Coming back to life

This is going to be pretty picture heavy, but I figure thats all you guys really care about anyway. ;)

We've had a pretty busy past few months. We've taken our back yard from this:

To this:

To this:

And finally, to this!

We had a very busy Holiday season! We looked at Christmas lights....

And spent time with family.

We went to the zoo, with Wyatts best friend Hosanna.

And hung out with Lisa and Miss M!

We went to Sea World and the San Diego Zoo



We took Hosanna to the Phoenix Childrens Museum. Which was FAB!!!

And we have spent a lot of time just enjoying the warm weather!

Here's to a fresh start to the blog! I hope to be able to make the time. I miss blogging. :)

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The one you've all been waiting for.

The update on Wyatt. Lots of pics, lots of video.

He's now in 9 month clothes! The 6 month size still fits him in the body, but he is way too long for them now!

He sleeps in his own crib (in his own room!!) 90% of the time. I have a rule now that when he wakes up if it's after 5 am, he can come in with us, before 5 and it's back to the crib you go! It was a rocky road getting to this point, but now that we're here, it couldn't be any better. He has actually started sleeping through the night! Not everytime, but we're getting there!

We have a pretty strict nighttime routine: dinner (cereal with fruit/veggies added), bath, playtime, story (while nursing) then bed. This all starts at around 7 and he's usually down for the count by 8.

He is eating like crazy! I can't even tell you all the foods we've tried! Pears, mango, carrots, sweet potato, peas, green beans, oatmeal, banana, squash the list goes on and on! And he loves them all! The green beans took some getting used to, but he eats them now! He has solid food for breakfast, lunch a dinner, and plenty of milk in between! He is (unfortunately) getting more formula than breastmilk at this point. There has been so much stress in my life right now, my supply is seriously hurting. I still have a goal to make it to 9 months, but I don't think I'll be pumping after we hit that mark. I'm not getting enough to justify the stress it adds to my day.

He's definitely mobile! We call this one the worm!

But that didn't last very long!

Now he is literally all over the place. Nothing is safe now. We are amazed at the random things that catch his interest. Like the DVD shelf. I swear, DVD cases are his favorite toy!

He loves to chase the dogs. He sits back and just laughs and laughs while they run circles around him.

He also loves bath time. He is getting too big for the baby tub, so I need to get a bath ring for him. Which is easier said than done, as only Buy Buy Baby carries them (since I'm boycotting kid to kid) and there are only two in the whole city.  (Please don't mind me talking. Scott didn't tell me we were making a video)

He is also getting into trouble. We walked into his room today when he woke up from nap, and this is what we saw.

Yes, that is my 7 month old. Why yes, he did pull himself up to standing when he woke up. And yes, we had already lowered the mattress once. Yes, we lowered it again today. Want to see it again?

Yeah. He's a daredevil allright. I have a feeling he's going to keep us on our toes for sure!

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Make overs

We've all tried it. Done a google search for virtual makeovers. Not very promising results, were they? I don't know about you, but I'm cheap. I have zero desire to pay for a membership to see what my hair could look like. The free sites are even worse! Either you don't get to upload your own pic and the models they habe NEVER look like you, or they only let you view 5 styles before you have to pay for a membership. Lame, I say. Lame. Friends, I have found the solution! Let me introduce you to

TAAZ.

This is by far the coolest website I have ever found. Yes, you have to sign up to use it, but its free and they have yet to send me anything at all. So I don't mind the membership.

I started with this photo (hideous, I know, but this was the most natural one I had with my hair back ok? And no making fun, the point is to show the dramatic make over. I can't believe I'm posting this.)

And after adding some makep, eyebrow shaping, bronzer and whitening my teeth, I got this.

It'a amazing what a little makep will do! Lets try some hair styles now. Here's pretty much what I have now. Although the bangs are more sideswept now.

This by the way is Scott's least favorite of the options. Thanks babe.

Moving on, here are my favorites of the make overs I created. I no particular order, the numbers are the order they were created in.

So, now I can't decide! I know I need a haircut, and I think I'm ready for a change! What do you think, blogosphere? Which is your favorite?

I'm adding a poll to my sidebar! Lets see which one wins!

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Life in general.

Other than the giant hole in my house life has been pretty uneventful. Only not really.

