Bug Invasion

A few weeks ago Andy and I were sitting on the couch after everyone had gone to bed chatting when he looked up at the wall behind me and said,

"What the hell is THAT?"

I turned around to find the biggest, weirdest, green bug crawling slowly toward the ceiling.  It wasn't moving fast and it didn't look like a flying variety of bug.  Andy and I stood there in our living room staring at it and assessing how we were going to get rid of it, and trying to figure out what the hell it was.  I thought it looked like a praying mantis, but Andy pointed out it didn't have the front legs for a praying mantis.  He thought maybe a grasshopper, but if it was, it was the biggest one I'd ever seen.  Plus he was crawling and not hopping.  Either way, we couldn't leave it there, so what to do?

Squish it?  No way.  It was too big and it would have made a gross mess.  Suck it up in the dust buster?  Andy thought it was to big for that too.  Plus I didn't really want to kill it, because I got the feeling he was kinda harmless.   Then it was starting to become out of our reach as it made it to the ceiling, so we opted for trapping it.  I found a tall plastic cut to put over top of it to trap it and try to get it inside.  I handed it to my very brave husband who looked at me and said,

"I'M doing this??"

Um YEAH! Okay, I love my husband very much.  He is a great provider, wonderful father and he make me laugh all the time.  But here's the thing about my husband and bugs,  he is a bit of a...how do I put this delicately?  Well, he's a pussy when it comes to bugs.  Always has been.  He hates how they squish when you kill them.  He will kill a fly, no problem, but crawling bugs and spiders.  Forget it.  I don't need him for the flys though, because we have a cat who doesn't let a fly live more than five minutes in our house.  For the most part I don't kill spiders, but pick them up in  tissue and let them free outside.  Unless they're really big, then they might be goners.  Other crawling bugs I usually squish, but yeah, it's the mommy show when it comes to bug wrangling/killing in this house.  However this was one bug I was not touching.  I carried and birthed three kids.  He could trap one weird giant green bug.  I felt that was fair.

"Yes,  you're doing this," I told him.

"But my back...if I step on the couch wrong or something what if my back  goes out?" He was trying to make excuses and I wasn't buying.

"You'll be fine! Now man up and get the damn bug!" I encouraged.

So he reluctantly stood on the couch and put the cup over the strange insect.  It immediately did what we wanted and crawled inside the cup.  Andy took a magazine and placed it on top so he couldn't escape, or fly if he could.  Then we looked at it for a few minutes trying to figure out what kind of bug it was.  Neither of us knew.  It was some weird hybrid praying mantis, grasshopper looking thing.  Andy took it outside and let him free in the front yard to go live again and invade a neighbors house perhaps.  

The next morning I was getting the girls ready for swim lessons.  My in-laws were here and I was telling them our creepy bug story from the night before.  The girls were listening while I was describing the bug and Georgia all of a sudden piped up with,

"Oh!  That's a leaf bug!"

Uh-huh.  Okay cute little girl.  Suuuureee it was green leaf bug.  I thought for sure this was something she made up, especially because she is really good at making things up. 

"Oh, I'm not sure what it was Georgia," I told her.

"It WAS Mommy!  It was a leaf bug!" She insisted.

Then Lana asked, "What did it look like again?"

"Kind of like a praying mantis, but it had long antenna..."

"Oh yeah," Lana said very sure of herself.  "That was a leaf bug."

"What?  Are you guys making up a name for bugs now?" I asked.

"No!  Dat's what it is!  I've seen it at school," said Georgia.

"Yeah, there was one on our wagon one time too," Lana informed me.  

If only there were some device to look up things like "leaf bug" and see if they were indeed correct...Good thing my father in law was there, because a few taps on his phone and he found the exact bug that invaded our house.  Behold!  The leaf bug!  That is the actual name.  

This looks like  the one we found, but if you google leaf bug, there are a whole slew of weird looking ones out there.  You can see why I wasn't going anywhere near that thing.  

So I learned two things that day.  One-I learned about a new insect I had no idea existed, and two-Age 6.  Age 6 is the age when your kids start to become smarter than you are.  Fan-freaking-tastic.  

Weekend Getaway

This past weekend, Andy and I were in a wedding about four hours north of Los Angeles.  Well, I was a bridesmaid and he actually performed the wedding.  He got ordained on line a few months back.  My husband-a minister!  It's kinda funny.  Anyway, we decided a while ago that we weren't going to take the girls with us.  Instead we were going to have a fun weekend away, just the two of us.  I asked my parents  if they would fly out to take care of the girls and to say they were excited to do it, would be an understatement.  


My parents live in Florida, as do my in-laws.  So, we don't have anyone near by who we can rely on to come watch the girls for a weekend if need be.  Sometimes it really sucks.  A few years back my in-laws made a trip with us up north for a different wedding we attended.  They took care of the girls in the hotel, while Andy and I went to the festivities.  That time we couldn't leave the girls alone, because Georgia was only 3 weeks old and nursing.  This time, however, my girls are all fairly self sufficient and easier to care for.  Leaving them for a weekend wouldn't be an impossible task.  Well, except for the missing them part.  Andy and I hadn't been away together since before Sonya was born, so it was something we definitely needed.  It was generous of my parents to fly all the way from Florida, just to watch the girls for one weekend, but I think in some ways they were more excited to come do that, than we were to go away alone.  


