Olivia's First Christmas Eve

Just wanted to share some pictures I took this morning.

Yippee-Ki-Yay!! Ride 'em cowgirl!!

Olivia finally gets to play with that pony that Michael promised her...

Finally, an update :)

Well, its been over a month since the last update. With school in full swing and a baby, I've had absolutely no time to blog, email or even take a long shower! Olivia is growing fast. At her 2 month checkup in September she was a whopping 13 pounds! I bet she's close to 15 or 16 now. She has greater control of her "punkin noggin" and likes to sit up (assisted, of course or in the Bumbo) and watch the action. Actually, she likes to watch the TV. That's a scary thought, Olivia is already a couch potato. She loves Bob Marley. Michael wakes her up to "Three Little Birds."

Michael had a good showing at the Arts Google in Fort Worth last weekend. He made a couple of good contacts and got some information about local galleries. He has a show for the month of November at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center. The reception will be Friday, November 6th at 6:00 pm (adult beverages and fingers foods will be served). Here's a link to his June show: http://www.fwcac.com/?exhibitions/past_exhibition.

They haven't updated

their website to show

the November

exhibition (maybe

they have a baby at home too.)

Here are some pictures from September and October. ENJOY!

Michael, watch the baby while I eat breakfast... and don't fall asleep.

Back to School...

Today I am headed back to school. I hate that I will be leaving Olivia all day long, but she'll be at "Daddy Day Care" so I'm not as anxious as if I had to leave her at regular day care.

It feels good, on the other hand, to be getting back to work. I got my classroom nearly set up on Saturday and only lack a few things to do before the kiddos arrive at 8am. I'll probably end up shoving things into lockers, closets, desks, etc. to make it look good (and curse later when I can't find what I need because its crammed into a "special hiding place.")

It's going to be a good year I think.

Week Five and Back to Work

Well, here we are. The end of August. That means only one thing... Back to School. Not only for all the kiddos out there; it means for me too. I have to start back to work tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock. I don't want to. I want to stay home until Olivia goes to kindergarten. I won't be able to focus at all tomorrow (I hope there isn't any "important" information in my trainings).

Week Five pictures were taken today because when I get home tomorrow I'm not going to have time to take a picture: I'll be holding Baby Olivia to tight!

Week Four- One Whole Month!

Olivia was born four weeks ago today. She'll be going to get her one month portraits this week (hopefully she won't be cranky for them!)

Olivia has started to reach out for her bright colored peacock that's attached to her crib, it crinkles when you touch it. She also enjoys what we call "The Clown Show" which is her Cirque du Soleil mobile that plays the song Alegria. Olivia seems to really like being sung to. I sing "Accidentally in Love" by the Counting Crows (from Shrek!) and last night we had a sing and dance moment to "Jump Around" by House of Pain (video should be posted shortly!)

For the last 3 days Olivia has been sleeping through the night and getting on a schedule of sorts. This makes me happy because I may be starting back to work next week and that's one less thing to worry about.

She looks so happy

I was able to catch this smile in the act with my cell phone. I love those early smiles, even though I know it's probably just gas ;)

Everything is going good. We have our bumps in the road but we manage. We did start on the bottle last night since I'll be going back to work soon and I was glad that she took it with no problems. Olivia hasn't taken any of the pacifiers we've tried to use so I was afraid she would have problems taking the bottle. Thank goodness for small miracles. I'm glad that Michael can start to have that good one-on-one time with Olivia.

Week Three

We've made it 3 weeks already! And today we officially had our first blowout! Mommy and Daddy were very surprised that a tiny baby could hold so much poop! It was everywhere and it looked like Olivia had been saving it for quite some time ;)

By the way, this is what happens when Mommy forgets to turn off the flash on the camera before taking the picture!!

Week Two

Here it is, week 2!

Olivia is proving to be very cranky indeed! We went to the doctor this week only to discover that baby has PMS. She's got too many hormones from the pregnancy in her system and it's like she has PMS. Poor Michael. I am hormonal because of the pregnancy and so is the baby. He can't win!

Adjusting to life with a new baby

Olivia will be two weeks old tomorrow and Michael and I are adjusting to limited sleep and life with a newborn. We tried something new last night (music on the CD player in Olivia's room, lights off all night- which makes feeding a little challenging, and the dreaded paci) and it seemed to work. We'll see.

A couple of days ago Olivia found her thumb. That would be nice if she could soothe herself without having to reach for the pacifier, but as you know, newborns cannot control their limbs! As soon as she was content with that thumb, whoosh, the arm flailed away! We'll work on that.

On a side and extremely exciting note, I can wear shoes again!! I haven't been able to get shoes on since the first of June because of swelling.

Mommy can wear shoes again!

Week One

We made it! We all survived one week! After a few mommy tears and baby tears and daddy tears, we made it! Olivia is perfect in every way. I can't believe how much she's changed in the last week.

Olivia is here!!

