To be in college again...

November 6, 2010 was not only the day the Aggies beat OU, but a day that great friends were reunited. The girls decided to take a road trip to College Station and try relive our college days. First thing was first, getting decked out in our Aggie gear. Arseli wanted to put our married names on the back of Aggie shirts. I think deep down we thought it was too much but in the end we thought, "yea, we're cool with our awesome personalized shirts!"

Next thing we had to do was go, where else, The Dixie Chicken. Everyone was very impressed on our amazing shirts. Arseli did a great job!

We had many shenanigans happen that night. By the way, if you have friends stay with you, make sure they write down the address of where you are. If you not, they end up sleeping on juice boxes at a gas station!

We might not be able to hang as long like the good ol' days, but we can laugh and have fun like the good ol' days! In the end we realized just how easy life was in College and never knew it. I'm sure we'll look back when we're in our thirties and think we had it easy in our twenties. No kids, traveling, money to go out and have fun! Whatever the case may be I feel truly blessed to have these amazing friends!!!

Hurricane Maui

Ahhhh, she looks sooo cute with her little friend!! Sadly, Hurricane Maui has struck a few times these past few weeks. I knew this move would be hard on me but I didn't think it would affect Maui as well. My "child" is acting out because her mother is a single working mom and can't spend as much time with her.

Yes, this may sound funny but I really think it's true!!!! Stop giggling...really!! I discussed my concerns with the vet today. She was up for all her annual shots. I mentioned my concerns about her behavior. Like how I came home one day to find her kiddy pool in a million pieces all over the backyard. She tore open a bag of charcoal at Jorge's house and made a huge mess! Sweat little Maui wasn't being so sweet. She discussed the following with me:

"Maui was in her pack which consisted of you and your husband. A member of her pack is gone and it will take her awhile to adjust to her new pack of just you and her. Even having him come back to visit, she will have to adjust to the new pack AGAIN. Routine is very important. You are doing a great job with her daily walks and playing Frisbee with her, but she needs more! Labs are very intelligent dogs. They are a hunting breed and love to use their nose. She needs to be challenged..."

So apparently my dog is acting out because she's bored and needs to not only be played with but her intelligence needs to be stimulated and challenged! OMG! Really Doc?

Today, we got some dove feathers in a sock, we played hide-and-seek!! She did GREAT!! I would have her sit and wait while I hid the feathers. Then she would have to go find it and bring it to me.

Wow, this sure is a lot of work for this single mother! And this is ONLY A DOG!!!

Leaving on a jet plane...

Actually more like a Uhaul.

We got Brian all packed up in two days. Our old roommate, Brandon was a tremendous help with all the heavy furniture. Then we spent all day Friday packing up Brian's things. I felt like we were packing him up for college. We woke up early, around 3:00am. I was not happy. Why? Because my husband was leaving? No, I just don't like waking up this early in the morning. I am NOT the morning person in the family.

So what's it like to drive to Colorado? Boooooooring!!!! Dear people of Oklahoma and Kansas driving through your states makes us sleepy. Although Brian was fasinated by the wind towers, why? I have no clue. There I was enjoying my sleep in my uncomfortable uhaul seat when suddenly Brian sreams, "Oh Crap!" I jump up thinking there is some sort of crash...no it's these wind towers! Apparently seeing this many at once was worth waking me up! Really??

As we check with iphone GPS, for the millionth time, we see we are a few miles from crossing the border. FINALLY, we arrive to COLORFUL COLORADO! Brian and I both looked at each other and smiled. A great feeling came over us. You know that feeling you get when something good has just happened! That's the feeling we got and still continue to have!

As we are driving further into Denver we see this...

This is great view to come into. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. We decided to roll down the window and smell the fresh air and feel the wind in our hair. Ahhhh, so peaceful. This is our new home! Well for now just Brian...

It's official...

We're moving to Colorado!!! Brian got the news that we were officially moving to Denver. Where are you going to live? What are you going to do with your house? What's am I going to do about my job? All excellent questions.

The first step was to tell our families and close friends, check!Brian got sit back and relax at his job with his adrenaline running. Excited about leaving the cubicle world, headset, and giant monitors.

We had about 3 weeks to get ready for the move. We decided it would be best if Brian went ahead first and got things figured out with the new transition while I stayed behind in Dallas. It's a lot to do in such a short amount of time. Honestly, I am not ready to leave in the middle of the school year. I really like my kids this year. The parents are so involved and are so happy that I'm their child's teacher! Apparently, they heard good things from other parents. In the world of teaching bilingual, you don't hear too much about this, in comparison to the monolingual. It made me feel good as a teacher and didn't want to disappoint my parents and kids that I was leaving. I also didn't want to leave my some of my teammates this year, just doesn't feel right. So as of right now, I 'm staying the whole school year. So it's time to focus on the move for Brian.

