Born To Resist

*Background: Our 5th anniversary is this October, so I jokingly sent Cameron a link to Fred Meyer Jewelers where we got our wedding rings from*

Me:http://www.fredmeyerjewelers.com/Categories/EW_AnniversaryRings.aspx
Just thinking.
Cameron:haha
yes you are
Me:I mean, I’ve managed to stay with you for five years.
Cameron:haha
well we’ll see how it goes
haha
Me:i’ll get you one, too.
for your pinky
Cameron:YES

I’ve prayed for God to provide me with an awesome Pinky ring full of diamonds

Me: dear Lord Jesus, please bless this little pinky finger of mine with a plethora of beautiful diamonds to shine with your glory. AMEN.
Cameron: that was my exact prayer
just doing my “praying things into existence” time with God
Me: I love you for saying that.

Heavy morning. If I don’t write about it, I’ll be wading through the muck of my emotions the rest of the day.

If you read my blog you know that I’m a huge animal lover, as in I give my pets middle names. We also celebrate birthdays and they get Christmas gifts. Today came with a dark cloud (the date seems appropriate enough). Cameron is having Penny, our dog, put to sleep right now. It wasn’t an easy decision to make, it wasn’t fun, it was prayed over, we talked about it often and have made previous vet visits. She was becoming more and more aggressive. She’s gone after other dogs and animals. On top of the aggressive behavior she was in severe pain, even with the meds we gave her. She’s had hip displacia since we got her. She also had arthritis in her joints.

As parents we felt like we were obligated to keep our kids safe even if she has never lashed out at the kids or any other person. We couldn’t let it get to that point. She has always been super sweet with the kids, loved them, played with them and protected them. It’s just too scary to think about what could happen if she got worse. Would I rather feel a little guilty about putting a dog to sleep or would I rather live with the lifetime of guilt for one of my kids being injured by a dog? I know we’ve made the right decision.

Penny was “our” first dog. We got Penny while I was pregnant with Josiah. We had to come all the way out to Corona from Rancho Santa Margarita because no on in Orange County wanted to let a pregnant person adopt a dog. It was also very, very expensive to even get a little dog in OC. I found Penny’s picture online and the price was right, $15. Someone had brought her to the shelter and she was already fixed and had her vaccines. She’s not the brightest crayon in the box, but she was a good companion dog. While we lived with Cameron’s parents she rode in the car everywhere with me, I needed a co-pilot and Penny fit the description. When Josiah arrived she was calm and good natured toward him and was thrilled when he could play with her or pet her. She was sweet to both the kids and I’m sure would have taken a chunk out of any bad guy that tried anything with them. It was her personal duty to protect them in the yard.

It’s hard to be a grown up and to have ugly responsibilities. Especially when it comes to your pets. I’m trying to focus on the positive. I’m glad we were able to rescue Penny, make her comfortable, give her love and lots of treats. Her life could have been far worse. She didn’t have a good chance of being adopted when we picked her out. She was older, bigger and not that great looking. I suppose I should be glad that we were able to give that to her. I think her buddy Earl might be sad for awhile. He loved Penny. I’m not looking forward to the rest of this day.

Even though Penny wasn’t the *best* dog in the world, I’m going to miss her.

Animals are such agreeable friends – they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.  ~George Eliot

My lungs went all haywire on me and decided to get bronchitis. They are so on my list. Jerks. I went to urgent care on Tuesday and came out with prescriptions. Being the good coupon queen that I am, I actually used a coupon when I got my antibiotics & expectorant. FUN! I got a $25 CVS gift card with my new prescription. There’s always a silver lining in coupon land.  While coughing my brains out, I was gloating in my savings. It all evens out.

(For the two prescriptions we paid $20.00, we got back $25. It was a $5.00 money maker if you look at it in coupon terms!)

My incredible husband held down the fort while I was confined to my quarters. I feel guilty when he does this because it is only on the rarest occasion that he gets sick. Oh, and when he’s sick he doesn’t let me take care of him. He’ll be sick in bed one minute and then doing something crazy like mowing the lawn because it needs to be done. You can’t hold that man down to save his life.

I found a website that I read most of while I was sick. Findadeath.com. Yes. You read that right. I was reading a website about celebrity deaths. Not just for the death information, but actually for the information about what these people were like in their real lives. Most of the dead are old time actors/actresses. Some of them have a very dramatic exit (Jayne Mansfield) & some don’t (Bob Hope). If there was foul play involved, I love reading about forensics and police work. Don’t judge me. Or do. Whatevs.

That is my little update on the past few days. To sum it up: lungs broken, coupons good, husband incredible, and dead people website.

Online conversation:

**This was all sparked by Cameron telling me he’d like my hair dyed red, like when we met ( á la Kirsten Dunst in Spiderman) & so I figured I’d go for something I liked. **

Me: I’ll get red hair and you can get a motorcycle. ( I sent him this picture)

Fair enough.

Cameron: ha

Me: Bwaha.

Cameron: I would love to get a motorcycle

Me:I know.My libido would not mind you getting a motorcycle. My wife brain on the other hand, might get a little panic-y.

Cameron: ha. don’t worry. we can’t afford one

Me: What? We’re not millionaires?

Cameron: sorry to let you know of that

Me: Boo.

We’re funny.

