Life Is Crazy

Oh wow! I'm feeling overwhelmed. There is so much happening, it is hard to stay in control of everything.

Things that have happened in the month of March:

Happy Things. . .
- Maren has started taking multiple steps on her own.
- My sister-in-law had a birthday on March 10th. We had a little celebration at her favorite Mexican restaurant Casa Orasco. It was a significant birthday, but we're not allowed to state the number. So, we needed to make sure it was extra special. She is headed for Holland for a big trip in a few weeks; and we're super excited for her.
- My dad turned 57 on March 11th. Happy birthday to you dad.
- Move in date to the house March 15th.
- Derek will have a birthday in a few weeks. I'm planning a little birthday celebration for him.
- My mom decided she's moving to the bay area and will be staying with us until she gets settled in here. We can't wait to have her here with us.
- This is bonus check month.

Stressful Things. . .
- Maren thinks she is a mountain climber and can scale anything. She received her first little injury a few weeks ago. Her entire little nose was a big scab. Her second adventure was to scale her stroller and stand up and then tip it over face first. Maybe I should have a more watchful eye on my child. :)
- I had to go through the legal process of evicting a tenant. (Total pain in the rear! And the legal fees were ridiculous.)
- Get my taxes ready and then learn I owe the government more money!
- The House!!!!! Oh my gosh!!! I knew a remodel was going to be stressful. The emotional roller coaster is crazy. Derek spends every weekend there, pretty much for 12 hrs a day. We talk house all night long. I am the accountant for the project trying the juggle the obscene amounts of money flowing to the project.
- We were scheduled to move in on the 15th. At 3:30 on Sunday, as the house was still covered in construction debree and I stood outside my house with a truck load of our stuff from the apartment, I looked at Derek and said, "We can't pull this off. What are we going to do? We have to be out of the hotel by 10:00 pm tonight." Thankfully the hotel let us extend a week, but a few tears were shed as I felt our family may be homeless for a short period. Our new move-in date is this Saturday. (Keep in mind construction will still be going on, we're just moving into a section of the house.)
- There are two hectic periods of the year for my job. This happens to be one of them. And I'm new to the role, so there has been a bit of a learning curve on many fronts, including learning specific personalities. Unfortunately, I had to learn about one of the the hard way through a terrible meeting. Oh well. . .no time to worry about that now.
- Friends. . .Do I still have any? I've totally neglected your for the past two months. And I am sorry. I do think of you often. Please bare with me.

March. . .I'm going to make it through you. And I look forward to an easier April.

Shana

February

February. . .You have come and gone so quickly. How can I sum you up? Remodeling. . .Remodeling. . .Remodeling.

Yes. . . we are new home owners. No. . .we do not live in our new home. We are still hotel living. The home was ours on January 28th. Construction began February 2nd and it's still going. It will be going for quite a while. But we are going to be brave soles and move in once the upstairs is complete. Target date for this is the weekend of March 13th. Keep your fingers crossed it will happen.

Everything people say about a remodel is true. I'm experiencing every last little detail of it. And I've learned I have expensive taste and need to tone it down. I blew my budget on the master bathroom by about 500%, oops. :) But I love it! And that's what counts. Who cares if it would be one full year of Maren's college tuition at a private institution. We'll make it up. We've got a few years. But from here on out, I must put on my frugalista hat; otherwise, we may be in trouble.

I'm not going to bore you with all the crazy details, but know they are crazy. Derek is fully consumed by it; and I have officially turned into an accountant.

