New Years Resolution / Hudson's Birth Story

Is it really 2014 already? It seems like just yesterday we were ringing in 2013. My blogging has for sure suffered over the last couple years. My last post updated where we had been over the year and announced we would be expecting a new addition to our family in December. Well guess what, it's now January 2014 and my new addition is now 1 month old and currently snoozing away in a baby sling. Please meet Hudson Owen Jaramillo, born December 4, 2013.

I really wasn't going to have a New Year's Resolution this year, but today I was thinking about how I couldn't believe Hudson is 1 month old. Which is really funny because during those first few weeks Todd and I would say to each other "has he really only been home for 2 weeks now? It feels like months!" You really lose your sense of time when your days and nights all blend together. Now that things have (somewhat) calmed down as we pass the 4 week mark, I have a few (very brief) moments of which I have two hands and can do a little something for myself. The other day I was looking through Facebook and saw that a friend had posted their New Year's Resolution was to take more pictures, I thought "that's a good one" and then remembered our long lost ghost child of a blog. So my 2014 resolution is going to be to document our lives better. I know that with a newborn the days can seem long (and let's not even talk about the nights) but in 11 months we are going to be putting up Christmas decorations and planning a first birthday party and I am going to say "what happened to my little baby?"

So without further adieu, the first blog post of 2014 is Hudson's birth story:

Hudson was born at 9:28 AM on December 4th, it was a Wednesday  morning. To say that he surprised us with his arrival would be an understatement. I really had no idea that I was even close to going into labor. That Monday I had some Braxton Hicks contractions, but they didn't stay consistent, weren't painful and totally stopped Monday night. Tuesday, the day I went into labor I didn't even feel practice contractions.

Todd and I had driven separately to work that day, we usually carpool but since he had to go to court for work we decided to just drive our own cars. I got home at about 5 PM and decided I was too hungry to wait for Todd. Thanksgiving had just happened so I made myself a nice big plate of turkey, mashed potatoes and green been casserole. While waiting for my food to cook, I decided to take a belly photo to show off my lovely belly hanging over my pajama pants and sticking out of my shirt. Little did I know, this would be the last belly photo I would take. 

Ready to pop

I devoured my food and was just finishing up when Todd got home at about 6:30 He made a quick work phone call and was just sitting down to watch some TV when I stood up from the table to stretch out and POP...my water broke. At first I just kind of stood there dumbfounded before I called over to Todd "I think my water just broke." When the fluid didn't stop leaking I knew for sure it was time to go to the hospital. We ran around the house throwing a few more things into our bags and off to hospital we went.

The entire drive over there we both were just kind of in shock, we kept saying to each other "I can't believe this really happening." During this I finally started to feel some contractions, nothing too painful but I could tell this baby was for sure making his way out. We got to the hospital at about 8 pm. We were supposed to check in through then ER but Todd accidentally parked over by the outpatient services. We of course didn't realize until we were up to the doors, but I was not about to walk back to the car leaking the entire way and instead just waddled myself down to the ER entrance while Todd moved the car. When we walked in the lady at the registration desk said "is it time?" Then called out "we have a maternity down here!"

Our first stop on the maternity ward was the triage area. We actually were very lucky that my water broke that night because you automatically get admitted when your water breaks and it was a full house at the hospital that night. Every room was full but we got to jump to the front of the line. We hung out in triage for about 30 minutes and during that time my contractions started to get really strong and pretty close together.

 I would also like to note that triage was the only time I moderately snapped at Todd. He was helping me breathe through some contractions and his breathes just happened to be really close to my face. I very nicely said he was breathing on me and to please stop...Todd remembers this a little differently. If you ask him, I yelled it.

