Posting want ads for painters on my social networking apps worked :) Still lots to do though! My "help wanted" shoutout is still in effect.

Doing more painting at the house tonight. And tomorrow night. And the next night. And the next...Will cook good food for painter help :)

Franco home videos!

Check out these videos of us hanging out with Gabriel right before bedtime today. The first one is of me and Gabriel, and the second one is of Michael and Gabriel. Enjoy! :)

 
 

Cutest baby ever.

Gabriel and I take dock breaks almost every day. We go for a walk around the little private dock and pier that our apartment has. I don't like our apartment very much, but I do love being so close to the water. A trip outside is 99.9% effective for making Gabriel a very happy baby when he's fussing! 

Needed: Adult interaction

I really need some girl time soon! Or maybe just some adult interaction of any kind. I should confess that I did have a lovely-but-too-short phone call with a friend last night, which was great.

I actually felt like I had a good conversation with my 5 1/2 month old this morning. Ladies and gentlemen, all he does is smile, drool and go "ooooh."

Maybe that's why the conversation made me feel so good about myself :)

Pharisees among us: http://ping.fm/KPLVF

Pharisees among us

In the Gospels, Jesus has lots of conversations with the Pharisees, the self-proclaimed elite of Palestine who dedicated themselves to fulfilling every detail of Jewish law. The Pharisees looked down on the common people. I have been reading a good bit of the Gospels lately, and I've been wondering why there are so many passages where Jesus has confrontations with the Pharisees.

I've come to the conclusion that--if we're all being honest here--there's a little bit of Pharisee in all of us. And because God knows Christians should know better than to be self-righteous, I'm calling us out on it!

Mark Twain once said that, "Man is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isn't straight."

Ouch. Because it's true and shouldn't be.

I've seen too many of my brothers and sisters in faith cutting people down by gossip or even verbal attack (well-intentioned or not!) over differences in the ways they've choose to live out their Christian faith.

And it's so, so harmful.

I claim to be nothing but an extremely amateur and well-intentioned theologian. :) I am just a woman trying her heart out to be a more Christlike wife, mommy, daughter, friend and human being. However, I do have thought on the Pharisees among us and in us these days. 

First, I think that there are fundamentals of Christianity that necessarily mean that you live your life and treat others a certain way. Beyond those fundamentals, however, are lifestyle choices and actions that come with having a deeper relationship with God. That's where the Pharisees of today come in. I've seen too many people turned off to otherwise fantastic people, families, parishes and even religions because of feeling judged or verbally attacked on what we'll call "non-fundamentals."

Some examples from people I've known in my own life? I've met men and women who told me they either felt uncomfortably judged or were verbally attacked for wearing too-short shorts, for not homeschooling their children, for buying liquor at the grocery store, for not being a stay-at-home mom, for asking too many questions in religion class, for not acting in a certain way with their spouses, and even for not living up to someone's standards of reverence in church.

Some of these are simply lifestyle choices: i.e. choosing to be a stay-at-home mom or homeschooling your children. Others are things that we may find God calling us to reconsider as our relationship with Him deepens. Modesty and reverence in church are examples of this. 

Again, I'm no theologian, and I know that it's probably impossible to get all Christians to agree on exactly what those "fundamentals" are! However, I think that the answer to that question lies in what you have to believe--and (hopefully) do--in order to call yourself a Christian.

Off the top of my head: Love your neighbor as yourself. Love God with all your heart, mind, strength and soul. Realize that you need God, and that He loves you and every soul on earth with a passion you can't even fathom. Respect the dignity of human life. Humble yourself in every possibly way and situation. Seek God's will and plan for your life. Put others before yourself.

In the end, if we Christians understand even one thing about what Jesus was trying to teach us with all of those confrontations with the Pharisees, it should be that we all need to take our self-righteousness out with the trash, for "anyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and anyone who humbles himself will be exalted." -Matthew 23:12

Catholic Charities is helping thousands of LA fishing families who are losing their livelihoods because of the oil spill--prayers needed http://ping.fm/QJrzV

Who knew there were 1,000 shades of white to pick from? Seriously.

I wish I could have all of the people who read my blog pick out paint colors for my new house! Any interior designers out there who will work for free or a really nice meal? Who knew that there were so many shades of white to choose from? Who had to go and make the color white so complicated? To top it all off, my faithful husband--God love him :)--is colorblind and my mom lives a couple hundred miles away. What's a girl to do?

Michael has been working like a dog to get our house painted so we can move in. He is pretty sick right now, and he still goes every day after work! I feel pretty helpless most of the time, because all I can do is watch the baby and stress over paint colors.

I know, I know: 'Let nothing disturb thee, let nothing dismay thee' and all of that. :) The color of the walls in my home doesn't matter in scope of eternity. How's that for putting a girl's problems into perspective?

However.

If we're spending this much money to buy our home, then I want it to reflect who we are and I want it to be a warm and inviting place. There's something to be said in how paint colors can help created the "feel" of a room. Hence why I'm so thankful that Michael is (in general) being incredibly patient with my constant vacillations over minutely-different shades of neutrals. :)

I think that I am picking out paint colors for my home like I pick out an outfit for the day. I like my outfit to fit both my state of mind for that day and my personality. Sometimes, it might take me several changes of clothes to get the right look that I'm feeling for that day, but once I'm in the right outfit, I don't worry about what I'm wearing or what I look like for the rest of the day. Once we get these colors right, I'm going to stop worrying about all of this, and start worrying about cooking wonderful meals in my new kitchen, making a garden in the backyard, and maybe even filling up our new "crib" with more baby Francos! (Pun intended :)

Very soon, I need a baby sitter, a pedicure, a holy hour, and a margarita or three.