First thing first, PAAARTY!! We had two going away parties from Brian. We had a blast the last two weekends Brian was in town. We went to play Top Golf. If you have never played Top Golf, it's definitely a must! I don't even play golf and I always have a blast. Who can complain when you get to hit balls & have delicious drinks and food :) The next week we took it easy and hung out at our house while we watched as many football games as possible. Another success for my famous bacon wrapped hotdogs!! Oh and apparently 2 dozen cupcakes was not enough!! We really do have some amazing friends!

There is no right or wrong in life, just the consequences of our actions...

During this past year, we noticed that things were starting to change. But before that, the last 4 years in Dallas have been memorable.

For me, work was awesome!! I loved everyone I worked with. Who can complain when you get to work in the same place as your best friend, Arseli Ramirez!! Being hired as a “package deal” is awesome. I became reconnected with our old college friend, Stephanie Kief. It was like nothing had changed, except that our friendship grew even stronger! My assistant TL, Kristin Ransom, became one of our closest friends! It’s great to have a partner to work with that you admire and respect. She motivated me to go above and beyond! Those were only a few of many close friendships I developed. Recently, things started to change. My best friend, “sista from another mista”, Arseli got married and moved to England. Stephanie and her husband Phil moved to Houston. Many of the girls that started at the same school as me had also moved on. It just wasn’t the same. Even though I had Kristin, for me, school started feeling different. The atmosphere just wasn’t the same. I wanted a change but didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do.

As for Brian, he had found several things he loved about Dallas, which was a feat in itself. He was not a fan of DFW when we first moved to the metroplex, but he found his own nuances to the area that he grew fond of. He became a waterski and wakeboard instructor at DFW Ski School and also slowly established group of friends he could go wakeboarding with on almost any day he wanted. He was interested in work and was soaking up everything he could about the world of investing. He started to make friends at work and came out of his shell a little more. Then we got the house and the dog. He finally got comfortable in Dallas.

That’s when Brian’s manager started talking to him about career planning and the next steps he could take in the company. The choice to get off the phones and into a branch was easy but the branches in Dallas were very competitive because nobody wanted to move out of Dallas to make the switch. We found out that it was much easier to get promoted if we were willing to move, and we could move just about anywhere! We decided that we weren’t that interested in California because it’s too expensive and slowly falling into the ocean. We didn’t want to move to the northeast also because of the cost of living. Florida wouldn’t be good with the compensation model at Brian’s job. After we ruled out all of that, we thought it would be nice to live in either Salt Lake City or Denver to be close to snow skiing and mountains but would also consider anywhere else that we had not eliminated. It came down to Denver or Atlanta and Denver won!!!

We did not come to this decision lightly. It takes a lot of courage to leave your family and friends and say, “why not?!?!” I’ve come to realize that life is short and I’ve come to realize that you have to take a chance. A great teacher passed away this year, rest in peace Becky Moffet, and it was a real eye opener for me. She past away at 50. It made me think, you need to LIVE your life. We sometimes get stuck in our monotonous life that we sometimes forget there’s a whole other world out there. We decided that a change for us could be a great opportunity for our careers and just in our day to day life!!

So, I’ve decided to start this blog to keep our friends and family updated on just how we are LIVING our life!!

Good Times

Things were going well for us in Dallas. Brian was getting promoted in his job. They were lateral movements, but none the less they were recognizing his skills! No, not his nunchuk skills, his talking to people skills...very close though. I too was doing well at my job. By my third year of teaching, I was team leader, one of the youngest TL’s in the district. I loved all the kids I worked with, even the those specials friends that drove me nuts sometimes. I was always so proud about the fact that I loved my job so much!

The only down fall was that some of our family and friends were still in SA town. We really missed them, but when we did go to San Antonio, we were always very busy and had a great time!

While we were in Dallas, we meet some great lifelong friends. We became even clo

ser to our college friends. We were like a family. Even my brother, Jorge, became part of our “family.” I wouldn’t say it’s wrong that my 10 year old nephew enjoys playing flip cup and beer pong (he plays with Spritie of course). My nephews are going to be champs in college!!

Soon, we decided to add another member to the family, our puppy dog. There we were going to Walmart for groceries and we came home with a 6 week old puppy. Seriously, the cutest thing you have ever seen! We learned a lot what kind of parents we would be with our kids. I am realizing that I am going to be an over protective parent, while Brian will be telling me to back off. A good balance, I think :)

We had some good times...

Where it all started...

It seems like just yesterday we decided to move to Dallas. There we were living in Plano, climbing our 30 flights of stairs daily. This could explain why we were in much better shape. We were so excited. Many of our college friends were also moving to the Dallas area too. Could our college fun still continue?? The whole having a real job tended to get in the way. Booo being a grown up!

Two years later, we decided to purchase our first home. Yep, we moved to Aubrey, Crossroads, Oak Point, Little Elm...actually who knows what city we are in. Somewhere really far from all our friends. We were no longer walking distance from the grocery store. Again, maybe this is why we were in better shape then. I'm beginning to see a pattern here. Hmmm.