o Baby!

Our dear friends, Tara and mike (the godparents to Carlita) are having a baby girl (Emma). She will be born sometime in Jan.

So the planning for the baby shower started in Sept. under wraps. Mike was in on it the whole time but somehow Tara never found out! Good job for us. Nikki, Tara's co-worker, really was the mastermind behind the planning and decorating ideas. Really, she outdid herself (and definitely bets me in the energy arena). She made these amazing snowglobe favors with Emma's ultrasound picture with pink booties and hat. In a winter wonderland theme, the colors were silver, blue, and and a splash of pink. Cindy, another co-worker, loaned out her house (thank you!) and the party decorating started in the afternoon. A Xmas tree was brought in and decoration sprung up like weeds. Lights, balloons, ornaments, favors, and table linens cut as snowflakes.

The plan was to have everyone arrived at 4pm and Tara and Mike arrive at 5pm for a "work dinner with friends". This included Tara's family from Georgia. I haven't seen them in 6 years since the wedding. It was so great to see them. so we turned off the lights and hide in rooms. Tara came in talking about her milkshake and boom she surprised her. then she entered the decorated room and BOOM she was surprised by her family. Overwhelming tears and happiness was everywhere.

So Mike was sent away for the ladies-only party. Food and drinks were served (very good meatballs and dip) and then it was cake time. Finally PRESENTS!!!! Always the best part of the party. Tara and Mike got great items for little Emma.

So enjoy the pictures and videos of our great friends, Tara and Mike. We can't wait til Emma gets here.





Pics

First weekend of Dec.

It seems like every weekend is packed of adventures. The first Friday of Dec. we always participate in the reindeer run, an annual 5k race in downtown Newark to raise funds for the Special Olympics. this year we didn't run but went out for the fun and a chance to see Santa. Enjoy the pics!

Carlita in paper

You know this is becoming such a norm in our house when Carlita says as I point her out in the paper " yeah I'm always in the newspaper". This time she was at the Xmas tree lighting in town last week. She's the one wearing the pink jacket and antlers in the first paper. In the second picture, she's sitting on Santa's lap (pic at bottom left). She's so popular!

 

5 Turkeys, 4 meals, and unlimited left-over: Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving this year will go down as the year of too much turkey. We had 4 turkey dinners to attend. FOUR!!! Here's the break-down of the Turkey eat-off.

Dinner #1: Early Learning Center Turkey Luncheon. Carlita's pre-school had a turkey lunch for us parents. Very cute. We got our food and got to eat along side Carlita in her classroom. Very fun. '

Dinner #2: Creative Beginnings Learning Center dinner. Luke's daycare hosted its 2nd annual turkey dinner in the Great Hall of our church. We all brought a dish (I brought salad) and had a lovely time with the kids and the other families.


Dinner #3: Turkey Dinner fun at Ray St.
It was that time of year for the grand Turkey Dinner, hosted by my complex and Special Interest housing. I went shopping with the Cuisine community for 5 turkeys, bread, and endless amount of potatoes and cranberry. Yes you read it right ... 5 Turkeys. We were suppose to get 6 but we decided we didn't need it. So on Sunday, Nov. 17th we got up early at 8am to start the turkey cooking. The turkeys had a nice cold bath the night before. They got cleaned up, seasoned, and into the ovens for several hours. Cooking for all the side dishes started in the afternoon. The dinner was suppose to start at 6pm but we moved it up to 5pm because the food was ready to go. 4:45pm there was a line of over 50 people waiting for the food. Check out the pictures of the event but it rocked!!! I'm very proud of the Cuisine community for their hard work and dedication to putting this event on.



Dinner #4: Our own Thanksgiving happenings
So Thanksgiving finally came and we went to my sister's in Maryland for Thanksgiving. The weather was okay (raining heavily for most of it) so Karl and Mike (my BIL) worked on Sofia's new play castle (yes Mike is making it a fancy -drawn out castle). We had a good family time at Sandra's. Then it came time to go over to my mother's place for some manual labor ( on Saturday). You see, Sandra (my sister) brought a new shed for the backyard to replace the rusty, aged, animal invested shed. Karl and I arrived first at Mother's. Luke wasn't feel so good so he went to bed while Carlita watched Dora videos. But the real adventure was outside where Karl and I with our bare hands took down this rusty-tin roof shed. We had to remove all the boxes within the shed first. Unfortunately as we did, we found mice in boxes. YIKES!!!! Once everything was removed, it was time for demolition.  I kicked, pulled, and unscrewed metal panels. Karl and I had a blast taking down this yucky shed!