The weekend was going to be a busy one for them.  Sonya had a very early baseball game Saturday morning, and baseball pictures in the afternoon.  She was also hoping Nona and Grampy would take them all to the farm one day, to pick strawberries and vegetables.  That kid loves the farm.  Add in shopping at the outlets for clothes, and they had themselves quite a full weekend.  I was a little worried about them driving all over Los Angeles, but then again, we drove all over the world when I was a kid, WITHOUT a GPS, so I knew my father could handle it.  I did make a book full of maps with a schedule and they had the Garmin as a back up.  They did great.  They made it to everything, probably more on time than we do, and had a blast the entire weekend.  Sure they gave the girls every treat they asked for.  They also took them shopping at Toys R Us, after going out to dinner with Great Grandpa and his fiancee(yes, fiancee!  More on that another time).  That is what Grandparents are supposed to do though.  I remember when I was a kid, my Noni would give us Tasty cakes and milk when we got to her house at 10pm at night.  God forbid if my mom would have told her not to.  I seemed to have turned out okay, so I'm sure a little spoiling every now and then won't hurt them.


The most important thing was the girls were happy and safe.  They really didn't even miss us.  I was afraid that when we called to talk to them, at least one of them (Lana) would start crying.  They could have cared less really.  I'm sure some of that comes from the fact that they're older and know that eventually we will return, but the other part of that is they felt cared for and loved by their Grandparents.  They don't get to see them all that often, two maybe three times a year.  Usually when they do, I'm always around, so it's not the same.  My parents said they were excellent all weekend, without one problem or issue.  Of course they were!  They are always better for everyone else.  I suppose that is good though.  Better to have them lose it with me, even if it doesn't seem fair since I am the one who takes care of them ALL THE TIME, but whatever.  


As for Andy, me and our weekend getaway.  We had also had a fabulous time.  The wedding was fun and Andy did a great job marrying our friends.  Perhaps he can make extra money doing this on the side.  Anyone need an officiant for their wedding?  We had a hot spring hot tub on the balcony of our room that we made use of and got to sleep late.  For real sleep late, not try to lay in bed while we hear the girls playing and fighting.  That was good, since I may have had a tad too much wine at the wedding.  And after the wedding.  We enjoyed being alone, or at least without kids, for an entire weekend for the first time in over seven years.  We'll just say what happened at the Paso Robles Inn, stayed at the Paso Robles Inn.  

I took my parents to the airport on Monday morning, and Georgia and Lana were with me.  They said their goodbyes and were sad they were leaving, but seemed okay with it.  Then after school on Monday Lana's teacher said she cried twice during school because she was sad Nona and Grampy were gone.  She didn't cry when I left for the weekend, of course, but was a mess when my parents left.  Nice.  It's okay, I'm glad that they all had such a great time.  It makes me feel less guilty about leaving them for the weekend. 


 Thank you to my awesome parents for coming all the way from Florida, on their dime, to take care of their Grandchildren.  Thank you for all the clothes you bought for them and for making sure they were happy and safe and yes, spoiled.  My kids are so lucky to have two sets of Grandparents who are so willing to help out in any way they can.  Again why it sucks that you are all so far away, otherwise we would do these weekends waaayy more often!

Birthday Party Disaster

A few years ago, after Georgia was born, Andy and I made the decision that we were not throwing huge birthday parties every year for the girls.  That would be three big kids parties a year and we just don't have the funds, or the patience, to deal with it.  We figured we would just have parties on the "big" years.  One, five, ten, thirteen, sixteen, eighteen.  They can throw their own drunken all out crazy party for themselves at 21 in college, like the rest of us did.  Besides, it would be so NOT cool to have your parents give you a 21st birthday party.  Well, unless your parents are Angelina and Brad.  This is not to say we don't celebrate the girls' birthdays every year though.  We usually have a family and close friends gathering, with cake and a BBQ, but nothing like what I was planning for Lana this year.  We invited all the kids in her pre-school class, as well as other friends and family we have in our lives.  We were having a bounce house and a pinata, sandwiches and snacks, juice boxes and sangria. (Gotta have SOMETHING for the parents!)  There were about 40 people coming.  And then...then it rained, and then...then Andy's back went out TWO hours before the party.  It's a good thing I've spent the past few years practicing keeping my shit together.

Let's start with the rain.  We knew rain was fore casted.  I had been looking at the weather report all week, but I kept hoping it would change or they were wrong.  It's not like the weather people have that much to predict here in Southern California, so you'd figure when we do get weather they would be dead on, but not so much.  Just the weekend before it was supposed to rain all day Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday it poured, Sunday was sunny and gorgeous.  I was hoping for that kind of mistake.  But no, this time they were right.  Thanks Dallas Raines!  (Gotta love the meteorologist names.)  

It wasn't raining when we woke up on Sunday, but it looked like it might at any moment.  My only prayer was for it to hold off just until the afternoon, but as you might have guessed, prayers and luck were not with us.  As the man from the jumper company pulled up in front of my house at 10:30, the rain started. I debated whether or not to have him put it up anyway, and just hope for a stop in the rain.  As I stood out there talking to him though, I knew it was no good.  The rain was coming down in big, fat, we are here to stay for a while! drops.  Not the sprinkly, misty kind that might let up at some point.  He was very nice about it and didn't make me keep it or pay him anyway.  He totally understood.  Plus we've used them a few times before for other parties we've had, so we're best buds now.  (Burbank Jumpers and Party Rentals, for any of you close by.) 

When I came back inside, after deciding against the bounce house, I found Sonya and Lana on the couch in tears.  Great.  Just what I had time for, consoling crying children.  They wanted the bounce house!  Why couldn't we get it?!  I mentioned the rain, but they didn't seem to care.  I mean, a wet bounce house!  That's even MORE fun!  What was I thinking sending it away?

