Alright so I have taken Sensaria to a whole new level. I have started a Sensaria blog for my own home Sensaria page. Wow it even connects to my twitter page. Follow it now and you too can follow my tips and tricks.
http://www.sensariaerrin.blogspot.com/
I love that I can fulfill my dream of being a stay at home Mom and selling something that helps promote being natural and beautiful.
Remember Natural is beautiful too!
check it out
www.sensaria.com/errin

Nicolas, Bella and the Mendibles cousins at the pier in Oceanside.

Nicolas and Bella pictured with a "Jockey" at the Del Mar racetrack.
Bella and I at overpriced Lego Land!

Princess Bella with another princess at Lego Land.
Isabella saying cheese!!
Nicolas and Bells waiting for our table at the restaurant.

It's always hard to remember how quickly time really does fly! Nicolas has started 5th grade in San Diego and Miss Isabella is 20 months old. Both kids have acclimated to the newest home so well. I often forget how good Nicolas really is with change. He has lived in five different cities since birth and with every knew change he just keeps rolling with the punches. I hope Bella will be as good with change but she's already loving this new place we call home. She loves our almost daily walks out at the beach and while she won't remember the cold she already doesn't miss it. Although I don't think any of us will miss the Chicago cold.
Nick is gone daily to stores in and around the SoCal area. He spends a lot of time in the Orange County area so it's good we are so far North of San Diego. He's less than 2 hours away from any of his stores. He's now gone back to school as well. He's taking the certification class for his PHR Professional in Human Resources and SPHR Senior Professional in Human Resources. He's getting one of these but the classes covers both certifications. This class is incredibly hard and has only 60% of the certification seekers actually passing. HUGE! I hope Nick can get through this and we can move to me going back to school.
I found out the CA Dept of Credentialing had made a mistake and all I need to do to get re-certified is take two computer classes about integrating technology into the classroom. Seeing how I taught computers and guided teachers on how to integrate technology into their classes I don't foresee this even being an issue. What is weighing on my mind is the history test I'm required to take in order to teach history. The test covers the entire span of history! Uhm hello hard. What person, even a history person, knows every aspect of history. So I will be giving myself time to begin studying for that fun test. Once done with those three tasks I'll be trying to get my foot in with a school.
As of right now though I'm home with Isabella and we seem to keep each other busy. She'll begin a fun pre pre-school class on Thursday mornings.
Other than that not too much to talk about. Oh well of course unless you count our house in Chicago still sitting in Sewage water. But who really wants to go through that literally!

June 7th will be the next chapter in my life book.
I've been dealing with endometriosis for 14 years. I'd been told I would never have children because of diabetes and endometriosis. I was so blessed to have a son at the age of 20. He was not an easy child to bring into this world but he has always been willful, adorable, kindhearted and incredibly competitve. Nick and I were blessed to get pregnant again in 2003 but circumstances beyond our control took our baby girl before she was ready for the life we were ready to give. Everything happens for a reason and in the next years we grew closer as a family. Nick and I both grew in our professional lives and Nicolas was begining to grow through education and become a sociLly more mature young boy. On May 22, 2008 I was given the most shocking news ever. I was told that I was pregnant! At that point Nicolas was 9 years old and Nick and I didn't think we would be blessed to have anymore children. 4 days later I turned 30 and Nick surprised me with a trip to the Hotel Del on Coronado Island. It was such a great vacation and that was when we decided to show Nicolas the ultra sound pictures of the baby we would be having. He was so excited. As excited a 9 year old can get.
Nick was then informed that he was being hired as the HR director for the Central Region. So we then moved to Chicago, Elmhurst, IL to be exact, and bought our first house in August 2008. Isabella Marie Mendibles was born 12/23/2008. She weighed 9.03 lbs. It was a high stress birth for Bella and I but we both made it out alive.
We were only in IL for 19 months but it was enough time for Nick and I to realize that family has to come first. We realized we wanted to work to live not live to work. So Nick took a step down on the corporate ladder and we up and moved to Oceanside, CA. Nick's back to working for Brian, Nick's mentor.
We are here and I am now dealing with the pain from endometriosis. I did want to have a third baby but at thus point I have to get over that and realize that for te benefit of the two children I have I must feel okay. I can't be the mom I want to be if I don't feel good. So I will not give birth to anymore children in hopes of beating this disease that has ruled my life fo way too long. I know it can only get better because in all honesty it can't get much worse. My two beautiful children are blessings that so many woman with this horrible disease never get to experience. I'm so lucky to have my Mom who is able to come and help me and my Step Dad who undertands and just goes with it when it comes to everything the Mendibles family has gone through. I'm more scared about staying in the hospital than I am about the surgery but my Mom and Nick will keep me company and I will get through thus next ordeal.