By the time we were admitted into our room, the contractions started to come on really strong. My first labor and delivery nurse that had been working with us in triage said "the smile you had in triage is gone." This where I got my first lesson about motherhood: Nothing will go according to your plan. In the weeks before labor, Todd and I had tried to make everything perfect. We made checklists for our hospital bag and wrote up a labor and delivery plan. When we showed the plan to our first nurse (of course we had to do it on a cell phone because we thought had more time before birth and kept revising the plan and neither of us actually had printed out a copy) she had the unfortunate job of explaining to me that when you water breaks, your labor plan really goes out the window. This meant no walking around, no soaking in the hospital tubs (one of the main reasons we chose that hospital) and I probably would have to get Pitocin because we were on a little bit of a time crunch since I was more prone to infection. 

Even though my delivery was going to be completely different from what I pumped myself up for, the most important thing was that Hudson would be born healthy. I didn't dwell or argue with the nurse, but decided to roll with the punches and stay positive.

Before the epidural

I made it to about 5 cm dilated before I decided that I couldn't hang and asked the nurse for an epidural. In the past I had really wanted to be all natural with my birth but a few things changed my mind. The first was that the nurse had told me I would probably have to get Pitocin and that is extremely painful to go without an epidural. The second was that about 5cm dilated I started to get the shakes really badly. In our labor and delivery class, the nurses told us that you really can get an epidural as long as you are able to control yourself enough to sit still through contractions while the anesthesiologist did his thing. I could feel myself slipping over into the uncontrollable side of things and knew it was now or never.

Our nurse was fantastic and even was able to jump me ahead of another lady to get my epidural. I have to say, it was amazing. The anesthesiologist who did was so great, I only felt a small pinprick and then ahhhh heaven. Once you get the epidural you get something called a peanut ball, it's a Yoga ball but looks like a peanut, and you rotate from side to side. 

The rotating was the only stressful part about labor. Hudson is a very particular baby, he would get comfortable on one side and when I switched sides he would freak out and I would have to take really long slow breathes until he would acclimate. The only time I had to take oxygen was right after the epidural when I tried to lay on my right side and Hudson was not having any of it. Even with the oxygen and breathing I had to switch sides because his heart rate would just not cooperate. Like I said, Hudson is a VERY particular baby.

After the epidural, zonked out!

After the epidural I would just nap and the rotate sides about every 2 hours. The nurse kept coming in to check me and at one point said they were going to start Pitocin if I didn't keep dilating, she came back about and hour later and luckily I kept trucking right along. I never had to get the Pitocin. I was very lucky that my body just kept on dilating and moving right along. I think it might have been because until we got closer to actually delivering Hudson, I didn't take any extra doses of the epidural. I just let the machine medicate me so I never was too numb. 

At about 7:45 am my nurse came in to check on me and said that I was completely dilated and 100% effaced, however Hudson was not facing the right way and still needed to work his way down the birth canal. She said they were going to have me "labor down" for about an hour and to not take any more extra hits of the epidural so I would be able to feel when it came time to push. Let me tell you, this nurse was amazing. She seriously knew exactly what she was talking about. I would have her deliver all my babies.

Around 8:50 am my nurse came in and told me we were just going to practice doing some pushes. She seemed really nonchalant about the whole thing and just said she wanted Todd to practice bracing me and me practice pushing so we would be ready for the real deal. We did the practice pushes for about 15 minutes until I got the hang of it and I was able to feel my body telling me when it was time to push. I kept doing what I thought were practice pushes until my nurse told me the next time I pushed to reach down and feel. It was the most amazing moment to reach down and be able to feel my baby's head starting to work its way out. I don't know what it triggered in me, but it made the whole thing seem real and the prospect of finally meeting our son so close. It was like I had some kind of mommy super strength and after a few more pushes the nurse said "I am just going to get a few things ready." 

Now I was prepared to push for at least one hour so I still didn't think we were doing anything other than practice pushes. A few more pushes later and the nurse is on her pager calling the doctor down. Before I knew it the doctor and two more nurses came into the room and we were delivering our baby. I don't remember feeling any pain as I was pushing, just sheer determination and some pressure. After a total of 35 minutes of pushing everyone told me to stop and our baby literally popped out.