Eventually, they calmed down when I told them I would call and have it come back if it stopped raining. There was a better chance of Angelina and Brad showing up at Lana's party.  I resigned myself to the fact that it was just going to rain and I set up the party for inside.  I took the rug out of Sonya's room, set up the little picnic table and her face paints.  I put up the art easel, coloring book and crayons.  This would be the designated art area.  Lana and Georgia's room would just be a free for all play area.  I was sure it would be a disaster of mess at the end, but there was nothing else to be done.  Just for the record, we don't live in a huge house.  It's about 1600 square feet and about 500 of that is our bedroom, which I was NOT about to let the kids run around in.  Although, I briefly thought about setting up the bounce house in there.

 Okay good, I figured out how to have the party despite the weather outside.  Now there was the problem of my disabled husband laying on the bed in our room, unable to walk, let alone help get things ready. 

Let me go backwards a minute.  Earlier in the morning, before the unavoidable rain, Andy was putting something away in the attic. When he came back down, he mentioned that he might have tweaked his back.  He has this reoccurring back problem, that came about a couple years ago.  I told him to go take some Motrin and get on the Inversion Table right away, knowing how quickly this can go bad.  He usually hangs upside down on the Inversion Table on a regular basis, which keeps his back problems at by.  However, he's had a cold/sinus infection for a couple weeks and hanging upside down is not so great for his already stuffed up head.  He took the Motrin, but  before hanging upside down he needed to answer nature's call.  Except that sitting after he tweaked his back, was apparently not the best thing for him. I was outside rinsing out a cooler and the next thing I know Lana is calling me, because Daddy hurt his back real bad.  I found him in our bathroom leaning against the counter unable to move.  

"This is bad, this is bad," he kept repeating.  

We managed to get him over to the bed and laying down in a position that wasn't excruciating for him.  It was 10am.  The party started at 12:30.  He was freaking out, and saying how bad the pain was, how he couldn't move and what was he going to do.  I remained calm and collected on the outside saying,

"Let me think, we'll figure this out, don't worry about it.  Just rest."  

Except in my head I was thinking, "FuckfuckfuckfuckFUCK!!!"  It's okay, the girls can't hear me say that word in my head.

He couldn't move, I had a ton of things to do at the house still since it was raining, not to mention the food that needed to be picked up!  THE FOOD!!  And the Balloons!!  These were things he was supposed to do.  How the hell was I going to get everything done completely on my own in a little over  two hours, get myself ready and find a way to have Andy upright, in at least a little less pain, and party presentable??  This, my friends, is what being a mother is all about.  Finding a way out of a shitty mess of a day and make sure it's your daughter's best birthday party ever, without saying what I thought in my head out loud.  It wasn't easy, but I managed it.  

You will have to come back for the rest of the story later on this week though.  This one is getting a little long and we have to get to piano lessons.  

To be continued....

Jazzy

So remember how last week I was super busy, but told you about something sad that happened to us and yes, I wanted to talk about it, but had to wait until I had the time?  Well, I have a couple hours now.  Grab a seat, and possibly a tissue and read away.  Here is that story.  Just a warning-it's a long one.


It began eleven and half years ago when Andy called me from work one day in May, to tell me he was holding this adorable little kitten.  One of the girls from work had brought her in.   The kitten, her sister and her mom were all found outside in this girl's garden.  The friend at work wasn't sure what to do with them, but there was another woman at Andy's work who was very involved in an animal shelter.  In fact, the place Andy worked had quite a few cats running around that had been brought in by other people.  The problem was, the kittens were about five weeks old and would soon become feral, if they weren't around people soon.  They needed to be held constantly, to try help domesticate them.  Andy, who has always been a cat person, grabbed the calico one and she laid on his shoulder for the better part of the day.  He was hooked.  We had gotten engaged just a few months before and were preparing to move in together.  So he called to tell me and told me about this cute little kitty he was holding and could we keep her, please, please, huh can we??


Here was the problem.  I was very allergic to cats.  This is something I discovered when I was about fourteen.  I am a dog person and always had dogs around, so never really entertained the idea of having a cat, especially when I became allergic.  I could tell he really wanted to keep her though. I did have  friends I knew who had been allergic to cats, but after a month or so, became used to their own cat and the allergies all but disappeared.  Since I loved my soon to be husband, I was willing to give it a try.  If my allergies didn't go away, we were prepared to give the kitten to Andy's roommate when they moved out.


Well, for about a month I was completely miserable anytime I would go to their house.  Sneezing, itchy eyes, stuffiness, the whole thing.  But after a while I realized that my allergies started to subside.  It would take a longer period of time being around her, before they would start, and as long as I washed my hands after playing with her, I was okay.  We decided to go ahead and keep her.  Jazz became our first "baby".


Since I had never had a cat before, I wasn't sure what to expect.  She was fun as a kitten and always wanted to play, much like a puppy or dog, but as she got older she became more independent and aloof.  I liked her, but she didn't always like me and would sometimes hide in the bathroom in the hallway to take a swipe at me as I walked by.  This used to drive me crazy. Andy would defend her saying she was just playing, but she rarely did it to him.  In fact, she LOVED Andy.  Like a dog, she would run to the door to greet him when he came home from work.  She was always ready to sit in his lap when we would watch TV at night, and loved to lay on him when we went to bed.  If Andy wasn't around she would sometimes do those things with me, but it was always clear who her favorite was.


Then we went and had a baby.  I will never forget the day I came home from the hospital with Sonya.  She came running out to greet me, only to be surprised by this big bulky thing Andy carried in that held something tiny and moving inside of it.  Andy placed the car seat on the floor and she sniffed it for a bit.  Then she decided she wanted nothing to do with it, turned and haughtily walked out of the room.  She refused to sleep in our room for a week and a half.  Eventually, when she realized the little thing wasn't leaving, she got over it. She even became protective of the little pink screaming being.   When Sonya would cry she would even become concerned.  Jazz would run to us and run to the room where Sonya was crying.  Then we would get the baby and put her on the bed and Jazz would hop up look at her, look at us, then back to her.  You could almost hear her thinking,


"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO HER?! WHY IS SHE CRYING LIKE THAT?? DO SOMETHING!"