We made it!

On February 6th 2010 we rolled into Oceanside. It was a great relief to have a "bed" to sleep in, but it was even more exciting to just be able to call a place home. The movers and our stuff arrived early Sunday morning. We were expecting unpackers to arrive as well but apparently there was an oversight and they never got scheduled. It was probably better that way so we didn't feel rushed to just put stuff places.
I didn't know what to expect driving across country with two kids, one being stuck in a car seat and the other just being bored the whole time. It was great fun and so educational. Despite himself Nicolas did too. Even after the two diaper dashes we had to do at gas stations we had fun. It's those unplanned events that usually make trips so much more fun than we thought. As I'm running out of the gas station telling Nick to, "go go go start the car and go." He thought I robbed the place. We can look back and tell those funny stories to Bella and Nicolas. We had many abstract Nickisms. Things that only Nick and say and of course Errinisms. Nick telling me that Bella will have to have a Quinceañera and I then asked didn't he have to be a practicing Mexican to do that. Nick telling me I didn't need to go up to the room to fix my hair. It didn't matter I was going home with him at the end of the night anyway. Point taken.
We had great experiences in Chicago that have influenced all of our lives. We have learned from some more than others but regardless we have learned. We made friends that we hope distance won't keep us from staying in touch. We are closer to family which we learned even more so is so necessary. We are closer then we've ever lived since being away from Tucson.
I feel like we belong close to the ocean. We are sun people and both my children love the water. It's a hard thing to adjust to when you can't leave the house for days at a time because of the weather. If that's what you know then more power to ya. If you've been born and raised in Arizona it's difficult to get used to. -16 is very cold. We won't miss shoveling snow, mowing a football sized yard and the continued worry of what will break next when owning a home. Nicolas will miss the snow days but I think he would trade the ocean for snow days anytime.
Thank you for keeping tabs on us and for all of you who helped us in this transition. Nick is completely 100% back to being Nick. No stress, laid back and healthy. It takes a lot out of a person when they are trying to be perfect for everyone. It just can't happen. He's loving being back and working with all the people he knew before leaving.
While it was a hellacious 18 months in Chicago it taught us so much we would've never learned otherwise.

Vegas Baby or so they say!

It was a very wet drive into Nevada, or so Nick tells me. When I get in the car and drive I sleep. I always have been so thank goodness Nick is a driver.
Once we made it to Hoover Dam I was so shocked about the construction. Actually not really. The road into Vegas has ALWAYS been under construction. This time though it seems they are building a bridge to head off the bottle neck that happens going down to the bridge. This bridge will be bigger than the Golden Gate and when we drove by I was astounded by the size of it. Amazing! Of course we had fun saying the Dam Dam looks good and all that.
We finally made it to our room at the Bellagio and we ordered Nicolas dinner, Bella was sleeping and headed out to have dinner with Alex, Nick's oldest brother. We ate at one of the previous Top Chef's restaurant. It was good but to me it was still just a hamburger place. I lost money on the craps table, which Alex said I let him show me how to play and I wold win win win. I've never lost money playing craps until this night. $60.00 came and went. Good thing it was the sale money from Craigslist so nothing really lost but still.
We all slept great and ate at the buffet at the hotel. It's always so hard for me to eat at a buffet because I never eat as much as I feel I should. I'm a cereal kind of girl. I could have cereal for every meal and sometimes I do. We had $5.00 cash left and I asked Nick to go win me a million on a slot. Sadly he was at the checkout counter before we were. He didn't win any.
Vegas was fun but we were only there one night and unless you're up all night into the morning, which I've done in Vegas a few times, that just isn't enough time.
We were all ready to head out and get to Oceanside, CA