Outside of the remodel, February was also full of birthdays.
- Derek's mother Kathy, February 10th
- a belated birthday Party for Serena, President's weekend.
- Carley's, my friend Ann's daughter, second birthday on the 19th
- Hanna, our niece, 13th birthday, on the 18th

Needless to say, there have been a few birthday celebrations. And Maren was able to experience a birthday party prior to her birthday. So, she was able to have some people show her the ropes. Of course, I forgot the camera for Serena's birthday party. Laura and Tom had a big bash for her. And the weather was amazing. Maren had to be outside crawling all over the ground, digging in the dirt, eating rocks, getting filthy. Meanwhile, Serena was like a little princess in her beautiful little Korean ceremony dress and being passed around from one welcoming arm to the next. Everyone had a great time. A few days later, Maren and I headed to Stockton for Carley's birthday party. Carley's party was at a place full of bounce houses for kids. And there was even a little section for toddlers. Maren had a ton of fun and swallowed a lot of germs. :)






And the final thing for February is another job change for me. I am now running Performance Management for Google globally. What does this mean? I don't know. :) That's what I'm trying to figure out. So, work has gotten a lot crazier. That's good though. I'm happier at work when it's crazy. And I feel more accomplished, which makes me feel alive again.

Good bye February. . .hello March.

Shana

Maren is 1

I am very behind with getting this post up. On February 16th, Maren turned 1 year old. We had a bit of a week long birthday celebration for her.

On her birthday, I took the day off and we spent the day together. We went to visit Jen Molander for a little photo shoot. She does a great job in front of a camera. I'm super happy with the shots. If you would like to take a peek, go to:
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That night we had a little birthday celebration with Derek's family: Kathy, Kerri, Hanna and Sara. We went to our favorite little mexican restaurant and had a little birthday cake. It was a plan white cake with whipped cream for frosting. Maren loved the whipped cream.







From there, we continued the celebration in Tahoe the following weekend. This was technically Maren's second visit to the snow, but this is the first visit where she actually touched it. My mom, dad, brother, mom's boyfriend Ron, Jason, Sara, Jon, Leyna and Hanna joined us for the trip.

We arrived on Friday after a five hour journey from the Bay Area to Tahoe with a few pit stops along the way. Maren experienced In N Out, although I think she was there once before with the nanny. She loved my dad's vanilla milk shake.





Saturday, Maren spent the day with her nanna; and the rest of us hit the slopes. It has been a while since I'd been on skis and man I missed it. We had a great day skiing, but there were quite a few of us out there and it was hard to keep track of all of us. My friend Cindy, her husband Rick and her parents drove from Sacramento to join us and I think we ended up only skiing one run together.

That evening we had a little birthday party for Maren.



And I will have to get the rest of the pictures from my mom or brother because from there Derek had the video camera and I was helping her with gifts and cake.

Later that evening she decided to be brave and walk from the coffee table to an end table on her own. It took about two steps. She was after a cell phone. Unfortunately, her mama didn't see it. :(

Here are some fun things about Maren at 1 years old.
- She took steps that her mama saw on Tuesday the 22nd. Serena, her nanny share partner, was walking to the nanny; and Maren decided she had better do it too.
- She is still on her path of being a bit picky with food. But she has discovered oranges and she loves them!
- She is still in love with Griffin. For some reason she calls him Coco, which is my friend Christine's dog.
- Her vocabulary is really expanding. She is saying words in both english and spanish.
- She is 30" long and 23 lbs.
- She loves music and dances when she hears it.
- She also loves any toy that allows her to make her own music.
- I think she is trying to transition from one nap to two, although she is still taking two naps quite well for the nanny.
- She has 6 teeth.
- She needs a hair cut. :)

There is a Light

Fingers crossed. . .we may have the keys to our new home on Friday.

http://www.daveandcarla.com/property/698-Walavista-Avenue-Oakland-California

Now I just need to survive six months of construction.

Shana

Maren is 11 Months Old

I am two days late with this. . .on Saturday, Maren was 11 months old. As we approach the one year mark, I can hardly believe that my baby girl is almost a year old. And when I look at her, I don't understand how she went from this tiny little being to a little girl so quickly.

My mom was here for the weekend and was able to help Maren celebrate her eleventh month of life.

