Update

Ok, so its been a bit since I have had a chance to update all of you on what is going on here in texas.

Where should I start. At the beginning of this year, I had my 25th birthdayJ My mother came out to visit us from germany and my brother came down from Minnesota. It was a wonderful birthday present. My brother fell instantly in love with ada. She was soooo spoiled. Between my mother and brother, I don’t think she was ever put down.

2 weeks later, Leo’s bestfriend Ron came out and visited with us for a weekend. It was not long enough. By Monday we were all sad to see him leave, especially Ada, she fell head over heals in love with him. He did however say he would be coming back out in march for a week.

Leo and I are now in the final stages of purchasing a house. Its brand new but being sold as a resale. Its 3 bedrooms 2 full bathrooms a full kitchen and dining area and big back yard. Right now we are just waiting for the seller to agree to fix what needs to be fixed and then once they get fixed, we will sign and the house will be ours. We are very excited to move it. We cant wait until we can finally have a place to call our own/

Leo’s 25th birthday is just around the corner. Hopefully we can get the house by then, but if not, he is still getting a big grill from me for his birthday. (Don’t worry, he already knows about it. He helped pick it out.)

If I didn’t mention it previously, in January we also adopted a new dog. His name is Sid. He is now 7 months old. Sid is a Shar-pei/ Irish wolf hound mix. If you have no idea what that looks like, look at my myspace page under the pics of sid. (http://www.myspace.com/itvixen )

Back in November, I started a new job as a call center associate working for a flooring company called Empire Today. If you are in any of the service areas, Im sure you have seen the many many TV commercials with the empire today guy…
Well, ive have been loving my job. I actually have gotten 2 commendations from customers and one of those commendations was nominated for a Customer Service Success Story Award. I didn’t get first place, however, I did get honorable mention, which got me into out quarterly news letter and I have now a certificate for my honorable mention. I have also applied for a promotion as a team lead, which is like a supervisor for all the customer service associates in our office, so cross your fingers that I get it.

Ada is growing sooo fast. She is now eating finger foods ( no teeth yet though) and trying to move and get into everything. She still cant crawl, however she can scoot, and scoot she does. She spends most of her time at home on the floor scooting around, playing with toys, and trying to untie shoe laces. She get more and more animated everday and is always making new sounds. Soon she will be running around and talking up a storm.

This is Leo’s last year in the army. We actually get out in October of this year, however starting in April, Leo will start applying for jobs. He hopes to get hired as a Postal Worker in El paso. They are always needing new workers and always hire ex service members first. They start making good money, but once he gets hired on full time he will be making something in the twenty something an hour. That will be nice increase from the army’s pay.

Well that’s about it for now. But I will try to keep you updated as much as I can.

El Paso Air Show

So yesterday (sunday) The el paso air show was going on. Leo and i went there at about 11 am with ada. They were featuring the thunderbirds and the golden nights. I wanted to see both of them and go to all the booths. Leo and I made sure that ada wore headphones so that we wouldnt damage her ears. Here are some pics of ada at the show.






We saw a plane doing some cool stunts in the air when we got there.

We also saw this nasa plane called "the guppy". It carries really big equipment and other smaller planes. This is what it looks like.

Its very weird looking, and it doesnt look like it would fly but it does.

Nasa also brought their shuttle carrying plane. Leo and I didnt go up it that morning because we had ada and her stroller with us.

After a while we got really hungry and went home to eat. Leo got tired and so he and ada stayed home while i went back with our friend Carpenter.

That afternoon we were able to see the thunderbirds but found out that we had missed the golden knights perform. :( But here are a few pics of the Thunderbirds.

We also saw an helicopter that Carpenter loved. Its the apache longbow helicopter. Here is a pic of him in front of it.

We got to see some F-16 planes. I took pics to pretend i was getting sucked in to the burners....lol here they are.

We also were able to go aboard the NASA shuttle carrier. When we were in there, we jokingly asked one of the people working there if we would be able to go past the roped off section and see the cockpit. Suprisingly he said "Sure!"...........We were shocked. We were the only people he let up there. He let us sit the pilot and co-pilot seats and even had us "fix" part of the gauges.... now when i say fix, what i mean is, 2 of the gauges were malfunctioning a bit, so Carpenter and I were each about to Tap them back into working order. It was cool, we all joked that we could now put on our resumes that we were "NASA Mechanics".....lol Here are some pics from the cockpit.

This is a pic of Mountains in El Paso from the cockpit window. And a Pic of the air show from the window. Below that, the cabniet on the right side of the pic is where they keep the blackbox.