Trust me, Jazz, we were trying.





This past April she turned eleven and was in fine health.  I've had friends with cats who live upwards of 20, so I never thought of her as old.  We hadn't taken her for her shots in a while, and over the summer Andy made a trip to the vet to get her caught up.  She had always been an indoor cat, but sometimes we let her go in our walled in backyard when we were out there.  She adored being outside. After all, it is where she was born and spent the first five weeks of her life.  She would always try to make an escape outdoors if she could.  Then at one point this past summer, she started to get mad at us when we wouldn't let her go out.  Usually in the form of shitting on Sonya's rug in her bedroom.  I think she chose there, because she knew what a pain in the ass it was for me to clean it.  I swear that cat knew those kind of things.  My husband thinks I'm crazy and would say she was just an animal and didn't know.  I'm telling you, she knew how to piss me off.  So eventually, I said screw it.  Let's let her go outside.  She can't get out of the backyard anyway and all she wanted was to be out there in the sun all day.  Andy agreed and she became the happiest cat ever.  The pooping and throwing up everywhere stopped.  She would come inside and spend the nights with us, but first thing in the morning she would be meowing to go outside again.


When we came back from RI in October, our friends who looked in on her while we were gone, Norb and Cecelia, had told us she seemed to be drinking a lot of water.  More than usual.  We noticed she had also started to lose some weight, which we had attributed to her being outside.  I thought it might be a good idea to get her checked out though, so Andy took her to the vet.  They diagnosed her with hyper thyroid, gave her some pills and ordered some special food for her.  After ten days of taking the pills, she was still losing weight and now wasn't eating as much.  Then we noticed her limping on one side.  Back to the vet she went, where they x-rayed her leg and found nothing.  The blood tests showed nothing, but she did have a fever.  Perhaps it was an infection.  So they gave her an antibiotic shot and sent her on her way.


The next day she seemed to rally a bit and act more like herself, but she was still sleeping an awful lot and eating next to nothing.  She wasn't really even asking to go outside.  Then, when my sister was here,  at one point she ran around the house to every rug trying to pee.  She would leave less than a drop of pee and it appeared to be tinged with blood.  There was something so obviously wrong with her, but we couldn't get her to the vet before Thanksgiving.  Some days she seemed like she was doing okay, then some days she completely ignored her litter box, peed anywhere, slept constantly and ate nothing.  That weekend Andy went back to the vet, where this time they did a full body x-ray.  I took the phone call two hours later from the vet informing me that she had two tumors.  One on her spine and one on her kidney-which explained the peeing problems.  They had metastasized and there was nothing really to be done.  His words to me were,


"So if she's eating and doing okay, you can let her go for a while.  Otherwise...."


I knew what that "otherwise" meant.  I had a dog we had to put to sleep because of brain tumors when I was 16, and I knew that there was no coming back from what she had.  Through tears I told Andy what the vet said and what our options were.  He was not ready to let her go yet.  She still seemed to be more on the life side of things at that point, even though she wasn't eating at all now.


Cecelia, who volunteers at an animal shelter and fosters kittens, came over with a bag of tricks to try on Jazz to see if we could at least get her to eat again.  But after three days of force feeding her, Andy and I gave up.  I felt like we were only torturing her at that point.  All she did was sleep.  Andy was reluctant to put her down, because of how much she hated going to the vet.  I don't think any animal loves it, but Jazz had a bad experience once that really put her off going.  That was when I remembered that I had heard somewhere about vets who would come to your home to put an animal down.  I did some research and found a couple.  I talked to Andy about it, but he was still not ready.  He wanted her to go on her own, although I knew that might take a while. With three little kids in the house,  I didn't think that was probably the best option.  Not to mention, she seemed to be miserable and in pain. However, she was more or less his cat and I wanted him to make the final decision, so I left him alone.


By that Friday, not yet a week since she had been diagnosed, she was looking worse than ever.  Twice that day she had tried to escape outside, which was something she hadn't done in a while.  Then that night she found a spot to lay down in the corner of the kitchen where she had never gone before.  Andy figured she was probably trying to find a place to die.  When he came home from work that night, after seeing her, he said to me,


"We need to call someone and do it tomorrow.  She is just not our Jazz anymore."


She wasn't and she looked like she was done.  So the next morning I made an appointment for the vet to come over at 1:30pm.  We let Jazz outside in the morning.  It was sunny and breezy, perfect weather for her to be outside.  Sonya was crying on and off most of the morning.  Andy was sitting outside with Jazz for a while.  I put off all the things I had to do that day and Sonya and I went outside to spend some time with her too.  The younger two, oblivious to this part of life, ran around and played.  Then the vet came at 1:30.  She was a wonderful, sweet lady, but it was like looking at a personified grim reaper.  Jazz was laying under a rose bush when she arrived and she told us we could leave her there.  She would give her one shot to knock her out and then the second shot would, well, send her to the big scratching post in the sky.


I had all the girls come over and give her one last pet and say their goodbyes.  Sonya was sobbing, and I wasn't far behind.  Then I tried to usher them inside, but Lana decided she wanted to stay and watch.  I told her no and she argued with me, until I promised her a cookie if she would join us inside.  She willingly ran in he house.


Andy stayed outside to be with Jazz.  Sonya and I sat on the couch and cried while Georgia sat near us, looking like she wanted to be sad, but didn't really understand why.  Lana jumped up and down on the floor near me asking for,


"COOOKIE!!  I want my COOKIE!!"