At 9:28 am Hudson Owen Jaramillo made his entrance to the world. He came out screaming, latched right on the boob and them promptly pooped all over me.  I look back at these photos and I still get teary eyed. I don't think there are any words that can describe how this moment felt. Hearing Hudson's cry for the first time and seeing his perfect face...I am at a loss of words. I don't know if there is any time in your life when you meet someone for the first time and automatically can't imagine life without them. 

I have to say, I had a very easy labor and delivery, which I guess makes up for how hard our first month of parenting as been, but more on that in another post. We were in labor for only about 10 hours, most of which I slept for, and I only had to push for 35 minutes. I think a big part of it was because the hospital staff were so amazing. From my first nurse who had to break the bad news about ditching our birth plan to the nurse who helped me with our "practice pushes" everyone was so kind and made me feel empowered about childbirth. My experience was not what I had expected (honestly it was better) but at the end of it we have a beautiful healthy baby boy who we just adore. 

 So there you go, first (hopefully on many) post of 2014. I am very excited to journal this first year of motherhood. Hudson is already a month old and I feel like I already have a million things to blog about. 

Cheers to a new year!

-Mrs.J

Hear that?

I never thought I would ever say this, but one of my favorite things about springtime is Spring Training. I love driving by Tempe Diablo Stadium and watching the current year being placed under the “Big A.” I love opening day watching everyone get excited to see the new players and the returning favorites. I love soaking up that not-too-hot-yet Arizona sun while catching an early afternoon ball game.  Most of all I love sharing an afternoon at the ballpark with Todd.

Now, growing up I was not interested in sports at all. I never watched them, never really played them…well I did try out for basketball once…and I did run track in Junior High. However, the best part of track was meeting boys from other schools at the track meets and let’s not get into it, Todd, but I didn’t make the basketball team. INTRAMURALS!  Yeah, I had priorities in school

(Maybe I will explain the Intramurals thing later)

Anyways, along comes Todd and he is a baseball FAN-A-TIC. Angels Baseball is practically a religion to him. When I first met him the most I knew about Angels was probably ‘Angels in the Outfield,’ which I guess is a time in Angels’ history most fans would like to forget.  At first I started to care about Angels’ games just to impress Todd. I watched a whole game once because he had to play an away soccer game and couldn’t watch it. I sat there for two hours sending him text updates. Probably the first sports event I watched all the way through to actually watch the game. I was determined though, because I liked Todd and Todd like the Angels and I wanted Todd to like me so I liked the Angels. This would be a good time for me to tell you not to ask me for relationship advice.

The first Angels game Todd took me to was a spring training game. I was more concerned on what I was wearing than anything else. I wanted to look cute for Todd and still support his team.

I had fun, but I don’t think I really started to enjoy baseball until we actually watched a game in California.

It was so much fun being there with the crowd cheering and just the energy of the stadium, the fact that one of Todd’s student’s parents let us sit in their Diamond Club seats wasn’t hurting at all.

But the real reason I started to love Angels’ baseball is because of how much Todd loved it and wanted to share it with me. How can I not just love everything Angels when it makes my husband so incredibly happy and he wants to share that happiness with me? 

 It makes me feel so important to him to know that he enjoys taking me to games; he enjoys sharing one of his favorite things ever with me. I love that he doesn’t try to escape from me to an Angels’ game, but rather escape with me so we can lose ourselves for a couple hours in the fun and carefree feelings of watching baseball.

Happy spring,

Mrs.J

Guess it is time

Playing Catch Up…

I guess I should probably play a little catch up with everything that has been going on in our lives. See, the problem is that I go do all these fun things and I forget to take pictures of everything. Then I am left here trying to explain all the incredible things we did. So, unfortunately I don’t have a ton of pictures of the last month and half, but I will post what we have.

We spent MLK weekend in California visiting Todd’s family. I wish we could get there more often. Any time we have a three day weekend, I try to give Todd first dibs on going to see his family before we make any plans. Anyways, we enjoyed that trip so much. The weather even cleared up enough for Debbie (my amazing, incredible Mother- In-Law) and me to walk around San Clemente’s farmer market on Sunday.

