long overdue update

There is so much new to say as an update. i am just going to do a quick run down and add some pics then i will do a more detailed job later. Well i have been working days and Chris is Mr. Mom right now. He seems to be enjoying it and has been quite good at being the stay at home Daddy. He paints Adriana's fingers and toes, is learning how to do ponytails and even watched my neice Ryleigh for a week for Desiree. They have had a good time and even built a snowman! It is almost time for this era to come to a close and for me to be back home. I have already done my bids for March's schedule and i will be back on nights. It is bitter sweet for me. It was really hard for me in the beginning but i quickly rediscovered my passion for what it is that i do. I truly love Interpreting and while some of the callers are jackasses, most are appreciative of the service we provide. I enjoy the variety of seeing close to 200 different callers in a shift. I have learned alot about my coworkers and have developed more of a comraderie with them. I have gained an appreciation for the time i get with Adriana and Chris in the evening. It has been a great experience and i am thankful for the opportunity to do it. i hope we can do it every year actually! I am glad Chris has been home in the winter time! i would go crazy being stuck inside most of the time! Playdough, cars and my little pony will only occupy my mind for a few mins before i get bored! I know it's not about me but still i would be nuts. Snow is fun to play in but there is only a limited time you can play outside before little fingers and noses get too cold. I am looking forward to the spring when we can be outside pulling weeds, mowing the lawn and playing in the sprinklers again as well as going to the park!

We did have a terrible tumbleweed problem too! just look at the pics! here they are: sorry for such a short update. I will do more later.

Random

Here are some new pictures. Adriana has had her 2nd birthday! wow i cant believe it and still cant believe i am old enough to have a 2 year old! However, I turned 30 this year! Yikes! i have no clue how that happened to me. Excitiing stuff. So here are just some random pictures. I did get really brave and cut Adriana's hair! Well brave is an overstatement. I just trimmed the back so it was all one length. Every time she sees scissors she says, "cut hair". She is talking up a storm! We were a little concerned but in the last month she has said 2-3 new things every day and they are clearer than every. She now loves to say, "Night, Night". At the grocery store the other day she said "Hi" to someone. just as friendly as could be. when they asked, "how are you!" she responded, "I shy" then hid her face in my shoulder. Adorable! i am loving it. I will be working days starting the second half of December. Chris' store will be shut down until March 1st. He will still be getting a paycheck but it will be a little less than normal. I am increasing my hours at Sorenson and will work the max 58 hours per pay period and that should make up for Chris' paycut.

I did find out yesterday that I passed the 2nd national certification exam i took back in August. so i am quite excited about this. I now have 2 national certifications.

Painting!

We decided that in order for this to really feel like it is our house and not just a rental we had to paint something! Hanging some pictures was fine, but we have done that other places too. So we decided to start with the kitchen and dining room. They kind of flow into each other so we couldnt paint one with out the other.

We let little Miss Adriana help with the walls too. We started the first night with giving her a make up brush. this is her artwork. She was soo happy to paint and to help me. She thought this was the funnest thing to do.

She even decided that "paint" meant the same thing as when Mommy paints her toes for her. So they were nice and red! luckily all the paint washed off in the tub.

A couple of days after this I decided to give her a little tiny roller. This was on a smaller wall, just under the counter/breakfast bar and it was a cream/ yellow color. She did fantastic!


As you can see by the smiles she likes to paint! This is the first time she hasnt been in trouble for getting color or marking on the walls! Who wouldnt like it!? I do think she likes to paint her little body more than the wall but both were exciting :)

Look at the concentration on her face! She was really making a solid effort here. I decided on all 3 occassions not to worry about getting her into old clothes, but just to worry about changing the diaper.

Here is Adriana's finished portion that she used the little roller for.

Halloween

This year for Halloween Adriana was a Pirate. She really loves them and knows how to say "Argh!" when you ask her what the pirate says. it is too cute.







Here she is all dressed and ready to go! We went to the trunk or treat at my parents church like we do every year. We did want to pass out candy and trick or treat a little at our house since we are brand new to the neighborhood but we didnt get the time. we did have a few trick or treaters that came by after we got home.

She had a really good time at the trunk or treat. She did struggle with the fact that she had to put her candy in her bag when she got one instead of eating them all right then! We did let her have a couple of pieces that night and maybe one the next day. She thankfully forgot about it after that and i have not seen the bag of candy since, so i dont know if Chris threw it out or hid it or something. Candy is not an important or frequent thing in our house so it's really no big deal.