Seriously Lana!  Some of us are trying to mourn here!  She would not shut up about the cookie.  I think my daughter may lack empathy, or sympathy.  Perhaps both.  That might be a problem, but I couldn't think about that right now.  I just wanted her to stop, so I got up to get her cookie and looked outside to see  Andy holding Jazz as the vet administered the final shot.  Then I saw my husband, who up to that point hadn't shed a tear, break down and cry like I've never seen.  We've been together for 16 years and I've only ever seen him cry one other time.  That day, he broke.  He got it back together after about ten minutes.  Can't cry to long, you know, because he's a guy and all.  Sonya and I however, cried on and off for the rest of the day.  It was a pretty miserable day and in the middle of it, we were trying to put up Christmas lights and decorations.  Because nothing says Christmas like putting your beloved pet to sleep!


It's been hard on all of us.  Well, Andy, Sonya and me anyway.  Sonya came across an ornament when we were decorating the tree that held a picture of Jazz and started crying again.  Andy has had the worst time of us all.  There hasn't been anymore crying, but he was definitely brooding for the earlier part of last week.  I think the hardest part for us was that she wasn't that old for a cat and that it happened so damn fast.  One minute she's fine, normal, swiping at my legs in the bedroom Jazz and the next she's  a five pound mass of fur barely moving.  


And to answer the question everyone asks, yes we will most likely get another pet.  I've been wanting a dog for years, but to be honest I liked having a cat.  I wouldn't mind having both.  For right now though, we are going to grieve over the loss of this one for bit and take some time to miss her.  She was a huge part of our lives for eleven years.  She was there for some of the most important times from marriage to births.  She was a part of our family and we were in no way ready for this.  It's going to be hard without her, even if she did drive me crazy, or annoy me half the time, I still loved her.  In fact, I knew this was going to be hard on Andy when she died, but what I didn't count on was how sad I would be.  Even now writing this, I've done part of it in tears.  She was a great pet and we will miss her terribly.  Rest in Peace Jazzy cat.

Jazz and Sonya 2005

The Aluminum Anniversary

A couple weeks ago I told you all about my ten year anniversary.  I mentioned how much I love my husband and how great he is.  He proved it further with his gifts to me for our anniversary.  Usually we don't exchange gifts, but since this was our tenth, we decided to make an exception.  Okay, fine.  I decided we should get each other gifts.  I mean it's been ten years!  Anyway, I didn't really care what he got or how much he spent, I just wanted a little something to commemorate the occasion.  Most guys would have just gotten some flowers or a random piece of jewelry, which would have been fine.  However, when Andy puts  thought behind a gift, he becomes the most romantic, sweetest, fantastic guy.  Here is what I got: 

Now most of you are looking at this and thinking- "Ummmm, looks like random jewelry to me."   But it isn't at all.  In fact, the necklace made me cry.  Here is what you are looking at.  

First of all, both pieces are made from aluminum since the tenth is the aluminum anniversary.  Who even knew there WAS such a thing as aluminum jewelry?  The earrings are purple, with gold in them.  They represent the place where Andy and I met, college.  The colors of our school were purple and gold. Those he gave to me on our anniversary.  The necklace came last week. When it arrived I called Andy to let him know and he explained it to me.   If you look at the necklace you will see dates stamped on each of the rectangles.  Those are the girls birthdays. The little round balls represent Andy and I.  They are peas in a pod.  That is where I started to cry.  Then he told me the reason they are blue and not green, like peas are supposed to be, is because my eyes are blue and he thought the blue would be better on me.  AWWWWW!! I know right!  He really CAN be so thoughtful and romantic.  I love both of my gifts.  I wish I could have been as thoughtful, but he really did need/want his new sunglasses.   

Now if only he could be romantic in a picking up his dirty clothes off the floor and putting his dirty dishes in the sink kind of way.  I guess for now though, he gets a free pass.

Like Father, Like Daughter

I've recently come to the realization, that little Georgia is becoming the jokester in the family.   She is the one who is not afraid to make a fool of herself to get a laugh.  For a few months now, she will use different voices to make fun or her sisters, or even Andy and I.  Most of the time it's her repeating what we say in a goofy voice, but I have no idea where she even got the idea to start doing this.  Then again, I have to remember who I'm married to.

Andy has always been funny.  It's definitely one of the reasons I married him to begin with.  Wittiness comes to him very naturally and anyone who knows him, knows how much he jokes around.  Pretty much 24/7.  It's hard to get him to be serious.  Usually the only time he's serious is when he's mad, we're in a fight or he's sleeping.  Actually, even during sleep he's laughing.  Like last week when I woke up from a nightmare yelling "NOOO!"  I think he laid in bed and giggled at me for five minutes before going back to sleep.  Don't bother seeing if I need comforting from my nightmare!! No no, just laugh at me yelling in my sleep.  Well, in his defense it was pretty funny.   He will be more serious when he's around people he doesn't know that well.  He has to feel out his audience before deciding what kind of jokes he can make.  When we had kids I always hoped that they would take after him in this way. They all seem to have a good sense of humor.  Each one of them can be goofy in her own way at different times, but Sonya will become too self conscience and Lana is too moody.   But Georgia...she is the one that will do anything to get a laugh.  Sometimes it's making silly faces, sometimes it's the mocking voices, then other times it's her attempt at trying to dance in tap class.

I take Georgia and Lana to dance class every Tuesday right now.  It's through the Parks and Rec here in Burbank, so it was fairly cheap.  One week they do ballet and the next week it's tap.  The girls like going, and I can't even begin to tell how how incredibly adorable and funny they are.  I wish I had videos or a picture even, but alas their teacher doesn't allow it.  She doesn't allow much, let me tell you.  She is very serious about dancing with them and even I'm scared of doing something wrong when I'm there.  

