A Texas-sized announcement...

First off, again...like so many other times before...I apologize for my lack of blogging.

I've written this post over and over again, without the heart to push the "Post" button until now. I guess once I hit that little button, it will be real. But it needs to be said, to be announced..so here it goes.

Summer of 2013, my family and I will be moving from California to Texas.

For the past few years, Jake and I have been "planning" to move to the Fort Worth area, even making several trips to not only visit his Dad, but to also get acquainted with the area, places to live, schools, etc. We had planned on waiting until Jake graduated with his Bachelors Degree in Psychology from SFSU...and that's happening this coming May. Shortly after he graduates, we're going to move.

I must admit, although I am excited to live in a new place and start over from scratch, it's also REALLY scary for me. I have only ever lived in California (born and raised) my entire life. I've never lived anywhere else. There was a time I was going to move out of state a couple of times, but I ultimately decided to stay. Given how Jake has worked so hard to fulfill his dreams of being a Sports Psychologist, I can tell he misses his Dad. He and his Dad are buddies, and he's a completely different person when we're in Texas visiting. He smiles, he talks, he's happy. If we stay in California, we'll never be able to own a home. Sorry to say, but the schools aren't that great either. I feel growing up I got a good education, but I don't think my daughter would get the same caliber of studies Jake and I did unless she was put into private school which we can't afford. Gas prices are ridiculous, and there is a lot of limits for us here. Ultimately, moving to Texas means more to Jake than staying in California means to me. I enjoy Texas (well, not the heat) and I can see room to have our family grow in great neighborhoods that won't cost a fortune to live in. It's a new beginning, and I'm terrified. But I guess the mix of emotions that I'm going through now will help me adapt to our new environment when the time comes.

We don't have a definite date of when we'll move, but I will say that my Mom and Dad are coming with us. They've always made it clear that no matter where we live, they'll come too. We've always been close and they want to be wherever Scarlett and us are.

So for the next few months, I plan to peek in, send updates and chronicle our trek from a California family, to a Texas one. So...here we go!

Catching Up

Wow...a  lot has happened since I last wrote.

Scarlett had her 2nd Easter and we spent it with Jake's grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. We played at a playground and did a small Easter egg hunt. All of the eggs were filled with change that promptly went into Scarlett's piggy bank when we got home.

For a few years, I had been contemplating getting purple highlights in my hair, and was always scared to do it. I met a wonderful and offbeat hairdresser named Betty who owns a salon in Berkeley. She became a client of ours and has done my sister in law's hair for a while. For those who don't know, my sister in law's hair is fire-engine-red with black bangs and it's cut really short and spiky. I figured if she could sport the red rocker hair, I could surely handle a few purple streaks.

Nervously I walked into Betty's salon and 2 hours later, walked out with purple highlights (the color she used is called "Pimpin' Purple") and a haircut with off-the-side bangs. I'd been wanting to get my hair restyled since November when the lady I went to didn't really listen to what I had asked for. Please excuse the poor quality of the picture. It was taken with my phone, the highlights look darker than they actually are and my hair was a little wind-whipped afterwards.

Well, I had Mother's Day #2. I was treated to a shopping day at the Le Creuset outlet in Gilroy and I didn't go too crazy, but having such beautiful pieces to make meals for my family is quite lovely. I love cooking, and even fantasized about going to culinary school for a time until I found out how much it would cost to go and how competitive the market is for chefs...not really for me. So I always look into cooking classes and new techniques for preparing meals. I'm not a gourmet by any means, but I thoroughly enjoy cooking. 

Mother's Day we had a low key BBQ for my mom's side of the family which is a yearly tradition. We were supposed to host last year, but Scarlett decided to make her appearance and we were unable to put the party on, but this year we did it. Everything was great - great weather, great food, great company. There was a small snafu with my Dad almost falling down our back steps and really hurting his arm with a skin tear, but I snapped into "mommy" mode and cleaned and bandaged him up. His arm is fine.