I am glad she had a good time and she was very excited to be in her costume and collect candy. :)

PAH! (Finally)

I FINALLY have new pictures to post! it has been forever so there are a lot of new ones and since i havent blogged out of guilt for not having pictures there is lots to tell. i will post pics now then blog later!

These are all taken at our new house. i will try to get pics of the house up too but we have projects going on so it might take some time. we are painting the kitchen and Chris is tearing out the fireplace in the living room to put his t.v. in there. when those projects are done i will surely show the pictures!

Where is she learning this stuff?!?

Ok yes i know, i should not be allowed to post until i find that blasted cable for my computer. I did make an effort! i have been stuck in the house since friday with abraisons on my eyes. i couldnt drive, i couldnt even be outside during the day! my eyes would slam shut and start to water like crazy! so after 3 days of rx drops and not wearing my contacts they are finally better! While being stuck in the house i did venture into the basement and searched through every single box down there and have yet to find it. I have hope still however because i know there are some boxes that must be in the garage.

so the point of this blog is to see if someone has insight! my daughter is the most sneaky and clever little girl! i have no clue where she learned some of her little tricks! One night while I was at work Adriana and Chris were in the backyard playing. Chris already had her in jammies and they were sitting on the patio chairs just looking at the sunset before bed. Adriana decided to get up and run around the patio. Chris told her she needed to stay on the cement and not go in the grass. She looked at him as she was inching her way toward the grass. she got to the edge, looked and him and smiled. Chris reiterated that he didnt want her to play in the grass. She grabbed a handful of grass, put it on the patio chair then stood on it! Grinning from ear to ear of course. Tonight we were trying to get her to take a bite of the meatloaf that was being served for dinner. first she licked it and put it back on her plate. Chris informed her that she needed to actually take a bite. She took it in her little hand, pretended to take a bite and kept it hidden in her palm! This little smarty pants isnt even 2 yet! Who is teaching my daughter these tricks!

she cracks me up.

sorry for the short post but that's all for tonight.

Cabin Time

Ok, first let me apologize that there are STILL no new pictures up. I promise to find the usb cable for the camera this week!
This weekend we decided to go to the cabin saturday morning and come home sunday morning. we would have liked to stay longer but i had to be at work :(
It was a long process getting out of the house on Saturday. Chris and i both got up at 5am. Chris was supposed to be in Denver to pick up some playsets for us and my parents. He got a ways down the road and called to say he would not be going. The transmission is slipping on his truck. i was up trying to get all the laundry finished so that we all had clean clothes to take with us. So we finally got all packed up and in the car, made a couple of stops then headed up the mountain. It was still a little longer of a drive than Adriana likes. Since moving to Johnstown we have shaved about 30 mins or so off the drive up there. She was a pretty good passenger and didnt complain much. She was happy to stop in Idaho Springs at the store and stretch her legs a little bit. She was very happy to get to the cabin and see Chris' Mom, and all the doggies that were there! Chris' sister Jenn and her husband Paul brought their dog Keli, Chris' other sister Julie and her girlfriend brought their two dogs Cookie and Zoe. Adriana played and played with those dogs all weekend. She wanted to know where they were at all times! Adriana was giving her baby a bath in the dog's water dish, then when she saw how the doggies were drinking the water, she would bend over and pretend to lap up the water just like them! She was being such a little ham! she even gave the doggies puppy dog kisses! i was surprised to see a big grin on her face after doing so! she didnt mind the tongue full of fur. it was too funny.
we napped and just before dinner most of us went for a walk and we took Keli with us. Adriana and Keli were very good friends the whole time we were there. While on our walk Adriana would throw Keli's stick for her and giggle because Keli usually would catch it right away. It was a good walk. Adriana walked really far for her little legs and all the way back to the cabin! I was soo proud of her. After eating dinner and playing around a little bit, we sat on the deck and watched the fire in the Chiminea and just relaxed. Adriana of course was upset because Keli (pronounced Kaylee) was laying down and not interested in playing at the moment.
This morning we were the first ones up and all i heard for 2 hours "doggie, doggie". Keli and Jenn and Paul got up after us and when they finally did Adriana was just thrilled. After some breakfast we packed up and left. I had to work today unfortunately.

I will post a new message WITH pictures later this week!

It's that time again!

