PINO & TRACI

Arizonans!

2010-04-11T07:27:00.000-07:00

It is official, we are Arizonians! We both finally got our licenses and license plates for AZ.

It has been about two months now since we have uprooted our family and relocated to Arizona, and we have acclimated quite well. As much as we miss Washington, family and friends, we know Arizona continues to offer opportunity that we must seize.

Traci has continuing success at her job with Chase Bank, as she has passed her training program to obtain her Series 6 and Series 63 and has transfered her Life Insurance certification from our Farmers Insurance business in Washington to Arizona. With all this she is now able to help customers with opening accounts, helping with investments such as mutual funds, and many other services. Chase Bank sets up their employees to succeed, Traci has been there for two months and has been training since day one. She just got back from a three day training in Phoenix as well. Soon she will have another visit to Phoenix for training, for anther three days. At times training and not helping customers can become mundane, and Traci can't wait to help, and once she does she will start to make commission and have her own desk (she has been "floating" and standing a lot). Overall she is enjoying her job as it continues to challenge her, and she is ready to take off running and keep the momentum as she achieves her goals.

As for Pino he has been working for about one month now with Performance Automotive Group (PAG) in Chino Valley a neighboring town about 20 minutes away, where he sells suspension lift systems, body lifts, and off road accessories for trucks and SUV's. He was told about the job from his old boss in Washington. His old boss and new boss talked at a trade show at Pino's old job and the subject of hiring Pino came up. A week or two later Pino started at his new job. He continues to excel and grow, especially since he has been selling PAG for over a year in Washington.

Penelope! Well Penelope has been busy growing and learning new things. Since we have been here Penelope learned how to laugh and now she smiles and laughs nonstop. Penelope is a very happy baby. She is now 4 1/2 months old, 12.5 pounds, and 24 inches long. Penelope stays home with our neighbor and good family friend Sheryl. Sheryl has a grandbaby that is 10 months old so she does a lot of research of what is good for babies and so on. She doesn't get to see her grandbaby but once every couple months so she really enjoys spending time with Penelope. Penelope has also learned how to roll over. The first time she did it we were so excited we kept trying to get her to do it again. It was about 2 weeks before she did it again and now she does it all the time! The only problem is she hates to be on her stomach so once she rolls over she throws a fit. She'll learn to like it over time, but for now it is cute to watch.

Beyond work and Penelope we have been quite busy! The first week here Traci's Sister Christy and her husband Shawn came to visit. They just adore Penelope. After that sometime we went to Lake Havasu City to visit Traci's grandmother. Just this last week Traci's Aunt Sonja and Uncle Richard drove in from Illinois. In times when family isn't visiting we hang out with Traci's old friends Kathy and Andrew. They are our saving grace when we need to get out of the house. Living with mom and dad again has been great but has taken some adjusting!

Adjusting

2010-03-06T06:23:00.000-08:00

It's taken some time to adjust to living with Traci's parents, we still haven't quite fully figured out where to put our things, but it is slowly coming together. We do enjoy being close to Traci's family, they are a blessing and are a great help to us.

We have been adjusting to living in Prescott Valley well. Being a smaller town we have navigated it rather easy, found entertainment like bowling, movies, and putt putt. Traci connected with old friends and we've been able to get together on occasion. We have been attending a new church named The Heights in the next town over, and enjoy the good energy there.

As some of you may know Pino's Blazer went down with a bad transmission about three or four months ago. After relocating here, we found help in our neighbor who is skilled in vehicle repair and Pino and him removed and replace the transm

ission. It still is getting broken in but it is very nice for Pino to have a vehicle to drive, especially with him being home with Penelope.

Our wonderful daughter Penelope is doing great! She has found her hands and is learning to connect what she feels to what she sees. She is "talking" a lot (making noises) and started to giggle as well. We are so proud of her, it's so little but so big at the same time. We haven't found a new pediatrician yet as we just got signed up for benefits on the 1st of March. When we do find one she is due for a check up in her fourth month, and we will have weight and length and give an update.

Traci is doing well in training with Chase Ban

k, they really set up their employees to succeed. She should be taking her "series 6" test next week. Once that is behind her she then will study for her "series 63" and together with her Life Insurance License she will then be ready to work with customers. A long process but again Chase wants their employees to be successful.

Even though we'd prefer Pino staying home with Penelope, it may not be what we can afford at this time, so he has stared to look for jobs. We have talked and believe Pino should find a "fun" part time job. He'd like to work at the local golf course, movie theater, sports arena/ice rink, something that he will enjoy and get fun perks. Working part time would help so he could take care of Penelope during the day and work in the evenings, that way he could provide and not take away from the family. Next week he has an interview with Trailmaster Suspension for a full time position. Pino used to sell their product with his last employer, and with a referral from his last supervisor and product knowledge he has a foot in the door. We still will have to weight that option after the interview, as full time could take away from our family and that is the most important thing right now. Either way he'll find a job and God will bless us.

