With the bad comes the good

What a roller coaster we have been on. The real estate screamer has come to a halt. Frank lost his job yesterday. I've gone from devastation, to anger, to stress, to happiness, to relief, to excitement, to gratefulness, to sadness, to optimism.
When I first found out I was devastated. I couldn't imagine how we were going to survive, with not only no income, but no insurance.
Anger at the company for laying off one of the hardest working sales people they had, only because of corporate politics. We found out this morning that they chose to lay him off because the other sales rep might have taken an escrow officer with him. Never mind he hasn't brought in a new client all month. I HATE the corporate world! I want to ring their necks, I want to yell and scream at them and let them know how they are affecting so many people, but it won't do any good.
Stress over how we are going to make. Thinking of all the different options that might be available.
Happiness because Frank is finally out of the horrible real estate world. It's toxic, he hated dealing with a lot of the people, the divas, the pride, the greed, the stupidity.
Relief because he's out. Maybe this is the kick in the pants he needed to come work for our business (I better get used to calling it ours, it is going to be). Maybe this is God's way of saying you can do it. It reminds of a saying I used to know, I don't remember it word for word anymore, but it was an eagle standing on the edge of a cliff and God telling him to leap and he wouldn't do it, because he was afraid, finally he did and he flew. Not only did he fly, but he soared, maybe this is that push. The leap of faith, it wasn't a leap, it was a heave ho, get off the cliff!
I'm so excited for the possibilities of having Frank being able to work for home and concentrate on just Sum of All Numbers. I think that it could bring great things to our family. No more dealing with corporate and horrible Realtors and dirty lenders scamming people out of their homes and lives.
Gratefulness for all the people that have called and emailed saying they know of this job or that job or just to say how sorry they are. It makes you realize how many people really care about you.
Sadness. Sadness for Frank. He is such a person that took pride in doing a great job and working hard. It's such a slap in the face for him.
Optimism. I know that God never gives you more than you can handle and as the saying goes, when life gives you lemons make lemonade.

flip flop

Bella can roll back to front now! She has been rolling front to back, but today I was sitting on the couch with her and she usually just lays on her back and plays with her toes, today she rolled! I thought it was a fluke, so I flipped her back on her back and she did it again!! No more leaving her on the couch or any other object unsupervised.

5 Months

Today is Bella's 5 months birthday. She is 19.4 lbs. I don't know how long, I'll measure her tomorrow. She rolls over front to back, and can almost sit up. She started food this week. I gave her some avocado, she's not real sure what to think of it. She laughs so much! She's really becoming a fun, happy baby. According to my sister, Stephanie, she was a kinda fussy new born, but she's much happier now. She hardly ever cries, only when she's tired really. I started giving her a sippy cup with water in it to play with. She really likes it. It's like a pacifier for her, but a treat comes out! Speaking of which, she has started taking a pacifier when we put her to bed. It makes it MUCH easier to put her to bed. She barely even makes a noise when we put her down, now. We put it in, and lay her down and she just sucks on it until she is almost asleep, then she spits it out and is in dreamland! She's been having some trouble sleeping because she sleeps on her belly, but now that she can roll over, she does it in her sleep and then she wakes up and can't get back to sleep. The last couple of nights when this happens, she doesn't even cry, she just lays there "talking." She has started screeching, it's so funny, but not so much at 3 am!!

Fall Fun

I've been very excited for Fall this year. I'm not sure why, I think that now that I have a child, it's so much more fun to experience things, even though, at this point, she doesn't really care about much. It so fun to experience first through her eyes. She's so entranced by everything.

Last weekend we went to the pumpkin patches over in Half Moon Bay. I've never seen so many pumpkins in my life! It was incredible acres and acres of pumpkins. We went through a hay maze which I've never done before. Stef was shocked that I'm from Utah and I'd never been through a corn maze or anything. I don't know why I haven't, it was fun, but frustrating. I was glad I wasn't by myself, I would still be there! After the maze we went to the beach and had a picnic. It was SO windy, but we found a little cove where we were pretty protected from the wind.

Bella was SO good all day. She only took 2 20 min naps, but she was always happy. I think it distracted her enough from her teething pain. Poor thing! As you can see in the one picture, I put her on the dummies lap and she BAWLED. It was pretty cute!

Quirks? I'm totally normal!

I (Holly) have been tagged! Here are the rules:
1. Link the person who tagged you...Alesa(my sister, she's private)
2. Post these rules.
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours.

I don't really think that I have quirks, because I'm practically perfect in every way. :) I guess I'll have to REALLY stretch to think of some.

1. I hate appliances on my kitchen counter. I hate anything on my kitchen counter. I have my microwave in a cupboard above my fridge that EVERYONE thinks is a ridiculous spot, but I don't care, because it's the only spot off my counter that it fits.

2. I hate the word "moist." I think it's the worst word in the English language. I hate the way it sounds and the motion that your mouth has to make to say the word. It's like nails on a chalk board to me!! YUCK! I shudder just thinking about it.

3. I hate Bella leaving the house without a bow on her head. I suppose this will probably translate to her leaving the house with messy hair. I don't like kids leaving the house with messy hair. I don't care about my hair, but kids with messy hair just look dirty.

4. I have a little OCD and ADD together. I will start a new hobby/project/interest and I get OBSESSED with it. I love the research and learning about whatever the latest interest is. After I've learned everything I care to know, I get bored and move onto the next thing. Right now it's coupons, before that breastfeeding, than pregnancy and birth, salt water fish, dogs, snakes, oh gardening was in there somewhere.

5. I count everything. When I was younger, my two best friends and I would have a 3-way call, they would talk and I would sit and count my change, or whatever else I had. I still do. I count everything.

6. I'm not a very creative person. That side of my brain got left out as my mom used to say, "When God said brain, you thought He said train and you missed yours." I at least missed that part! Except, I've really started to like digital scrapbooking. It's the only creative thing I can somewhat do.

I tag: Stephanie (my sister), Stefanie "Mormon", Heather, Alyson, Celeste, Taeya

Not much new

I haven't blogged lately, cause I have nothing really going on. Things here are pretty normal. Frank took another 10% pay cut at work last week. He's not officially getting paid 1/4 of what he was 3 years ago. That's the real estate market for you. He's started selling my business so it can start making enough money to fully support us. He's only made a few calls and has set one appointment for me. That's a start!

Bella is getting to be so fun. She's laughing and giggling and has learned how to go to sleep just by me lying her in her crib.

That's all for now! I'm off to the Olive Fesitval!