I know everyone is dying for an update on what’s going on with our little family, so the wait is over!

Before I start though, I want to make a note on how hard it is to type on my laptop now that Lyla has destroyed my “x” key and rendered my left shift button semi-workable. It would be nice if she just wanted to push the keys, but instead she’d rather curl her fingers and just rip them up!

So as I wrote last time, Jina and I are picking up and moving to downtown Phoenix to help startup a new church called Day Twelve.  At that time we were in the process of listing our house and seeing what might happen.

Well, fast-forward to this week and we actually had an offer after only SIX days on the market. We of course accepted it and now the waiting begins. We have around 2-3 months to wait for the short sale process to get done…and hopefully not much longer than that.

So that is really good news. We’re sort of anxious to look for a rental now, but we know with 2-3 months to go, we should just sit back and wait awhile. Many rentals we’ve sort of found online in the last few weeks have already been rented out, so it’s kind of pointless even looking right now.

Otherwise, things are good, if not busy. Jina heads out to Memphis this week to see her sister, who is pregnant and finds out the sex of the baby on Thursday morning. Jina is soooo excited to be there when they find out. After that they are going to start some work on the baby’s room depending on the gender verdict!

I’ll be playing single dad for about four days and I’m really looking forward to it. I’m super-busy at work, but I’m hoping to get all 40+ hours in before Friday so Lyla and I can spend the day together and maybe go somewhere fun. Who knows where, but we’ll find something.

So that’s the story of us right now. Lyla is crazy as always, learning things all the time. In fact, she just learned how to open the doors in our house (see picture to the right), which has opened up a whole other set of issues. She’s pretty good about closing them when we tell her, so it’s not awful…but just one more thing to add to the things to watch out for pile.

She also is in the habit of answering”No” to any question you ask her. It’s always in a very happy tone too.

“Are you hungry Lyla?”

“No.”

“Are you full Lyla?”

“No.”

We had some fun in the car the other day.

Me: “Lyla, do you love mommy more than me?”

“No.”

A nice retort from Jina:

“Lyla, do you love daddy more than Riley?”

“No.”

LOL

For those interested…she’s still sleeping about 12 hours at night (6:30pm to 6:30am) and then a 2-3 hour nap during the day (naptime is around 11:30). She turns 17 months on Thursday! She’s getting the speed-walking-running thing down, she can climb on furniture way better and she’s more adept at going down slides at various parks.

Below is a video of her from last weekend playing in the fountains by Liberty Market in downtown Gilbert. She was mesmerized by the water spouts for awhile then got the courage to get closer.

I’m so glad I did it.

I owe a few people for pushing me to do it. My wife of course, who always said it was up to me, but she felt it was something I might regret not doing. Also a friend of ours named Tammy…she came to my graduation party we had a month or so ago, and being a fellow University of Phoenix alumni, she told me I NEEDED to do it.

Thanks guys…because it was so very worth it.

Sure, it was a long day. Poor Lyla had to deal with her parents being gone from 8am until almost 6pm because of another commitment we had in the afternoon. The ceremony started at 10am, lasted until 12:20 or so and then took us almost 45 minutes to get out of the parking lot to the family lunch we were having.

The ceremony itself was long too. 1100 names had to be read and it felt like it took forever.

Except when it was closing in on the BSIT graduates (ME!) and I started getting nervous. Not too nervous, just some excited energy. I couldn’t believe I was about to walk across the stage, shake some guy’s hand and then wave to my family in the stands.

The highlight of it for me was the band playing bagpipes that led us out after it was over. I love bagpipes and they almost always make me tear up.

I never could have believed I’d have a Bachelor’s degree. After attending Mesa Community College for a bit after high school, I stopped going around 1996-7. And so here I am, 13 years later…and it’s in a place I never thought I’d be.

I feel very proud right now. My life is amazing and God has truly blessed me. He’s blessed my marriage of 11+ years now to the most amazing woman. He’s blessed us with Lyla Grace, the cutest little girl on the planet. My job is going great. We have everything we want. And now yet another blessing.

I’m not sure what I’ll do with it…although it may help me with my salary. I think it will be a good thing to have in case I end up needing to look for work at some point, but right now, I don’t see myself changing much.

The only thing that’s changed is that little place inside me that used to feel somewhat ashamed or regretful that I never graduated from college.

That place is gone now. Woo!