Another Chapter

2010-02-18T07:45:00.000-08:00

After three days and 1500 miles we have reached our destination. We have moved in with Traci's parents for the time being in Prescott Valley AZ. The trip took a toll on our family, Penelope probably thought she was stuck in the car seat for the rest of her life, overall she slept but when awake very cranky. Pino drove the Budget truck with the Blazer on the trailer behind him, with a full load the hills really slowed the trip. We made the first day from Olympia (we spent the night with Pino's mom in Olympia) to southeast Oregon and stayed in the city of Baker City a very humble town. After six hours of sleep we headed out and made it to southern Utah to the town of Beaver and after about four to five hours of sleep there we continued on to our destination. We reached PV around 5 p.m. and we were able to take a deep breath. We've made the trip in 24 hours in the past without a child and trading off driving. If we every had to do it again we would fly Penelope and drive on our own, but it was a trip to remember.

We have been here for one week now, had a few days to unpack until Traci's older sister came to visit. Monday Traci traveled to Phoenix for orientation and now is working the local branch. Life seems to be a little slower here compared to our live in Tacoma. Commuting is down from 30-40 minutes, to 7-10 minutes, we no longer eat dinner at 8 p.m. we now eat around 5 p.m. PV is a smaller town where everything you need is here and if not you just need it, whereas in Tacoma we lived in Pierce County and commuted one county north for work and one county south for friends and family. It is just more "big city" in Washington and more small town in Arizona.

It will take some time to adjust but we know living here is in our family's best interest. God has watched over our family and answered our prayers. For some reading this we move away and for some we move closer we love you all and thank you for sticking with us through these times of change.

New Chapter in the book of Life

2010-02-05T06:40:00.000-08:00

The baby is here, out wonderful little Penelope Rose Lira, she was born 5 pounds 0.6 ounces. Very small but big in spirit. She was two weeks early due to some high blood pressure, born on November 20th at 106 p.m. Penelope has been the light of our life, we could never imagine life without her. She is growing day by day so much we almost can't keep up. She is 11 weeks old today and such a little person of her own, with a great big personality. Gods gift from heaven.

Having Penelope here is great but we have had to tak

e some risks and the out come is good but challenging. We are moving to Prescott Valley, Arizona (one and a half hours north of Phoenix) which is Traci's home town. She has landed a job there with Chase Bank and we foresee a lot of opportunity with the company and the location as well. It is just to0 perfect (a blessing from god) for us to turn down. It does mean that we must quit our jobs in a down economy take the risk and hope for high reward, but with faith all will prevail. We also leave behind many fri

ends and family, which is probably the hardest thing deal with over all, but we will continue to update our blog and post lots of pictures.

We leave Monday the 9th with the truck packed and the road ahead of us. It will be an adventure and a growing experience, we look forward to sharing more as life rolls on.

Penelope Lira

2009-08-19T20:00:00.000-07:00

A blessing is shortly on her way! Sorry again for the delay on our updates but life has been quite full and busy it seems lately. So as the title shows we know we are having a little girl and we are going to name her Penelope. We are so excited to have a little daughter on the way. We

have been preparing one of our spare rooms to be a nursery for the little one, slowly but surely. We have chosen a tropical island theme. The other day Traci went out and found the perfect

fabric for the crib and from there we were inspired. We chose to paint the room with a lighter sky blue on top and keep the light beige color on bottom that to room was painted, we do know we will paint a palm tree on the wall but not to sure if we will add anything else. We picked out letters to spell her name on the wall and we will mount them on a surfboard Pino will make. Over all we have a rough idea of what we want, but things may change as we get closer do to

due date.

Shortly we will be taking classes like la maze along with new born classes, Pino will even be taking a new father class, all these offered through the hospital where Penelope will be born. The hospital has been newly renovated and is will be very accommodating to our needs as Traci goes through birthing. As things progress we will continue to update you as soon as possible.

Breaking News!

2009-05-17T08:08:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since our last post, and much has happened in our life. The most important of all is that we have found out that we a expecting a baby in the near future, to be exact December 1st is the expected date.

We've had two doctor appointments recently the last was on Thursday and one about a month before, as of Thursday the 14th we are 11 1/2 weeks along. In two more months we will know the sex which we are extremely excited about.

Shortly it will be time to convert the guest bedroom in to a nursery, we have already been window shopping for new items like a crib and changing table. Traci is always coming up with new info and ideas for how to prepare for our little one. Just the other day we got our first picture of the baby framed to hang in the nursery, also she ordered some complementary diapers through a free promo. As these are small things they make the experience more real day by day.