We found a cute little bakery and split a yummy cookies and cream cupcake.

We also got to meet one Todd’s best friends, Jason and his wife Kimi’s new little baby.  They did not disappoint. Little Luke was beyond perfect; they are two very talented baby makers. I think I could have cuddled him all day.  We went to Baby Gap to buy a little gift for them since we wanted to give them something when we were actually able to meet Luke. If I didn’t have baby fever already, walking around Baby Gap and seeing those cute clothes made it a million times worse.

March first I celebrated my, eeek, 25^th birthday! The only picture I have from that is of the birthday flowers my sister Laura got me.

 It really was a fun day though. Katie and Laura came to meet me for lunch; poor Katie only had enough time to buy me lunch and then she had to go back to work. I felt so bad she didn’t get to enjoy lunch with me. Laura brought me balloons and flowers. It was a great break to the work day. That night Todd, Laura and Katie all went to Kabuki with me for sushi.  That weekend we made an escape up to Three Sisters’ Lodge and spent a couple days relaxing. Most of the snow had melted, but we did find one hill where Todd and I tried to race up. How he was able to stop from sinking in the snow is beyond me. I just gave up and ended up crawling up the hill.

I call this "The Great Race"

We also celebrated the first game of Spring Training. That I do have a few pictures of and I think it is worthy of its own blog…I mean it is the Angels after all.

-Mrs.J

I am

How heavenly does that look? Can you believe this is located in Arizona? This is my parents' house sitting in the beautiful Hualapai Mountains (pronounced wall-ah-pie) in Northwest Arizona and it is one of my favorite places to escape to. We call it Three Sisters Lodge.

 When my family moved back to Arizona from Virginia, my parents had a hard time deciding where they wanted to live. They didn't have anything tying them to a certain place and while all their children were in Phoenix, it wasn't really where they wanted to live. They decided they would build their own little home up in the mountains outside of the town we lived in before moving, on a patch of land they had purchased a long time ago. Little did we know that it would turn into not only a favorite place our immediate family, but one of the best get aways for aunts, uncles and cousins.

My mom designed the whole house with family get-togethers in mind. We each have our own bedrooms and since she raised three girls, the bathroom is Jack and Jill style with two showers and toilets in separate rooms sharing one double sink area. This is perfect because the three girls can all being getting ready by the sink and mirror and Todd can still take a shower.

I seriously love this house. You get up in the mountain air and something in your just relaxes. All you can think about is sitting on the deck looking at deer, laying by the fireplace reading a book or siting by the fire pit outside and laughing with family. There are many times we don't even head down into town. The wild life up there is ridiculous; deer and elk are regular visitors.

They have a tendency to come right up to you and see if you have any tasty morsels you would like share. They also have a tendency to eat my mother's garden leading to Mama McLarty chasing them off with a hose!

I guess this is time I let in you in on a McLarty family secret...we are by today's family standards major weirdos. Why? Because my family goes beyond loving each other and actually likes each other; like we actually enjoying spending time together and call each other friends. This includes having impromptu jams sessions in the loft.

Bet you didn't know I played a mean bongo set and Todd was a pro on the tambourine. But really, I wouldn't have it any other way. I love my family to death even if people think we are little bit on the strange side.

I was telling my mom the other day how much Three Sisters Lodge just feels like home. It is funny because even though I have never lived there, I still have it listed as "home" in my cell phone. I know I have my own house that is home, but I think it just goes to really show that home is where your family heart is.

I am off this afternoon to lovely Three Sisters Lodge to enjoy some Arizona snow and some relaxation.

Enjoy your weekend,

Mrs.J

From our home to yours,

I am very late on sending out my Christmas cards. So I am sticking these in and making them Holiday cards..

Mrs.J

The first ever...

Wow! I am working on taking down my Christmas decorations today. I have most everything done except for a few things I need Todd's help in putting away. Alas, he went golfing with our neighbor so I am taking a break and sitting down to blog about our wonderful Christmas. It is always sad to put all of the decorations away for the next 11 months. After having almost every nook and cranny stuffed with garland, snowflakes and lights my house seems really bare. Maybe this will give me a jump start to adding some more decorations.