Well, it is that time of the month again! time to update my blog. I have been meaning to for a while but you know how life tends to get in the way!

we did finally move into our house! we didnt close until the 15th of July but we did it! we signed away tons of money in just a few signatures! woohoo!!! we had a crew of family come on a sunday the 20th to help us move. they were awesome. we rented a uhaul and we had one load unloaded and were loading again by 1130am! they moved quick! I was soo thankful to everyone. unfortunately i had to go to work 1p-10p that day so i didnt get to stick around long but i got home to the new house that night and my kitchen had been unpacked by Chris' aunt! talk about wonderful!
so Monday the 21st was our 5th wedding anniversary. i had taken the night off work. I made dinner for Adriana and while she was eating i was quickly throwing together a lasagne for Chris and i to eat later. i put it in the oven to keep and we took off for American Furniture Warehouse. i noticed before we left that we had no power. i figured it would be back on by the time we got home. an hour later we got home and still no power! so... there went my lasagna. i think we ended up eating sandwhiches or something! we put Adriana to bed and then quickly hunted down some candles in the basement. Luckily my parents had given us an LED lantern to take camping! if we didnt have that we would not have been able to find the candles!
so for our anniversary we didnt plan anything but we were able to sit on the kitchen floor for a few hours surrounded by candles and just talk about the house and our future and things like that. it was GREAT! so we were without electricity for 14 hours! finally the next morning around 9:15 am our power came back on. Chris came home from work and all of a sudden when he flushed the toilet in the powder room it started overflowing! it went out of the bathroom, into the entry way and down the walls in the basement! so here we are thinking oh crap what did we get ourselves into!? we got that taken care of and have only had one more problem..... we discovered ten count them TEN wasps nests around the house! Chris has taken care of most of them thankfully and will be getting the others soon!

other than that we are really liking our house. Adriana loves the backyard and having her own little pool to play in any time she wants! the park is 2 blocks away and she loves that she can walk and hold mommy's hand all the way to the park and back! Adriana has really enjoyed the new house. i think the biggest thing for her is that we have not put the baby gates up at all since we moved. we used to have them up 24/7 but she can do the stairs all the time and she does just fine so we decided not to use them. she can now roam about the house at will with the exception of the basement. that door stays closed unless we are down there. we have a child proof door knob on it too. I am enjoying sharing a bathroom with Chris instead of Adriana. i dont have to worry about my razors or anything. i was able to buy all new stuff for her bathroom and i did a jungle animal theme, more monkeys than others just because it was cheaper! i did that because her new favorite movie is Madagascar! she will watch that movie before Spongebob anyday! so i thought it would be cool. i will post a pic here later because of course i am sitting in my cube at Sorenson.

Chris is keeping busy with work. not too much new there. I am working 22 hours a week at Sorenson and really enjoying it. I did find out this week that i need to take the new certification exam by the end of the month if i want Sorenson to reimburse 100% of the cost. YES of course that is what i want! $325 is expensive! so i am signed up to take the test two weeks from today. i am a little nervous! i am already nationally certified, this is just the new test they have come out with. if i dont pass it doesnt really make any difference to my job but if i pass it's an extra $3 an hour. so we will see. there is an interview portion of the test that asks about ethical situations and you have to answer short term, long term affects for all parties involved and community effects using the code of professional conduct as a referance. this is the part that people are failing like crazy!! even interpreters that have been working in the field for 10 years! that is what is making me so nervous! the actual performance part doesnt have me that concerned. so we will see what happens with that.

I was able to finally after 2 months get my retro pay from Sorenson. i was quite thankful for it but they taxed the crap out of me! i had almost nothing left! geez! oh well, at least it finally came through. that is one battle that is finished. we now have a battle going on with our landlord. she is wanting to charge us $720 for refinishing the hardwood floors in the rental. while i usually battle with everyone and make calls related to household stuff etc... this is one i asked Chris to take on for me. for some odd reason i am a little intimidated. usually when it comes to fighting for money i have no problem going toe to toe with someone. this situation is different and i dont know why. we have not been told for sure that she is taking that money from our deposit but she sure hinted at it and never returned a call from Chris. she emailed me the other day making sure that the final utility bills have been paid so she can "clear the damage deposit". i responded that they both had been mailed this week and never heard back from her. so... i told Chris that if he gets the full deposit back from her he can take it and buy a PS3 or speakers that i wont return for a change! so we will see what happens. with my retro pay from Sorenson i bought a couple of work shirts, and a couple of cds i have been wanting. i did buy a couple of things for Adriana too.

other than that i have been working and chasing Adriana. i have been trying to help my parents as much as i can too. they have custody of Doug and Nina's three kids. so it has been a challenge for them! going from no kids to all of a sudden having a 3 1/2 year old, 2 year old and a 15 month old is quite a change. it has not been easy but they are getting through it the best they can. we are all helping out as much as possible.
Desiree is pregnant with her 3rd and due January 10th. Candice is pregnant with her 2nd due on January 15th and Kim (Robert's fiance) is pregnant with their first due on April 1st. so my parents will have 11 grandchildren in April! soo crazy!


well my shift is over in 7 mins so i need to get things wrapped up here. i will post some pics soon, as soon as i find the usb cable for the camera!!