After waiting for several long months, Olivia Quinn is finally here! Olivia was born July 13th at 10:52 pm. She barely made it. She was 8 lbs, 2oz and 21 inches long.

On Monday morning I woke up at about 4 am with pain in my back. Worried about the pain accompanied by bleeding, Michael and I headed to Labor and Delivery. When we got there I was dilated only 1 cm and the bleeding was just part of the process and we were sent home. I took a nap when we got home but was awakened about an hour later with real contractions.

About 4 pm we headed back to the hospital because the contractions were about 5 minutes apart. Imagine my surprise when the labor nurse said I was still 1 cm!! Are you kidding me?!? (Let me interject that at this point I was ready for an epidural. I was on the fence about that before, taking a wait and see attitude to natural childbirth. All it took was about 2 hours of constant 5 minute apart contractions to change my whole outlook.)

They decided to go ahead and admit me. By 6pm I was 4 cm dilated and finally approved for that blessed epidural. I never knew you could love another human so greatly as I did for the anesthesiologist. He was a godsend! Once I got the epidural about 8 pm, I relaxed and in no time at all, I was dilated to 10 cm and ready to go.

After about one hour of pushing, my Olivia Quinn was born. She was so pink! Her APGAR scores were 8 and 9. She was perfect! Apparently when they whisked her away to the nursery to get cleaned up, she was not happy! So starts the trend of Cranky Olivia!

Michael thinks that she was born on Monday because on Sunday night, after hearing me complain that this baby was never coming out, he told Olivia that if she came out, he would buy her a pony. Now look at the mess we're in, and where are we going to put a pony!?

13 days and "patiently" counting

Well, here we are in July. I was sure that Olivia would make an early appearance but she has proven me wrong. Apparently, she likes it in there and wants to stay the duration. I'm trying very hard to be patient. With school out and not much to do but wait, I am kind of bored.

I'm hoping for a full moon baby because that's next Tuesday ;) Michael jokes that something big is coming and we should be prepared because of all the "signs".

First, there has been several earthquakes in the area over the last few months. No big deal if we lived in California. We're in Texas! There hasn't been earthquakes in Texas for as long as I've been here!

Second, the plague of fleas. We battled and battled and then spent $$$ to get rid of the pests. Let me tell you, my feet are just now healing from all the bites. I think the dogs lost weight from all the stress! (Oddly enough, fleas were one of the biblical plagues in Egypt; I didn't know that!)

Third, the floods. Our street flooded, like it always does when it rains hard, but still...

This is what I've been reduced to: sitting at the computer looking up biblical plagues. I know that Olivia will come when she's good and ready but that doesn't make it easier to wait.

Michael's 1st Show!

I guess I should have posted this earlier in the month...

Michael just finished up a gallery showing called "Faceless Saints" at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center (FWCAC). He's going to pick up his work today (I'm hoping that some of his work sold!). He's got another show coming up in November called "Old Friends, New Beginnings" also at the FWCAC. Our good friend, Leslie, set up a website for Michael. It has pictures of his most recent work.

Visit both sites:

Fort Worth Community Arts Center

Michael's Website

Baby Shower Today

Today was the shower. It was fun. We had it at a local tea room thats in an antique store. It was small and cozy. When we first arrived there was another shower going on in the dining room. It was a bachelorette party. I wanted to go over to the girls and show them what happens when they use all those fancy panties they were flaunting around (hee-hee).

Anyways, it was fun. My little girl will be better dressed than me! My mother in law got me two Cirque du Soleil dolls that will go PERFECTLY in the nursery. I can't decide if these will be for decoration or for Olivia to play with.

Well, it's not the snappiest car on the lot, but it has 4 doors!

After our harrowing adventure on Wednesday and Thursday to get a car,

it finally worked out.

We got into a Ford Focus on Friday evening.

It's not my first choice in cars

(I would have preferred a BMW)

but its what we can afford at this point.

Introducing,

the Hocus Pocus Focus!

A Car Buying Epic

The past few days have been exhausting. We currently are a one car family and that one car is a Mustang. We had a trying time finding a car seat that would fit into the back of that car, but we did it. The main issue would be the difficulty of getting the seat in and out (infant bucket). I had resolved that we made a mistake buying that car and we would have to live with it. Michael, on the other hand, hadn't made that resolution yet. Like many other people, I'm sure, we are upside down on our vehicle.

One Wednesday, Michael and I went to the local Toyota dealership to check out what good deals were going on. We got to the dealership about 10:30ish. We had the nicest salesperson. She sounded like she was from West Texas. We drove a car and liked it. It's really a matter of "it had 4 doors and resale on Toyotas is very good." We told her what we could do as far as a down payment, monthly payments, etc. She got both our SSN and we filled out a credit app.

Sounds good, so far...

At this point, I am hungry and we needed to get the checkbook from the house for the down payment so we leave the dealership about 12:30. We were under the impression that all we had to do was come back with the down payment and sign some papers.