So we had our first Christmas together as a family. It was incredible. My family and Todd's family all came together to celebrate our first Christmas by spending it in Queen Creek with us. We had so much fun and seriously stuffed every day with Christmas events. Over the last few years the McLarty's have created a few Holiday traditions and this year was no exception. I wish I had taken more pictures but hosting a major holiday is craziness. When you are the one doing everything, you don't have time to take pictures. But let me tell you about a few of our Christmas traditions.

1) The McLarty-Jaramillo Annual Gingerbread House Build Off
This tradition has really taken shape over the last two years. It is part Iron Chef part Food Network Challenge and 100 percent super fun. We put everyone's name into a bowl and pulled out teams randomly. Since there was one extra person we put Team 1 and Team 2 into a bowl and pulled out who got the extra person. Katie put together the "secret ingredients" we had to use. These we pick out and don't come in the gingerbread house kit. They always are pretty crazy and require extra creativity. This year Katie picked out brussel sprouts, oatmeal, rice and tortilla chips. Then we had one hour to assemble them and move them to the judging table. Our neighbors Nick ans Sara came over to judge the homes when they were done. Team 2 was victorious! I think our cute snowman was what did it for the judges.

2) McLarty-Jaramillo Christmas Corn Hole Tournament
This is actually a new tradition to this year, but it was so much fun I know it is going to be a staple at probably every holiday we do. Todd first played corn hole in Iowa in college and after playing recently with our neighbors Pam and Time he decided he needed to make his own corn hole set. He found a set of instructions online and with a little elbow greased made his very own personalized set. Did you think he would put anything other than Angel's logos on there? We had a few tournaments that weekend. Todd and I even won one together!

3) Tamales
My family has been making tamales at Christmas time for over 10 years now. We love to sit around the table and just laugh while we make a huge batch of tamales. When we were younger we would put all the extras into the freezer. Now we split them up amongst ourselves. My tamales are almost gone. I love to eat them with eggs at breakfast time. When our families spent our first Christmas together in 2008 we taught Todd's family how to make tamales. This year we had a little throw down with our neighbors Pam and Tim. They didn't know when they agreed to it that we had been making them for that long. I think we might have won that one, although Pam and Tim's were really yummy too! Next year we want to make them all together.


All in all it was just an amazing, incredible and lovely Christmas. The weather was lovely and company was even better. On Christmas morning Todd and I recorded all the fun gifts that our family opened instead of taking pictures. I want to try and put them together in one video because, I have to say, Santa was very, very, very good to me this year. Now I am relaxing a little before heading to my sisters' house to ring in the New Year. What a year 2010 was!

-Mrs.J

Last month was about...

My "digital life" went a little by the way side in the last week or so of November. Not like that is always a terrible thing; sometimes it is a little nice to not feel so attached to your computer. Anyways, I had tried to keep a status update on Facebook of one thing I was thankful for up until Thanksgiving. I started out doing really well, then I got busy preparing for the holiday and things kind of fell apart. I do have so much to be thankful for though.

I am thankful for a loving husband who supports me and helps me continually grow as a person.

I am thankful for my siblings. My sisters are just incredible and I love how our relationships have standed the test of time and are now more adult. It is a lot of work, but to have them as best friends, it is completely worth it.

My brother-in-law, I never had a brother before and I am so thankful that Brian is my brother now! He is hilarious and really caring at the same time.

I am so thankful for my parents. They worked so hard on raising their three girls and they did a pretty dang good job if you ask me! Because of all the hard work they put in when I was young, we are now able to have a certain kind of friendship you can't find anywhere else. I love them so much!

Todd's family, which is now my family. They are all such wonderful people. From the very first time I met them, they were nothing but loving and accepting. When Todd and I dated long distance for 3 years, I always felt so welcome in their home. Debbie is such an incredible Mother-In-Law. She loves my sisters just as much as she loves me and that means the world to me. I am so thankful our families are now just one big mish-mash.