Some of these pictures are from the cabin this past week and some are just on the camera that i decided to upload. she loves the camera and will smile a big cheesy grin if she realizes it is pointed at her. I will upload more later. it is nap time and i have been up for 10 hours already cleaning and stressing! I hope to hear something about the house today!

Update

Alright, i seem to be blogging about once a month so i always have a lot to say! i apologize for the lengthy blogs. i do h ave new pictures to post as well, however i am typing this from my cube at Sorenson and dont have them on this computer. Hopefully i will get them uploaded this week.

So i am not sure where to start but here we go anyway. We have not been able to move into our house yet. We were supposed to close on the 1st of July and now we are not sure when we are going to do it. Supposedly some time this week. Being self employed has caused some problems in the underwriting it seems. the first bank's underwriting didnt want to take my current paystubs as my source of income and they decided to use our tax forms for the past three years. well the problem with that is I just started Sorenson this year in April and so there is no record of it in our taxes. Our lender intially approved our loan amount using my Sorenson income which is substantial. when we finally got a contract on a house and it went to underwriting for the final set up of the loan they decided not to use the current pay stubs for whatever lame reason. the first bank came back 3 days before closing and said we dont make enough money and we need a co-borrower or no deal. i said no way in hell! we qualify just fine with our current income and i refuse to have a co-borrower. so... we had to go through a different bank and we are STILL waiting on underwriting! they had to paperwork in their system on monday last week and should have responded with our closing date by thursday at the latest. our lender Kim has called and bugged them and no response. it has been quite a frustrating process! the amend extend for the house states we will close on or before July 11th. so who knows when it will be this week!

Chris had taken all of last week off and cleared his schedule so we could move (not an easy thing for him to do by any means!) and his parents had scheduled two days off as well to come help and now it is all up in the air. ugh! we are 90% packed and ready to move and just cooling our heels.

so with this Chris having time off we decided to head up to the cabin and relax. that was fun for a little bit but we dont know what relaxation is so we became bored! also our landlord wants to take pics of the house to post in her online rental ad so there was alot of cleaning and organizing to be done to get it ready to show.

Adriana is doing well and getting too big for her britches! She has decided to take an interest in potty training so i went and bought her a little potty just for her to sit on and she really likes it. she pees in the potty a few times a day but i have yet to get her to poop in it. she is a quick pooper and i dont have time to run her to the potty before she is done. We have started using M&M's as incentives and she did really well with that yesterday. i was not going to start potty training her until she was 2 or a little after but she decided she wanted to start so we are going with it. we will see what happens. i have always heard that girls are pretty easy so to me that meant in two days time! lol joke on mom i guess! she still is doing great with it. we have a stack of her books to help keep her on there for a little bit of time. any suggestions would be great!


Work is going well for me. I have gone down to just one client with the freelancing agency. i am really tired of the chaos that involves working for the one lady. i have a set schedule with Sorenson that i know in advance and guarenteed hours for the same pay. also i just drive to a center rather than all over the place. with the current price of gas i need it badly! Starting July 14th i no longer have to drive to Denver. they are finally opening a center in northern colorado!!!!! man will that do wonders for my gas bill!
i did have to kind of fight with Sorenson this week. when i was hired i came into their mentoring program and when i graduated i was supposed to get a significant raise. well my boss was supposed to submit that change to HR and she forgot because it was the day before she was supposed to be in the hospital for a week for tests. that week has now turned into 6-8 weeks and my raise was never submitted. the raise was supposed to be effective June 1st, so they owe me quite a bit in back pay. almost $500! they were not going to give it to me, saying that since i was transferring up north they could not submit taht change. i argued and kept going up the chain of command until PAH finally they agreed to back date the raise and that pay rate will follow me to Fort Collins even though they had tried to tell me i was going to have a $3 an hr pay cut up there.

whew! now if we could get this house stuff all settled it would be great!

i will cut this off now because it is looong! pics and more updates will come soon!