That day was so much fun. I also got really burned on my arms and chest which i didnt think was possible since I am already really tan. Leo slightly burned his face but nothing like mine...lol

Well i gonna go. There are new shows on tv that i want to watch. Bye:)

A bit boring, but isnt that what a blog is for?

Well, not a whole lot of new news but i figured, since i am just sitting here at 830 in the morning, drinking my coffee and watching TV while Ada plays in her bouncy chair, i will write a bit o' blog.

Since last i wrote (.....he he, I'm trying to sound all literal and stuff....) i have decided we need to cook dinner more and sit at the table. So far we have done it the last 2 nights, well, the table part at least, but since the 15Th, i have actually been cooking every night. Not saying that everything was great, but edible at the least.

Ada is eating baby food so well, she loves it and devours it every meal. I swear, she is going to eat us out of house and home. LOL. Here is a few pics of her eating. (these are of her first taste of baby food)

I thought i had more pics of her eating, but i guess i don't. Anyway, she always opens her mouth wide, and i swear she says ummmm, while eating...LOL

My mother sent us a mobile for over Ada's changing table. OMG! She loves it! She just stares at it. Here are some pics of her being fascinated with it.

Here are some more random pics of Ada.

OK, now onto Leo.

He is doing OK. He is getting tired from work and usually comes home sore. He now has physical therapy twice a week in the pool for his legs. He loves it but he also says it is a hard work out. Other than that he is just the same ol' Leo. He still loves playing on his computer, but i am trying to ween his hours on it down so he spends more time with us.

Lets see now, whats new with me? I enrolled in college for January, its so far away and i cant stand it. I am trying to find a cheap gym with child care so i can work out 2 times a week and get out of the house. I get bored most days, because after the cleaning and laundry, there isn't much to do. Of course Ada and i play all day long, but a woman needs to get out some times. LOL. Hence looking for a gym, plus i still want to get a bit more in shape, and its too hot during the day to go for a walk with Ada.

On October 5Th, Leo and i will have been married for 1 year!!! OMG, has is only been that long.LOL.... For our anniversary, we are going to see this artist called Gunther Von Hagens, here is a pic of his work, along with a LINK.

It looks very interesting. We will also be going out to dinner some where, but we aren't sure where. Obviously it wont be a pricey place, probably just apple bees or Chile's. We cant afford really nice, but for us, as long as we are together, that's all we want.

Well, i think that's about it for now.

For those who don't know, the easiest way to see new pics of us, especially Ada, is to visit my MYSPACE.COM page. I update the pics regularly. The address is:

http://www.myspace.com/itvixen

Click on it to visit.

Otherwise, keep in touch.:)

We all got sick, went to the....

OK. So the last couple days have been a bit interesting.

On Wed we got our house hold goods. FINALLY! We now dont have to sleep on the couch. We will be taking pics soon of what our house looks like and i will post them on here.

Thursday, i woke up with an incredibly bad headache, well it felt like a tension headache, but when 2 tyolenol 3 with codine didnt stop it, i knew it just had to be an ear infection, AGAIN! Then that night as i am feeding ada, she starts pulling at her right ear and getting fussy, great, she is acting like she also has another ear infection....so i call telenurse and they say get an appt for friday or if you cant go to the er. So i call on friday morning. Neither Ada or I can get an appt and leo tried to get one for an infected toe, NO LUCK! so we all troop down to the ER. The triage nurse there however was able to get us appts at the clinic so that we didnt have to wait hours in the ER.

So, Leo's appt is first. His toe is very infected to the point its smelling bad... sorry TMI.... but he had been trying to just self medicate, which obviously didnt work, so the doc put him on 14 days antibiotics, and he has to soak his toe twice a day. Now its my turn. YEP, an ear infection, so im now on antibiotics, which are makin me soooo sleepy, for 10 days....

Finally ada has her appt. She does NOT have an ear infection, turns out she is perfectly healthy, EXCEPT for the fact that she JUST started teething hard core. Hence the fussiness. So now we have to give her tylenol every 4 hours. She is always fussy unless on pain meds, she drools hardcore when her meds are stoping to work, and she is eating sooo much. She doesnt like to take naps but she is soooo tired, Luckily we got our rocking chair on wed. so i am able to rock her to sleep.

Its 630pm right now and its still 95 degrees out..... the residents of EP are telling us that hopefully in the next week it should start to cool down as much as 10 degrees during the day. YEAH!! (we bought a 2nd AC unit anyway)

I start college in January. I am working on my Criminal Justice degree specifying in Homeland Security. in otherwords i can be a customs agent here at the EP airport. And from what we hear, they make some good cash for just sitting and asking, "do you have any food or items to declare?..."

