We are one Cool family

We love our annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch, the official kickoff to the fall season. Matt gets pumped about the holiday season. He gets all the decorations out and has the girls help him decorate the house. I don't help anymore. I don't do it right. And when the girls help, they don't do it right either. Then Matt asks me to "check their work." I am the last person that he needs to be asking to do that because I don't do it right according to him. He goes back and checks my work. If a decoration is a half-inch out of place, it will get moved to the correct place. So I just sit on the couch and let him decorate the house. I tell him "When you want something done right, do it yourself!"

Our trip to Cool Patch Pumpkins in Dixon is fun. The whole family comes out and this year we let Diana invite one of her friends and her family. We could've spent the whole day out there, it was so beautiful. I will let the pictures do the talking.

The girls walking into the patch with Daddy. I have a picture of Matt and Diana walking into the patch when she was three. It's great to see this one with an extra little person in it!



Diana and Amy love playing in the houses.



Another one of my favorites. I am going to get this one blown up and frame it with the one of Matt and Diana from three years ago. She's so BIG!



After a while, they just want to be chaffeured.

Remember me? I'm Amy!

Amy's birth story is great. I know she was born early and there were complications, but once she came into this world, she was awesome and her story is so unique. Not too many babies spend their first three weeks of the world in three hospitals. Both of us got great treatment in our hospitals, but Walnut Creek Kaiser has to be the most special. She was there for two weeks and let me tell you, she thrived!

The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) there is one of the best, if not the best, in Northern California. There were so many babies in the NICU when we were there and all of them there for different reasons. Amy was very fortunate to be one of the healthiest babies in there at the time. I visited Amy every day once I was discharged from the hospital, making the 35-40 minute drive, sometimes with my mom, down Interstate 80, then to 680. I walked into the hospital, Boppy and diaper bag in tow and was excited about our one hour together for the day. I visited her in the morning and because the nurses didn't want her overstimulated, I was only allowed to hold her for an hour. Once she got bigger, I could hold her for longer. We did kangaroo care (where she laid on my naked chest in just her diaper) for an hour and we just sat there. I didn't sing, I didn't talk, I couldn't even rock in my chair. I wanted to fall asleep, but I couldn't take my eyes off this little person. She loved kangaroo care and so did I. When the nurses told me my time was up, they literally had to peel her off me - our sweaty skins were stuck together (LOL).

We were invited to the NICU graduate reunion and it was decided as a family that we were definitely going to go. I wasn't sure what it was going to be like because we didn't get an invitation last year. There were games, snacks, live kids music and activities. It was so much fun. Amy and Diana even led a group of kids in dancing to the live music.

I got a little emotional being back in Walnut Creek, seeing all the little babies and the big "graduates" walking around. I've been back to Walnut Creek since Amy left there, because she has appointments there once a year so I don't know why I was emotional on this day. But that hospital and the staff holds a special place in my heart and I will never forget how wonderfully we were treated there.

Here are some pictures from our fun day.

Amy was very helpful, making sure to set up the pins after she knocked them over in the bowling game.



Daddy was pumped that there were Color by Number coloring books. He needs structure, but I didn't know he needed THAT much structure!



You would've sworn that the "live music" was Taio Cruz or something by the way the girls were dancing, but no...just a man and his guitar singing kids music.

Another chapter begins

It's been a long 11 months. There have been ups and there have been downs. It's basically been an emotional roller coaster. I have been blessed to have the opportunity to stay at home with my girls and spend more time with my family which is what everyone wants,right? Walking Diana to school every morning has been extremely fun and being the first one to see her smiling face when she rushes out of her classroom at the end of the day is awesome. I can't wait to hear all about her first-grade adventures.
All the while, I have stayed busy with a lot of freelance work. It was important to me from the get-go to stay busy and still write and be involved with the community and take on projects. I even started volunteering with some organizations at Diana's school.
For the past month I have gone to a parent preschool with Amy which is so much fun. It's kind of surreal to watch her in a preschool atmosphere. I never got to do that with Diana. We dropped her off at daycare, went to work and picked her up. We relied on the teachers to fill us in with every detail of her busy day.
Now, it's time for another change. I am ready to go back to work and someone is...finally...ready to have me.
In my email inbox on Monday I hope to have an offer from Novartis, a pharmaceutical company in Vacaville. Yes, Vacaville, the city where I live. Not San Francisco, not Sacramento. I will drive 15 minutes to work every day and 15 minutes back home. If my kids get hurt at school, I can jet over and make sure they are OK if I need to. Amazing. Things happen for a reason. All the rejection for the past nine months happened for a reason.
I had an interview with this company on Friday afternoon. I was there for two hours and met with several different people. I loved every single one of them. They were excited about this position and honest about the company's "transitioning" culture. I am excited to possibly shape that culture.
At 6 p.m. that night, I got a phone call from the director of communications telling me that the committee met briefly and that it was unanimous to move forward with me as their primary candidate. I submitted my references and will wait for the offer to come in the email. They will do a background check, I will do a drug test and then I will start in a couple of weeks.
Check out the company online, my mom did. She's impressed. I'm impressed. While the job is only a contract position through the end of the year, there is a possibility that it could go full-time. Like I always do, I will work my butt off for the next two months and ensure that I can stay with this company as long as they want me.
Thanks to everyone for their support over the last 11 months. A big reason that I have been able to stay hopeful that there was something out there for me was because of the love and support of my family and friends.