Yesterday, she was teaching the girls "shuffle, hop, step", which is the only step I remember from my own very brief tap days some 100 years ago.  She showed the girls how to do it and then she went down the line to have each of them do it so she could help them with it.  The girls in this class are between 3-5 years old, so they are all cute to watch and have a hard time performing any step. They also have difficulty keeping focused for the 25 minutes they are in there. All of us moms are entertained by our kids each week, and how funny they are when they try to dance.  This week though, Lana nailed it.  She did a great job with the move and the teacher even commended her.  I was so proud.  The instructor continued to have each girl show her the move individually until she got to Georgia.  Oh Georgia.  I don't really even know how to describe what she did in words.  If you were a Seinfeld fan, think something along the lines of the Elaine dance.  If you weren't you can check it out here.  Yeah, it was sorta like that.

Georgia did the shuffle, but kicked her leg way out in front of her.  Then she jumped high in the air and landed hard for her step.  Except when she jumped, she did this thing with her arms punching them in the air.  Her teacher made her do it a few times on each foot and every time she did the weird jump arm thing.  At the start of her turn I was giggling, but by the end, I was in full church laughing mode.  You know the one. It happens when you find something funny in church and you can't laugh out loud, so you start to laugh inward and it makes your whole body shake which only  makes you laugh harder.  Then your mom snaps her fingers and gives you her mad look because you are laughing in church, even if it isn't out loud.  That was me at dance class yesterday.  Only when I turned to look at the other moms, they weren't snapping their fingers with mad faces at me, but doing their own church laugh.  I was laughing so badly that I started tearing up at one point.  I didn't want to laugh out loud, because I didn't want Georgia to feel self conscience.  However, it appeared she did notice we were all in silent fits of giggles, and this only fueled her to be more silly.  Even her strict instructor was smiling and appeared to be holding back some of her own chuckles.  Then the mom sitting next to me, leaned over and said,

"She is super cute!"

Yes, yes she is. While she may not be the best dancer or any kind of dancer,  she appears to be the class clown of the dancing class, and loves every minute of it. 

 I always knew that when I got surprisingly pregnant with her, there was a reason for her to be in our lives.  I'm almost certain now it is for her to make us laugh, and lighten our lives.  For all the drama the older two can cause us, she is the comedy to play off of them.  I think she is going to have us, and others around her laughing out loud or church style, for many years to come.  

Ten

Yesterday was an very important day in our family.  It was important because it was the anniversary of the beginning of this family.  Ten years ago yesterday in a church in Rhode Island, Andy and I vowed to stay together for the rest of our lives, in front of all of our family and friends.  So much has happened in that ten years.  Namely the three little beings who have turned our lives into something completely different from where we were back then.  The funny thing is, we weren't supposed to have October 12 as our anniversary date.  We were supposed to be married on September 15th of that year.  If you're following, you will see that was also the same year as the September 11th attacks.

Since I told you all the story of how we met, I thought it appropriate to tell you the story about our wedding.  Everyone has something that goes wrong at their wedding.  Usually, it's something that is easily fixed.  For us it was a little more involved of a fix.  

Any one out there who has planned a wedding, knows how much work and preparation goes into it.  How you get more excited as the day gets closer.  It was no different for me.  We were living in Los Angeles then, as we do now, but were planning on getting married in Rhode Island.  Andy grew up there  and since I had moved so much when I was younger, it made more sense to get married where one of us had strong ties.  On Tuesday, September 11, 2001 we were supposed to be taking a red-eye flight to RI, where we would get married that Saturday.  

I remember that morning as clear as everyone else in this country does.  Andy and I lived in an apartment in Burbank that had a running track behind it.  I would get up early most mornings and go for a run, before getting ready for work.  I headed out that morning with my cassette walk-man (I guess iPods weren't quite there yet) and turned on KROQ.  I listed to the Kevin and Bean show every morning.  I knew that they were on vacation and would most likely be playing old shows, but when I heard the voice of Ralph, who does entertainment and the news guy Doc I got confused.  They were not on vacation with the others and what were they doing live?  Weird.  I continued to run and as I ran, their words starting sinking in.  

Plane hit the tower.

Another plane hits the second tower.

The first tower falls.

I just continued to run, hoping that this was all a mistake.  Thinking they would come on and claim it as some War of the Worlds type thing, but no, they seemed pretty somber and extremely serious.  I finally decided to end my run and went up to the apartment where I found Andy wide awake sitting on couch watching the whole thing on TV.

"Where were you?!" He demanded.

"Where I go every morning, to run," I said more calmly than I felt.

He had been worried when he received a phone call about what was going on and I wasn't there.  We sat on the couch for a while watching the second tower fall and trying not to panic.  The talk started about this being a terrorist attack.  Then came word of other planes being hijacked and immediately and all the planes were grounded.  Then as the horror of the attacks continued, I started to have thoughts in the back of my head that were completely selfish, but I couldn't ignore.  What about my wedding?  

Now let me just say right here how tragic what happened was.  I have so much sympathy for everyone who lost their loved ones that day.  I couldn't even begin to imagine.  That is what made it worse for me.  I was lucky to still have everyone I loved safe and sound, but there was this huge thing that was supposed to be happening in mine and Andy's life that was what?  Not going to happen?  Going to happen later?  Be moved to a different location?  I had no idea.  I felt bad for even trying to think about it, but we had to.  

All the planes were grounded.  The times for them to be back in the air kept getting pushed back, and back, and back.  The earliest they could get us into RI was the day of our wedding by 10am.  The wedding was at 2pm.  And that was just us.  We had no idea what all my friends and family were going to do.  Luckily, my parents were already in RI with my soon to be in-laws.  They had driven there the day before to help tie up loose ends.  Now we had to tie the biggest loose end of all.  Moving the ENTIRE wedding to another date.  