I will only be able to go part time right now (6 credits) because we cant afford for me to go fulltime. As it is, its going to cost around 500 bucks for tuision and books. And that is even with me considered a TX resident....its pricey but nothing compared to what it would have cost me in MN.

Well im gonna get going, Leo is going to be home soon and we are having a friend over for Boardgame Night.

Please feel free to email me at Adarosesmommy@aol.com i miss hearing from you. ALSO, if you want my phone number, EMAIL ME and i will send it on over.

LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL.

Welcome to Texas!

OK, This is obviously a new blog. I couldn't continue with the postcards from europe blog since we are now back in the states so i started this one.

So the last time i wrote, we had just found out we were moving and we has started getting ready. Lets start from there.

So on the 18th and 20th of July, all of our things were packed and shipped off to texas. On the 20th we were moved into the temporary housing apartments. They were nice. They were a fully furnished 2 bedroom apt with free cable and internet. Not bad. Boring though. We didnt have a car, Leo sold his and mine was crushed, So we had to walk everywhere and it was HOT!

On the 28th, we got up early, like 4am i think, because we had to take a 6am shuttle to get to the airport on time to catch our 10:55am flight. We pre boarded because of ada. That was nice. We sat in the middle of the plane but luckily we were able to get the 3 seats next to the isle so i was able to get up and down to toss diapers. Ada was sooooo good. She didnt need any meds to quiet her down at all. She either slept, ate or played with us.

On the plane, every seat had their own video screen so we could watch what we wanted, or listen to music. It was nice because it was a very very long flight to dallas. It was a 10 hour flight. When we touched down in dallas, everyone around us was complimenting ada because she was so quite. Half the people didnt even know she was on the plane:)

We had a 3 hour lay over in dallas. It was a nice lay over. We slept and had our first Starbucks in 2 years!!!

Then we pre-boarded to get to el paso. The flight was a fast hour long flight. Ada and leo slept while i looked out the window. El Paso is in the middle of NOWHERE!! LOL. its literally surrounded by desert.

Well, we touch down and take a cab to base. We find out we need to go check in to the hotel. Too bad it was full. Now we didnt have any credit cards or cash on us. Only checks, so we couldnt get a hotel off base......GRRRR! Its now 9pm and we have no place to stay and we are tired and angry. Luckily there was a room open at the armed services YMCA. And they took checks.!!!!!! But when we get there, we find out their machine isnt working.. So we have no more money for taxis and we cant get a room. LUCKILY there was a nice couple that was leaving the army that offered to pay for our first night. THANK YOU VERY MUCH! we were so lucky there were there.

The next morning we go on base and get cash out by writing a check. We did pay the guy back and thanked them. For the next few days we just lounge and walk around the area we are in. We however had to pay for our hotel, (we thought the army was suppose to, but they only pay us back AFTER we sign in). so we had NOOO money.

When monday rolled around, we went to housing and they got us a house right away. We couldnt move in til the 8th of august but that was fine.

Once we knew we had a house, we decided to check out the local humane society and get a dog. We walked in and at once saw leos dream dog. A pure breed husky puppy. The same age as ada also. She has one ice blue eye and one brown, and she was only 85 bucks. Can you believe that??? we adopted her right away.

I dont want to bore you with all the details of us lounging around the hotel til move in day so i wont.

Once we moved in all we had was our suit cases and a blow up mattress. So we went and got some food, a blanket and that was it.

Luckily our unaccompanied house goods came 3 weeks early so we were able to have adas crib, our clothing, adas swing and our books.

Of course we had money now and had to get somethings. We bought dishes, pots and pans, food, a shower curtain, a microwave and coffee maker, a humidafier for ada (she came down with an upper respitory infection and an ear ache), and some other random things.

That friday, we recieved the car that leos dad lent us. OH That is helping so much.

That tuesday we got our ac installed. let me just say that helps a ton.

We saw a couch and love seat on the side of the road and moved that in. But that night we discovered it had black widows in them so we tossed them outside right away.

A few days later we went to the thrift store and bought a corner couch with storage and pull out bed for 65 bucks, a 29 inch tv for 28 bucks, a 4 piece toaster, and a few things i cant remember.

Right now we are doing great. We have cable and internet. I love being a stay a home mom. And we have a place to sleep. ( we now sleep on the couch/bed because our air mattress has a hole).

Well next pay day (saturday) we are buying a cheap rocking chair at a mexican market in town for 20 bucks, and getting a few other things we need. We are still broke until we get the rest of our household goods, hopefully they come soon.

Until then, here are some pics. Click on the link below and you will be taken to them. If you need either Leo or my cell numbers, leave a comment and i will get back to you. Enjoy the pics.

PS: Ada is 4 months old as of August 28th!!!! She is getting so big, gooing and ahhing and everything.

PICS