Delilah the Enforcer

One of my biggest pet peeves since becoming a pet owner five years ago is off leash pets. Maybe it is the time I was pulled 20 feet down a ditched while Leo and Dee chased an off leash dog, or the final incident that made me decide to never walk the two of them alone again, or just the sense of people feeling like they are above the rules the other 90% of society is following. I am far from claiming my babies are perfect angels or even moderately well behaved, but I always have them leashed. For the last week every night after Isla goes to bed Joey has been taking Leo out for a run and then I take Delilah out for a jog/walk. Every night like clock work we walk past the park by our house, and every night the same little mini 5lb yapper runs out charging full speed ahead at Dee. Now Dee can hold her own, but it is more annoying than anything else. The little dog barks, jumps, and ankle nips Dee while she tries to figure out what in the heck is going on and jumps all over the place. The owner slowly walk toward to her dog (while I struggle with the dogs) and says "sorry, he just loves other dogs". I always smile and just walk away thinking of the witty words or maybe a one liner I wanted to say, but for the peace of the neighborhood just didn't say it. Well finally last night Dee had enough. The same dog came running at us again and this time Dee just stood still. Not a nip or a bark even. The dog ended up running underneath Dee and that was when it happened........ Dee peed all over the dog. The full bladder of a 90lb golden retriever emptied on the poor little 5lb yapper. The owner came up like she always did before and mid breath goes "sorry, he just loves.... oh my gosh he is peed on!!!!". She picked up her dog and walked off in a rant muttering words I don't even want to know what she said. Needless to say I don't condone taking matters into my own hands, but I am pretty sure that is the last time that dog will be off a leash. If nothing else I think I had a pretty good laugh about the entire incident. ;)

Expectation of a Double Life

This weekend I was catching up with one of my best friend's whom I may add I believe is the last person on earth to not join the facebook/myspace/twitter or any other social media craze. We spent our conversation laughing about the expectation of a double life that everyone is expected to live these days. First, you have your normal life that people have always lived for hundreds of years. Your normal day to day interactions, phone calls, mailing pictures to family, and now society has the expectation of maintaining both your normal life and your online life. Now I love being in touch with so many people that I would have more than likely lost contact with over the years. The status updates of facebook have kept people that could have disapeared from my day to day life on the front burner as I may have not talked to them in months or even years, but I can clearly account for the name of their first born child, what they ate for breakfast, and where they will be going for the next week on vacation. Online living has changed the way we live on nearly every aspect. I doubt we will ever return to a simpler day where my only status update choices were Emily is "happy" "sad" "excited" and if I wanted to get really wild I could mix and match a smiley face with my chosen emotion. With your online life there is an expectation of keeping your friends updated on your happenings and if you don't you actually feel a sense of guilt for neglecting your 100+ facebook friends.

It is no wonder these days that social media has caused so much stress for some people. Those who previously struggled with living one life must now maintain a second life online. As a society we struggled with the rejection of friendships and the stress of family dynamics and now people are obessing over ignored friend request. the loss of a Farmville neighbor, or the worry of when to change their relationship status.

For many of us we have chosen to live the "double" life. I spend part of my free time each week entertaining you with my words ;) or maybe I am just not ready to take on a Farm, schoolhouse in Frontierville, or Mafia family in Mafia wars. Blogging has been my double life. :) Although sometimes the expectations of a double life can be a bit much, I am thankful for the many amazing friends who like me in both my online and real life :)

8.20.10

Eleven years ago today I was set up on a blind date. Back in 99' blind dating was exactly that "blind". You didn't have the option of doing a quick facebook check for relationship status, nor was I matched on my 10 capatability levels on E-Harmony.com all I had was the sheer trust in my best friend that she valued our friendship enough to want to see me again. Now days a person can text, tweet, and update their facebook status as to how the date is going, and send out an SOS if you really need help, or have your friends follow your GPS signal on MobileMe if you aren't home when you say you should, but in 99' all you had was the hope that the person wasn't going to turn out a total creep and if all else failed you could take your quarter and hike it to the nearest pay phone. Well glad to say my "blind" date turned out alright and here we are celebrating eleven years since the first day we met.

So now we fast forward to 8.20.10. Today I hosted Isla's first playgroup date. Now I could have started out with something small, but that wouldn't be my style. I wouldn't say I always go over the top, but a part of me wanted to make sure Isla had the best time possible. So today we had 16 people over to the house. I have blogged before about Isla's playgroup and how I would encourage any mom to get involved in something like it. It was great to have a group of mom's over that can look back at the last several months with our kids and laugh at the good times and joke about the bad. We laugh about all the things we swore we would never do, but now do it with ease and talked about small victories like switching to whole milk and flipping the carseat to front facing.