At our last doctor appointment the doctor tried to hear the heart beat but was unable. At our next appointment on the 11th we will be able to. Until then a close friend loaned us a home heart beat monitor and we want to try to hear it before the then.

As the weeks unfold we will update our blog with the newest info, news, and more photos.

Rain Rain Go Away!

2009-01-11T17:56:00.000-08:00

From winter wonderland to water world, the Northwest's weather is up to it again. Western Washington has had plenty of rain in the past week and it has affected the whole region. Rivers across the area have been flooding and overflowing due to heavy rains and all the snow melting, luckily we have not had any flood damage as we do not live in a flood area, but many were affected and we ask you keep them in you prayers.

At Traci's district office for Farmers the Puyallup river flowed into their parking lot, which has happened in the past,

but didn't go beyond that. Pino's work was affected by the flooding that occurred in Centralia a smaller town on I-5 were the water flooded 12 miles of Washington's main artery freeway going north and south, as Pino's delivery trucks could not transport parts north to Seattle or south to Portland.

White Christmas?

2008-12-21T22:05:00.000-08:00

"Dreaming of a White Christmas".... Last week (Dec. 14th) was our first snowfall of 2008 and exciting day, a little snow dusting and nothing out of the normal for this time of the season, little did we know how the week would turn out. The last couple of days we have had numerous sustained snow showers that have covered most of the state in a white winter wonder land. It has been fun, annoying, exciting and at times scary.

For our commute home from work on Thursday, what is normally an average of 30 minutes turned into a long and tiresome four and a half hour trek. It had been snowing all day long and we left work around 5 p.m. with and adventure in front of us. We started off well taking side roads but a few bad route decisions later we found our self's suck in a a long and treacherous drive home, but with patients and cautiousness we made it home by 9:30 p.m.

The days following our long adventure have been a lot more fun and picturesque, "where the treetops glisten and children listen to hear sleigh bells in the snow". We have ventured out a few times to work, the mall and to visit friends, with four wheel drive on the Blazer the trips have been pretty easy even with highway speeds of only about 30 to 40 mph, and side roads a little slower. Every morning we wake to see if it has snowed some more (which we both hope it does) hoping we don't have to go to work, we haven't missed a day yet but next week it could change if the weather keeps up.

A couple of nights this week we have made a trip to a friends house about 10 miles from us, to have dinner, wine, play board games and share some laughs. After rounding down the evening we head home to see our little cat Luna and our dog Apollo. With the snow thick and fluffy we like to take Apollo out to play a little, in some areas the snow will come up to his chest. We also thought a few pictures of Luna (normally an indoor cat) in the snow would be cute, so we drug the poor little girl out to get her paws in the white powder, she didn't like it too much being her first experience with snow. Apollo on the other hand love his time outside, running all over the place and hopping around like a little rabbit.

We look forward to this coming week as there is to be more snow and with Christmas around the corner we would love to see more snowfall. Again a reminder Seattle has only had snowfall on Dec. 25, three time in the past 99 years.

We're dreaming of a white Christmas!

Christmas a little early!

2008-11-25T21:18:00.000-08:00

We just set up our Christmas Tree, a whole week before Thanksgiving. We have been waiting to set it up since we bought it at the end of the season last year. We also purchased our first set of decorations recently and are excited to start the season early. This will be our first Christmas since getting hitched in May. We listen to Christmas music on the radio in the morning and round down the nights with hot cocoa and made for t.v. Christmas movies on TBS. The chill is in the air as the temperature has dropped below freezing a couple of days in the last week. A fresh snow would be welcome as to bring more of that holiday spirit we crave. While there has been snow on the ground for Christmas, in Seattle we've only experienced snowfall on December 25th five times since 1909, so we will cross our fingers for a white Christmas.

If we have the opportunity this year we plan to travel to a small town just east of the Cascade Mountain Range call Leavenworth (see the added photo), a small Bavarian town great to visit during Oktoberfest and Christmas. With Pino's new 1996 Chevrolet Blazer (new to him) with four wheel drive it should be a safe and adventurous trip.

As the holiday season progresses we hope to keep you updated on the latest in our neck of the woods, with new pictures and more posts of our early Christmas!

WHAT'S NEW?

2008-11-22T20:21:00.000-08:00

Pino is still working at Competition Specialties. It is hard to believe he as been there 6 months already. He likes the job but he still has his heart set on becoming a police officer. Unfortunately, he injured his knee about a month ago playing football. Pino has been doing physical therapy twice a week trying to make his knee stronger. We will find out more about how severe he really hurt his knee in December.

Traci has started her Farmers Insurance business and is working hard to get it off the ground. Right now she can only work Farmers in her spare time as she is still working full time as a manager for Cellular World (AT&T). She hopes to be a full time agent by February.