Say Cheese

Now You Know Why My Heart Melts

Lone Star

We recently took a trip to The Mother Land and on that trip (which I have posted about) GoodLooking got a call that he had an offer to a new position in Lone Star.  We took some time to think about it and accepted it.  We decided the start date would be 5 weeks from that day and that we would move the Friday before that.  The time has gone by really fast.  The movers are coming in 4 days and we are starting our drive in 6 days.

We decided we did not want to rent anymore (mostly because we are done paying for other peoples' boats and because the apartments there are not so hot) and wanted to move straight into a house.  So we got with a realtor and looked at some listings online and looked at what she had to send us and last weekend we took a trip out there.  Keep in mind that I have never been there before and GoodLooking spent less than 24 hours there for his interview 2 weeks before my due date.  We got there Thursday Afternoon (flight went well) and looked around (Walmart is really old... we bought some diapers, wipes, and apples) and went to the hotel.  On Friday, we spent from 9-1 looking at at least a dozen houses. 

 Saw some that we liked like this one

and Honey did really well till the last hour so we called it a day and let her have a nap at the hotel while we thought about things. 

On Saturday we saw a few more houses and took a second look at some of the ones we liked from the day before (ended up eliminating them) and we found the right house.

It is a fairly new house (built in 1994), brick on all four sides, two car garage, perfect sized yards, sprinkler systems, water filter (outside the house (the water there tastes bad so thank goodness for the filter)), and best part, an older lady originally bought the house and took REALLY good care of it (the inspector kept saying that it was the nicest house he has inspected in a while).  Fire place has never been used and has electric logs in it.  More on the house in another post.

Here are some key thing that we like about it.

Great sized kitchen.  The kitchen was one of the main things we were looking into.  We hate having the small kitchen of our apartment and wanted to make sure we got a big one in the house we buy.

Great big Master closet (fur coat not included)

Nice Laundry room.  Not pictured is a closet and open space where a fridge or desk might one day go.

WOOD FLOORING (no carpet anywhere)

And I just really like the cabinet next to the fridge with the pull out shelves.

I would say the "House Hunting Trip" (which is actually what it was called according to the company that is reimbursing all the expenses of that trip) was successful.  Now we are just dealing with the bank and getting everything squared away.

**Shout out to our realtor Holly.  She did a great job.  We found our house in two days and she made sure we got an inspection before we left on Monday.  She drove us around, gave us good advice, and didn't even pressure us to buy a house that wasn't right for us.  Thank you Holly (real name used).

How We Choose

There are a lot of movies out in this world.  and by a lot, I mean Millions.  So many in fact, there is no official count.  With all the options, how do I choose which ones to watch, which ones do I purchase, and which ones do I steer clear of??

One really great resource is a website called Kids-In-Mind.  GoodLooking and I have been using this website for at least 3 years and has proven reliable.  It has a number rating system that includes sex and nudity, violence and gore, and language.  Three numbers.  For example one of my favorite movies is Meet The Robinsons.  The KIM rating is 1-3-1.  1 for Sex and Nudity (S&N), 3 for Violence and Gore, and 1 for Language.  The website doesn't stop there... No, No... it continues to tell exactly what the numbers are for. The website says why it gave S&N a 1  "We see a picture of two women in bikinis on a business card. A robot asks a boy to re-create him bulked-up, because the way it is doesn't make the "teapot whistle.""  For Violence here is an example of what it says "A Tyrannosaurus Rex charges toward a house, crashes through a glass wall, picks up a boy in its mouth, an octopus is flung at the dinosaur and it sticks to its head, and the dinosaur is also fired upon by a flying vehicle that shoots pizza dough; the dinosaur catches the vehicle in its mouth and chews on it, and it chases the boy and snaps at him.  (it has 14 mentions of violence another being when the boys fight in the flying car and it crashes) and for Language it says "1 mild scatological term, name-calling (stupid, crazy, flathead, short roots, bozos, evergreen, geek, smarty pants, dumb), 1 exclamation (shove it, what the…), an exclamation is written out as @!!*^#.   Very detailed and you can get a good idea about what to expect.


