Oh, Visalia.

Well, we have been here for 2 weeks.

We have lived in the rural, the urban, and now the suburban. While this is considered to be an "underserved community" (which allows Brandon to get a government loan repayment), it seems to be anything but. Most of the locations are in the middle of nowhere. Yes, there is the smell of cow nearby. But really, we don't have to drive more than 2 hours in any direction to get the mountains, beach, etc. And there is one street that has every place I can imagine. Except Cafe Rio and IKEA. But if you aren't sure where something can be, check Mooney street.

We have a view of the mountains! They're right over the school busses and solar panels by the middle school. It is great from the bedroom window.

Cora loves having her own room. We had to get a bin to store her stuffed animals, because otherwise she sits there and cries at night "Baby sad! Baby sad!" But she is doing ok.

Brandon works TWO MILES away. So now when I drive him to work it takes 20 minutes out of my day. He wants to get a bike soon to bike to work some days. But when he gets to the car at the end of the day Cora goes nuts. She misses him! Every time we come back to our apartment she runs to our room yelling "Dad! Dad!"

My favorite thing so far are the awesome people! People are SO nice. We've had many neighbors come out and introduce themselves to us, and offer to help us with anything we need. And the ward is so nice! Cora is doing ok with nursery. She has stayed the whole time for two weeks in a row! And there are SO many young moms around here for us to see. In the 2 weeks we've been here we have been to 2 library story times (which are more interesting to Cora than the Florida ones), 1 park playdate, 1 Cafe Rio run, 1 Musicmakers playgroup, and 2 dinners. We have seriously been overwhelmed with the kindness that has been shown.

Cora loves babies so much, so when we had the chance to hold our friend's baby I thought she would be thrilled. This is what happened.

Stinker.

Anyway, we love it here. We're planning to stay here at least 5 years. But if the schools are good and we don't have any reason to leave, I don't see why we need to go anywhere else.

Long Beach Roadtrip!

First weekend of February I got to have my first roadtrip with Megan and Ashlee to Long Beach. Megan had an item on her bucket list to cross off- "Run a half marathon". She wasn't sure if she was going to sign up, but thanks to our enabling encouragement she signed up. So Ashlee and I signed up for the 5k to be there with her.

So the half marathons that I have done have had hundreds or thousands of people running it. When we showed up, there were about 15 half AND full marathon runners total. I felt bad that she didn't have a lot of crowd support, but it made me more glad that we were there!

 

 Meanwhile I got these cute pictures. Cora loved trying to use a chopstick.

 We went to downtown Disney for dinner later that day. This was as close as we got to Disneyland (and saved ourselves a couple hundred dollars in the process!)

 The 2 hour wait was worth going to Rainforest Cafe. Unfortunately my morning sickness kicked in so I didn't get to enjoy my dinner as much as I wanted to, but it was still a fun place to be.

 If you were wondering why I snapped this license plate, spell it backward!

 We went to sacrament meeting on the way back up to Oakley, while this was happening. I'm so glad Cora is getting better at staying in nursery.

 I bought Cora her fourth Minnie mouse doll out of guilt, but with dad around, Cora didn't even miss me that much! But she does love her Minnie.

It was such a fun girl's trip! We will need to do it again! Next time San Diego??

Quarterly Report- 21 Months

How are we 3 months away from Cora's second birthday?? I'm totally in denial.

Cora has EXPLODED in her language this quarter. (I think I wrote that last time too.) She actually used 2 words together for the first time. "Baby sad." (when she saw a commercial with a baby crying.) She can now request a lot of the things she wants. It is SO helpful when she is crying and can actually tell me what she wants. The other day she was crying and fighting me to get away when I was trying to put on her shoes, and I asked what she wanted. She said "Mult" (milk), so I told her to grab her sippy cup of milk which was sitting nearby. She did and stopped crying. It was AMAZING! She can request milk, cheese, cookies, crackers, apple, banana, oranges, blueberries, and water to eat.