WRONG!! We get back to the dealership at 2:00 and wait. They didn't even submit the credit app until 2:45. Then after waiting for another 45 minutes they take us back to the finance office (I think it's because we, and when I say we, I really mean me, was getting CRANKY!!) and we wait some more. Finally, they come back with a counter offer and we ask what it is. The guy has the nerve to say "You wouldn't understand it. I have to plug in some numbers." Did he not look at the credit app and see that Michael worked at a car finance company for 8 years and sure as hell would understand what he was looking at!!!!

At this point, both Michael and I are CRANKY! The guy comes back and says they want lots more down, and the payments would be nearly $100.00 more than they first stated. OH HELL NO! Of course, this is where we realize that they hadn't submitted the credit app before giving us the first numbers. I don't mess around with these guys. I demand to be treated with respect if they want my business. I get up and say "We're done, Good bye," and I leave. This guy is still trying to talk to Michael saying he has a friend that works for the bank and maybe they can work a deal, yadda yadda yadda.

Michael is very lucky that I love him, because I was so mad, I could have left him at the dealership just because he wasn't walking fast enough! So at this point, it is around 4:00. We had been at the dealership for about 5 hours not counting the lunch break. My feet are swollen, I'm tired and not just cranky anymore, REALLY CRANKY!

Fast forward to Thursday. I let Michael know that I am done trying to buy a car for the next 20 years. We'll just have to cart our family around in the Mustang, even if we have 3 kiddos :) He has the idea to try one more time at the Ford dealership. Maybe brand loyalty will play a part. I really didn't want a domestic car because of depreciation issues. That's the whole reason we were looking at Toyota and recently, Honda. He calls the dealership and explains the situation- being upside down, down payment, monthly payment, not wanting to waste time at the dealership all day and what vehicle we're interested in.

We fill out a credit app online and we wait. But here's the best part: we wait at home! I can check my Mafia Wars when I need to, clean the house, get to working on my birth announcements, take care of the dogs, whatever my little heart desires! A few hours later the salesperson calls back and tells us the vehicle we want we can't get because of our upside down and credit issues. But we could get possibly get into a cheaper vehicle with some rebates and incentives. We had never driven that vehicle so we went up to the dealership to test drive. We test drove 2 different cars and again, it has 4 doors was really the only criteria. We liked what we saw, told the salesperson and left.

We haven't heard back from the finance department yet (they were shutting down for the night when we test drove). Hopefully, around noon today. But the fact that this dealership and salesperson were not jacking us around is wonderful. Even if we don't get this vehicle, we know where to start when our situation looks better.

On a side note, our salesperson from Toyota called and said we would be getting a call from the General Manager (didn't happen) and then the customer service department called to see how we would rate our experience... At this point, they would have to give me the car, free and clear, for me to take it. I wouldn't even have a dealership to get it serviced at because I am NEVER going back to that one for any reason!

So if anyone is looking to get into a new Ford vehicle soon, contact me and I will give you a recommendation!

Olivia's Nursery is nearly done!

Except for a touchup of paint on the changing table, the nursery is done. I can't wait to have her here.

The perils of living in Texas...

So, here we are. June in Texas. We had a very light winter which in turn makes the summer pests run rampant. We have fleas at our house. We called for someone to come out; they did and they sprayed the yard and house. Since I'm pregnant we decided that we would spend the night at the in-laws house (they live across the street and are out of town) while the fumes dissipate.

No problem, right? Wrong!

Well, that night we have one of those Texas type storms in which it rained hard from 8 pm to 10am! No big deal, just a little rain only our street floods and the power went out. By the next morning, the in-laws power had come back on, but ours across the street had not. The biggest problem being that we needed to vacuum our carpets to help get rid of the flea infestation. Can't vacuum with no power! The electric company was no help, they know there's an outage but can't even begin to tell us when the power will come back on... but "they are working on it."

Finally, yesterday evening the crews of tree cutters and electricians showed up to fix the problems. First problem was that no one had cut back the trees along the power lines in quite some time (we've been there 4 years and hadn't ever seen them). Second problem was the lines were down and tangled in said trees. While the men worked, we watched as another storm was threatening to blow in!

And still no power! No vacuuming of aforementioned fleas! Then when you think it can't get any worse, the power goes out at the in-laws house again. Well CRAP!

About 9 pm the workers managed to get the power back on and that threatening storm never made it. Thank goodness. Now we have power, we can vacuum our house, and go home.

The most upsetting about the ordeal is that we have had to live with 4 dogs for the last 4 days. Wouldn't be bad, except there was only one good dog in the mess! Diego was the only one that followed directions! In case you're wondering, yes, the crazy poodle drove us NUTS!

My very first blog... What do you think?

Hey everyone. I wanted to set this up so that we can keep you posted on our family's "goings on." Hopefully, Michael and I can figure out how to work this thing to post pics and stuff.