And then there were 4.

This weekend our friends Kim and Melanie went up to San Francisco to celebrate Kim’s birthday so we dogsat their adorable two dogs Reyna and Maizy. Reyna is a fuzzy, adorable, sweetheart Australian Shepard and Maizy is a seriously cute Terrior/Jack Russel mix that you just want to cuddle and dress up in cute clothes.

For a day and a half they played, and played and played and played AND PLAYED. It was pretty cute. I tried to get some good DSLR shots of the two of them but they WOULD NOT HOLD STILL. Maizy LOVED to chase Samus around and Samus spent pretty much all day today taunting her, then running away, then chasing her around the living room. I SWEAR that kitten is convinced she’s a dog. A very BIG DOG. One day she’s going to wake up and realize that she’s just a silly little cat and she’s going to hate herself.

Danica and Reyna spent the day chasing Kumo all around the house. Girls against poor boy. The poor boy loved every single second.

Since Reyna and Maizy left a few hours ago Kumo, Danica and Samus have all been curled up on their various beds sawing logs. Tired dogs are good dogs.

And I’m about to join them.

Full couch.  :)

There's a very good chance I'm never going to give this puppy back to her parents.

1096 days later.

Yesterday was three years since this happened:

BIG NEWS!!

We kind of eloped. We have a cermony with just Cassidy and us and then surprised my mom and little brother at dinner in all our wedding garb. We’d tricked her into going to our favorite super fancy restaurant “just to have a good dinner.”

Mom & Cameron

Husband & Wife

The Princess

Man, Ben has lost a LOT of weight since then! 70 pounds!

I made our little bouquets myself. This one was Cassidy’s at the dinner table.

Bella Vista

I loved every second of it. I’m so glad that we decided to not spend a lot of money on a wedding and spent that money instead on a trip to Maui. I highly recommend having a selfish wedding like we did!

Here is a picture of us in December at our good friend Julie’s wedding.

<3

Look how much thinner Ben is! It’s like I married a man and now I’m cheating on him with his much skinner doppelganger. Which is actually kinda hot when you think about it.

ANYWAY! Three years! It took us 5 years to get to that day and looking back now I still think it was the most perfect wedding day ever. I still love him more every day and he’s still the first person I run to with good news and the first person I turn to for advise and comfort.

And STILL, he makes me laugh, at myself, every single day.

I think I’ll keep him around a bit longer.

Like forever.

<3

This is why I don’t post every day.

I wish I had cute stories and funny anticdotes to share with you every single day but lately life has just been… being lived! Work has been INSANE busy, Ben is still recovering from his latest knee surgery, Cassidy is, well, 12. That’s a whole post in itself that I’m not sure I’m in the frame of mind to write right now.

So here’s how my posts would look if I posted every day (No, I didn’t forget about Cassidy, she is at her dad’s for the week since she has the week off school):

Got up at 5:00AM for the SECOND DAY IN A ROW to the sounds of Danica throwing up on our bedroom floor. Three times. I finally had the presence of mind the THIRD time to find a towel and throw it under her face so I didn’t have to scrub puke out of the carpet.

Went back to bed.

Woke up at 8:30AM to the sound of Danica whining to go out. Ben and I tried to argue who would have to get up. I lose.

Get up, let dogs out. Start cinnamon rolls on the oven (didn’t they used to be a LOT bigger? I swear they have shrunk by half in the last few years), clean the kitchen a bit, feed the dogs, get cinnamon rolls out, hike upstairs to tell Ben I made them, come downstairs and eat three, clean the downstairs bathroom a bit, eat two more, give Danica stomach medicine, start a load of laundry.

Then sat down and watch TV for a bit. Ben asks if we are still going to Los Gatos Cafe today. When I mentioned it yesterday he mentioned wanting to eat healthy and I pointed out that you CAN eat healthy there (I didn’t. HA!) so I thought he didn’t want to go. Really glad I was wrong!

Shower, get out. Am doing makeup when I realize that I think I have some gray hair! I can’t really tell because it’s hard to see the top of your own head and I thought about plucking one I thought was gray but realize if I don’t pluck I can still live in denial and convince myself that it’s just the way the sunlight was hitting my hair.

Beautiful day!

Head to Los Gatos Cafe. It’s a beautiful day outside. BEAUTIFUL! There are perfect fluffy clouds in the sky and the air is clean and we can see snow on the top of the mountains around San Jose. We get to the restaurant and wait, there is ALWAYS a wait there but they have fresh coffee while you wait and it’s fun to people watch there. Los Gatos is full of pretty rich people and I realize that out of the 15 girls waiting, 14 of them are wearing black leggings and uggs. I am #15 in jeans, sparkly Chucks and a gray hoodie. I giggle to myeslf.

Eggs Alexandria at Los Gatos Cafe. So good!  The artichoke hearts are what make it!

During lunch Ben says that my eyes look beautiful today. I swoon.

Hello.

Come home. Empty the dishwasher, finish cleaning the bathroom.

We decided to take the dogs for a trip to PetSmart. We are trying to get Kumo to stop being so spazzy in public. He’s not mean or vicious, just SO EXCITED TO BE AROUND PEOPLE AND DOGS AND WOOHOO!! Danica is like, whatever. Lets just walk around and smell stuff and buy me a toy.

Take the dogs home.

Go to Home Depot to buy some boring house stuff. Go to Kohls to see if we can find some new hoodies. Can’t. They are getting rid of all the winter stuff and it’s slim pickings. I do, however, find a most excellent Dunder Mifflin tshirt for $9.00. SCORE!