At 11 months, this is what Maren is up to.
- She has expanded her vocabulary a bit. Her words include: mama, dada, nana, baby, coco, griffy, go and hi.
- She can high five.
- She waves good-bye.
- She loves Griffin's dog food and water bowl. If I can't find her, I know she's there playing in his bowls.
- She also loves Griffin's bones and I think she feels they are the best teething toys around. (Yuck!)
- She has moved from an open mouthed kiss to a pierced lip kiss.
- She loves to practice standing on her own and is very proud of herself when she does.
- She can walk all over the place as long as she has a hand on something.
- She is either transitioning from one nap to two or has an extreme desire to fight her mama when put down for her naps.
- She can not stay still and makes it quite a challenge to change her diaper. As soon as the diaper is off, she is off at lightening speed.
- She is beginning to like to cuddle, which makes her mama and daddy very happy.
- She loves books and she especially loves to turn the page.
- And I believe her favorite thing on earth is dogs. She gets so excited when she sees them and has to kiss them whenever she sees one in a book.
- She is a big girl with eating. She only wants food she can pick up herself and put in her mouth. If a spoon is used, she needs to be the one to put it in her mouth.
- She suddenly dislikes vegetables and she can't get enough carbs.

We love you Maren!

The Holidays 2009

I can't believe the holidays have come and gone. It went by so fast. And I'm realizing I'm still a bad parent when it comes to photo taking. I really didn't take enough pictures to capture all of the excitement.

We kicked off the holiday season with my holiday party. It was great to have a night out together and Maren had her first overnight stay with Martiza. And from the photos Maritza sent out way, I think she had just as much fun as mom and dad did with their evening.



We had a great Christmas with both sides of our family surrounding us. My mom and dad both came into town to share in Maren's first Christmas. And boy was she ever spoiled. We sent out the warning early saying please don't buy her too much. The hotel is small and we don't have the space for it, so please wait for February for her first birthday. Grandparents being grandparents totally ignored this plea. My mother was the worst offender. She had to ship a box with her gifts because she had so many. And when it arrived it was the size of a washing machine. And when grandpa caught when of this, he couldn't let nana show him up, so he went out an bought a nice sampling of gifts as well.

On Christmas Eve, we went on a Santa hunt to try and have Maren's picture taken, but we failed in that attempt. So, we opted for pictures with a giant Christmas tree and Nana and Grandpa.





That night we celebrated Christmas Eve at the hotel restaurant, which is actually quite nice. If you are in the Oakland area, I suggest stopping by. It has a great view of the lake. Traditionally we host Christmas Eve at our house and Derek prepares a fantastic dinner. But it was kind of nice to just walk down stairs have dinner served with no preparation and no dishes to clean up afterwards. We also opened gifts with my side of the family that night. Maren loved the what was inside the package, but really wasn't into ripping open the fits yet. Most of the gift opening was caught on video by a very sick daddy. (Unfortunately Derek had a terrible cold on Christmas.)

The following day we did our traditionally stocking opening with my mom at her hotel and then headed over to Derek's parents to spend Christmas day. My mom and dad joined us for dinner later in the afternoon.






The next day Jody, dad, Maren and I loaded up in the car and headed down to Corcoran for a Roark family Christmas. I think the last time this crew was together was probably my wedding. So, it was nice to bring everyone together. And I know my grandma loved being there with all of us. The crew included my grandmothers brothers and sister, her children, her grandchildren and great grandchildren.



The following day, we drove back to the bay area and had a little holiday dinner with Derek's closest friends and parents at one of our favorite restaurants Bellanico in Oakland. Unfortunately, this is one of those moments where I didn't use the camera. But we had fun nevertheless. You'll have to imagine it in your head.

From there we moved into a week of visits from friends and relaxation. Derek and I both took the week off of work. And I am so glad we did. It was really nice to just spend time together as a family being lazy and just enjoying one another. This is the first time we have ever taken vacation days for any extended period of time and not actually gone anywhere. Two great things stick out in the week though.

First, I got Derek a cook book from Chez Panisse for Christmas and with it came dinner reservations. We've been wanting to go to this restaurant for a while and I was finally able to get a reservation. (You have to book a month in advance and pretty much take what you can get.) It is a pre-set menu and we were hoping it would not be a pork night because Derek can't eat pork. When they called to confirm the reservation two days before, I asked what would be served and was informed veal would be the main course. We were very bummed about this because neither one of us eat veal due to ethical issues with it. So, we were a bit troubled, but thrilled when we arrived and actually found out we would be having lamb instead. The dinner was lovely. Once again, it was great to have a little date night. And thank you to Cindy for watching Maren for us. (once again. . .no photos of this evening . . .and I forgot the dang menu at the restaurant. Oh well. . .)