I love the fact that in eleven years things have changed from a care free blind date to super mom playdate coordinator, but I wouldn't change anything in the world for the last eleven years. I think the hardest part of becoming a new parent is the fear of loosing "you" and just becoming "mom". A part of me feared becoming the woman in sweatpants in the middle of the day at Walmart, rocking a ball cap with unwashed hair, and the thought of a thinner day in my all to distant past. You have so many people that will make comments like "do "X" now because when you become a parent you will never "XYZ". My advice is don't listen. When you become a parent you will give up your pre-baby life, but you can keep all the important parts of your life in your new life if you try. You will gain new things that are important and things that once seemed important won't be as anymore.

In 11 months of being a parent I don't know it all or even half of what I will learn over the course of how to be a parent, but I have learned to enjoy every minute of every day. Never forget that the good days will come and go and the bad days will be over tomorrow so don't forget to smile and one day you will look back and laugh. You will see the new parent pictures on facebook with the smiles and laughs, but what you don't see is the picture where you are sleepless and have been puked on and peed on all in the same day or even at the same time. Know that everyone has good and bad days whether they share it or not. :)

So here is a small part of "the playdate" and happy to say we have already agreed to host another :)

We Weren't Crazy

This morning as I was cruising to work and of course nothing was on. So in order to save myself from listening to yet another rendition of California Girls, I popped in my Josh Gracin cd. The lyrics to his song " We Weren't Crazy" came on and every time I hear that song I can't help, but think of myself seven years ago.

The main lyrics of the song are:

we were young, we were wild, we were restless
had to go, had to fly - had to get away
took a chance on that feelin’ - baby
we were lovin’ blind - borderline reckless
we were livin’ for the minute we were spinnin’ in
maybe we were a lot of things
but we weren't crazy


It was almost seven years ago I sold almost everything I owned, quit my job of almost three years, and hoped an international flight with two bags and the hope that I wasn't totally crazy. If anyone would have told me today that they were leaving there life to marry a man in the military and move to another country I would think they were crazy. Nearly seven years later, two countries, three states, two golden retrievers, a mortgage, and the most beautiful baby girl in the entire world later we have made it. I would like to think that we are living our own version of Josh Gracin's Crazy: a life with up's and down's, but no matter what life has come our way always finding a way back together again. I remember when Joey proposed every logical bone in my body said I was crazy to leave everything and everyone to move to England, but the only part that mattered told me go. I am pretty sure Drew Berrymore got it right when she said life is made up of only a few moments in your life that will truly change your destiny forever and I know that was one of my choices.

Marriage is hard and if you ever show me a marriage that is easy I will show you a liar. I think military marriage is like dog year for everyone one year you are married it actually equals at least 7 in real life because you deal with more in a year than most people do in a lifetime. Looking at everything we have dealt with over the years all of the odds say we should have broke a long time ago. Dealing with months on end apart, working holiday's, weekends, and over 70 hours a week, but still going strong.

I guess this post is show my respect for all military couples, because although you don't HAVE to do it, you chose to on a daily basis and I am thankful for all of you. Also this is to show my thanks from the bottom of my heart for all those people who have supported me when (most/almost) everyone probably thought I was crazy, the people who have listened to me cry, laugh, and those who motivate me on a daily basis to become no one else, but a better more improved version of myself.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for everyone who is "crazy".

Words that Speak to My Heart

The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it. ~Albert Einstein

Amazing Race

I just finished competing in the "Amazing Race" and not the fun kind. My mission if I chose to accept it as to the alternative of a nervous breakdown was to save myself from work with a car that wouldn't start. My first thought was the battery, but who was I kidding I barely even know how to open the hood let alone try to troubleshoot the battery. So I called Joey who didn't answer at work so I was stuck. Now don't get me wrong I do have friends here in the Springs, but it isn't a call I really wanted to make. " Hey, it's Emily. Would you mind picking me up? Oh where.... the south side of town at the prison." I have only been working at my job for about a month so I know a few people, but everyone is so busy they can't really leave what they are doing to come help me in the parking lot. Not, to mention we just had an incident that most people were responding to that without going into detail involved eating hand sanitizer. It was about 90 degrees and I was stuck out in the parking lot with nylons, heals, wearing black and navy blue today, and a child that needed to be picked up from daycare. My first call was to USAA roadside assistance where they asked the address of my location and they set out the tow truck where "Papa" (yes, that was his name) helped to clean my battery cables and jump start my car. Normally, I would have been a little scared of the slightly creepy overweight middle aged man, but today "Papa" was knight in shining armor all 300+ pounds of him. Needless to say the Jeep had a dead battery and I needed to keep the car running in order to make it to Auto Zone in Falcon for a new battery. No big deal right? Well if I hadn't told myself that coffee was more important on my way to work than getting gas it would have been no big deal. So I coasted with 3 miles to empty to the gas station in Falcon. Well after near heat stroke, roadside assistance, $100.00 on a new battery, $40.00 in gas, and being two hours late to daycare I completed my amazing race........ only to be greeted by an empty box of organic poptarts carefully opened on the kitchen floor and some dog puke from the suspect who robbed the pantry.

I am a believer that you will never be given more than you can handle in life, but today I feel pretty safe to spend the rest of my day in doors in fear that I have yet to hit my limit.