First week of normal!

Today is Monday again, and I'm hoping -- truly hoping -- I'm back to a week of NORMAL! I was out on vacation (which I mostly used to spring clean) two weeks ago, came back last Monday and was sick as a dog by Monday night, and was out Tuesday/Wednesday, had a special event Thursday and played catch up like mad on Friday.

In the midst of all of that, I'm happy to announce -- I landed a new job! I have been in the position I'm in now since September of 2007. Those of you who have followed this blog from the beginning know that this blog started in September of 2007 as well. I was in training (transitioning from another department) for my current job starting in July 2007, officially started on September 3rd and on September 16th, found out I was pregnant with Angelica. (I already told Scott -- let's NOT keep that tradition going. Haha.) The team I work on now has truly been like a second family to me so I am sad to be leaving them, but I am also THRILLED about my new position.

So what will I be doing? I am staying with the same company but will now be an SEO Specialist. I graduated in Dec. 2009 (salutatorian! yay me!) with my master's in Internet Marketing, so this is a huge step  in the right direction career-wise and I am really, really excited to see where things go from here. I don't know for sure when the new position starts -- details are still being worked out -- but it will be within the next couple of weeks. So I need a week of normal in between so I can use the calm to get everything squared away.

Now for a weekend recap...

Friday and Saturday night we went through a Journey to Membership workshop at our church. I mentioned back in January that one of my resolutions this year was to get more involved in the church and seek out membership at some point, and both Scott and I felt ready to make that leap. Our church (not a Christian church -- we are Unitarian Universalists so it is a UU church) asks that people who want to be members go through this workshop because they don't want anyone to go into membership blindly. It wasn't at all a sales presentation and the workshop isn't an obligation to join. It really just went over the history of the faith, the history of our particular church, the social commitments the church makes to the community, and what it really means to be a member.

While we did that, Angelica had a sleepover with Rylie. It's only the 2nd time she's slept overnight somewhere, but we really felt at ease knowing that LeeAnn and Brian were in charge. Outside of family, they're one of the few couples we'd trust with our kid -- and Angelica absolutely adores Rylie and was psyched about this sleepover all week. Friday when I picked her up, her teacher said, "Let me guess -- she's going to Rylie's house?" Yep. She talked everyone's ear off about it. LeeAnn wrote a recap of their fun slumber party on her blog. (Thanks again LeeAnn for hosting such a fun sleepover -- Angelica has been talking about it ever since!)

After the meeting at church, Scott and I celebrated our ten year dating anniversary on Friday night and took advantage of having a kid-free evening to go out to dinner and celebrate. I can't believe it's been a decade since our first date. 

Sunday was a fairly normal day. We went to church (again -- we were there every day this weekend) and I volunteered in the nursery while Scott went to services. Sunday night my niece and nephew came to hang out with us, which Angelica was also super excited about. She LOVES her cousins!

Tomorrow I'll probably do my first weight-loss post in a few weeks. It is NOT going to be good...but more on that tomorrow.

I seriously love our weekends!

As usual we had another fantastic weekend!

The weather is finally coming back up (it was in the low-to-mid 80s here all weekend...I know you northern folks are hating us) and so I decided it was just too nice to stay in the house all day. I actually got up at a decent time (Scott is laughing reading this -- it was 8:30 when I got up!) and we ate breakfast and immediately hit the back yard to rake leaves, sweep the patio and play!

After that hard work was done, and I was putting away the broom and cleaning myself up a bit, I noticed Angelica was looking out the front door. There are three little girls who live on our street (ages 10, 7, and 4) and they were riding around in this motorized Barbie car. So, I told Angelica she could go out and play with her friends.

Now...both Scott and I are what I'd call..."socially awkward". I had thought Angelica had inherited this trait because she's always been pretty reserved around other kids. But nope, this time she just walked right up to these girls and started playing! They rode around our little cul-de-sac about 300 times in that Barbie car before doing wagon rides and sharing some juice and gummy snacks together. She was totally just hanging out with some buddies and having a great time. It was wonderful to see her open up like that!

Later that afternoon we went to the park to hang out with her friends Rylie and Bryce (and some of their friends, too)! She kind of went back to being her reserved self (I guess she used up all her social skills with the neighborhood kids) but still had a great time. We went for Italian Ice at Jeremiah's afterward and it was just wonderful.

Sunday we woke up and did the usual Sunday morning stuff...breakfast, church, Farmer's Market, then headed to a local indoor kids place called Amaya Papaya for some open play. I have to admit that her social skills deteriorated a bit while we were there...she hit a kid and then (much to my horror) kicked a baby and I had to put her in time out. After that she behaved herself and we had a lot of fun!

Last night we finally started our spring cleaning process...it was time to take the changing table out of her bedroom (we haven't used that thing in months). That made room for her toy box, which had been in a closet stuffed full of toys she hadn't used in a long time. Let me tell you, that was so exciting for her! She even helped me push that big toy chest down the hall like a big kid, and then had fun going through the box. It was mostly stuffed animals, so each one she'd take out and say, "Hey, it's a doggie!" (big hug), "Hey, it's a bunny!" (big hug), "Hey, it's a teddy bear!" (big hug). And so on. After that excitement, I packed away her winter clothes, vacuumed, and steam cleaned her carpet. Her room is now the neatest, tidiest room in the house!

Side note about the farmer's market yesterday: We've made it somewhat of a tradition to go out to lunch while we're downtown and then head back to the Farmer's Market to pick up anything that needs refrigeration so it doesn't go bad. Anyway, as we're packing up to leave, I was trying to discreetly count how much cash I had left for the farmer's market, and Angelica saw it and went nuts! She kept saying she wanted "THIRTY-SIX OF DOLLARS!" I have no idea why she wanted thirty-six! So we talked about money and I told her I didn't have that much to give her and she had a tantrum. Eventually I talked her down to six. And then one. And she guarded that dollar with her life. Until I snuck it away to spend on fresh-squeezed orange juice.

And so ended the weekend! I love that we always have our super fun adventures. I can't wait for the next one!

A Saturday of Ups and Downs

Well, today started off wonderfully. We got up, ate breakfast and then headed out to watch my nephew play soccer. Angelica was so excited about it...she loves soccer, and she loves her cousin Willy, so it was the best of both worlds!

After the game, we had lunch with my sister and brother in law, the kids, and her in-laws at Subway, then went back to their place to play with their soccer ball and goal. Angelica LOVED it! She also got to play with their neighbor's kids, their baby kitty, and their toys.

We came home, "rested" (she didn't nap), played outside on the swing set, and then Grandma and PopPop came by for a visit and gave Angelica a new Minnie Mouse "wubby". She had a GREAT time!

Then...about five minutes after they left, she started acting really tired and lethargic. Scott felt her forehead and she was warm. She started to cry and just laid down on the floor and started crying "Mommy....mommy" so I picked her up...she snuggled up to me and just whimpered...and in less than 2 minutes she just fell asleep in my arms. She NEVER asks to be held. Never. This kid will fall down, bust her lip, have blood pouring everywhere and tell me to leave her alone! So, this was a sure-fire indication that she was SICK.

At least the day started out well. Hope she's over whatever it is tomorrow (and that it's not the urinary reflux causing a UTI...it'd be the first once since she was diagnosed at 5 months old...sigh...)