I am thankful for my home and everything it contains.Every day I have shelter over my head and food in my fridge; I have much more than many people just with that. I am thankful for it every day.

Incredible friends who always make great company. I also get to call two of them my neighbors, which I am double thankful for!

My little kitties. I know this may be a silly thing to be thankful for, but I really am. I am thankful for the unconditional love that these two furballs give me. Even if I have had the worst day, without a doubt Nunu and Scioscia can cheer me up. What a feeling to have someone happy to see you every morning, every evening, even when you just walk back into a room. Both Nunu and Scioscia are rescue kitties and I thankful I get to take care of them and repay them for the amazingness that is their kitty companionship.





So much to be thankful for, it is nice to sometimes sit back and reflect on all of the blessings you have in your life. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Let the holidays begin,

Mrs.J

October is over???

Wow! This month really zoomed right on by. I can't believe that today is already three days into November! I know this post is a little belated, but please come on in and check out how House of Jaramillo spent Halloween...

I just adore Halloween. I think it is such a fun and silly Holiday. I also love everything spooky and ghost related so Halloween for me is really a win-win situation.

I pulled out all of my Halloween decorations on October 1st exactly. This was the first year I was decorating a house however I wanted to. It also was the first year I didn't have any of my sister's decorations to work with and realized I need to keep expanding my Halloween decoration collection. I actually found some of the best Halloween decoration at the Dollar Tree. They seriously had the cutest stuff and for only a dollar you can't go wrong. Just buy it when you see it because they sell out of stuff fast.I found this little witch restaurant menu there. I hung it right on my banister.

 

It looked really cute hanging across from our mirror in the entry way that I decorated like this.

Next year I want to get a little witches broom and make the whole entry way a little slice of witch heaven.

I also found these killer pumpkin paper lanterns at the Dollar Tree.

I hung them down the stair well with  invisible thread. These little lanterns had lights powered from AAA batteries. I didn't light them up though because it would have been a pain to go up and down, turning them off and on.

Another great area to check out for Halloween decorations is the Dollar Spot in Target. About two years ago I found some super cute glitter words around Christmas. Last year at Valentines day, I found glittery ones in pink, red and purple. This year I was so happy when I saw they had Halloween ones! I did want the orange "Boo" but couldn't find one in the best of shape. I am hoping they will have them next year and I can snatch them up.

I paired my glitter words with my cake stand/punch bowl and filled it with the most delicious seasonal treat ever:

That is right, filled with candy corn and candy pumpkins. There are some peanut M&M's thrown in for good measure. This made such a cute decoration. I have quite a bit leftover and will probably be munching on Candy Corn until summer.

I really had a ton of ideas for Halloween crafts, but only got around to making one. These are my Halloween vintage word blocks.

They are made out of wood blocks, scrapbook paper, stickers, Modge Podge and then a little ink on the sides to make them look old. I thought they turned out super cute and think it would be fun to use this same concept for another Holiday. You can find wood blocks at any craft store, I purchased mine at Hobby Lobby. I cut out little squares of scrap book paper, Modge Podged them on, stuck on a sticker and then roughed up the edges. It was a pretty easy craft that I finished over two days. I had to let the Modge Podge dry over night.

My sisters and I have started a few Halloween traditions that help us get into the fall mood. This always includes a ghost walk of some sort, a trip to Schnepf Farm, a visit to the pumpkin patch, pumpkin carving and then my sister Katie's annual Halloween party. We did the ghost walk and Schnepf Farm trip around the 22nd of October. I suck because I didn't take like any pictures. Let me just tell you, it was awesome. We did a ghost walk of Downtown Mesa, Arizona and will 100% for sure be doing it again next year. It was awesome.

This year we all met on Friday night at our favorite pumpkin patch, Mother Nature's Farm in Gilbert.

If you are looking for a fun little place to get a pumpkin next year, this is the place to go. They have a ton of pumpkins you can choose from, are super reasonable on prices and if you want they even have some fun children's activities in their actual farm. You do have to pay to walk around the farm but not just go to the pumpkin patch.