I started a new job. Which I LOVE. It is challenging, but I am the type of person that I need that challenge, or I just get bored. And the more bored I am the less work I do. It's a very vicious cycle. The environment at the new place (and no, I won't list the employer) is wonderful. It's 90% women, and while normally you would think that means catty, gossiping and backstabbing, its not like that at all. Everyone there is just genuinely nice. Like the unicorns that fart fairy dust nice. Sometimes I wonder what I'm doing there, because I'm not that nice. But it is actually a really fun and nurturing place to be. Yeah, I literally have ZERO personal time other than lunch and my breaks to pump, but being so busy the day just flies by. I accidentally worked hallf an hour late, simply because I didn't realize what time it was!

We are all moved in to the new house, and the jungle weeds are gone! Getting the old house packed with Scott out of town for work and a 6 month old was not fun. I hereby solemnly swear that I am not moving again until we can afford to have someone just move us. Pack it all up, move it and even unpack it again. Never again. UNpacking the house with Scott out of town and a 6 month old was even less fun. Gah. I don't even want to think about it. We haven't done any decorating yet, but once life calms down a little I have big plans for this place. And I will share it with you, one room at a time.

Scott thought he had a heart attack and went to the ER while he was gone. That was probably one of the scariest times of my life. He was out of town, so I couldn't go to him, and even if I could've, what could I have done? Add into that the fact that we are between insurance right now (the old job screwed up my COBRA paperwork. Thanks for that, by the way.) and I almost had a heart attack of my own. He's fine. It was a combination of stress, dehydration and anxiety, and since it happened on site, he is eligible for workmans comp. Thank God.

My mom was diagnosed with uterine cancer the week Wyatt was born (yeah, I know I never mentioned it, and I hesitate to do so now. I feel like it's her story to tell, not mine.) and underwent chemo for almost six months. She had her first blood tests this week to check her tumor markers to make sure the chemo worked. At one point in treatment they were 4000+, the last cycle the were 264, but her whiteblood was too low to do anymore treatments. Now, they are down to 42. FORTY-TWO. "Normal" levels are 36! So she is officially in remission! She will have to get her blood checked pretty regularly for a while, but with time even those visits will get fewer and farther between. So for now, we are pleased!

I thought I might have developed PPD. I wasn't sure, since most of the things that set post partum depression apart from any other type of depression don't really fit. I have never had any thoughts of harm coming to my child (by me or any one else), I don't resent him, and his crying doesn't send me over the edge. Sure I don't like it, but who LIKES to hear their baby cry anyway? But I couldn't shake this funk. My sex drive is nonexistant (sorry, Dad!) I am completely unhappy with my appearance, but yet I don't do anything about it and I just feel so blah about everything. And then it occured to me. Duh. I have fibromyalgia. This is not news, but I have been very lucky in the past few years that it has almost gone unnoticed. And depression has never been one of my symptoms. But over the last few months I have noticed an almost daily increase in my pain levels. Fibro is a vicious cycle as well. The better your body feels, the better you feel emotionally. The adverse is true as well. The worse I feel physically, everything else gets screwed too. I have trouble sleeping, and now the depression has arrived. It's not too bad, honestly. I almost feel like a wuss even talking about it since it really is so mild. But it's there. And I'm not sure what to do about it. I have a few changes I've been thinking about lately, but nothing set in stone. A new haircut (look for a post on that coming soon!), I want to start swimming more and I hope to take a Mommy and Me swim class with Wyatt (and Lisap!) this summer, and I'm looking into Wii fit. If I can start to get more active, those endorphins will do wonders. I am going to bring my yoga ball to the office to replace my desk chair. It worked so well to relieve the pain in my hips while I was pregnant, I hope it will do the same thing now.

This has gotten long enough, and I could keep going! I know I haven't updated on the little man, but that's because he deserves a post all his own! So here's another piece of cuteness.

Until next time, blogosphere!

What? Socks isn't cute enough for you? Alright then. here you go.

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So behind!

I am offically so behind in blogging that I don't know where to start. Has that ever happened to you? There are soo many things I want to share, but I don't have time/energy/desire or even words to put them all in one massive post, so instead I post nothing. Well, that ends today.  Where do begin...