Mike and Sandra arrived and got to work on the new base for the new shed they purchased for Mother. the day was complete and we went back to Sandra's for the night. Then Sunday we were back to Mother's with determination to get the shed up and down by night fall, which it did. It really took several people to get it all together but now no more animals will come in and destroy our stuff.




So that was our adventures in Turkey eating. We have so much left-overs frozen, it really can feed a whole floor. At least we have meals to invent.

Oct./Nov. Family fun

Boy have we been missing in action on our blog. Sorry everyone. It really fell to the side with all the job searching, getting a job, housing considerations, etc. decisions we have been making. So this post will highlight last month's family events.

 Kelly and Michelle's Maui Wedding, Oct. 16
Karl's sister got married over the weekend of Oct. 16th in Maui, Hawaii. Though we all would have loved to have gone, we couldn't so Karl went in our honor. Karl started traveling on Thursday, getting to Maui by Friday. Wedding was on Saturday and he flew back out Sunday night to arrive in Philly by Monday afternoon. The wedding was beautiful and perfect for Kelly and Michelle.  So excited for them and their new live together as a married couple. Congrats to you two!!!


Click here to view photos


Dare to be fit 5k, Oct. 21
I participated in a fitness program on campus through our Employee Wellness Center and had a 5k race as part of it. It was a bit dark but a fun event to do. I ended up in 2nd place for my age group. Very exciting.
Click on picture to go to album.


Halloween: Oct. 28-30
O halloween fun. We had a very busy week with Halloween events. First my residential complex had a Freak Week, with events each night. Then everyday the kids got dressed in halloween costumes. There were princesses, fairies, lady bug, cowboy, and just halloween gear. Finally halloween arrived. We went treat-or-tricking at Katja's house, an annual event we have done for the past three years. The girls were so cute in their outfits. Our family dresses in themes so this year's theme was Toy Story. Carlita was Jesse, which I made her costume from stretch. Luke was Woody (so cute), Karl was Ken and I was work-out latina Barbie. We had a blast and collected too much candy.

We also enjoyed the last weekends of apple picking at our favorite orchard, Milburn's. I baked like crazy apple pies left and right and apples for every meal. I was rather inventive with the use of apples.

Click here to view photos


Duty Weekend: Nov. 4-6 
This was important to highlight since it was my last weekend of duty at UD and boy was it active. I barely got any sleep with phone calls almost every hour. I know it'll be just the same at Temple but I really wished the concept of duty wasn't in our job description.


CAACURH conference: Nov. 12-14
Some of you know I am very passionate about advising and have had some drama in the past year with my current group, RSA (a residential student leader group). But this year ha been a different story. With new leadership and talent, the group has stepped it up and at a regional conference, they won 3 major awards. Click on Udaily article that I wrote on the win. I am extremely proud of them and their hard work. Shout out to my last RSA group to advise.





Newark turkey Trot 5k, Nov. 21
 Since I got to run a 5k in Oct, it was Karl's turn to run a 5k. This time it was for the annual Turkey Trot. Once of us every year runs this race. We love it but it's a tough course. With little training, Karl placed 4th in his age group by only 30 seconds. Go Karl! Very proud of him!

A New Beginning - life is about to get VERY interesting

So many of you may or may not know (or guessed) that I have been job searching since I graduate in May. Wanting to stay local near my family, I applied to over 55 jobs regionally. I did applied for jobs in the Chicago area and even had an offer (which I turned down). Finally after all the resume and coverletter revisions, HR applications, phone interviews, and 3 on-campus interviews, I have been offered and accepted a wonderful position at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA as their Asst. Director of Residence Life for Staff Recruitment and Development. Read about my journey on this blog posting, http://thesabloggers.org/2010/11/blind-date/ . This is very exciting and life-changing for us, since it will require us to move OFF-CAMPUS. More than that, it's a whole culture swift for me since I've been living on campus since 1992 (that's right for 18 years). Where will all my midnight knocks come from? Where's my instant community? All will be gone. But this is good for our family. Karl immediately started packing our place and the stress of finding a new place began.

After letting my current work and staff that I was leaving (I'm starting the new job Jan. 6th), Karl and I started the stressful process of deciding where to live. We went up to N. Philly where one of my new colleagues lives. Had a wonderful tour up there. Really loved the area but it would be a hike for Karl everyday (roughly one hour). Then we contacted some real estate agents and went neighborhood shopping with the kids in the car (bad choice). They struggled being in the car for so long just driving up and down streets in N. Wilmington. But we started getting ideas of where we would want to live.

