Twenty Stitches

This morning, Keira was fussing for her bottle so I put her down in the middle of the living room to play while I went in to kitchen to make her bottle. Suddenly I heard her start crying- not just any cry but the "I got hurt" cry. I ran into the living room to see what happened and she had used her newly aquired forward crawling skills to approach the bunny's cage and had grabbed the door to the cage with both her hands, one of which was covered in blood.

I immediately burst into tears. I yelled for my husband who had just gotten out of the shower and ran her to the sink to rinse out her wound and assess the damage. Through tear filled eyes I could see that the bunny had bitten the backside of her pointer finger and sliced a huge gouge in her finger leaving a large flap of flesh and skin dangling over the wound. I yelled, "OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH! CALL MY MOM! CALL MY MOM!!!" My mom instruced me to put gauze over it and put pressure on it until the bleeding stopped and she came over as fast as she could with first aid supplies.

Keira was done crying after about 30 seconds. It took me more like a 30 minutes. When my mom got here she took one look at it and knew it would need stitches. We called up our trusty pediatrician, Dr. Jones and even though they were closed for lunch, they had us come in right away. About twenty stitches and lots of crying later, here she is right back to happy again. Looks like I have some cage reinforcements to do.

Unemployed

Despite my best efforts to maintain part time employment, I find myself undeniably unemployed. That's right folks, that fantastic job I got that I was so excited about was very short lived. After just four short weeks, they decided that they didn't have enough time in their busy schedules to bother to train someone who didn't already know everything they needed, nor did they have enough money to pay me what we agreed- as if I wasn't very clear with them in my interview that my experience in real estate did not encompass what they wanted me to do and as if THEY didn't set the rate of pay! They never even once sat down to train with me, yet never once expressed any discontentment with my work then out of the blue tell me they don't want me working for them any more.

I have never been so wronged in my entire life. Seriously. There are not enough angry words in the English language to describe my sentiments at this moment.

It's just so crazy because I have never been so sure I received an answer to my prayer than when I accepted that job, and now it's gone. I am not doubting that I made the right decision, but I am sure anxious to know what God has planned for me next! Maybe a stay at home mom??? :)

Bunny's Secret Hideaway

Let's face it, Bunny hasn't gotten much attention around here since the baby was born. It seems as though he has been replaced. As summer drawn near, his coat grows scraggly with no one to groom him. No one to trim his nails. No one to let him out of his cage. At first his neglect provoked angry body slams against the front of his cage and desperate attempts to leap out of the top of his play pen, but as time went on he more or less gave in to his captivity.

One of the many things I hoped to accomplish by switching to a part time job was to let Bunny out to play more, but it had been so long since he had been out to play that he headed straight for trouble as to make up for all the trouble making he could have done had he been out of his cage any length of time. I tried to cut him a deal to let him out on good behavior, but he refused. I can't say I blame the guy for building up such resentment toward me these past 7 months. When I let him out of his cage he doesn't want me to pet him, he doesn't want to play, he heads straight under the couch. I didn't hear any munching sounds, so I didn't think he was sinking his teeth into anything he shouldn't be so I let him be.

Time went on and Bunny got only short escapes from his prison, spending most of his time under the couch. The carpet and baseboards are totally ruined in my living room thanks to his younger days, but I mustered up the courage to assess what kind of new damage he had recently done under the couch. He spent way too much time there for him to NOT be up to something. I got the flashlight and crouched down and there, caught like a deer in the headlights, was Bunny peering out from the inside of my couch through a hole he made in the lining. He made his very own secret hideaway. I got out his old adversary, The Broom, and promptly scooted his furry rump out of there and secured the hole with his other enemy, The Phonebook.

Let this be a lesson that when someone mistreats you and you try to hide from them, they will hunt you down with a broom and ruin all your fun.

Speaking of fun... Baby can sit up on her own now! Quite well too. Here are her 7 month pictures I took at the apartments this week wherein she demonstrated her new skill.

Portrait

I got the idea to draw a picture of the baby to put on her wall and this is what I whipped up today. It's based on a picture of her at 5 months old. It only took me about an hour total. I don't claim to be an artist, but it's not bad for not having drawn anything in the past 6+ years.

Teeth, Bees, and... A Brand New Car!

Keira has been frantically teething for the past few weeks and I had a feeling that a tooth would make an appearance soon. Sometimes she crams all her fingers in her mouth and chews on them, sometimes just her thumb, and she often grabs other people's fingers which seem to be more satisfying than her own. One day last week she bit down on my finger and a little razor sharp tooth poked me! WIthin one week, two more teeth have popped through. She'll be eating steak and corn on the cob in no time!

Not only does she have teeth, but she has gained significant mobility. For example, this weekend while at Grandma's house, I put her down to play on her rainforest play mat in the middle of the room while I went in the kitchen for no more than two minutes. I heard her fussing a little so I came in to check on her and she was nowhere to be found! I could hear her, but I couldn't see her! I followed the sound to her location which was clear across the room, BEHIND (and half way under) THE COUCH. I have no idea how she got there that fast, but if I had to guess, I'd say it was a combination of rolling and backwards crawling. She crawls all over the place, but she can't seem to get any forward momentum but she still gets around... just backwards.