We each found our pumpkin and then everyone came out to our house to carve up their pumpkins.

Just so you know, carving a pumpkin with a butcher knife is no easy task. The tools in the carving kit are so much easier. I made a little kitty in a witches' boot. I cut the top of the ear off to make it in honor of Nunu.

For the last two years, Todd has chosen a California theme when carving his pumpkin. Last year was the LA Angel's "A" and this year he chose SC for USC Trojans. This man is a Southern California boy from head to toe.

Laura chose to do a free-hand bats and stars design. She is so crafty, she never chooses the pattern from the book.

Katie did two pumpkins this year. One was a ghost and the other was scared pumpkin face.

The kitties of course where there. Nunu was hoping that we were actually sharing our food with her when we let her sit on the chair and smell the pumpkins. I think she was disappointed that the one time we let smell whatever was on the table was the one time it was something she didn't want to eat.

Scioscia seems to really dig the smell of pumpkin, so she was a little more interested in actually getting up into the pumpkin. She probably would have crawled right in had we let her.

The pumpkins looked so cute out front all lit up, it was like having a little pumpkin patch in my front yard. I think I might get some Funkins next year to make a little pumpkin patch that can be reused each year.

Saturday night was Katie's Halloween party. Has anyone else noticed that our generation doesn't understand what it means to RSVP to party? Last year we had a bunch of people who said they were coming so we prepared for that with lots of food and drinks and then none of them came! It is was so frustrating! This year Katie didn't want to even deal with it so she decided to just throw a little dinner party with people we knew would actually show up. I think it was the best party yet. Seriously, this is such an amazing group of people. They are awesome friends.

Todd and I had to throw together our costumes last minute. I was going to be a ballerina and update a costume I had worn last year. It didn't start working on it until that day and then it just didn't turn out the way I had planned so I had to throw together a few things I had laying around the house to make something up. Todd does the same thing every year; he says all month long he doesn't want to dress up and then changes his mind the day of the party and we are left trying to scramble and put something together. He ended up wearing his suit and glasses and said he was Reservoir Dogs or Men in Black. I ended up looking like a mix between a girl from Rock of Love, Cher and the lead singer of Heart.

I really can't believe that we already into November. Christmas is going to be here before you know it. Todd and I are actually hosting Christmas at our house. Everyone is coming to celebrate our first Christmas as a married couple. I am so very excited, but we already have a ton of stuff to get done beforehand. I am going to try and do a lot more Christmas crafts so I am going start this month on some of them. When I was Target yesterday, Christmas music was playing from one of those CD displays, my heart started to flutter a little bit. Halloween really is like the kick off to the Holiday season and I rearing and ready to go!

Happy Start to the Holiday Season!

-Mrs. J

You need to know about...

If you haven't figured it out yet, I am little obsessed with my cats. I can't help it really, ever since I was a child I have just loved cats. Nothing turns me into this little girl again:

 like seeing a little kitty running around. I seriously can't help it.

I know I talk about our little kitty Scioscia a bunch and I really think you need to know the story of Nunu because if you ever meet her, you will instantly fall in love. Even my sister Laura who has been a dog person from day one has a sweet spot for Nunu. She has the best kitty spirit I think I have ever known. I will always maintain  Nunu and I were destined to be together. I think we are kindred spirits and needed to spend some time on is earth together.

 Before I married Todd, I lived my sisters. One day the absolute worst neighbors moved into our cul-de-sac. It was a blended family of a boyfriend/girlfriend and their children from previous relationships. The kids ran around crazy and unsupervised; many a day I ran outside, broke up their fight and sent them home, I have to say it was good practice for my future mom-voice. The dad spent a lot of his time drinking beer and blaring country music in the front yard. Probably the breaking point with this new neighbor was when a man living with them came outside drunk and yelled some really racist things at our next door neighbor who we all loved. Needless to say, this family was a little bit of a rough crowd and this was the first family that Nunu ever knew. She was a gift from the biological mother of one of the children that lived in the house. They named her Angel. At first Nunu was allowed to be inside, then the dad's friend who was living with the family (Mr. Racist Pants) decided he didn't like the cat, I am guessing Nunu probably decided she didn't like him either, and she was soon kicked out of the house. They even stopped giving her food and water. I really don't know how they thought she would survive.

