My new cell phone. It's an LG Triton and I love it. I've been wanting a cell phone with Internet, GPS, and a music player for a while now, and when I saw a promotion on the model I wanted, I had to act. I ended up not having to pay very much for my phone, but I still consider it a major purchase--hehe!

   

I just answered this Featured Question; you can answer it too!

Hello all! I've been extremely busy with life and I promise to blog more often. It's been awhile since I've had a lot on my plate, and I must say, I like having something to do. It makes me feel validated.

Saturday, September 26th, marked my second year in my hometown in Illinois. I like to do an Annual Review where I look back upon my year and see what I did. It helps me decide what to do with my next year. Last year's blog can be found here.

1. I can finally drive around Illinois without getting hopelessly lost in the maze of cornfields. I have more driving experience and I'm not as terrified driving to places as I was last year. I still need to tackle winter driving though!

2. September 28th was my husband, Carlos, and I's second wedding anniversary. Are we still considered newlyweds if we've been married for two years? In that time period, we have started a family. Giovanni is going to be 11 months old and he is absolutely beautiful. I didn't know I could love someone so much more than I love Carlos but Giovanni takes the cake. I am so blessed to have him in my life and to be his mother. Carlos' adult son, Michael, comes over and plays with his brother and I love to see the two of them together.

3. School-wise, this year has been great! The first half of the year, I laid low, because I wanted to spend time with Giovanni. But this year, I went back to community college with the new career goal of environmental engineer in mind. As such, I changed my major to Engineering. I am so excited and I can totally see myself doing this kind of career. I get to job shadow an engineer soon and I'm totally looking forward to that.

4. My favorite part of this year has been the resolution of my familial troubles. My parents are no longer upset with me for eloping or mad at Carlos for "spiriting me away." This year, the three of us took a trip up to Washington state to spend time with my family and I enjoyed my time up there. Of course, Giovanni was the star of the whole trip and everyone fell in love with him. I hated to take him away from all those people who love him, but I don't live in Washington yet. Maybe someday, we will. My sister and I have reknit our close bond. We confide in each other again.

Looking back at my first Annual Review, I am pleased to see how much has changed for the better. I am looking forward to this next year in Illinois with hope that my situation will continue to improve. I've started a new hobby (modeling) this year also, but I will reserve an entire blog for that. My mental health has not been 100% in the last half of the year, but that deserves another blog as well. But I love how I'm not letting that get me down. I'm so much stronger than I was a year ago.

I'm watching this show on Animal Planet called "Animal Armageddon." One of the animals the show follows is one of the first mammals and our ancestor (if you believe in evolution, which I do). I forget the name, but it does start with a Z. It sounds like "Zorastradon" or something like that. (Sorry, I'm bad with names.) It looks like a weasel.

Moving on!

The time is the Triassic period. There is a momma weasel taking care of her baby weasels. Pangea is breaking up into separate continents and the land is full of strife, and devoid of plentiful food. So this weasel evolved to have mammary glands, which came from sweat glands. The mother was able to feed her young with her own body rather than waste her valuable energy foraging for food for multiple beings. Clever bodily function!

There's a featured post on Momaroo about breastfeeding right now, and I thought that it was funny that I came across this TV show. It's like breastfeeding is superior because it was what saved the early mammals from extinction, which led to the evolution and eventual appearance of humans.