The reason I was at my mom's house this weekend is really quite interesting. Friday night Art discovered a bee in the bedroom and, while hunting it down to kill it, heard a buzzing coming from the air conditioning intake vent. Not just any buzzing, but the frightening buzzing of a massive number of bees meandering through my air conditioning system. I called my landlord, who said nothing could be done about it until Monday and after another bee appeared in the kitchen, we decided it would be best to stay at my mom's until the bees were evicted. I have never been stung, so I don't know if I am allergic or not and was not anxious to find out. We didn't get to come back home until Monday night. I just hope our uninvited guests don't plan on returning.

We finally took our new car home last Thursday! Yeah, it's just a Chevy, and it's not black, but the air conditioning has been appreciated in the hot weather this week and I love how much space there is. We must have filled it up like 3 times since we got it and never even had to take the stroller out. We loaded up 3 huge bags of bark and concrete edging blocks to put in a flower bed at my mom's house, and tons of other stuff without any problem. I am also happy to report that the anti-lock brakes work wonderfully or else my new car would be totally smashed up by the idiot that pulled out in front of me the other day. And even though the horn might not spread happiness, it sure got the message across that I was not happy about almost getting in a wreck instead of them thinking they just heard the snow cone bike. I still maintain my stance that cars ought to be equipped with a happy horn and an angry horn so we can be ready for whatever comes our way.

6 Month Catch Up

I love her chubby hands!

Playing with Grandma!

Grandma's Girl

Toes in the grass.

Oh what an exciting and stressful past two weeks this has been! My last two weeks at work were hectic trying to finish up projects and train my replacement. The reality still hasn't set in that I am not working there any more. I'm trying to let it sink in slow so it doesn't hit me so hard. I really liked my boss Gary. We worked together perfectly and were so comfortable with each other and loved to joke around. Gary is the only reason I stuck around that drama-inflicted law firm for so long. Three years is a long time to hang in there through all that stress, but hard to let go of at the same time. To sum up my relationship with Gary, here is what he wrote in my farewell card: "Krysta, I will never forgive you for leaving me after all the training I have given you and all the time I have spent debating the proper use of commas! I can't believe you would choose your baby over me. I am deeply hurt! However, best of luck in your new role, I hope you can enjoy lots of quality time with your family."

Speaking of quality time with family, this weekend we drove up to Oakley in the Bay Area and stayed the night at Art's grandparents' house on his mom's side. Let me tell you, you will never come across more good-natured and sweet-hearted people than his grandparents, Kathy and George. By the time you leave, you feel like you have been their family all your life. They were gracious enough to let my mom stay there with us and she wholeheartedly agreed. This is how cool Grandpa is- he has caught fish taller than himself. And Grandma is so cool that she has a MySpace and reads and comments on my blog. We had an awesome visit with them and the rest of the family, complete with a barbecue, homemade lemon cake, and breakfast burritos.

The next morning we drove to San Francisco for Keira's appointment at UCSF. On the way there we saw a bum passed out on the side of the street with one leg out in the middle of the road and his head all bent against the wall behind him. It was crazy. I am always amazed at how crazy it is there. We met with the surgeon and the news seems very good thus far. To rewind just a little bit, last week was Keira's 6 month checkup with Dr. Jones and he was shocked at how strong her legs are now. Where before she couldn't support her weight, she is standing quite well now- assisted of course. And she is rolling across the room like crazy and managing to crawl a little, although mostly backward at this point. He said he didn't note any weakness at all, which is miraculous based on the fact that just 3 months ago she was way behind schedule. She now weighs 15 lbs. 2 oz. (25th percentile) and is 25.5 inches long (50th percentile). She is just about to pop out a couple teeth too. The surgeon at UCSF said that her progress is a really good sign that the cyst could be clearing up on its own. When he reviewed the MRI images, he didn't note any solid matter in the cyst which would be indicative of a problematic cyst. He said it's fine if the cyst doesn't clear up as long as it doesn't get bigger and cause problems such as the leg weakness. The other good news is that there is not any likelihood of recurrence so she is definitely not looking at a lifetime of trouble and probably won't recall any of this.

They are going to have us come back to UCSF in 6 months to examine her again and make sure she is still making her milestones then schedule another MRI is 12 months to check on the status of the cyst itself. I am just in awe at how blessed we have been despite our obstacles. All of the prayers, fasting, and blessings did not fall on deaf ears. I had faith that she would be healed and that faith was not ill spent.