That same night, very late in the night, my dear friend Jamie and one of her little girls, Peyton came to visit with us. It was a short visit, but a great visit. We pretty much sat around talking, sharing memories and receiving much needed parenting pep talks. Lately, Maren and I have struggled with nap time. Jamie was able to witness this and talk me through it as tears streamed down my face. Maren loved Peyton and they had a ton of fun playing together. Thank you! And we look forward to our next visit together.



And we rang in the new year at our friend's Trevor and Cindy's. There were four couples and their kids there. The kids played really well together. There were three boys around 18 months and Maren. She loved it. And they were all troopers. They played their hearts out until around 10:00. And when we finally made it in the car, she crashed out immediately. There wasn't a peep out of her as we pulled her out of the car, through the party in the hotel and up into our room, where you could still hear the band from downstairs playing. She didn't mind one bit. She was already in sweet dream land. Pictures exist of this evening, but not in my camera. So, as soon as I receive them, I'll post them.

2009 has been an amazing year. It was filled with the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. I think it will go down as one of my most rewarding and challenging years I have faced to date. In 2010, I look forward to settling and nesting in a new home with my baby girl, Derek and Griffin. And who knows, maybe another little one too. (I mean, we need to keep a little bit of crazy going.) Happy New Year to all!

Happy 10 months Chili Bean

A picture will be posted shortly. . .I am at work.

Today is Maren's 10 month birthday. And here are a few fun facts about her.

1. She weighs 22.44lbs and is 29 inches long. This is in the 90th percentile so most people think she is about 15 months old when they see her.
2. She is crawling all over the place. And for some reason to loves to toilet, which is disgusting. If the door is not closed and she heads towards the bathroom, she will turn on jet speed when she hears to coming after her.
3. She is a professional at lifting herself up to a standing position. She can hold on with one hand and walk around a bit when holding onto things. And on occasion she is able to stand without hands. She's going to be off and running before we know it.
4. She loves french fries. And anything else that is on her mamas plate. She has said good-bye to baby food.
5. Her favorite word is baby. And she loves to see pictures of herself and say baby.
6. She is still addicted to her pacifier. But that's ok.
7. She finally has a tooth and one more is on its way.
8. We are discovering her skin is quite sensitive and gets very ready with many things touch it.
9. She likes to give kisses.
10. And she especially likes to give herself kisses in the mirror.

We love you baby girl.
Mommy

Griffin - We miss you

Griffin moved into our little apartment with us a few weeks back. But, he has since had to be sent to grandma's house. Apartment living just really did not work for him. This is probably mainly our fault. But it is also the case that his breed is a very active breed. And being confined in an apartment just is not something he is use to. What he is use to is slightly larger living quarters with instant access to a backyard via a dog door. Griffin knows not to go to the bathroom in the house. And he has shown he knows this through multiple visits at friends and families homes that do not have dog doors. But they have always had a yard and a fence. So, with a quick open of the door he was able to hang out outside and do his business; and we were able to continue on with ours. In the apartment, it requires a lot of effort on our part, especially at night when we are ready to just go to bed. To make matters worse, we were not aware that turkey makes dogs sick. And we overstuffed Griff with turkey on Thanksgiving. So he had serious stomach problems for a few days after. Because of this, the Sunday after Thanksgiving we loaded him up and off he went to grandma's to hang out with uncle Spark and his dog door. Every day I come home and feel terribly guilty about this. I know he has more space, a friend to play with and he is well cared for by Kathy and Randy. But we all miss him, including Maren. He has another week out there; and then I plan to pick him up and bring him back with us. I'll be off work for the remainder of the year; and hopefully we'll have a new home to take him to after that. Poor Griffy. He has had to deal with a ton of change during this whole house process. He must be so confused. I'm sorry buddy. You'll be home soon. And then we might get you a friend.