Luaus, cleavage problems, brown hair and ALL the Franco Ladies

ALL the Franco ladies :) We're quite a crew!!!

Gabriel and his second cousin, the lovely Miss Brittani Schneider

Michael and me with my new dark 'do :) I don't know if you realize that the lei I'm wearing is sort of strategically twisted and placed. I am back to my pre-pregnancy weight, but I'm quite a bit more buxom than I was the last time I put it on (especially since it was nearing Gabriel's feeding time)! I made the mistake of not trying on this dress before I put it on for the party, and I was mortified that anyone at least at eye level with me could see straight down the front of the dress. Thank goodness for the lei; otherwise, I was planning on holding a drink cup in front of my chest all night!

Meeting Aunt Jenay for the first time! And going directly for the hair, as is becoming more a more a habit with him...

Meeting Uncle Chris for the first time!

All the Franco couples...Little did I know when I met Jenay and Jackie in 2006 that we'd all be married and sisters forever by July of 2010!

I just procured this picture of Gabriel's great uncle Markie letting him wear his mustache for a while at the Mexican fiesta shower a couple of weeks ago. We didn't have much for Gabriel's costume and I guess Uncle Markie felt sorry for him. :) It was pretty darn cute. 

Well, I've dyed my hair its "natural" color and I'm no longer a blonde. Think Anne Hatheway for my new look...craziness :)

It is just hitting me today...I'M A HOMEOWNER!!! Wow!

Is this hat too girly for him? (This is an unashamed affirmation-seeking statement here, guys :) http://ping.fm/tko3Y

"Does this hat make me look like a girl?"

This is one of the little hats I bought Gabriel a couple of weeks ago.

I think he looks completely adorable in it, but [stream-of-consciousness warning] I am also starting to think that this hat is technically a little "girl" hat that I willed to be a little boy hat because I wanted to buy him one and this was one of the only ones his size in the bin....

Your thoughts?

I betcha that 20-something years from now, Gabriel is going to look back on his old baby pictures and moan about how dorky all of his baby clothes were. Aside from the girly hat, he will probably take issue with the jean shorts/capris I have him in right now (otherwise known as "jorts" or "japris"). At which point I will agree with him that jorts and japris for men should not be socially acceptable in any period of history. Except on babies. :)

House happiness

I know it's been a while since my last post, but I have really good excuses!


1. We bought a house on Friday. 
2. I've been sick with a particularly evil and persistent nightmare of a cold for the last week. 


I promise to post pictures of the new house and first-time-homeowners (complete with $8,000 tax credit!) very soon. As soon as I feel like a human being again, that is.

At least Michael and Gabriel have lived up to their names and have been complete angels this week. I don't think that five month olds are supposed to sleep this much, so I think it's either Heaven or Gabriel blessing me with that one. :) And Michael has been taking good care of me, too.

We are so, so excited about our house! There is a lot more work that needs to be done than I realized, but at least it's mostly just a new paint job (for everything in the house). In fact, Michael has lined up a few good friends to help us do a lot of the painting tomorrow.

Yes, that means that we closed on the house on Friday, picked out paint colors today, and will paint tomorrow. I understand that many people take days and weeks to pick out paint colors for their homes. Today, at some point, I just decided to stop sweating it on the colors. I think the ones we (I) chose will look great--there's nothing too bold or daring in the color scheme anyway. (I say "I" because my husband is colorblind, by the way :) I was so thankful that our friends Angela and Tyler-Blair came over and gave us their extremely helpful input on colors. Thank God for good friends!

Well, now that I'm sounding about a hundred times more cheerful than my poor, coughing and sneezing body feels, it's time for me to get a load of darks in the washer, pack more diapers for tomorrow, finish cleaning up the kitchen, and get into bed.

Actually, the getting into bed part is feeling like it might get pushed to the front of the list...

"Get me away from these crazy people!" and other weekend snapshots http://ping.fm/Onw84

"Get me away from these crazy people!" and other weekend snapshots

Get me away from these crazy people!!!

Stylin'

Michael and I got to drop Michelle off at the house she and her date were eating at before prom. Here's a quick picture before she left. *No infants were harmed in the taking of this picture* :)

We got to visit Mema (Michael's grandmother) and let her spend some one-on-one time with Gabriel before Jeff and Jacki's fiesta shower. 

Great-Uncle Markie rocked Gabriel to sleep at Jeff and Jacki's shower! Buenos noches Gabriel!

My big baby!

Mommies don't get sick days

I haven't had a lesson in being a Big Girl in a while.

I came down with a pesky sore throat and runny nose on Sunday night, but by Monday afternoon, my little cold took a turn for the worse. I had a raging fever, all-over body ache, chills, a very sore throat and a strong desire to either curl up and die or get in bed and sleep for twelve hours.

After curling up and dying didn't work, I took the sleep for twelve hours route, but I still feel pretty awful today. :(

Gabriel has taken to waking up at 6 a.m every day, and I realized as I rolled over and groaned out of bed this morning that mommies (and especially working mommies like me) don't get sick days. Gabriel still needed a bath this morning. And first and second breakfast. And his diaper changed. And some playtime. Additionally, I have a time-sensitive project for work with a deadline that meant I had to work today.

You get an incredibly powerful lesson in being a Big Girl when you are taking care of a happy little person who doesn't know you don't feel well. :)

There's a sweet part of my story today. My husband treated me like a queen (albeit a pitiful little sick one) last night. As I drifted in and out of sleep, Michael waited on me hand and foot, did ALL of the laundry, cleaned up the entire apartment, cooked dinner, did the dishes, and took care of quite a lot of things that we need to get done this week before we close on our house on Friday. He's amazing.

Which brings to mind the fact that this sick mommy has a teammate to help her out when she's sick, which makes all the difference in the world to me. :)