The Friday night prior to Mother's Day, Scarlett decided to try some acrobatics off her changing pad on her dresser and got a hairline fracture in her left wrist. It looked a lot worse than it actually was, and she had to wear a bright pink cast for 2 weeks. I think it hurt Jake more than the baby because he was changing her diaper when she rolled over. She's pretty darn cute though, even with a cast on:

May 19, Jake and I celebrated our 5-year anniversary with a trip to Disneyland. I'll tell the details of that in another post. :)



Meet Tommy

A few weeks ago, I wrote that my Dad's cat, Jack, had passed away suddenly. It was a shocking and traumatizing time for my father because he was #1 the one who found Jack in his closet and #2 was home alone when this happened. This had never happened to my parents before since our other two cats who had passed before Jack had done so at the vet and because they were visibly sick.

The day after Jack's death, I emailed the rescue society that my parents adopted Jack from. They also adopted their 4-year old cat, Sunny from the same society. It's a network of people who foster the kittens and cats and then bring them to places like Petsmart and Petco for "adoption drives". They also have a website where you can apply to adopt a certain cat and then pick him/her up at the adoption drive. After I emailed, I got 3 responses from different board members expressing their condolences towards my parents. One lady who emailed me was the president of the organization, and the lady who fostered Sunny when she was a kitten.

In her response, she explained that she remembered my parents from the other two adoptions and could tell they were very caring with the animals, especially my Dad. She mentioned since she personally was picky about who adopts the cats, she had a little orange and white tabby boy kitten named Tommy T who she would offer to my parents exclusively since he wasn't "showcased" yet in the website and adoption drives. There was some email correspondence between her and myself, and my Dad and myself arranging the adoption. My Dad had made it clear that he wanted to adopt after the New Year because he didn't want the experience of a new house to be so traumatizing with a new sibling (Sunny), the Christmas tree and lots of people around at the same time. Well, that didn't really happen. There was an arrangement, after pictures were passed of Tommy to my Dad from the lady, that my parents would meet Tommy at an adoption drive, but the lady would hold him until after the holidays. Well...I met my parents at the Petco where the adoption drive was and my parents took Tommy home that day.

Jake and I got to spend some time with Tommy over Christmas, and he is such a little love. He's very playful and sweet, and best of all...he LOVES my Dad.

I managed to snap a photo of him with my cell phone in the midst of his playing. Sorry it's little blurry, but he kept moving. Tommy is now 13 weeks old.

3 years

3 years ago, my sister in law was in pain. She was in labor with her first child. My mother in law took up residence in her living room to help her through the labor since her boyfriend was on vacation at the time. Jake and I regularly called to check in every 3-4 hours or so. My favorite call was when Jake asked "How's Summer doing?" and MIL answered "She's asleep in the bathtub". Thinking about that call still makes me giggle.

The following day, Jake and I were in a tax class at H&R Block to get a head start on what we needed to learn for the business we started. Summer had been in labor since 2 days before that, so we knew she was getting worn down. She had tried to go to the hospital but was sent home because she was "too happy" to occupy a hospital bed in labor. At around 10am, Jake and I both got text messages from MIL saying "Summer's about to push. Baby should be here in about an hour". 20 minutes later? "Skyler Raynne is here!"...so much for an hour, huh? We left our class early and headed to the hospital. At that moment, I became the proud auntie of Skyler Raynne Rouse. Tomorrow, she's turning 3 years old. She's rambuncious. She's sweet. She's a toe-head blonde with deep green eyes. She calls me "Auntie LoLo" and has a lisp. She knows the words to "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey, "Wonderboy" by Tenacious D and "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond. She's smart and playful. And she's 3....three. years. old. Where did the time go????

Jaxon Maddox Rouse

Jaxon Maddox Rouse was born to Summer and Jason on Sunday July 18th, 2010 at 5:34pm after 27 hours of induced labor. He measured in at 9lbs, 15.4 oz and 21 inches long. Jake and I met our new nephew approximately 2 hours after his birth at Santa Teresa Kaiser hospital in San Jose. He's awfully cute..but of course, I'm biased.