I am so thankful to the four of them for all they did those couple days.  I was in no frame of mind to make those calls myself.  Again, I can't tell you how guilty I felt at that time for feeling upset about the loss of my wedding, especially when so many people lost so much more.  But I couldn't help it.  It was something I had planned for, well my entire life really.  

Fortunately, it was fixable.  The place we were having our reception had two dates available, one in November and October 12th.  I chose October, for fear of snow in November.  You never know in New England.  All of our vendors we were using from DJ to photographer, were understanding and available that day.  The good thing was that it was a Friday and not many people choose a Friday to get married.  This helped us out.  Most of our family and friends were able to change plane tickets and make the switch.  There were a few people we lost, but a couple that we gained with the new date as well.  The day itself ended up being beautiful.  The weather was awesome and we had a fantastic time.  We went through a bit of stress, but it all worked out in the end.  That is more than I can say for so many people's lives that day.  I am grateful that was the worst problem I had to deal with. 

Now, ten years later, it has become just an interesting little fact in our lives.  All of our engravings and wedding invitations say September 15th, 2001, yet our actual wedding date is October 12th.  Every September 15, Andy and I wish each other a Happy Fake Anniversary.  That week is such a blur in my mind, but Andy remained calm and helpful through it all.  He was a rock.  Well, after the initial shock anyway.   I am thankful for him every day, because besides being a great husband, he is the best father I could have asked for my girls.  He has continued to be my support and my rock through so many points in this past ten years.  When they told me I needed to have a C-section with Sonya and I burst into tears, when I became surprisingly pregnant for the third time with Georgia, and when Lana had a number of problems as a baby.  He has been helpful through all of it.  Sure we've had a few bumps in the road, but this is something I have learned about marriage in the past ten years.  It's not about flowers and chocolates.  Don't expect midnight trips to Paris on a private jet for your birthday.  Life is not a soap opera.  (Which is too bad sometimes) It's about really being there in the good times AND the bad, the sickness and the health.  We've been there for each other.  It's not always easy, but it's always totally worth it.  For our girls and for each other.  So here's to my wonderful husband of ten years.  I can honestly say I love you more than the day we got married, and I hope to feel that way in another ten years, and another ten, and another.  Then we should be good.  Thirty years is long enough to be married, right? 

I love you Andy, Happy 10th Anniversary. Thanks for making all my family dreams come true.

Quick footnote-If I haven't said it before, I will say it now, thank you to all of you who switched your plans and lives around to be there with us on this day.  Besides having a great husband, I have amazing family and friends.  

Fishing For a Happy Birthday

Wow I am really slacking with my writing this summer!  Sorry about that.  The problem is I thrive on schedules and with summer comes lack of a schedule.  So I've sorta been all over the place and have had a hard time finding a moment to write.  Today I did though!  Yay for me!  


I hope all of you had a fantastic 4th of July weekend.  We all had fun here in Burbank.  July 4th weekend is usually a big deal in our house, because Andy's birthday is July 2nd.  It usually ends up being a three day long celebration.  Needless to say we were all exhausted by yesterday.  Andy even claimed he needed to go back to work for a vacation.  It wast one of those weekends where we went out did something, came home and dropped off some of our things, only to turn around and go back out again.  There was fishing, going out to dinners, hanging at  the beach, watching a Hall and Oats concert at the Hollywood Bowl (yes I said Hall and Oats), BBQing with the neighbors and going to see a concert and fireworks here in Burbank at the Starlight Bowl.  See?  It was packed but it was fun all around.  One of the best parts of the weekend was the fishing.


We went fishing on Andy's birthday at his request.  He's been fishing a handful of times in his life and much to his disappointment, has never caught anything.  He was determined that this time he was going to fish and catch something.  So determined, in fact, that he found a place that had stocked Trout ponds.  A place called Trout Dale.  


Yes, I'm serious.  Trout Dale.  It was about a forty minute drive from our house.  We got there in the morning and got all set up with our fishing poles.  We watched all around us as other people caught fish after fish. While we caught a lot of nothing.  Andy was becoming frustrated, but I could see he wasn't ready to give up yet.  I mean these were small ponds stocked full of trout.  How could you NOT catch one?!  


After about two hours, I can tell you how you can not catch one.  Do it the wrong way.  Who knew?  I'll get back to that in a minute.


The girls were getting a bit antsy after being out there a while.  Sonya was doing okay, but the younger two...  well, you know how they are. At least you do if you've been reading this blog for even five minutes.  They dug in the dirt for a while, had some snacks, took about 4 trips to the bathroom all while waiting for a fish to be caught.  They briefly tried to fish as well, but that didn't last long.  The ponds that we were fishing from didn't have any kind of barrier around them.  The more antsy and physical they got, the more I started to worry that one of them was going to go in.  It was at this point that I decided to take them to the car and see if they would sleep or, at the very least, rest.  Andy was still not ready to give up on the fishing, and seeing as how it was his birthday, I figured I'd let him try for a bit longer before I had to drag him away.  


Sonya stayed with Andy to continue the quest for a fish, and I sat in the car with the little girls.  They decided to played Barbies instead of sleep, but at least there wasn't a chance of them going for a swim in the pond anymore.  Then I noticed Andy had moved to a different spot in the pond and watched as he talked to one of the guys who ran Trout Dale.  I kept my eye on what was happening and about 5-10 minutes after talking to the man, I heard Sonya squeal and watched as Andy struggled to pull a big trout out of the pond.  


