A Day Late...Happy Father's Day!

 

I'm so glad I captured these photos because they depict Franco's perpetual temperament when it comes to calming down baby Clarke. Franco's serene nature as he holds our little one is contagious--Clarke knows the difference between when I'm holding him and when his daddy is holding him. I just don't have that calming effect on him like Franco does, and that's why I'm so, so grateful for my husband and all that he is and does. I literally couldn't do it without him.

Happy First Father's Day!

Rewind: Back To School, Ring The Bell. I Can Tell That We Are Gonna Be Friends.

In the next little while, I will be "rewinding" a bit to post about events which occurred in the past 6 months or so. Bear with me while I catch up! 

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Rewind: Western University: The Early Months

September & October 2011 

First years get to do vision screenings!

Franco's first patient!

Franco's caption: "Having fun with optics."
My caption: "What a dork." ;)

Franco & classmates doing vision screenings at an elementary school

What a relaxed doctor he'll make.

Out to lunch with a bunch of his classmates!

Nichole & I cheering our husbands on at a WUCO basketball tournament against SCCO, their rival school in Fullerton.

They got third place! Not too shabby.

Franco is loving optometry school. He made it through the first semester, and now he's more than halfway done with the second! I'm so proud of him. He spends most of his time at lectures, which sometimes he elects to watch at home since they video tape them and post them online. I don't even know how much he reads and studies; it amounts to over 60 hours a week, except Sundays. Kudos to those who have such a determined attention span (says the lady who has trouble remembering what happened this morning...or twenty minutes ago).

Something that really helps is having such a supportive and close-knit relationship with his classmates. They joke around, help each other out, and encourage each other through everything. I've met a lot of the students in his class and they are truly great people! Western really is the perfect school for us. I'm glad Franco has a support group besides me that cares about him and wants to see him succeed.

Back in the beginning of October, WUCO played a basketball tournament against SCCO, their rival school in Fullerton. Franco's "dream team" almost won second place--it was an intense game that went into four overtimes, I think. Oh, well. We'll get them next year!

Baby, You're A Firework!

All of those dark, blurry dots on the bottom are people on the pier right under the fireworks. They're crazy.

Franco's so lucky. He'll never, ever have to work on his birthday {unless he's out of the country on the 4th of July for some reason}, he usually has a ton of family surrounding him because they all have the day off, and he gets a fireworks show just for him at the end of the day! Talk about spoiled, haha! 

This year was no different. It started with a 4th of July breakfast at our church, where we hung out with all my side of the family and a lot of friends. Then we drove up to Santa Barbara in time for the big parade on State Street. We ate some ice cream while we watched and sat on the curb. After that, Franco got his brothers, uncle, and dad together for a game of basketball while my sil Mayra, niece Aaliyah, and I cheered them on. Aaliyah joined in a couple of times, though we had to pull her out quick before she got whacked by the ball!  

After shooting some hoops we had cake at his parent's house with all of his family {I took pictures, but it seems I've misplaced them at the moment} and then we were off to the beach to watch the fireworks. 

Something really funny happened. My uncle {he's the one in the red in the first picture above} and his family were staying in SB that night so we planned to meet at the beach somewhere. If you've ever been to Santa Barbara on the 4th of July you'll know there are an insane amount of people there! Seriously, tons. Cell phone coverage usually goes out because there are too many people in one place using phones. Well, my uncle, aunt, and cousins were already there and the only clue they'd given us was that they were about 100 yards to the left of the pier. Franco and I parked and walked towards the beach, which was already covered with people, and literally not a minute passed after we stepped onto the sand that I suddenly spotted my uncle's red shirt and black cap a dozen yards away. I said, "There they are!" When we walked up to them they were as astonished as we were that we found them so fast. It was hilarious! And fortunate.

We enjoyed a really cool fireworks show {with music, and yes, they played Katy Perry} and we ended another wonderful day celebrating my honey bunches, I mean, Franco. He had a big, happy smile on his face on the drive home that night, so I think it's safe to say he had a perfect day. It was for me, too.

Why The World Is Bright With You Here.

pictures courtesy of Jenea Marie Photography

I would feel bad if I didn't post about Franco's awesome graduation party. We had it in my parent's backyard and everything went smoothly! Seriously, I hope I can have a big back yard like theirs in the future, we've had so many parties out there under the patio and the large grass area. Perfect for gatherings like this. We had another gathering just a month later for 100 people and it was perfect, which I can't wait to blog about. First, Franco's graduation celebration from CSUCI! I was saved from hiding behind the camera as I almost always do nowadays by Jenea, she took some great shots! I couldn't resist taking just a few pictures, though...

I also didn't want to worry about cooking for sixty people so we had the party catered from one of Franco's favorite Mexican restaurants El Pollo Norteño. Yum.

 

 
I loved the decorations of blue, yellow, and green, with a touch of gilded silver. I will write a post about them on my design blog soon, they were easy to make and best of all, inexpensive and reusable!

 
For a personal touch, I printed pictures from the graduation ceremony earlier that morning on my printer and clothespinned them to a green rope from the dollar store. Family took them home after as mementos!

 
I had to include this picture (above) again. We miss our bosses so, so much! Dr. Freeland on the left and Jay Christiansen on the right are simply the best bosses in the world.

 

Kept the school theme going with tiny chalkboards and pencils in mason jars for the centerpieces.

 

It was fun watching these little girls dancing--with themselves, with my mom, and Mariah with her dad. That's what life is all about, isn't it? Dance the night away.

These Memories Are Playing Like A Film Without Sound.

 

Why, hello, graduate.