Meanwhile, we were working on figuring out how to pre-approved/qualified. As the following week came, we discovered we can't get pre-approved right now due to our finances. So the next thing we needed to figure out renting. Quickly, we decided that we rather rent in Newark, DE where we currently are than a new area in N. Wilmington. Number 1 reason: kids. Really...to try to find daycare in Nov. for both kids in Jan is almost impossible. Every place we called wouldn't take both of them due to space and potty training (Luke is still only 2 years old). With Carlita starting kindergarten in the fall, I wanted to get into a good school district but really there's already going to be a huge change moving into an apartment after being in the halls. Plus finding babysitters will be hard in a new area. Staying in Newark allows us to use the college students and my staff as needed. We can drop them off or get sitters to our place in a snap. Number #2 reason: Community needs. I need my local community support. To try to establish new friendships, systems of operations for the family (i.e. grocery shopping), and learn a new area while I'm learning a new job will be an overload. Staying in Newark will allow us to be close to all our friends, the university, and my students. This will also be essential if in case Karl or I couldn't get to one of the kids in town of emergencies or if we're running late. One of my staff or Samanta can go get them.

So we decided to rent locally - close enough to the university so students can come babysit and Karl can get to the kids in time since he works right in town. I would be the one traveling like crazy (1 hour plus each way f I take the train in/out everyday) but I'm okay with that.

So off apartment hunting we went. We wanted to stay over $1000 in order to maximize our monthly savings for a house (or to reduce our debt). But as we discovered, apartments won't be big enough for us and the quality ...well they were less to be desirable. So we started looking at townhouses. Much better for space and the type of communal living we were looking for but it did up our budget.

Then on a Thursday I decided to post an ad on the university classifieds explaining we were looking for housing. Next thing I know I got a response from a professor I know through pilates class, explaining she was going on sabbatical in the spring and looking for someone to take care of her home. So off we went to see her home, only 4 miles from campus, right over the PA border. And we had a lease all drawn up and signed!!!! It's a great house with land and two cats to take care of. It's really the most perfect situation. We're only renting for 6 months which is what we wanted - we want to save up enough money to reduce our debt and start looking for a new home starting in March. If we can have it purchased by June/July, that would be great.

alot!).

Thank you everyone who has supported us through this endeavor. We really will need you all for this change to be successful.

October: the arrival of Fall

Where did September go away? This past week we has rain EVERYDAY, with over 8.5 inches of rain falling on us. This puts a damper on my morning runs with Luke (either Karl or I take him out for a run since he wakes up at 6:30am – a bit early for us).

I’m still on the job hunt. I was offered a job in Chicago but didn’t take it. That was early August. Then I had a campus interview for a school in Maryland. That was an overnight experience with a day-long interview process. I loved the job but wasn’t offered it. So this week I had yet another campus interview with a school in Philadelphia so I had to head out on Wednesday for a night over and do a day-long interview process. Plus I had to present on what I would implement if I was hired into the position. So I’ve been really busy with prepping for interviews and putting together the presentation. The stress of job searching is getting to my body – I haven’t eaten as well as I like and have put some pounds back on. I need to get re-focused on Weight Watchers and my fitness program. But it’s hard to be that “super-mom” image I see in my head: sexy, skinny, smart woman who balances everything like that Cat in the Hat image. Hopefully the third is the charm saying comes true this time.

It’s also been a busy time at work. I’m on the leadership planning team for our residence hall student leadership program. We had an overnight camp to take these 60+plus student leaders away to. In one day they learn about StrengthsQuest, their own strengths, how to use their strengths in their leadership roles, do some team building on a ropes course, and just have fun! Fun but tiring to do all these trainings and overnights. 

On Sunday, Oct. 3^rd, we went off to Ramsey Farms to do some pumpkin picking. Very fun! Then a little bit of Target shopping, Chammps for lunch, and back home for naptime. Afternoon I took Carlita out shopping and to get a new haircut (her hair is very un-manageable and needs to be cut once a month). Then it was time for my Sunday evening meetings with RSA, RSAC, and SIH (all the student leader groups I advise). That’s over 30 students in one night!!! Wow! Then home to bed.

Now this past week (Oct. 5-8), I’ve been gone to a regional conference called MACUHO. I’m involved on the programming committee, and trying to get involved on the executive board. I also presented on my dissertation topic. It was held at Penn State in State College, three hours from Delaware. It was a great week to re-connect with fellow student affairs professionals, make new connections, and learn new ideas.

With all these trips, conferences, and interviews Karl has turned into the stay-at-home /single-parent parent. I feel so bad for him. I haven’t been home much, running off doing my thing (even though it’s really all for our family future). He has had to manage two kids on his own, and if you know my kids that’s a handful. So I dedicate this post to my soul-mate partner in crime, Karl. You truly role model a new-type of fatherhood and give so much of yourself to our family and to me. Thank you for handling all the craziness and I hope very soon some of it ends so we can get back in balance as a team. Love my Karl(os).