Georgia

If you’ve been reading my posts recently then you know that right before my aunt passed away we drove out to Georgia to see her. I wasn’t sure what to expect when we got there. And to be honest I was in denial. I wasn’t convinced that things were as bad as everyone was making it out to be. And I remember asking one of my other aunt’s “Can you tell me what she looks like? Can you prepare me for what we’ll be walking into?” They told me to be positive. Hold her hand, and smile. Talk to her about the future; with her included. They told me to laugh with her, and sing along when we did our in-house worship. And that’s what I did. I’m thankful for that opportunity. I’m thankful for that time, and those moments. These are memories I'll be able to hold on to for the rest of my life.

But do you know what else I’m pretty grateful for? Getting to spend time with family. Every time we get together it’s a wonderful time. We stay up late talking into the night, and exchange stories. We share updates about how we've been, and what we've been up to. My uncle Ned will be cracking jokes or singing songs. Loudly. The kids will be running around in the front yard. And there’s always food being cooked as well as coffee being brewed. I mean a lot of coffee, y’all. When we enter into stores or restaurants as a group we always manage to turn heads. Probably because we’re that loud family that requires three to four tables to be pushed together in order to fit. Think “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”, only we’re Mexican. It’s really great! I love being a part of a big family. This is probably why I always saw myself having one (though we’ve established that this won’t be the case). But this doesn’t mean that my brother or the rest of my cousins won’t have several children to keep the big family traditions going. My little one has plenty of cousins, and I hope that I’m able to provide her the opportunity to see them as often as possible. Some of my earliest and fondest memories involve my cousins so I’d like Emery to experience the same in her life. Fingers crossed!

Now, there’s this feeling I get when I’m surrounded by my family. I’d say it’s happiness, but I feel like it’s more than that. And sometimes I wish I could bottle it up in order to keep it on hand for when I really need it. Y'all know the days. I hope everyone of you out there have experienced this feeling before too. At least once in your life. That feeling of completeness; of being loved. Knowing that no matter what, you will be okay. It’s an incredible feeling, and I get it every time we’re together. When the conversations are loud, when there's booming laughter, and when everyone is just smiling from ear to ear. This past visit I remember sitting on the front porch with my cup of coffee, and just listening. Watching my family interact, and laugh. Everyone hugging one another. And it was a beautiful thing. I kept thinking, "This is what family is all about." Coming together for one another. Serving each other when in need. Supporting each other. I was reminded, again, of just how truly blessed I am. So, even though the circumstances for our visit were really sad I’m thankful to have been able to spend a few days with the people that matter to me. The people I love most in this world.

*This visit I spent more time just being with my family rather than taking pictures. Plus, all of the others I took had the kids faces displayed & y'all know how I feel about that. So, sorry-not- sorry for the lack of pictures. 😝

Hi, Hello!

Whoa, it's already the middle of September! I'd like to say that "time flies when you're having fun", which is true, though it's not entirely my case at the moment. We have been really busy! School for both Em & myself started on August 24th. I take two face-to-face and two online. This is my first time being back at school for a "full-time" schedule. Em started Kindergarten so this is her first time at a school that has more than three classrooms and 6 teachers total. We've had a pretty decent run so far, nothing too major, though some days have been hard in terms of getting ourselves ready on time.We always make it though. She's also taking gymnastic classes every Thursday so by Friday she's pretty tuckered out. Whoa, I totally just said tuckered. Anyway, so far she likes her teachers and she's making new friends! It's been really interesting to hear the stories she comes home with, and to see how excited she gets when they're able to do certain things. I'm really glad that we chose this school (we transferred her to a school closer to my work rather than our home) because she's still able to see some of the kids she went to preschool with, and I think that made her transition a lot smoother.

I, on the other hand, have just been really stressed out about my classes. Not only was it a rough start transferring over to this University (my application was not found, financial aid was not showing up, books were a week late, etc. etc.), but these classes are a lot bigger. The student to teacher ratio is a bit insane, though I've heard it's worse at other major Universities. I was lucky to get evening classes, and so far they've been great. I had my first major exam on Tuesday, and I'm still really nervous about the outcome. We won't find out how we did until next week. It's been an adjustment, and I'm really trying my hardest to stay on top of all the assignments. It's helped that we have a professor who had pretty much opened all quizzes, assignments, and exams with due dates being on the last day of class. Not having regular due dates lets me chip at that class a little at a time during the week. So yeah, fingers crossed I do well this semester.