Oh yeah! A car drove through the side of my house.




No really, it did.

No, we don't live on a busy street or on a corner.

And no, the driver wasn't drunk.









Still don't believe me?

So, here's how it all went down.

Remember how I started a new job? No? Oh, thats right. I haven't blogged about that yet (see why its taken me so long to post? Even the beginning isn't really the beginning!) so you don't know. Ok. I'll tell you. I started a new job. More on that later.

SO at this new job they are VERY strict on cell phone use. Like I got "spoken to" for checking the time too many times. So my cell stays on silent in my purse inside my drawer all day, unless I'm on break. Scott didn't have the number for the office (and to be honest, neither did I - I had only been there a week!). The alarm company called him while he was out of town for work saying that the alarm had been triggered and would he like them to call the police? UMM YES?! In the meantime, Scott called me 6 times and sent 3 texts. He also started calling every.single.person who might have at one point ever had a key to our house since he couldn't reach me. He got a hold of my dad, told him the situation, and asked if he wouldn't mind heading over to check it out. After he got there he called Scott and said "Well, there's a car halfway through your house." WHAT? Scott googled my company name and was able to call the office to let me know what was going on. I obviously left work as soon as I could and headed home. The police were still there, and they gave me a rundown.

The driver (we'll call him Jack. As in Jackass.) was not the owner. The owner (we'll call her Stu. As in stupid) was the passenger and there was a third man (thus dubbed Forrest. As in run, Forrest, run) in the back seat. By the time I got there, Stu was the only one of the three still there. Stu said that she didn't know Jack and Forrest, that she was at Circle K down the road, and they tried to steal her car. Uh-huh. So you just jumped in the passenger seat and figured you'd enjoy the ride? Right. Anyway, Jack left but not before my neighbor got a camera phone video of Jacks face that he showed the police (yeah for technology!). After a little while Stu admitted that yes, she knew them. They had been to her apt a couple times. They had just left Circle K where they were buying some beer, which they hadn't drank yet. Oh yeah. Forrest? All I know about Forrest is he was described as an older man (mid fifties?) and as soon as the car crashed, he GRABBED THE BEER and took off. Never to be seen or heard from again.

When the officers arrived on scene, one cruiser got the description of Jack (mid twenties, in a brown jacket with black lettering), and started driving around the neighborhood. He spots a man in his mid twenties tossing a brown jacket over the fence into someones back yard. He then proceeds to jump another fence into the yard of an abandoned house and STARTS PULLING WEEDS. When the officer asked him if he knew anything about the accident down the street Jack says "I wasn't in an accident. I mean, I saw it, but I just kept walking". Thanks to the video and Stu realizing that she shouldn't protect him they were able to ID him. When they ran his name, it turns out some detectives at the station wanted to talk to him about another matter. I am an Internet Super Slueth and a quick search revealed that our Jack was released from prison for multiple felonies in April. Hello, parole violations! Back to jail you go!

We are very lucky. Well, yes. Unlucky in that Jack drove a car through the side of our house, but very lucky in the way it all worked out. Stu has insurance. Crappy insurance, but insurance nonetheless. We have insurance. More insurance than we even knew we had. Our condo is a duplex, which means that strucural insurance is built into our HOA. We also have our own policy that covers everything else. I don't know if you noticed, but that is the wall of our garage, and yes you can see the tires of Scotts car through the hole. The damage done? Dented fender, scratched paint and a cracked tail light. Could have been so much worse. Had they gone six inches to the right, the would have plowed through the air conditioner and the portion of the house that is stucco. When you patch stucco it always looks patched. There is no way to match the pattern. As it is they went through the stone veneer, so all they have to do is order more stones. Six inches to the left they would have gone through the front door and into our bedroom, and we wouldn't have been able to secure the house. Where the hole is now, all you can get access to is the garage, and we are still able to set the alarm (so creepy people who were thinking about breaking in via the hole in the wall, good luck).

Most of all, we are very lucky that no one got hurt. Jack, Stu and Forrest are just fine. Our dogs were upstairs in their kennels, so they were freaked out by all the noise, but otherwise unharmed. No one else was home.

And that is the story of the hole in my house. I'll leave you with some cuteness to tide you over until next time.

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