Lightning Speed.

The end of the school year always moves at lightning speed. There's tests and grading, and teacher gifts and awards ceremonies and deadlines.
This year, we accidentally started the moving process.

Every house hunt has a story.
Ours goes like this:
1) Saw a house we liked on 4 acres.
2) put our house on the market.
3) Had LOTS of interest - showed it 25+ times in two days
4) 4 acre house rejected our offer
5) took our house off the market
6) got offered more on our house
7) offered more on 4 acre house
8) got rejected again.
9) Really stopped looking.
10) Got offered more for our house
11) Decided to move
12) began a new house hunt - saw 11 houses in one day
13) saw "Bed & Breakfast" house and 4 acre house again
14) fell in love with B&B
15) made an offer
16) signed a contract
THE END.

Of course there are lots of moving parts in all of this and we are still doing inspections etc. but it really is unbelievable.
Working through so many emotions and firmly believing that we would be placed where God meant for us to be, is/was exhausting. We love this B&B for so many reasons. And once we are actually IN, I'll share all about it (plus pictures). I just didn't want to forget to process.

For now, I'm off to another adventure - potty training!

3rd Mother's Day.

This was my third mother's day.
I'll be honest. On my first Mother's Day I felt ENTITLED to my Mother's Day!
Afterall, I had just birthed a baby and I was running on no sleep.

On this, my third Mother's Day, I feel UNDESERVING.
Parenting is hard on so many levels that I was unaware of on that first mother's day. As I sat in church Sunday as I listened to declarations of mothering in our lives, I wanted nothing more than to be with my mother. And so, I packed up Reyna and headed on a spontaneous trip to San Antonio to crash the Mother's Day party there.

and I am so glad I did.
It was really a celebration of Isavel Reyna, my grandmother. As she was showered with love from 11 (of 12) of her children, I sat in amazement that this little lady DID that. Physically. Mentally. Emotionally. Then I looked around the room at my aunts and cousins who are all mothers now.

Mothers in attendance:
- Isavel Reyna (12)
- Isabel Moran (3)
- Delia McCumber (4)
- Sylvia Ramos (1)
- Lori Alaniz (4)
- Josie McCumber (2)
- Becky Alvarado (4)
- Me (1)
 and I somehow felt undeserving.

Within the everyday joyous experiences of motherhood, every one of THESE mothers has a hard story. A tough pregnancy. Being abused while pregnant. Being 40 and pregnant. Loosing a day old baby. Single parenting. Broken relationships with their children. Military parenting, etc.

While I think I am a good Mom, and mothering is not a contest, I think matriarchs should be celebrated. The "tough stuff" I deal with is what every mother deals with-grumpiness, potty training, lack of sleep and time. So while I may not have experienced death or grief or 'hardness', I am a young mother with lots of mothering ahead, and knowing these women gives me confidence that I can mother through all mothering scenarios.

I may not be deserving, I am grateful to be in the club with all these mothers (and many others in my life).

What was I thinking?!

I feel like this could become a regular series.
Every now and then I get mayself into a frenzy.
I'm usually a very laid back, go with the flow type of person but what was I thinking?

Between the days of April 25th and April 30th I:
- Hosted three test reviews
- planned a birthday party
- had two guest speakers for a Sexual Violence panel for a class (very emotional)
- put our house on the market
- had 25+ showings on our house
- got a pre approval (i.e. did bank stuff)
- visited a wanted house 3 times
- wrote 4 final tests
- sat in on three internship presentations
- took our house off the market
- baked cupcakes
- had 4 guest for the weekend
- restocked my store
- visited the museum, zoo, and parks
- kenneled Rexx
- hosted a party
- kept a house clean for said showings

WHAT WAS I THINKING?

Yes, all of this was by choice but we chose to be proactive in a house hunt and while I can't speak for all of us, I also felt at peace about each decision along the way. That's usually how I know I made a good decision. There are times of busy-ness that we push through but I am also glad this is not our everyday life style. Everything went well and I laugh looking back at it now but still...what was I thinking?!

2nd Birthday Paw-ty.

This weekend, we celebrated with some of our favorite people.

We decided that we are going to try to avoid "character" parties as long as we can. 

So we thought about what she really likes: Puppies and Purple

So the Purple Puppy Paw-ty was created. 

Luckily, the weather cooperated and we were able to set up outside.

We asked Reyna who she would like to have come to the house to play with her and 

she requester her favorite friends by name. 

We had 10 kids, and 14 adults.

 We had Pup-eroni Pizza, Pawsta Salad, Kibble-n-bits (chex mix), Pup corn, Pawtato chips, 

Pupcakes, etc. served in these dollar store dog bowls.

My sister made this cute board like she did last year.

We pulled out all the toys we already had, including the Puppy pool.

 We had a bubble machine, soccer goal, a water table, a basketball hoop, a hula hoop

 My sister made this cute dog house, too!

 We had to have a pinata!

The last activity on their way out was a Puppy Adoption Station. 

They picked a puppy. Wrote his name on his dog tag, filled out a certificate of adoption, and took a crate to take him/her home. 

This went better than I thought it would.

It was so fun to see what names they chose.

We had a Ken, Shawn, and a Bubbles!

A Happy Birthday song.

 and so many sweet gifts from her friends.

She was one happy girl!

We are now in the "terrific twos".

(I'm choosing to be optimistic ;) )