Another source would be ratings (like P or PG)  I find this to not be as reliable because you don't know why it gets a certain rating.  Like Lord of the Rings is rated PG-13 and I like those movies.  On KIM you will find that they are PG-13 because of violence (receiving a rating of 1-7-1).  I would not like them  if it was rated that way because of S&N.  I just looked at some movies and anything with a 7 in S&N gets an R and I do NOT watch R rated movies.  Another reason is I feel that some directors take the movie to the max of a rating.  They don't want an R rating so they ride an element up to the limit to receive the PG-13.  Then (if I have not consulted KIM) I am sitting in a PG-13 feeling uncomfortable.  But I still use this source because I know I am safer if I at least steer clear of R ratings.


That is all I have on that.  Another thing I wanted to say is PG-13 is for 13 and up.  Media affects the way we act, think, and speak.  
I just thought of another thing.  PG-13 is the (gray) area between (white) PG and (black) R.  The question is: is it black with drops of white OR white with drops of black? 

What a Blessing

Last week we all went to Arizona so Honey* could be blessed.  In the week (or rather months) leading up to the trip, I was very nervous about having her on the plane for 4 hours breathing in everyone else's air and just generally getting all those germs on her.  The flight there, she slept pretty much the whole way and cried a little bit when she was hungry (but I was ready with a pumped bottle).

We had a great time IN Arizona except for poor little Honey getting allergies and drying up.  When we landed in Arizona we went to Globe to see GoodLooking's sister play basketball then home to his house.
Thursday, we went to the Temple and out to lunch (we got a gift certificate Christmas of 2010 but couldn't use it because the place was closed due to plumbing problems).  Then just hung out and recovered from the long travel.

Friday morning, we went to my parent's house and hung out and went to my favorite Mexican place (thanks mom and dad!).
Saturday, GoodLooking took his nephew to the zoo and then we drove back to GoodLookings house.  Me, my parents, some cousins, and aunt and uncle went to another mexican place for dinner.  It was my aunts birthday and she got Honey a gift (how kind).  It was a cute book with fun stories to read to her.

Sunday, we visited and went to church to bless Honey.  It was a great day at church but was really windy outside.  Honey was really stuffed up in the nose and screaming for most of it so ended up going to my aunts house that is across the street.  We got a humidifier for Honey and that seemed to help a lot.
Monday, we just hung out and had Family Home Evening.

Tuesday, we went to Phoenix to come back to Hotlanta.  The flight had about 30 people on it so we could sit wherever we wanted.  We were supposed to sit on the side with just two seats but we chose to sit on the side with three and Honey slept between us for most of the flight.  She was a bit more fussy but it was fine because there were only 3 people within 10 rows either direction of us.

All in all, Honey is a pretty good baby.

*While in Arizona, GoodLookings mom was explaining how you pronounce her middle name in spanish (Hawnay) and it came to me.  Honey.  (her middle name is pronounced a little different than Honey but I like it so that is who she is)

You Know?!

Ya know, it would be nice if once you became a parent, sleep was no longer necessary.  You could just go and go and not even have to worry about it.  Get the laundry done , dinner cooked, get showered, dressed, and made up, clean the living room, bathrooms, and kitchen, scrapbook, and make thank you cards while the baby sleeps.  INSTEAD, you gotta sleep when she sleeps and you're lucky if you get to shower let alone make those thank you cards.
I'm not trying to whine.  I lover her with all my ability.  BUT, if I didn't have to sleep, my house would look a lot better, I wouldn't stink*, and those cards would have gone out the week she was born.




*I stink because for the past two weeks, I couldn't wear deodorant because I had a rash in my pits and had to put two different creams on them 3X's a day.  Now, I think the rash is gone but now they are really dry and the skin around my nail on my middle finger is infected or its an ingrown hangnail (i don't think it is related to the rash).


**BTW, I am posting this at 4 a.m. while typing with my left hand and rocking her to sleep.  Now that she is asleep, I gotta go.

More pictures and the stories that go with them

This is a picture of my foot.  Why a picture of my foot on my blog... I hate feet... why would I do that?? Well see that indent?  My feet got so swollen while I was pregnant.  When they would "unswell" I would think that they were back to normal but my idea of normal got kind of skewed and now they look super skinny and cute (now that I really am back to normal)

I was miserable just before having her.  This was one of my many trips to the triage room to see if they would admit me..  They just kept saying no and giving me Demerol.... Maybe that is why toward the end of the birth story everything was melting together.

 Daddy GoodLooking holding his little baby burrito

Just chillin like a villain.

Sometimes I have to wake her up to feed her and she looks like this because I slowly wake her

and then GoodLooking takes over and she looks like this

and this

 And well.... She makes us laugh a lot.