Come home, change out laundry. Sit down and start watching the Daytona 500. I already know who wins and about the big wreck on lap 29 so after that I pick up my laptop and start to try and fix my iPhone. I accidentally deleted the iPod shortcut the other day and I can’t just sync because that will erase all my data. And okay, I REALLY love my iPhone but sometimes Apple does some really stupid shit and this is one of them. I should have the option to sync what is on my phone NOW into iTunes then readd the one app I want but no, because I’ve had to reinstall Windows since the last app sync, I’m screwed.

And now I’m posting this and I have to hurry because Ben is hungry and is starting to look at me like FEED. ME. NOW!

This is what old boring peopled do. NOTHING.

OH! I’m starting a round of P90X tomorrow. Julie and I are going to BRING IT. If you want to join us let me know!! It’s all about keeping each other motivated and encouraging one another to keep going.

The End.

It takes a village. And a facebook group. And a twitter feed.

I’ve had this post jumbling around in my head for quite some time but never really wrote it because often times when I try to say things like this I end up coming across as a loudmouthed asshole but I feel like SAYING IT is more important than how a few (probably guilty) people will interpret it.

So anyway…

I remember when Cassidy was born I didn’t have the luxury of 100s of online friends helping me through all the stuff that was happening. When she was born, google was still a small little site run out of a garage. Message boards were still crap and chat rooms were full of horny fat me trolling for little girls. So when Cassidy got thrush at two weeks old, I didn’t have twitter or facebook to turn to for questions and support. I went to the ER at 2:00AM freaked out because she screamed every time I tried to feed her. It only took 4 hours to get an answer, a tube of lotion, and a pat on the head.

When she got roseola when she was 8 months old I didn’t have a forum of moms to go to for stories or support and encouragement. I asked my mom, my mother-in-law, and three of her grandmas who all gave me the same answer and told me to stop being a worry wart.

When I got food poisoning and was told to stop breastfeeding till it passed and she would never start back up again and felt like a COMPLETE FAILURE even though I had managed to make it 10 months, I didn’t have an online “shoulder to cry on”.

And really? Lately, I’m almost happy for all of that. Because I feel like more and more I see JUDGMENT when what I hope to see is SUPPORT.

Heaven forbid a woman say she isn’t going to breastfeed, or that she’s going to breastfeed till the child is a toddler, or has a birth plan that includes an epidural, or chooses a home birth, or chooses to try and let her baby “cry it out”, or wears her baby 24/7, or lets the child sleep in bed with them, or wants to cloth diaper, YOU GET THE IDEA. It seems that no matter WHAT you choose to do, there is another mother (or even NON-parent) out there that thinks you are wrong and is going to loudly tell you how you aren’t doing it right. And I’m just TIRED of it.

TIRED OF IT.

Tired of reading tweets that liken crying it out to ABUSE. Tired of facebook updates that say women that choose c-sections are stupid and lazy. Tired of hearing women say they feel like BAD PARENTS because of the things that other women are saying to them about their choices.

So here’s the thing. HAVE an opinion. I encourage that! But please, PLEASE don’t be catty jackasses when you are handing out that information and be aware that it’s JUST an opinion. Just because you believe that something is right for YOU does not mean it is right for EVERYBODY. I am very pro-breastfeeding. I believe that it’s best for mom and baby to do it for as long as you possibly can but there have been plenty of times that I’ve encouraged and supported new moms that have chosen to bottle feed… for whatever reason. Because it’s not okay for me to EVER make another parent feel bad for a decision they have made about their own child.[1. Unless I think there is actual physical harm being caused to the child.]

I feel like we have this amazing opportunity to be a helpful community, a safety net, a backbone of support for each other from all over the world. We can support, encourage, nurture and help each other on this REALLY HARD journey of parenthood and we’d all be so much better off if we could remember that and one simple thing: respect each other. Period.

Remember at the other end of that tweet or forum post or status update is a fellow parent that is tired, frustrated, confused, scared, WORN OUT and they need support, not judgment.

/steps down off soapbox.

Friday Dinner Conversation.

I have been complaining for three days about the fact that there are TRAILERS for COMMERCIALS now. Companies have been releasing teaser trailers for the ads they are going to run during the Super Bowl AND THAT IS CHEATING. AND STUPID.

Ben is particularly excited about this Motorola Xoom commercial because it’s Tegra driven hardware and because it’s very similar to an Apple commercial shown during the 1984 Super Bowl.

I refuse to watch this commercial because TRAILERS FOR COMMERCIALS ARE LAME. The whole point of the Super Bowl is to be stunned, shocked and amused by the awesome commercials (and see the Steelers KICK ASS) and if I have an idea of what they are all going to be about before hand what is the point!?

This conversation happened after several minutes of Ben and I disagreeing about these trailers.

Ben: We should watch the original commercial before we see the Xoom Super Bowl commercial.
Me: *grimmace*
Ben: *stone face*
Me: *MORE GRIMMACY*
Ben: Do you know what I’m thinking right now?
Me: That you want to punch me in the face?
Ben: You know those things they used to knock down castle doors?
Me: Battering rams!
Ben: Yeah, one of those, only like, steam powered! IN YOUR FACE. RIGHT NOW.
Me: *stone face*
Ben: *stone face*

And then I started laughing. And then Ben started laughing. And I don’t know, when I type it back now it doesn’t seem as funny but at the time I DIED. It was that kind of laugh that releases stress and makes you forget the long work week and I CRIED. There were actual tears caused by laughter and thank goodness we were pretty much alone in the restaurant because we probably looked like crazy people. It felt so good.

Me: You want to know what I was thinking? I was thinking that maybe we should check Rotten Tomatoes to read the reviews and then watch this prequel commercial before we have to watch this new commercial.
Ben: Stop being so cynical!
Me: You’re still thinking about the battering ram aren’t you?

And then I started laughing all over again. And this is why I love my husband. At the end of the day, every day, I laugh. Usually at my own expense but that’s okay.