Now here are a few pictures Jina took right after graduation outside the stadium. Uncle Dennis found me and handed me Lyla, whom I was so happy to see, and then my Aunt Marilyn posed for a picture with us as well.

Lyla

Lyla, Lyla, Lyla…this has been a big week for her in a few ways, most of them are just new things she is starting to do.

The first big thing is that she hasn’t cried all week when we put her down to sleep at night. Nothing. She can be dead asleep already, or even slightly awake, and she just settles down and goes to sleep. It took over a month, but she finally is used to it all.

And to top it off, Wednesday night she slept seven straight hours, only to beat that record on Thursday night with EIGHT hours of continuous sleep. From 8pm to 4am. It was amazing. Since then it’s only been around six, but it’s a sign of things to come.

She’s also started noticing the dogs more and more. I sat outside with her on Monday night, and aside from being fascinated with trees and ANYTHING new, she got caught up in watching the dogs run back and forth along the fence.

Amazingly, I think she even followed Charlie when she went behind us. She was looking at her on the left, Charlie went behind us, and Lyla turned to the right to wait for her to come around. Smart kid.

And now her smiling is changing a bit. Before it was a bit random, and maybe the smiles came because she was seeing us smile. Now she’s grinning when she sees us and when we try to make her laugh. We can just see her start to truly recognize us in different situations.

Jina also started working on daytime naps in the crib with Lyla, and that is going okay, but not without some crying. I give all kudos to Jina attempting this on her own because that crying can get to you.

Mike and Jina

Our week was good. Jina put new curtains up in the bedroom, which look really great. She hates the way our bedroom looks and is trying to get it to the point where she’s happy. And if she’s happy, I’m happy.

She also surprised me with the new U2 album this week, so thanks for that Jina!

We also got our new fridge this week, and because of a tiny little mark on it that the delivery guy saw, another $150 came off the final price, so we got the thing for under $850. Not bad.

Of course, most of what is going on is Lyla. She’s had a very interesting week. There are changes happening and we noticed them this week.

First off, she decided to start putting her right hand behind her head. She grabs her face, her ear or just the back of her head. It’s sort of what I do with my arm when I’m sleeping.

Now, Jina and I have a little bet going on whether she’ll be left-handed or right. Jina is a southpaw if you didn’t know, and I’m a normal person.

Since she’s doing that with her arm, I think I’m winning for now. But we’ll see.

Last time at the doctor’s office, she said Lyla would probably start clasping her hands together in front of her face and maybe start putting them in her mouth. It’s like she suddenly realizes that she can make them meet.

Well, that really was evident this week. She’s not only putting her hands in there, but grabbing her blanket gnawing on that. In fact, she grabbed my thumb today and pulled it into her mouth. So amazing that she’s starting to realize that she can do that.

She was incredibly fussy on Friday, but has been mostly an angel other nights. She’s still doing this random “up every 3-hours” now and then, but the last few nights she’s gone to bed without so much as a peep.

Jina

My wife’s week was fairly simple: Sick on Tuesday, home the rest of the time. She was unfortunate enough to catch a bad cold and even lost her voice a bit on Saturday.

But like the trooper she is, Jina was still able to feed Lyla and take care of her while I was at work. Breast milk actually prevents babies from getting sick most of the time, so the right thing to do when mommy is sick is to keep feeding the baby.

Jina was cooped up all week, so we went out on Saturday morning to get  few things from Home Depot, but she started feeling worse that evening. But Sunday she was 10-times better and we think the cold is gone now.

Mike

Last week was super-busy for me. I started a new class (got an A- in my last one, yay!) and then it was a lot of stuff going on with work.

As some of you know, I’m being “groomed” to become a project manager at my company. I have a practice project that actually became a bit difficult and I even had to ask the company we’re working for to pay us a bit more money for all the extra work we’re doing. It got a bit stressful, but ultimately worked out.

Of course, I asked for more on Friday and am crossing my fingers on that.

My new class started this week, which is US History 1865 to 1945. I love history so these classes are attractive to me. Although doing the work isn’t and I tend to get a bit stressed out when I get busy with work, life and then school on top of it.

Only a few classes left to go!

We also bought a new refrigerator this weekend, sometimes we didn’t expect to do, but an idea we had been talking about. The arrival of our tax refunds also helped.

But we’ve had our little 18 cubic foot box since 2001 and it’s started leaking. It’s been a good little fridge, but is on the small side and we find ourselves constantly out of room.