In addition, she is learning everyone's name. She can identify all the Giullians by their pictures, without even being asked. She calls Steve "Paman" and Karen "Dama". She is learning everyone else's name. I need to make her a photo album of everyone in pictures with her!

She loves to sing and dance to songs! Some of her favorites include "Wheels on the Bus", "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree", and ESPECIALLY "We are the Dinosaurs" by the Laurie Berkner band. Basically the songs she can do the motions to. She is learning to love "Do As I'm Doing" as well.

The one thing I hate right now (which has more to do with the time of year than her age) is she has been sick nonstop for probably 6 weeks. Right now we're staying home from church because she is sick AGAIN. It is just what happens at this age. I've learned to not freak out too much about it, because kids are just walking cesspools of germs.

She has been a TROOPER during this last quarter. Which I will write up more on later. But she is still the sunshine of our lives. She just makes me laugh every day. Even when she is being naughty like thinking she can walk up and down the stairs by herself.

We love our Cora Faye!

Giullians expand again!

And no, I'm not talking about Ashlee getting married. (BUT THAT IS STILL SO EXCITING!)

A few months after we move to Visalia, we will be welcoming baby 2 to the family! And we just found out it is a-

Since we moved from Florida I've had a hard time finding a doctor in network here. Since we'll be hopping on Brandon's work insurance soon I figure I can get some of the important appointments soon enough, but I was just dying to see the baby. So I found a place that does ultrasounds (for cash, which totally sounds legit right?), and went. Brandon was going to come but Cora was sick and miserable. So I went by myself and asked for the pictures as a surprise so that Brandon and I could find out together. We came back and watched the DVD. And it was a BOY!

Since we didn't tell anyone about the appointment, we decided to surprise everyone. Hence the cake. We were eating dinner at Megan and Ashlee's that night, so I got a cake from Raley's.

So to start, I found out I was pregnant 2 days after my grandpa's funeral. Which was a surprise and a great way to lift my spirits. I was extremely nervous about going to Ecuador the NEXT WEEK pregnant, especially if I turned out to be as sick as I was with Cora. I haven't been even nearly as sick! I was exhausted but I could blame that on the altitude change. I'm still exhausted. But I have only thrown up a few times this whole pregnancy. Less than I did in the first 2 days of morning sickness with Cora. We told my family on Thanksgiving since we were in Ecuador and talking about what we were thankful for, told Karen and Steve when they were in Florida, told Brandon's siblings on Christmas Eve with this shirt:

And told the rest of the world with this picture captioned: "Don't worry Cora, in about 6 months you'll miss our undivided attention!" around the New Year.

I am so excited and nervous for another baby, especially a boy! I didn't have a feeling one way or the other, even though I knew what I wanted his middle name to be if he was a boy. (which will be a surprise)

I have to say, I'm nervous. A boy is a whole new ballgame. I don't know why I seem so nervous about a boy, since both girls and boys will be challenging during the teenage years. With a boy coming, I worry about him learning that "boys will be boys" is NOT an excuse to do vulgar and horrible things. He will still represent our family, and the church, and everything we stand for. In a world where people say it's "normal" to say horrible things against women, I want to raise my son to know that is still wrong!

End of rant. I love this little boy already. I worry about Cora adjusting... but she will be fine! She's learning to say "baby brother".

Our Next Step!

So we moved out of our apartment December 10, not knowing where our next step would be. Luckily, Brandon got many calls and interviews after graduation so we felt like we weren't totally stranded.

On the 27, Brandon and I were able to go to Visalia CA to an interview for a family healthcare job. I was glad I got to go, even though I missed Cora terribly.

The job was AWESOME. They even drove us around town for a few hours letting us see places we could move into, and the parks nearby. It has running trails! SUPER excited about that. We found an apartment complex that we wanted to live in if they offered us the job. It has reasonable cost of living (especially for California). The population is 130,000, but due to the large migrant worker population would still qualify to pay off our student loans in 5 years. AND we would be 30 minutes from Fresno, which means a temple nearby!

