Taking a mental picture...

I have three children...ok well four...My oldest is 10 years old...with blonde fur and brown eyes. We had her out of wedlock two months before we got married when we adopted her out of the pound...her name is Signal Luz - get it Signal 'light' (aka. Siggy, Sigue, Sig-Wig, Sig, Sig-i-nal) and she demands she be treated as a person. She's a border collie, with a border personality. When I lived in Fauquier County, Virginia, people would ask me "Do you work her?" I would say "Yes...she works very well...on the couch." Although she's quite possibly one of the laziest dogs around, she is still 100% spaz. Pretty amazing how a medium size dog at her age could still have so much energy.

My oldest human child is going to be 6 in three weeks...wow...Her name is Victoria (aka Tori) and she looks nothing like me. She's blonde haired, blue eyed and fair skinned. Merrick, my oldest son is three and is my mirror image. Many people however are saying as he gets older, he's starting to favor my husband.

Then there is Stefan (the Bubsey, Bubsters). Just when my husband had declared he was done with children, someone upstairs declared we weren't. I had always hoped for that 'oopsie baby' and I got him. He's a definite bridge between both my older children in looks. He's also the happiest baby around.

Everything about him, I try to take in. Before we got here, I was all caught up in moving and I was afraid I was going to miss out on Stefan being a baby. Now that we're more settled, I'm trying to just take it all in. I take pictures constantly, just sit and watch him, hoping the mental image burns in.

It's sad knowing this is the last baby. Don't get me wrong, as much as I would love more, three is enough for me. But I love the baby stage. I'm relishing him just discovering there is a whole world out there. For example today, he finally started really crawling around the house. Before it was just only so far. Today, I think he realized "hey I can get to the kitchen from here, then down that hall, then back, then to the end of the kitchen." I could see he was just exploring everything around him.

This stage is wonderful, but the 'kid' stage is too. Tori and Merrick love helping me cook and doing crafts. Today they helped me make empanadas. It went amazingly smooth too. Usually, cooking can be a bit chaotic with them...but they were able to divide themselves up today. Merrick stirred the stuffing, Tori cut out empanada covers and I filled them. Perfect!

I love the days when my kids work together...

Dazed...and Confused

It really hits me when I get up out of bed most mornings. I'll open the shades and see the mountain view. It's so breathtaking, it doesn't seem real to me. That's when I find myself saying "I'm really here?" It still seems surreal to me.

I guess it all started here. My husband took me out to dinner one night.

Hey...we should go out to dinner...we haven't gone out to dinner in a while.

I should have seen it coming then. Oh who am I kidding. I did see it coming. I knew. It was no surprise. Kevin went on an interview in November of 2010. I was scared of my mind then because I was five months pregnant and worried I'll have to move when very pregnant. The interview went well (of course) and he came home...and time passed. December came...and went...January came....

So what's going on with...

Oh they won't hire me...conflict of interest.

Eventually my pregnancy and the birth and my third child allowed me to shelve any thoughts about moving. I ended up into a comfortable routine of 'comfortable'. Then May came...

Hey...we should go out to dinner...

I knew it was coming. There had been little saying here and there that piqued my interest. So when we were out to dinner I said "Hey so what every happened to..."

"Well that's funny you should ask...I got an offer...

That night I sat on the couch and looked around. I made a list in my head of everything that needed to go. Then I made another list of everything we needed to do. Then I started thinking of how to tell everyone.

I didn't even get the chance to tell everyone. My neighbors showed up shocked at my house when the moving van and the for sale sign arrived in front of my house.

"Where are you going? Is everything ok?"

"We are fine...Kevin got a job in Tucson...it's just all moved so fast. Too fast to even tell everyone or keep track of who we told".

I didn't see my neighbors alot. Only two on a daily basis and they knew. People in town knew, friends knew, family knew...well most of them.

So here I am...embracing change every day. An east coast girl...has packed up and gone west. Not too west...but pretty darn west...I moved here hoping for an adventure...

Life is an adventure...that's what my dad told me. And it's an adventure if I make it one.