She's on the Move

Maren decided to really take off crawling the weekend we moved out of our house. It was perfect timing. :) She was filthy after a day of crawling around all over our house pre-final cleaning.

And once she started, she hasn't stopped. She is all over the place and into everything. It is super cute to watch, but man you can't take your eye off of her for a minute. When you do, you find her in situations like this. . .

- Sitting chewing on Griffins bones or toys
- With a lamp plug pulled out of the outlet and in her mouth
- Playing daddy's guitar
- Tearing apart mommy's magazines
- Playing in Griffin's food and water
- Touching the toilet
- Pulling stuff out of mommy's purse

Lesson learned, don't leave her alone unless she is secured in a location without anything dangerous. We have to quickly Maren proof the apartment.

Good Bye 1397 Barrows Rd

Well. . .it is official, we no longer live at 1397 Barrows Road.

We moved out the weekend before Thanksgiving. It was 72 hrs of moving. How we pulled it off is beyond me. We wouldn't have pulled it off without the help of my dad, brother and Kerri. Somehow, we placed 80% of our house inside a 16x8x10 container. The other 10% went to a furnished apartment we are living in in Oakland. And the other 10% ended up in Sara's backyard. Too bad it's not summer, they've now have plenty of patio furniture and bbq's to have a great party.

So why didn't we go to Dublin to stay with Derek's mom? We really couldn't face the commute. It was going to be hard on all of us. And fortunately we found a place to accommodate us and Griffin at the last minute. It is a one bedroom furnished apartment. It has a lot of closet space, so thankfully I've been able to stuff a lot of things in there. The unfortunate part of the situation is within a week, we quickly discovered Griffin isn't cut out for apartment living. And he has had to go stay with Derek's mom, Kathy indefinately. Poor guy. We're sad without him, but he has a lot more space there, access to outside anytime he wants it and a great companion with their dog Spark.

Patience is already wearing thin trying to hold out for our new house. We'll see how long we last. Hopefully we get some news soon. Otherwise, we need to move to plan B.

This seriously ranks pretty high on the moments of stress in Shana's life scale. But when I really start to lose it, I stop and think about all of the families out there without homes or living in smaller spaces than we have without proper living facilities. And I realize my situation really isn't that bad. I am in the fortunate position to be able to choose where I live on my own terms. I am greatful for that. And I will have a new home when all the stars align.

Maren is 9 months old

Today is Maren's 9 month birthday. How is that possible? And through all of this craziness, I almost forgot.

Maren said her first word other than dada or mama Saturday evening. I was reading her favorite little book peekaboo puppy and at the end it says peekaboo baby. And after I said baby. . .she said baby. And we did it a few more times to confirm I was not hearing things. She was for sure saying baby and associating the picture with baby. It was amazing.

She amazes me on a regular basis. She is so strong. How is this little 20lb creature able to do the things she can do. She can move a full plate with one little finger.

She loves exploring food. And she is a good eater. She loved trying new fruit while we were in Hawaii; and pineapple seemed to be a big hit with her. She likes to hold food and put it in her mouth herself. And even though she has no teeth, she likes to try and bite off pieces of food.

And she loves electronics, especially cell phones. And even better is a cell phone with her picture on it. She loves to look at pictures of herself; and she likes to look at herself in the mirror.

She has been trying really hard to crawl. She has been scooting backwards for a while and she finally had her first official crawl today.

My favorite thing of all though is the fact that she poses for pictures. She knows when that camera is being used and she looks right at you with the greatest smile. Here are a few of her recent shots.

Happy 9 month birthday Lovey.

Love,
Mama

Buying and Selling Real Estate

Well. . .we have been back from Hawaii for about 72 hrs and my stress levels are equally as high if not higher than they were when we left. :( We are in the process of selling our house and buying a new home, which is a fixer upper and in a short-sale process. Lessons I have learned so far:

1. Never ever try to sell a house when you have a new baby and a dog, if you live in an area that requires your home to be picture perfect each day when you walk out the door. Move out before you sell it.

