a good sale

Though I love their clothing, I can't bring myself to pay full price for the tiny outfits at Janie and Jack. But I was at the mall yesterday getting a program on my laptop fixed and saw the sign! The sale sign! This isn't just some silly 10% off sale. I walked out of there with a few steals, some outfits were more than 75% off!

This sweater was $11, regular $42


This knit winter sleeper was only $7.50 regular $48!


cute safari summer halter dress was only $16, regular $49

This is the place to shop right now for your little kiddos, from infants to tots! :) And I just noticed that some of these items are cheaper on the web site.

Cheesy, but that's how to make IT last!

This summer has been jam packed with activities, from delivering a baby and moving twice to interning and attending law firm social events. Jose's been busy with the latter, along with working full time. So some days we'll only see each other for about 15 minutes, if at all. I'm trying to get used to being an attorney's wife, as silly as that sounds. Mentally, he definitely has it harder. But sometimes I really miss him. Since we have so little time alone, I've been trying to come up with some ideas on how to better communicate with Jose, without having to necessarily see him or talk to him on the phone. When we can't give each other a hug in person, we right each other cheesy blog posts.

Blog posts? Ha! That's right. Idea number one. I told Jose we should create a blog that only we have access to, so that we can write notes to each other and then read them when we aren't able to talk or see each other. Kind of like passing notes in class, except we don't have to worry about the teacher catching us and reading the note out loud! ;)

...But here I am posting a snippet of a note/post he wrote me last night! (I hope you don't mind, Jose ;)! I just feel so lucky to have a sweet man in my life who loves me this much and still makes my heart swoon and say "aww"! I'm not gonna lie, one of the things that first attracted me to Jose was how nicely he expressed himself on paper. So, instead of being love at first sight, for us it was love at first read :).

Here it is:

As I was driving home, I ended up doing what you did while you got lost that one time in the hills. I'd drive up and down, and every time I'd go up, I'd see all of downtown Austin's lights. It reminded me for some reason of the times I'd sit up at the balcony at night in the dark, staring down at all of these people who had others to spend time with at night. I was alone on the quiet balcony, while the drag was all lit up, with tons of people walking around.

And it made me all the more grateful to get home and be able to give you a kiss. In fact, I was happy that you were awake... so that I could tell you I love you.

Putting together a summer outfit

This dress

These shoes

These earrings

Perfect timing

I'm sure this is funny to some, but Jose and I are already talking about baby #2. Even though a few folks have commented that we're fairly young parents, I'm so glad we didn't wait to have our first. Fertility issues aside, I decided awhile ago that being a mom was more important to me than staying in school for another 10 years. It was a personal decision and I don't expect everyone to feel like this. Now that Mirabel's here, I can honestly say that she came at the perfect time.

Being a parent is definitely not the easiest thing in the world. There are days I'm so tired, I'm not even sure how I mange to keep my eyes open, but it all works out. Jose and I are slowly learning how to balance our time; it's been a little rough because I'm working part-time from home and he's working really hard, giving these summer internships his best, but we're still smiling. As far as being in the most financially stable position--well, that's not going to happen until we have this 140K debt behind us, which isn't going to happen for awhile (thanks to school loans!). But we've got good insurance, we've got the determination to make it, and we love this child like nothing else. She doesn't have a fancy designer stroller, I made sure to purchase quite a bit of her baby gear on sale, and she doesn't have a nice luxurious nursery with million thread-count sheets, but she is happy. How do I know? She smiles at me every morning; I've also never been more content, and I know that influences her emotional state.

No regrets.

I don't know what God has planned for us. I've already started praying about/for baby #2. I'm slowly preparing myself for another round of emotional ups and downs, brought about by trying to conceive with infertility "issues". Ugh... yeah, those. Who knows how long it'll be. But then again, if you would've told me this time last year that the following July I'd be writing a blog post while peaking over my shoulder at MY little girl sleeping soundly in her swing, I wouldn't have believed you :).

2 months and some change

I rub her tummy for good luck ;).

Mirabel smiling :)

...finally caught it on camera!

Home

(A tree down our block, you see many things like this in Austin!)

There's a colorful city in the state of Texas where the streets are a little funkier. Funky because this city's mantra revolves around keeping it "weird". Let's put it this way, if Pee Wee Herman decided to pass up the Alamo and hop on his red bike for a quick trip a few miles north, he'd come here. I'm talking about good ol' Austin, TX, my home.

I also call California home, but this is my new home (though not so new anymore, really). Not a replacement, but another version of the real thing. Austin's where I went to college, asked all those complicated life questions during my awkward phase, and found out that life and happiness go hand in hand, after all. It's where I met myself...and my husband :)!

The nights still smell like maple syrup here, and why wouldn't they? I remember late night visits to the quirky cafe by my school, where I'd load up on tasty humongous gingerbread pancakes. My mom nicknamed it "The Tattoo Parlor" because she believed everyone there had one :). We'll be going with Mirabel one of these days (she won't have any tats, of course ;).

In this city, the hills really are alive with the sound of music. It is the Live Music Capitol of the World, and we're also smack-dab in the middle of the hill country. I've come to accept that I'm getting old because my playlist still includes the same tracks from my college days. They're songs from CDs I picked up from another place I'd visit more often than I should've: Cheapo. Don't let the name deceive you; I spent more money at this place than a teenager with 20 piercings shopping at Claire's... When I settle down here, more concerts are on the itinerary :).

Every time I move, I feel like I leave a little piece of myself behind. I didn't completely realize Austin was home until I moved to Boston and felt like I'd left more behind than starry nights. I wasn't the only one, which is why Jose and I could be seen clicking the heels of our boots together, chanting "there's no place like home" when we'd had our fill of Beantown's relentless winter storms.

Truthfully? We don't own boots :)...but this is our home. And now it's Mirabel's, too. See, she's enjoying a stroll around the block, one of the many we'll be taking the next 6 weeks we're home...