In Dallas!

Well, we made it to Dallas, though the journey was quite eventful! My Dad came down on Friday morning in his white cargo van he uses for work and we got our minivan out of impound. It wouldn't start and the latch to open the hood was broken, so we put it in neutral and pushed it with the cargo van a couple of miles down the highway to a Denny's and called a tow truck. When we got back home my Dad worked to get the battery recharged and we got it started by Saturday morning. We packed up my Dad's cargo van, the minivan, and our car to take the six of us (my Dad, Justin, me, Ariana, Toby, and Talsi) to Dallas. Because Justin had to work this week, he needed a car, and my Dad wanted to drive the van for a week to see if it was doing okay. About 2 miles after we left our apartment, the van died again! My dad ended up having to get a U-haul trailer to tow it home! We then discovered it was the fuel pump (which Justin had guessed at first, so he gets kudo man-points for that) which my Dad says he can fix. So my Dad's working on fixing our van this week, our dogs are confused because they had to ride all the way to Dallas (a seven hour trip) in the back of a tilted, being-towed van, Justin is all alone in Kingwood, and Ariana has decided she really likes her extended family!

Grandpa Joe loves singing to her and she loves singing back! Last night she just sat on his lap and stared at him as he sang. She is going to be so musical.

So far we're really enjoying this trip. Family members have taken random days off of work and my grandmother may even be flying in from Lubbock to see Ariana for a few days. I'm really going to enjoy this time and I'm glad everyone gets to see Ariana now for a few days.

I had better sign off, my mother-in-law should be here any minute to kidnap her granddaughter! ;) (In all fairness, she's taking me, too.) :)

Can't Sleep, Clowns Will Eat Me...

Well, it's 5 am and I officially can't sleep. It amazes me that no matter how little I sleep, or how exhausted I get, sometimes the tiniest noises Ariana makes keep me up. This is why I'm in bed for 12 hours and only get 5 hours of sleep. She wakes up to eat, eats for fifteen minutes, and goes right back to sleep. I, however, take at least an hour, sometimes three to get back to sleep, so I only actually get to nap for one to three hours at a time. She'll get 10 hours of sleep for my 4. "Sleep when the baby sleeps." Easier said than done! There has got to be a medicine for this!!! I'll probably be sick again in a few days from not being able to sleep, but oh well.

My van broke down today on the side of the road. During our efforts to revive it it was towed and is going to cost a couple of hundred dollars to get it out of impound. I don't even know if we're going to do it. The van itself was barely more than that and, well, frankly, we can't afford to pay $200 to retrieve a van that doesn't even work. My dad is coming down to see if he can fix it; who knows. In a year or so maybe we'll be able to afford a car that functions correctly. We still don't know what happened to it.

We are all visiting Dallas this weekend! We're leaving either tomorrow night or Saturday morning. Justin will come back to go to school next week, but I will be staying in Dallas until the 23rd. That way Ari can really spend some time with her family. I know her grandparents and aunts and uncles are really looking forward to it, as am I.

Speaking of Dallas, looks like we're not moving! Our apartment complex gave us a great deal on staying so we decided to go with that instead of me having to take a full time job to pay for a move to Dallas. Hopefully we'll be able to come up within the next couple of years, so sorry for our friends who were hoping to have us up sooner!

Well, I can't decide if I want to try to sleep. She'll be up in an hour to eat anyway, is there really a point? Maybe I'll give her to Justin this weekend and down some Nyquil and drift to my favorite place. ;) I'm going to use my flu-causing insomnia for good and go do the dishes. Happy 5 in the morning, everybody!!

First Hospital Visit, Possible Move, TV Obsessions, and More

First Hospital Visit

Well, we've had an eventful last week! I had to go to the ER - it was Ariana's first time in a hospital. I was nervous having her around so many sick people, but she did fine and stayed healthy. I was better about the third day and it looks like things might finally be looking up for me, I'm so tired of being sick! I'm looking forward to being good and healthy from now on. :)

Smiles and Coos

Ariana is really starting to show her little personality! She grins at me every morning after she's eaten and her favorite game is making faces with me. We coo and giggle back and forth and she just thinks it's the greatest thing in the world. What I don't think she fully appreciates is that it is the greatest thing in the world. :) Here is a video of those little smiles and coos I love so much:

Are We Moving Again?!

We are caught in a bit of a dilemma right now! Justin and I both really want to move back to Dallas because we want Ariana to be around her grandparents, but Justin absolutely loves his job. We've decided that the best plan (if it's at all possible) will be for Justin to do summer school here and then we'll pack up and move! I have a feeling him finding a job is going to be fairly easy, Spanish teachers are a "critical needs" area in many places. Right now we're really wanting to move to Carrollton, and when Justin spoke with them last week they apparently sounded desperate for Spanish teachers. We are going to hate moving from Kingwood and Justin's great job and our great apartment and the great church we have here, but we've decided that it's time to make our life a bit more permanent and stable. If we do move to Dallas, it's going to be the first time we've ever moved anywhere with the intent of staying! We'll probably rent a place for a couple of years before buying a house, but we're looking at living in the northern Dallas area, Carrollton or Plano or even Richardson. Nothing is set in stone yet, we certainly don't know if this is even going to be possible or even likely, but that's the plan we're hoping for.

A Bit Sad...
On a bit of a more personal note, I am really bummed right now, one of my best friends is moving to HAWAII in a couple of months and while that's a cool deal for her I'm SO sad about it! I hope to enjoy the couple of months we've still got!

Lost in Obsession
Justin and I have returned to our obsession about Lost. Greatest. Show. Ever. We have a standing appointment with ABC every Thursday at 7. If you don't watch it - you're missing out, and don't start! I told Justin it's like a drug - you can't wait to get your fix and after you do, the only thing you can think is, "What am I doing to myself?! I hate this thing!" Really, though, it probably is one of the greatest and most brilliant shows ever devised. Very clever and smart and entertaining and kind of obsessive. ;)

Cloth Diapering
I love cloth diapering, especially now that I have enough cloth diapers! It's a lot easier than I thought it would be and saves a ton of money and landfill space. I would recommend anyone with a baby (and a washer/dryer in house) to look into it, it's not nearly as complicated as I think people think it is!

Well that's all that's new with us! I should go do the dishes while my sugar plum is still asleep. :)