cool Dude If I could meet one person/animal/character it would be Thomas the Train! If I could bring one item to a desert island with me and mom, I'd bring my Thomas & Percy trains The naughtiest thing I've ever done is Running ridealong toy into people at full speed, unrolling t.p roll, throwing or hitting things (after mama/dada said no) On Saturday mornings you can find me watching Thomas & Friends and eating breakfast w/ Mama & Dada If I could eat one food for the rest of my life, it would be anything dairy, goldfish crackers, cherry tomatoes, and pickles