Busy, Busy

So most know that I was out of town last weekend, hence why there was no weekly video last week. I went with my cousin Megan to suprise our cousin Marie for her baby shower...in New Jersey. We got back Sunday night and I've been in kind of recovery since. It was a whirlwind weekend, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Tonight, Jake is graduating from Diablo Valley College with an Associates of Arts in Psychology. This is a degree 12 years in the making. Off and on, Jake has worked so hard for this day. He's put his education on hold so many times for his family, work, me, and I'm so happy for him and proud that he stuck through it and succeeded. He deserves this more than I can say.

Yesterday, I took a blood test to check my Progesterone levels since we've officially begun Clomid with the RE in San Francisco. The normal levels for a post-ovulation is about 10-15. Mine? 0.3. Yup. You read that right. Zero-point-three. Which means I didn't ovulate. It's disappointing, but I'm not giving up. I've been praying a lot more than I've ever prayed and all I keep telling myself is "God will guide me". Sure, it's sad and I got teary, but it's OK. At least it's something and not just waiting. I have a wonderful family, an amazing husband, a great doctor and God on my side. Everything will be OK. I know it will.

An Answered Prayer

Jake was pretty bummed about being wait-listed for SF State. He was excited to get into the school, but the whole having to choose an alternate major instead of the one he is so passionate about really cast a shadow over his happiness of going to a University.

Ever since, I've been praying that the school would have an opening and they would see what a valuable asset he would be for the department. Well...my prayers were answered this morning. I was on my way to see my cousin Megan in Sacramento and Jake had to stop by the office to finish a project he hadn't been able to complete yesterday. I received a call from him saying "I just got an email...guess who it was from." I, of course hoping it would be good news, decided to ask if the email was a good or bad thing. He said good. I instantly thought "It's from SF State isn't it?" "Yes." "You got into the Psych Department!?" "YES!"

He made it. He's in. He's excited. And happy. And relieved.

(Not to steal your words Meggie, but it's appropriate right now)....

God is faithful.

17 years ago...

Yesterday marked the anniversary.

I was 8 years old. It was a Saturday morning and my mom had dropped me off at my aunt and uncle's house in San Mateo to visit my dying grandfather at Kaiser Redwood City. I hadn't seen Grandpa in a few weeks because he was looking worse every time we saw him. It was almost the end. We all knew it. I didn't want to believe it.

Uncle Jeff was sleeping. He had been at the hospital all night with Grandpa. Seain and I were in the living room playing Nintendo while auntie Julie was around (I forget what she was doing). The phone rang. Auntie answered it. 5 minutes later, my uncle came down the hall into living room with tears in his eyes. He said something I couldn't understand. Seain could, I couldn't. Seain started crying. WTF was going on?? What happened? Why is Jeff crying????

"Grandpa died"....silence.

Shock. Pain. Broken heart. It was all gone. The velcro shoes and scruffy kisses hello. The jingling change in his pocket and the bird sounds he whistled. Nascar races in the family room with salami sandwiches and waking up from naps to Grammie and Grandpa playing Gin while drinking hiballs...it was gone. He was gone.

17 year later, and I still miss him. I still talk to him and wonder if he's around, watching how our family has grown. The grandkids are getting married, having children, living adult lives. What would he say? Would he be proud? Would he smile? I think he would. His family was his life.

I'm glad you aren't suffering anymore Grandpa. We love you and we miss you.

Earl Robert Barrett
1921-1992

Terrible Twos

Jake and my niece, Skyler is a little over 2 years old. And yes, she's going through her terrible twos right now. Oh happy days. She's still a cutie and we love her to bits. So I thought I would kind of give a timeline of how she's grown so far.

2 months

4 months

6 months

9 months

15 months

18 months

2 years old!