Buddies: Haans, Franco, and Clay

Another buddy, Ishmael

He did it! 

Franco graduated last Saturday from California State University, Channel Islands. It was a perfect day, and everything went just as we had imagined, and better. I was distracted taking pictures and didn't hear his name being called, but apparently the announcer misread his diploma and said Franco received a Bachelor's in Biology and a Bachelor's in Psychology! He did get a double Bachelor's, but in Bio and Spanish. Don't know where they got Psychology, but whatever. His buddies joked around with him saying that he got a degree without even working for it...if only, if only.

It feels so good to be finished with undergraduate studies! No more unnecessary "general ed" classes and demanding professors. Well, he may still have demanding professors in optometry school, but it will be the character-building type of demanding. He's going to be such a good doctor. Doesn't he look like a doctor? I think he does. 

I'm so incredibly proud of my hubs, he means everything to me, and being there the last few years pushing him along has been rewarding in so many ways. I will be forever grateful for his example! 

Congratulations, my love!

Welcome.

Even though I've lived in Southern California all my life, I've never been to Pomona, California, a mere two hours away in the south-easterly direction. I think we passed by it when my family drove to Texas several years ago, but my memory does not serve me well in remembering anything about it except a freeway and a lot of bridges.

If you haven't heard already, Franco was accepted to Western University of Health Sciences, School of Optometry in Pomona, California starting August 1.  If you were in the general 500-mile vicinity on Friday around 1:30 p.m. you may have heard me shout in exclamation after Franco called me to tell me the news. And news it was! I'll share a few details if any of you are curious.

To provide a little background, these are the events which occurred that led up to last Friday:

*Franco visited the optometrist when he was 11 years old and decided he wanted to be an eye doctor when he grew up
*Junior High Graduation, High School graduation, a 2-year mission, and 6 years of undergrad with two Bachelors degrees later (almost, he graduates in May), Franco studied hard and long (like almost two years) and took the Optometry Admissions Test (like the dreaded MCAT or DAT) last January
*He applied to nine schools of optometry all over the United States
*Started his last semester at CSUCI and waited to hear back from said schools
*A few weeks ago, after going to the temple together one night, he got an email from Western U to come for an interview (An interview is basically a we-want-to-meet-you type of thing, and they generally let you know by mail a couple of weeks post-interview if you've been accepted or not)
*Franco stayed in a hotel the night before the interview and went to the interview on Friday morning

That brings us up to the interview. Let me just say, Franco has landed every job interview he's ever had, and he's had many. I knew he'd nail it. He's always calm, collected, and has a manner of speaking which readily catches the listener's attention. And he's funny and laid-back, so I had no doubt he'd win over whomever would be interviewing him.

Man, did I underestimate him. They accepted him on the spot. Franco doesn't like me to say it was "on the spot", but that's what it was! He's in an empty room completing a survey and in walks one of the admissions people. She says she remembers his application (one out of 600) and wants to let him know that he's been accepted, then hands him an acceptance letter with his name right there. That doesn't happen very often, I don't think. Miracle, I call it. He calls me minutes later as he's heading back to the car.

Needless to say, I was stunned but also incredibly humbled. You may remember that I had mentioned that we were seriously considering other places much farther away than Pomona, not because we were eager to move away, but because California schools are so competitive--we really didn't think we had a good chance to get into one of them. What little faith I had.

This experience had me on my knees immediately after hanging up with Franco, and as soon as he got back into town, we prayed again together. We know it was because of our prayers and the prayers on our behalf that this great blessing came into our lives. Thank you, family and friends, for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. We are eternally indebted to you! We knew 2011 would bring many new challenges and changes for our family, and it is humbling to see so many people behind us supporting us through it all.

So, what now? I've never moved away from Ventura County in all my life. I don't know the first thing about moving or finding a place to live or going to a new ward at church. I have a lot to learn. But I'll stop here. Maybe I'll chronicle some of the experiences I have as I'm adjusting to this new chapter in our lives. Heaven knows I'll need help!

Thanks again for your love and friendship, and for reading, =)

xoxo annie

French Toast At 10:22 PM

Franco in 2007 before we got married. How did I get so lucky?

I love my husband.

It has been an epic week. You know, one of those that you've been waiting forever for and never thought it'd come, but then it does and you can't be any more relieved that it's over?

Franco did well on his test. He got his test scores back immediately and has already talked with a lot of the schools he applied for. We'll see if getting into optometry school is in the cards for us this year.

Meanwhile, Franco is enjoying his  freedom: no more studying!! He finished his bachelor's in Biology last semester and this semester he'll work on finishing his Bachelor's in Spanish. That's right, a double major. I'm tellin ya, he's a super hero. We've been staying up kind of late the past few nights playing Nintendo games we downloaded on the Wii, watching stuff on Netflix instant, and making breakfast at 10 P.M., which is what we did after we returned from the temple last night. Franco makes the best french toast {no joke} so we cooked up some bacon and sausages and cut some fresh fruit with it to enjoy while we watched August Rush {an exquisitely musical movie}. It was a great date night.

Looking forward to what life brings us next!

My Studious Husband

Franco's studying all day, everyday for the Optometry Admission Test. I know that you're thinking, "What? He hasn't taken that test yet? I thought he took it a long time ago." Well, I thought so, too. But he postponed it a couple of times until he felt he was as ready as he could be, and he will have to be ready this Thursday morning.

So please pray for us. Or if you're not religiously-inclined, wish us luck. His score will pretty much determine the rest of our lives.*

*okay, I may be exaggerating a bit. But then again, maybe not.