Flagstaff

We drove in from Albuquerque to Flagstaff, AZ.
Nick hadn't been back to Flag since graduating and for me it had been at least 5 years. We met with Nick's Dad, who we hadn't seen in 9 years, at LaFonda. This Mexican food restaurant brings back so many good memories. We headed back to our hotel, Little America, and we all were out as soon as our heads hit the pillows. Little America is a hotel that was always out of reach for Nick and I. It was too expensive but a place I wanted to stay. It's not that it's overly nice even. It was just always out of our reach. My friend Joy, who lives in Flagstaff, invited us to stay with them. I told her thank you but we really want to stay at Little America just to cross it off the bucket list.
We drove Nicolas by Flagstaff hospital where Nicolas was born. He nodded his head, "that's nice." We drove by where we bought our GEO, where I spent many night drinking and Nick did a lot of not. We drove by the church that we got married at with Nicolas again nodding his head saying, "nice." We went to Mt View which was the dorm that Nick and I lived in. We also look over to the infamous "Fontaine" house. Yep it's still there. We both went to our respective greek "wings" and remembered lots of things. Nicolas got to see his famous picture up in the Gamma Phi wing when he was voted Gamma Phi Guy. This is where I then put, I saw so many Gamma Phi girls and they were so nice and respectful to me. That they gave me the grip and then asked what I'd been up to since being involved with the chapter for 7 years. I would put that right here but I can't........
It really wouldn't have bothered me so much if we hadn't gone up to the Sigma Chi wing. We were up there looking at the composite pictures as we had been a few minutes earlier in my old wing. Four guys came up to Nick introduced themselves, gave him the grip, asked what he'd been up to, how he was doing....... Are you kidding me?? Nick wasn't even in a composite picture because he was a little less involved than I was. He then rubbed it in that is hand hurt from shaking so many guys hands. yadayadayada.
We then left and stopped to surprise an old bank friend and then we were off to Joy's house for lunch. Joy was my Gamma Phi Mom and a great friend in college. I was at Maloney's when Joy went on her first date with Chad, her husband. I remember her telling me to not speak to Chad and to not do anything embarrassing because she might like this guy. I believe I did speak with Chad and he still married Joy so...
Joy has two kids, Natalie and Brett, and apparently her son and my daughter will be married in 30 years. Bells and Brett were sharing sippy cups one minute and then Bella is making weird noises. We look over and Brett is on top of her and they are totally kissing. Super cute, in my eyes. Nick was a little weirded out. We had lunch, caught up and headed out to Las Vegas for the last leg of our trip.
We had such a great time visiting memories that seem like they really happened yesterday and yet it was over 10 years ago when they began. Crazy!!!

We left Amarillo and headed west towards Albuquerque. It wasn't an easy trek though. We had to travel through a heavy snow storm. We were praying I-40 wouldn't close but alas it did. We were only 50 miles from Albuquerque. We checked into a motel in a small town called Moriarty, NM. We unpacked the car, set up Bella's bed and as soon as we did all that I-40 reopened. So we decided to pack the car back up, check back out of the hotel and head to our much nicer hotel in Albuquerque. We made it!!
The next morning we hung around Old town Albuquerque and looked at the sites. We saw the oldest and longest working churches. It was built in the 1700's and hasn't closed since. There were cannons from the Civil War for Nicolas to play on and a pretty gazebo. We stopped in an Indian art shop and bought Bella a Navajo bracelet. She has the same design on her bracelet as her Grandma as on a ring.
It seemed as though yesterday was by far the longest leg of the trip thus far. It probably wasn't but it sure seemed long. We stopped at Church Rock off right outside of Gallup, NM. We did stop at the Petrified Forest but only to change a diaper. At that point we were all tired and wanted to just get to Flagstaff. We finally made it around 5:00pm. We are staying at the historic Little America. This hotel is a true step back into time. It's like going straight back to the 1950's. It's been fun for all of us. We met Nick's Dad and his wife at LaFonda Mexican restaurant for dinner and then came back to the hotel and we all passed out.
We are heading out today for Las Vegas. We plan on showing Nicolas a few places in and around Flagstaff and then head out to a friend's house for lunch. We will then head back to I-40 and go to Vegas to visit Alex, Nick's oldest brother.
More to come......