We also were looking at a $300 reverse osmosis system, and figured we could just get a new fridge for a little more and then have decent drinking water from that.

I’m soooooooooooo excited over this new fridge, which I know sounds crazy. But I’ve never, ever had a refrigerator with an ice and water dispenser, so I’m overjoyed. It’s going to be fun.

We had a great time though. Was a bit weird at first to leave Lyla with a sitter, but it didn’t bother us too much. We left her with Kathy, ate some crappy food, I won two bets yet again so free lunch on Friday, the Suns won, the seats were amazing and the time together was perfect.

Thanks to Kathy for not only the babysitting, but also the tickets themselves. Was such a treat.

I’m sitting here checking email before I head to bed and find myself with the need to write something. I’m not sure why. I think part of it is being a bit nostalgic or sad after reading this graphic novel called Blankets. It’s not your ordinary superhero, vampire or science fiction comic that you’d initially guess.

It’s a story about a boy who grows up with an annoying brother, a strict religious family and who falls in love with a girl from a different high school. I can’t say enough good things about the way the story was told, how truthful all the words inside it are and how much they remind me of my youth. The story of the boy and girl falling in love is so beautiful and perfect, you will get choked up while you read it.

Most people think of a graphic novel as a lesser (or inferior) medium when you compare it to books, but I wholeheartedly disagree. Some of the more meaningful stories for me this year have come from stuff like Blankets and Y:The Last Man.

There is a reason why tons of movies these days are adapted from graphic novels.

Anyway…a story that impacts me like this one tends to get me thinking about my own life. Which I’ve done a lot of lately. This year has been an insane race to prepare for the arrival of Lyla and that time is close at hand.

Worried about the loss of income if Jina doesn’t go back to work after Lyla arrives, or even part time, we started cutting costs and reducing bills. That went great (even if I miss my truck terribly), but I also felt like I needed to look for another job that might pay me a bit more.

Not only did I get two job offers in the course of two months, but both of these led to my current employer doing everything they could to keep me with them. I’m happy now and looking forward to what they have in store for me there.

I am even turning down a second offer by one of those other companies. That was a tough decision, but one that I felt was right.

Part of the means to increase our income was Pop Critics, the entertainment blog I ran with my friend Jason. But as time went on, I realized how much of my life was monopolized by it and how little I wanted to be that busy once my daughter gets here. Who wants to come home from work, eat dinner and then start working again? (“my daughter” – man that sounds so strange)

So I’ve given that up as well. And I feel good about that decision too.

In fact, this year has been full of choices for me, and none of these have happened without trusting in God to take care of things. Which is why it’s been so amazing for us.

When the idea of Jina being at home full-time after Lyla comes became a reality, the panic (for me) set in. I prayed and prayed and tried to make decisions where I could that would help us come December. I was stressed, freaked out and generally scared to death when I wondered how on EARTH I was going to support this family on my own.

And man how God has taken care of us. When Jina goes part time in January, the hit we’ll take in our income wont be close to as bad as I thought, especially with the sizable chunk in monthly expenses we cut and the raises I’ve received at work.

It took my friend Tyler a few weeks ago to sort of bring to my attention that God was providing for us. It’s strange how we ask him for help so often, yet when the good things happen, he’s the last person we want to “call” and share the good news with.

Are we ready for Lyla yet? Maybe not. But the panic is completely gone now. My time is freed up with the riddance of side jobs. The baby’s room is almost done.

But mostly…I know God is taking care of us and will continue to do so.

But one thing that I’m trying to finish before that is school. For those that know, I’ve been attending the University of Phoenix Online since the beginning of 2006. I never graduated from college and it was something that suddenly awoke in me as needing to be finished.

Well, I’m happy to report that I’m two weeks into my FINAL CLASS. Only three weeks left of writing papers, working in learning teams and of course, getting good grades. *grin*

I still have some electives required, but I’m going to knock those out with CLEP tests as soon as I can. I think I need to take about 4-5 of the tests to completely be done.

I’m worried about the tests, because I really need to motivate myself to study for them as much as I can and then take ‘em. It’s difficult without the deadlines I’ve had for 2.5 years now. But we’ll get it done.

So that’s the big update. I appreciate all the support I’ve gotten from family and friends. It’s been a long, long process for me…but I can’t believe it’s so very close to being over.

Hopefully this will open some doors if they are ever needed and give us opportunities that we haven’t even thought of yet.