But my favorite part of the place is the location. It is halfway between our parents. Which is perfect. When my parents get back they'll only be 3.5 hours away, which I am excited about because I will want to see them a lot. We are within a day's drive of Utah, and a much longer day's drive of Colorado.

Growing up we called this (and I still do) "cow poop country". Because it does smell like cow. But honestly, if that's my biggest complaint then whatever.

I wasn't totally sold on the move, but there was literally no reason not to be. It's just scary to think of living somewhere for at least 5 years. Since Brandon and I have been married we have moved every few years. And I never saw myself going back to California. But it feels right! So we are moving there February 6, and I can't be more excited to start our new chapter. CORA GETS HER OWN ROOM. I REPEAT, CORA GETS HER OWN ROOM. Which means WE get our room back! I can't wait to decorate Cora's room. Which she will get to share soon enough.

Brandon graduates PA school

Brandon's graduation was a very happy time for us. It was the culmination of 2 1/2 years of hard work, and our lives had been forever changed by our time in Miami.

The week of the graduation we had a fancy yacht party. Don't tell anyone who didn't notice, but this was the same dress I had worn for my Halloween costume. Nothing else even came close to "yacht party" status.

I also spent about 2 hours trying to get my makeup just right. Then the one picture we got all night washed it out. Oh well.

 Graduation day was an emotional one for sure. Not only had we already moved out of our apartment and said goodbye to our friends, but this was the last thing we were going to do before leaving our life in Miami forever. So I was already all over the place when Brandon went up to the stand. 

  I remember tearing up at the Hippocratic Oath, and Cora cheering "Woohoo!" for everyone's name (although we told Brandon it was just for him).

I'm sacrificing my face because Brandon and Cora look cute.

Congrats, PA-C Brandon Giullian!

Goodbye, Atlantic Towers.

Brandon and I have only moved twice. Our apartment in Miami was tiny,

(stock photo because I forgot to take one... these were the 2 rooms in our apartment.)

 noisy (indoor hallways), the kitchen always trapped the smells other people were cooking

(seriously, that was it. And no dishwasher or disposal for 2.5 years),

 and had crazy neighbors. The driving and traffic was terrible, we had the Miami SWAT nearly bust down our door right after we moved in, a high rise building exploded once, and we left during a hurricane. We had zero money during those 2 years, but were also extremely blessed that we never went without and were able to provide for ourselves and our growing family.

But it was also where I found out we were expecting our first 2 kids, and where we brought Cora home from the hospital. We spent our entire time in Miami there, and it had some really great qualities. We lived a block from the elementary school, 2 blocks from the grocery store, and had a lot of parks nearby. Of course, the 7 minute walk door to shore was amazing. I loved walking down the streets and seeing all the ridiculously rich cars and apartments. Cora learned to walk at those parks.

 Admiring the nativity in our lobby.

 

 We got to go to food trucks one more time, and see our friends again. Cora liked that creepy elf, weirdly enough.

 Wearing her Disneyland hat.

  The whole apartment was packed besides the furniture, things we were tossing, and things we were putting in the car. Not much to play with.

 We went to our final story time at the mall while they packed up our apartment.

 Olaf was also there. Cora was a fan.

 We didn't think through the one naptime where she didn't have a bed to sleep in. It did not go well.

 Celebrating (or mourning) leaving our apartment with some Shake Shack.

 Finally, a crib again.

 I couldn't even muster up a fake smile. It was too hard!

 We moved in as a party of 2, and left as a party of 3.25. It had its flaws, but we loved that place and leaving was so hard. I can't wait to go back to Sunny Isles with Cora someday and show her where she was born. And we can show the rest of the kids how cool it was that we lived a block from the beach and could walk there for 2.5 years. As we drove over the causeway one last time (the one where we nearly lost control of our car when Cora was 6 weeks old) and past the 3 mile loop I would bring Cora on runs multiple times a week, I was so overwhelmed with nostalgia I had to hold it in.

 And of course, we had to see the Trump Tower one more time. 1 of 6.