I remember the exact day I first met Nunu. I was walking out to get the mail when I spotted this adorable grey little fluffy things walking across the cul-de-sac. Remember that little girl you saw in the top photo? Yeah, I revert to that girl so often. I of course had to call this little kitty over, I used my loving cat calls I would use to call my sister's cat Coco, "Here kitty kitty, my little nunie-nunie head." If you have pets you understand that. Nunu looked at me and without any hesitation came trotting over. She started purring when I pet her, I was immediately smitten. Our relationship continued this way for a couple weeks. She would come over to me anytime I was outside in the front yard. Once when I was outside and she was sitting with me, the little girl from across the street came over. "Do you know whose kitty this is?" I asked her. "Oh yeah, that is our cat Angel. She can't come inside anymore because my dad's friend doesn't like her." Then without any concern for what should be her cat, she ran off and started playing. My my heart broke for Nunu. I decided I would start putting out food and water for her, but she had to stay an outside cat. She had gotten use to my cat calls and would come whenever I would call out "Nunu," so the name kind of stuck. I hadn't been looking to adopt a cat and still being on the parental unit's dime, I couldn't really just decide to take on the responsibility. After my mom came for a visit and met Nunu, we found a place in Phoenix that would spay and neuter feral cats. If you notice Nunu has the top of her right ear cut off, this what the clinic did to identify her as fixed. This way if she were to be picked up by Animal Control they would release her back into the neighborhood since she was really not a problem if she wouldn't be having any kittens. It seemed that we had a good thing going, Nunu was my happy outside kitty. Then winter came.

I could tell that Nunu was getting really lonely. She made friends with another little kitty that I was feeding and had gotten fixed, I called her Tiggs. Tiggs was very shy and never let me touch her, she would just follow Nunu around and sit near me when I was outside but was never brave enough to let me touch her. One day Tiggs disappeared. I am not sure what happened to her, she just stopped coming around. This really made Nunu sad. She started spending all of her time outside our house. I would spend as much time as I could with her. When it got cold, Todd and I bought her a kitty bed and rug that she could sleep in outside. Every night I came home she would be curled up in her bed. Then came the tipping point. One day I was home alone and felt very sorry for little Nunu. I could see her sitting outside the house looking lonely. I decided to just let her come spend a little time with me inside while I was watching TV...the next day I started to let her spend a little more time...then a few days later I brought her bed inside to sleep in during cold night. Since she had spent the start of her life as an inside kitty, it was easy for her to go back to using a litter box. Then Nunu watched our dog Emma use the doggy door, all bets were off and Nunu moved herslef in the next day. For a long time Nunu was very desperate for attention. Anytime you were sitting down she would run over and curl up in your lap, purring her heart out. Even when she was sleeping next to you she liked to put one paw on you, just to make sure you weren't leaving her. It was as if she worried you would abandon her any minute and she would be out on the street again.

That of course never happened. Nunu was such a good kitty who followed all the rules so easily that my sister never really objected to Nunu moving in. My mom was so smitten by her loving personality that we knew we just couldn't throw her back in the street. This cat really went from homeless to the lap of luxury.

I had always been a person who would adopt a rescue before anything else, but I never really felt like an advocate for it until I met Nunu. Here was this kitty who wanted nothing more than to be unconditionally loved by a family. Her little kitty spirit really inspired to me want to help out other pets. I even chose my senior PR internship with a rescue group because of Nunu. I am just so glad serendipity meant that Nunu and I would meet. She really deserves all of the love that she gets because she gives so much in return. Since Nunu didn't get the prettiest name I decided to giver her the middle name Bella because it means beautiful.

-Mrs.J