I quickly grabbed Lana and GG and ran over to where Andy had finally caught his first fish.  It was already cut off the fishing line and in the bucket.  We all congratulated him and while he was excited, he was a bit disappointed that he didn't have a picture of catching his first fish.  Oops.  Sorry babe.  So I took this one instead.  

He explained the couple pieces of advice the man had given him and the "power bait" he had used.  I decided to try for myself and within five minutes also caught a fish, although not as big as the one Andy got.  This wasn't so hard after all! Fortunately for me, Andy was there to take my picture.  (There was one of me smiling, but this one was so much more amusing.) 

We decided after being there for nearly three hours and catching two fish, maybe we would be done for the day.  Andy did try one more time before we left, but he lost the rest of his bait in the water, so we called it quits.  I know he just wanted that picture.  He continued to talk about how nobody was there to take his picture as we got packed up and got in the car.  It was mostly in a joking tone, but I could tell he was disappointed.  


As we were leaving Trout Dale, Andy asked the girls if they all had fun and they exclaimed that they had.  Then Georgia proceeded to recap the day for us:


"We went fishiiiinn....an Daddy caught a fiiiiisssshhh...an Mommy caught a fiiiiissshh...and dere was nobody dere to take Daddy's piccttuuurree...."





So, sorry about the lack of a picture babe, but you at least you have a fun memory of catching your first fish, on your birthday with your family.  I love you, baby!  Happy Birthday!

And Now, For Your Entertainment Pleasure

Last Sunday morning, as we all sat around the breakfast table, we started to discuss what we were going to do with our day.  Well, first and foremost, we had to go buy a new washer and dryer.  Oh did I not mention that yet?  Yes, we got to spend a couple grand on new appliances for the house instead of a vacation somewhere with our income tax return.  Yay!  We had to.  Not sure why, but our washer started to sound like we needed to find a helipad to land during its spin cycle.  I'm  not kidding, you guys.  When we were in the kitchen we had to practically yell to have a conversation if it was spinning.  It still seemed to work okay, but it is a nine year old set that has gotten a hell of a lot of use, so it was time for a new one.  We decided Andy would go on his own, because we had already been looking around and pretty much knew the set we wanted.   We just had to buy it.  Andy going on his own seemed like a better option than bringing three kids to buy a washer and dryer.  Because that would be like, well, bringing three kids to buy a washer and dryer.  Turns out they really don't like to do things like that.  I spend more time yelling at them to close the doors to every dryer they've opened, while telling them that no, you may not climb inside even if it is big enough to fit you.  So he was off to take care of that task in the morning.  But then, what to do with the afternoon?   Andy came up with this idea.


"Let's make a movie!"


Okay, I've mentioned before that I moved out here to L.A. to chase my acting dreams.  Andy also came out here with similar dreams of acting, writing, and directing.  Life seems to have taken us in a different direction, but that's not to say that we don't still have those underlying dreams.  And who knows that we won't achieve them on some level one day?  Andy used to make movies like this in college all the time.  They are all damn funny.  Some of you out there even know his work from college.  So once Andy had this idea in his head of making a movie with the kids, that was it for the day.  He was excited to do it and focused on the task at hand.  Before he left to buy the washer and dryer he was giving me instructions on certain props to find, making sure the camera was charged, etc.  He had a story, the way to shoot it, and all the editing equipment needed.  See, the only problem was, he was working with kids.  Plus they were OUR kids.  You know, the ones that are all girls and sometimes a little difficult to get to cooperate.  This is not really something he had to deal with when shooting the college films.  


I think our first problem was that we waited until late afternoon to start.  Since we had more of a brunch than a breakfast, we skipped lunch.  At the start of shooting the movie, the girls were excited.  It only took about 20 minutes for that excitement to dissipate and for them to be done with this project.  Then Andy's patience  started to wane, along with the girls attention span.  He would give them direction, and they would nod along seeming to understand.  Then he would shout "action" and some of the... okay most of the time they wouldn't do what he asked or they did the complete opposite.  I was starting to find it comical.  But Andy was getting frustrated and saying things like,


"What are you doing?! Why don't you just do what I told you to do?"


I just kept gently reminding him, "Because she's two, " or sometimes, "four." There's a reason why people don't want to work with kids in Hollywood.


Sonya did well, except for the,


"Sonya, stop looking at the camera!" moments.


It was mostly Georgia, who was hard to control, and she was the star of this particular movie.  I was the designated child wrangler and about half an hour into shooting, I broke out the chocolate chips and peanut butter crackers.  Then came the promises of a huge after dinner treat and perhaps even a pony if they would just do what Daddy was asking.  Now I see why almost every child actor in this town ends up on the Lindsay Lohan path.  It's an easy road to go down when you are doing everything you can to get kids to do what you want for, "just two minutes", and then "another five more minutes".


About an hour and a half into it, I was beginning to get frustrated too.  The kids were over it and I was convinced this was not going to turn out well and we had just wasted our Sunday afternoon.  I wanted to stop and finish another time, but Andy was determined to get it done then.


Half a bag of chocolate chips, 3 packages of peanut butter crackers, a quarter of a goldfish bag, a possible pony purchase and almost two hours since we had started, we were done.  The girls went outside to play and Andy went to start editing the footage.


He's been working on it when he's had a chance all week.  I have to admit, after watching it, even the first time, I realized we did not waste our afternoon after all.  It is cute and funny and looking back now, it's a great memory of a Sunday afternoon we spent together.  I don't know if other people will enjoy it  as much we do, because they are our kids.  It's going to be more funny to us.  Watch it and let us know what you think.


Oh and don't worry, I say movie, but we're talking a shorty short movie here.  It will only take less than 5 minutes of your time, even though it took WAY more than that of ours.  Enjoy!