Recently, the only thing I've been dreaming of is a vacation. I know in my "real" life this is daily topic. I'm also pretty sure I've mentioned it here on this blog too.  A plane ticket, a beach somewhere, some peace and quiet. Ahhhh. What I would give for one of those. Now, even though this isn't technically a family vacation, we will be traveling out of state and it will be to see some family. A cousin of mine, my best friend growing up, is getting MARRIED! So on the 23rd we will be flying out to Georgia for a week. I'm excited to be able to go, and consider myself pretty lucky to be able to take the time off from work. Though on the flip side to that coin, sadly, my husband will not be joining us on this trip due to his work obligations. We will be traveling with my parents, as well as some other family members all on the same flight! You're welcome, Southwest Airlines! Emery's excited to get to fly again and even though it's not to the beach she's still thrilled to be getting on a plane again. This will be our first time flying Southwest, and I'm a little nervous about it. I've been told we won't be able to pick our seats, and I have no idea how they go about doing check-ins. Add that to us flying out of an airport I've never flown out of before, and my anxiety peaks a bit just at the thought. Thankfully, we've all arranged to travel up together, and to get there earlier than the recommended hour before flight. And for the price of the flights, nonstop, I'd say we can handle whatever gets tossed in our direction. 

So that's about all that's new for now. You know, I always talk about posting more and trying to be consistent. Lately, I've been paying less time to the technological world and more to the time I have at home with my family. I'm sure everyone else out there is doing the same! So, this time around I won't make promises or even plan for the next post. I'll write to y'all when I write to y'all! Hope everyone is having a wonderful start to fall though! Until the next post. :)

A Short Recap Of The Holidays

Well hello, 2014. That definitely came up a lot faster than I expected. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years! Here's a SHORT (it only looks long because of the pictures) recap of what we were up to: 
I had the whole week of Christmas off (paid), thanks to a really wonderful boss! I don't know how I got so lucky to find this company but I am truly grateful for it. My first day of vacation was all planned out, when we got the news that one of my aunt's sisters died very unexpectedly (she was in her 40's) from the flu. And that kicked off a very hectic holiday for us. We had family from Georgia coming down again, and family from California coming in at the same time. 

my uncle at the last minute decided to hold up his "gat" and blocked my face :( also this was only half of us
On Christmas night, our puppy Gotham died after getting into some cow patties out at my husband's grandmother's house. As far as we can tell, she probably got into some poisonous mushrooms. She vomited a few times during the day, but then went back to her normal self. I assumed she was just hacking up whatever didn't agree with her because she seemed fine as we headed home. She was bouncy, and playful so nothing seemed out of the norm. We put her in her crate for the night and when we woke up she was gone. :( We were all very heartbroken, and at a loss. This makes two dogs in less than three months so my husband and I have decided to hold off on any more dogs for awhile. Unless something comes up, we won't be seeking to add another fur-baby to our family anytime soon. 

We officially said goodbye to our old house. We gathered what we could bring with us (read: what would fit in a tiny room) and shut everything off at our old house. We left behind the majority of our things that will be boxed up as soon as we find our own place, but for now we'll keep them there. My family has talked about knocking the house down as soon as we're all moved out. It's sad, bittersweet, but the house is not livable so there are hardly any other alternatives. There are so many memories in this house, on this land, and it makes me so sad to see it go.   

We rang in the New Year with Beau's family. The afternoon was spent at my parents house with them, so we were able to spend time with both of our families. But, being the responsible adults that we are, we wanted to make sure that we stayed wherever it was that we'd be drinking at. I don't mean getting drunk either because I had two glass of wine and my husband had 3 beers. I don't like driving anywhere regardless of whether it's one drink or six. So we stayed there with everyone. Our age is showing though because out of all of us only 4 adults stayed up to midnight. And we went to bed shortly after the countdown was over. :) 

I know this says Christmas but it was taken on New Years Eve. I did not take this either; credit goes to Taylor.
So that was our holiday. Our California family have returned to California and the last of our Georgia family will be leaving over the weekend. My vacation time was a lot busier than I had hoped but I enjoyed getting to see everyone. Now it's back to work, and back to school. I have a meeting with a student board next week, and if everything goes as planned my spring semester will start on the 13th. We're also currently looking at some houses and I'm hoping to be in our own place by the end of this month. Fingers crossed! Again, I hope you all had a wonderful time with your families over the holiday's!