Disney on Ice!

In February, we got tickets for Disney on Ice for the kids. It was AWESOME!! I really enjoyed taking the kids and they loved the show. (The only sad part was that Paul couldn't make it because he was at a training for work that day.) We saw the show called Worlds of Fantasy which takes Mickey Mouse and friends through "an adventure" through some of the Disney movie stories. The in-between Mickey and Minnie bits were kind of boring (I thought) but the main shows were soooo good. We saw Cars, the Lion King, the Little Mermaid, and Tinkerbell. The Tinkerbell program was the last one and by that time I was DONE taking video while holding a squirming child and just trying to watch the show myself... but I've posted videos from the other shows. Take a look! (Sorry for the lack of picture stability I was trying to capture everything at once and, of course, there was the SQUIRMING CHILD!!)

The Lion King -

Cars -

The Little Mermaid -

We'll definitely go back and take Dad with us!!

Mateo's Photography

So Mateo is quite the creative little guy... he's always been really into music and drawing, anything creative. Recently, I taught him how to use our camera - which, on a sidenote, NEVER teach your kids something that you don't want to hear about every five seconds for the next 2 weeks! "Mama, can I take a picture? Mama, can I use the camera? Mama, I want to take your picture, can I? Mama, I know how to use the camera, don't I? Mama, I know how to take pictures now! Mama, can I take a picture?" You get the idea... anyway, so I taught him how to take pictures and after a few rough takes, he got the hang of it. He's turning into quite the abstract photographer. So here's a preview of my son's photography - take a good look because you might see these in print shops a few years from now! ;)


His early attempts... this is our laptop computer, up close and personal:




Little sister's sippy cup... or baby arm chair? Who knows what he was going for here!




Mom knitting a hat:


Table leg; this is when he starts getting very artsy:



Our ceiling fan (check out how well-centered that picture is, huh!):

The inside of a toy tub - with one little toy in it (I'm sure this one has some symbolism in it, I've just never been good at interpreting that):

Little toy truck or giant baby foot? He was going for an optical illusion here, see:

And my favorite (I like this one because he took some time to set up the trucks and line them up in a row - so cute!):

To order prints of Mateo Corona's photography, please send request via email or phone. Price per print: $75 - $200, shipping and handling fees extra. All proceeds will go to the Mama Pays the Bills Fund. Don't wait, order now!

Landscaping

A couple weeks ago we undertook the task of landscaping our front yard. Now, for those of you that are confused, don't worry, you didn't miss anything. We didn't buy a new house or anything; it's just that for one reason or another our front yard never quite looked how we wanted it to... for 6 years. So we were finally able to get some cash together to buy a few things and put it all together. It turned out pretty nice! Check out the transformation.

... And We're Back!!

Soooo... we had a little bit of a break there in the blog updates - well, really, a HUGE break, sorry about that. But we're back now and I'll work to update everyone on the Corona happenings since last summer.

One quick update:

I'm now licensed!! I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist which makes me an official counselor... not that I was just pretending before, but, until you're licensed, you can only do therapy under the supervision of another licensed therapist. But now, I can work on my own. And, actually, I've started working in my own private practice. It's all very exciting!

Keep checking in!

Baby hats

So recently I've become quite the knitter... I started out in the regular way - knitting scarf after scarf (I literally have like 10 that I've made!), but lately I've taken on new projects. I made a blanket for our friends Paulo and Maya for their new baby (when he arrives), and a little while ago I made some hats for my kids. They're so cute! (The hats and the kids!) :)

The Journey Toward Licensure

Quite some time ago I started the long and arduous journey of becoming a Marriage and Family Therapist. I got my undergraduate degree (which took 4 years), then I got my graduate degree (another 2 years), and now I've recently completed collecting the required 3,000 (!!!) hours of experience (4 more years). I am now officially able to apply for eligibility to take the licensing exam - which means turning in a whole mess of paperwork in the hopes that it all gets approved by the powers that be so that I can then take a 4-hour anxiety-provoking test which, if I pass, deems me licensed, and therefore "competent," to provide therapy to any poor soul that seeks out my services. (I'm being a little dramatic, but I am pretty nervous about taking the licensing exam.) So the day I went to mail off my paperwork to the BBS (i.e. "the powers that be") my friend Kim (another licensing hopeful) and I recorded every moment for posterity.

Here we are in the office, so excited to take this next step in our journey together. Little did we know what was in store for us....

First stop: the bank! The BBS kindly requested $200 in the form of a money order to accompany my application. Without these $200, I'm sure that my application would be laughed at before getting thrown in the trash. So, I must pay...

And now, here is where we begin the fun....

Second stop: United States Post Office!

We thought it would be so easy... go to the post office, get our passport-sized pictures taken (a requirement for the application), mail off the entire package, and go off to enjoy our celebratory lunch at the best place in town: McDonald's.

Sadly, our hopes were dashed because at this post office they do not take passport pictures, as we were so kindly informed by one of the fine postal workers. But, there was hope! She told us we could go to the Kearney Ave. Post Office to get our pictures taken. Awesome! So we went...

Stop #3: Post Office #2

We got to the second post office and, yes! they do indeed take passport photos here. However, the one person in the entire post office that takes the pictures was out to lunch! Can you believe it?

But we didn't have to wait too long. Mitzi (the picture taker) arrived and we continued the process of getting our paperwork turned in. Here I am getting my picture taken by little Mitzi. Now, the story behind this portion of the journey is that while Mitzi is the official picture taker of the Kearney Ave. Post Office.... she's not exactly the world's best photographer. It took Mitzi a full two and a half minutes to take my picture, while jiggling the camera and asking me, "Are you ready?" about 38 times. Yes, Mitzi, I'm ready; are you?

And then the wait began...

I don't know what Mitzi was doing back there, but we waited a good long time for our pictures to come out. When Mitzi finally came back, she informed me that my picture had not come out. "It didn't come out," said little Mitzi, "I don't know what happened." And so, I had to repeat the process of sitting for half a lifetime on an uncomfortable stool with my face frozen in a "natural" smile while Mitzi circled and circled the camera around, looking for me on the camera's screen while I sat 2 feet away from her. "Are you ready?" Yes, Mitzi. Yes. I'm ready.

Here, our "waiting faces" while Mitzi returned again to the inner sanctum of the post office.

Approximately 36 minutes later (I wasn't counting or anything), Mitzi came out, my picture was done, and we were ready to mail off the entire package. Yay!!

Here's Mitzi hard at work:

She was actually very sweet and very helpful, despite her shortcomings as a photographer. By the end of our time together, she had won me over. When we told her that we were taking pictures of her, she said, "Can I see?" Cute little Mitzi.

After we finally got everything mailed off, we attended our celebratory lunch and then this part of our journey -$200 and 2 hours later - was over.

I received my delivery confirmation a few days later which means that the BBS received my paperwork and is (theoretically) processing it for approval. If everything goes through as it should, I'll be able to take the test soon. I'm keeping my fingers crossed...