2. Selling a home is not a friendly process. It is every man and women for himself. Do not trust anyone.

3. Realtors only make matters more stressful. They don't take the time to understand the full situation. This creates the worst case of the old game"telephone" you can imagine. Meaning is lost along the way.

4. Do not hire a Realtor that sells everything in your area. Because he is selling everything in your area, he has no time for you--this is especially important if your home is not the most expensive property in the area.

5. Do every possible inspection known to man before buying a property. If you don't, it will come back to bite you in the end.

6. Never buy a short-sale property. The uncertainty of it is horribly frustrating, especially if you are a natural control freak.

7. Remember the advice of your elders who tell you. . ."I got divorced over a project like that." Do everything you can to ensure that doesn't happen.

8. Saying good-bye to your first real home is emotional. Let yourself mourn it for one evening. Then move forward.

9. Finding the strength to not lose yourself in the stress is difficult, but required, especially when you now have a family depending on you.

10. Having a vision of the future and knowing the good that will come out of the long road ahead is what will see you through the situation.

Chin up Shana. . .you've survived worse situations.

And as Derek continues to say. . ."This is for the good of our family."

We're out of our house as of this weekend. And we're off to Derek's moms probably through the end of the year. Wish me luck with the move; and look forward to the day when I invite you over to my new home.

Aloha

We are in Hawaii. This is day four. It really feels like day two though because the first two days were filled with traveling. Friday we flew out here. Maren did a pretty good job on the flight. She would have done a better job if the flight crew didn't love speaking on the loud speaker so much. So she only slept for the first thirty minutes and then she was a squirming little gal. But overall, she was good. And she became friends with a man sitting across from us. He loved her and she loved him. That was fun to watch.

Maren was asleep by 5:45 that night; and mom and dad were crashed out by 6:45. That led to an early morning wake up from the little gal. It was raining until about 10:30 that morning. And we checked out of our hotel at 12:00 to then load up at Costco and then pick my mom and run up at the airport. Then we headed to the other side of Kauai to Princeville. This is where we are staying the rest of the week. We were all beat by then so it was an early night again.

Yesterday we headed to the Wailua River area and took a boat ride to the Fern Gratto. Maren loved watching everyone on the boat and crashed out as soon as we hit the Fern Gratto and all the way back to shore. She had too much fun on the ride there. And after that we headed to what is called the queens bath. The signs heading down the path said Treacherous, proceed at your own risk. So, Derek, Ron and I hit the trail while mom and Maren stayed behind. It was a pretty scary trail. It was wet and slick with rocks and a pretty sloped decline down to the area. And once you make it down the hill there is a sign pretty much saying people have died, watch out because the waves can take you away. And when we finally made it there I could completely understand. Yet there were still crazy people getting in there. There is no way on earth. I told Derek as we were heading down, if I fall and may die. Don't come after me. Maren needs you. Lovely thoughts to have on a vacation, but you never know. And at the end of the day mom and Ron were kind enough to take care of Maren so Derek and I could grab a bite to eat together. So, we headed to a local Sushi restaurant in Hanalei called Dolphins. It was nice to have some time to ourselves. Thanks mom and Ron!

Day 4 started with Maren up at 4:30 am. We will see what the rest of the day has in store for us.

Halloween

Maren is in love with her little Giraffe Sophie. It is sadly the Bay Area toy to have, which I'm not always a fan of, but there is truly something about this thing that she can't get enough of, so we decided Maren should be Sophie for Halloween.

We spent the morning at a little Halloween brunch with a group of friends with young children. We tried to line them all up on the couch to get a shot of all of them. They were not having it. So, we tried to throw the moms into the mix and it was still madness.

That evening we headed over to Sara and Jon's for some pizza --our staple food at the moment--and did a little trick-or-treating with Leyna and Hudson. That didn't last long though. Maren was ready for bed after about 3 houses.

And these other shots are from Maren's little trip the weekend before to Half Moon Bay. Half Moon Bay is known for the pumpkins; and they have amazing pumpkin patches there. My mom flew up for a short little visit with my brother, so they met us there.