Today was my first day at London Properties. I haven't had enough time there to form any solid opinion yet, but I enjoy my bosses Cliff and Laura thus far. The office is intimidatingly large with a maze of desks and offices. The office is so large, in fact, that they have their own STORE smack dab in the middle wherein you can buy drinks, snacks, gifts, London Property logo items, you can have keys made, etc. It is pretty crazy. The only real work I did today was typing up a letter and making a few phone calls to follow up on offers. I also opened a new escrow. Nothing major. It looks like I will have to take a couple of their training programs on some of the software they use though. It's been challenging trying to recall my real estate knowledge that is stashed in the back of my mind from over three years ago, but I have been doing quite well.

On an entirely different subject, remember all that complaining I did last summer about not having air conditioning in my car because we saved up all that money then owed over $3,000 on our taxes and had to suffer all summer- pregnant- in a black car with no air conditioning in FRESNO??? Well, once again we had saved up enough money to have it installed, and got to making some phone calls to find someone to do the work, when we learned that Mazda does not sell an ac kit for that car any more and aftermarket hasn't started selling ac kits for that car. Now, I endured the entire summer in my pregnant state, and Art managed to survive, but I was not about to put my poor baby in that car in the heat. And Art gets SOOOO grumpy when he is hot, that we would surely end up divorced by the end of the year if we didn't get a car with cooling capabilities. The only logical solution, in my opinion, was to check blue book and see if my car is worth anything close to what I paid for it and trade that sucker in. Sure enough, it was still worth what we paid for it so we began our search. Our predicament was further enhanced by the fact that we incurred a large sum of negative equity on our auto loan when our Jetta "blew up" on us and we had to trade it in at far below our loan amount. The difference, about $7,000, was rolled over on our new auto loan. So even though our car was only worth about $10,000, we were paying on it like it was a $20,000 car.

I swore I would never return to Selma Auto mall again after our negative experience with them, so my brother suggested we go to the Fresno Chevy dealership and talk to a guy who treated him well. Since one of the cars we were interested in was the Chevy Equinox, we decided that was a good idea. They explained to us that the loan industry these days is not fond of making negative loans any more and that it would be wise for us to get a year-end 2008 with over $4,000 incentive discount to close the gap on the negative equity. Another $2,000 out of pocket and there is only a thousand dollars of negative equity remaining which is much easier to get a loan for. It also helped that somehow in the past year my credit went from ok to awesome. And I do mean awesome. They said my score is up to 788 which qualifies me for the lowest interest rate which is 4.45% instead of the 9% I was paying before. I am also happy because my insurance is going down $100 a month, which more that counteracts the fact that our payment will be $60 higher.

I am just so happy that we will be driving something that is worth the crazy loan amount we are paying for it, that is HAS air conditioning, and that the negative equity is almost gone now. An added bonus is that it's a crossover SUV and has WAY more room than our tiny Mazda 3 and we can actually fit the car seat in without having to move the front seat all the way forward and can fit more that just the stroller in the back. I know I will miss my awesome gas mileage, tight turns, and zippiness, but most of all I will miss the happy horn (see my old story entitled "The Happy Horn"). What I don't understand though, is why no one suggested that we get a year-end with an incentive when we initially incurred the negative equity. It would have saved us a lot of trouble and a lot of days of dehydration and heat exhaustion. Jerks...

Anyway, I do apologize for the lengthy nature of this entry, but I had a lot to catch up on. My life has been full of stress and happiness, and twists and turns, and I am looking forward to everything calming down soon and especially looking forward to all the time I can spend with my family now that I will be working part time. I can't wait to get rid of this constant feeling of failure and be the mother that I need to be.

Two Week Notice

I had my interview with the husband and wife Realtor team, Cliff and Laura, at London Properties this morning. I walked in their office and they said they wanted to hire me already. Laura, said she had been thinking about getting a part time assistant and thought about the qualities she wanted which included having a real estate license, notary commission, real estate background, some Spanish speaking abilities, and who could work from about 9 to 1 Monday through Friday. She went into their recruiter's office and told her that she was looking for an assistant, and it happened to be the very day I sent them an e-mail fishing for a job. Laura told me how impressed she was with my resume and how happy she was that I met all of their specifications.

They went on to talk about how they believe in putting family first and that everything else comes second. They told me that my schedule is flexible and that I can even put in hours at home in addition to working in the office or in lieu of working in the office if I need to stay home that day for any reason. I can also pick up more money by hosting open houses on the weekends if I need to, but it's completely optional. Everything they said was exactly what I was looking for, and everything about me was exactly what they needed. Everything just fell in line perfectly. I had prayed that the spirit would confirm in my heart that this was the right job for me and I had an overwhelming feeling of warmth in my chest the whole time.

I gave my verbal two week notice to my bosses this morning. When I talked to my boss Gary about my experience, even he knew it was no coincidence that the moment I decided to put my family first, all the doors were opened for me, but for some reason I am still having to muster up some courage to hand them my actual letter of resignation. Even though I am sure I am making the right decision, I am still taking a big leap into new territory. I will be working as an independent contractor, monitoring my own income, taxes, and expenses- which I have no experience doing. This experience has definitely been a test of my faith and a strength to my testimony.