There have been many cats in my life. Cats of all sizes. Cats of all temperaments. Cats of all colors. However, there has only been one Daggett. He was, at his heaviest, 35 pounds. An orange orb of a feline that had a meow the size of a kitten’s. It was the first week of 9th grade when my Mom took all four of us down to a pet store on the boulevard to pick out a kitten. My brother, Andy instantly had his eye on a sassy pumpkin-colored kitten. We named him Daggett Norbert Berry. We were big fans of Angry Beavers, if you couldn’t tell. Daggett was a scrappy kitten. He would chase Andy across the living room- he always did like Andy best. They’ve had a special bond from the beginning. I think Daggett always knew it was Andy who picked him. Daggett became the man of a thousand names, his most well known moniker being “Babyman”. I started calling him “Sugar-booby” after watching some sort of Beach/Surfer/1960’s movie where a mobster called his girlfriend that. It just seemed appropriate. We would have informal naming competitions and see what we could come up with for him. He was an excellent muse.

I don’t know at what point Daggett became a fat cat. I was in 10th grade, I think. He was monsterous. Placed on several diets, nothing seemed to really lower the numbers on the scale for Babyman. That didn’t matter though, you see, Daggett had a woman. She loved him no matter the size. My Mom found Weezer in the parking lot at church on a Tuesday night. I came back out to the car to get a drink of soda and there was my Mom feeding a stray, fluffy white cat part of her Del Taco burrito. I dubbed her Weezer after the CD sitting on the dashboard. Weezer and Daggett became inseperable. Even when Weezer had a litter of kittens (not fathered by Daggett, who sadly had nothing but a pair of fluff balls), Daggett took care of them when Weezer became ill. He did draw the line at nursing them. He wasn’t quite equipped for that.

Daggett was a star in our household. Friends would tell other friends about the monstrosity that was Babyman and tell them to ask to see him next time they were over. He would come mosey on out from somewhere to the shock and delight of everyone who saw him. People were drawn to him… he was a very charismatic dude. My kids could not get enough of him, I think they liked him because he was the only cat who couldn’t get away from them. He was also the only cat that could act as a beanbag chair. He was tolerant and loving, even of the youngest cat admirer.

Yesterday I got a text from my Mom that Babyman has gone onto the big cat heaven in the sky. I don’t feel like I got to give him a proper good-bye the last time I saw him. I knew he was going to the vet, but I thought “Oh, I’ll see him again.” So I gave him my typical greeting and loves, but not a proper good-bye. I’m sort of kicking myself for that. Daggett has been there through all of my major life events the past 12 years. High school dances, break-ups, meeting Cameron, getting married, having babies, etc. When I told Josiah about Daggett, he cried and said “Can we just look at pictures of him?” To make me feel better Cameron told me this: “Daggett didn’t go to domestic cat heaven. He went to big cat heaven, with the panthers and lions.” I couldn’t agree more.

Daggett was a common thread for our whole family. That might seem extreme to some of you, but you probably aren’t really pet people. We are. Every animal that comes through our lives has a personality, an attitude and place in our hearts. None of them bigger and badder than Babyman.

I’ll miss you Sugar-Booby.

It’s slowly dawning on me that I will soon have a 2 year old. I’ve had one before, but I traded him in for a 3 year old. Baby Mae will no longer  truly be Baby Mae.

Today Mae decided to injure herself. I think she over extended her knee or something (as diagnosed by Dr. Nichole Baird over Facebook). She came limping in to me. She couldn’t bear any weight on it. For as dainty as Mae pretends to be, she is brutal. She has injured herself numerous times and done a good job at it. She may like Princesses, but she will take you down like Hulk Hogan. She seriously walked out of one room, into another, whimpered a little and came out limping. Less than 30 seconds folks and I’ve got a potential crisis on my hands. To distract her I sat her in the tub with me while I showered. After I was done, I took her out, wrapped her in a towel and propped her on the counter. I grabbed the hair dryer out of the drawer and proceeded to blow dry my 2 year old’s very curly, very crazy hair. It was straight! She kept looking at herself in the mirror and saying “Hair?”.

Let me just say that the sheer joy that I experienced while blow drying my daughter’s hair was ridiculous. I revel in having a little girl. I thought the feeling would fade, but I adore all things girly for her. The day we found out we were having a girl, I rushed to Babies R Us and bought dresses. Her closet was constantly re-organized & planned for optimum outfit choosing before she was born. I packed her diaper bag full for the hospital because I wanted to dress her up! I bought hair bands, socks, shoes, dresses, even an newborn infant sized bathing suit that she wore only twice. When I would get her ready for the first few weeks of her life, it took me 20 minutes to chose what she was going to wear. It was very carefully coordinated. I still am purely delighted when I buy her clothes or dress her up. She loves to have her nails painted, her hair done and to wear something “pretty” as she says. She is that girl.  The girl that I prayed for and I wanted so very much. I am grateful for her, even if she is a little monster sometimes. Let’s not sugarcoat that… Here’s to Princess Mae!

Our weekend did not go as planned. Cameron was suppose to hike all weekend and come back on Sunday afternoon. On Saturday afternoon I got a phone call from him (it scared me a little) saying they couldn’t keep going, there was too much snow. My Dad was gracious enough to drive up to Angelus Oaks and recover Cameron and Jeremy (and Emmerson the dog).

Cameron decided to go polar opposite of seclusion in nature and Sunday morning we went to Los Angeles. We got to church for their 12 o’clock service. That, to me, is brilliant. If your church is comprised of mostly young, single people who live in a big city, you probably should have an afternoon service. We dropped the kids off and went to service. I attempted to take notes on my iPhone after realizing that I had no paper to write on. If you have ever sat through a church service, class, or anything with me where someone is talking, you know I take notes like crazy. It’s how I pay attention. I really needed to pay attention to this service, too. There were bits in there about Leviticus, sacrifices, the categories of animal sacrifices, God’s atonement, etc.  Pretty cerebral/theological/note worthy sermon. You can listen to other sermons from Reality LA here.

We ate at Poquito Mas which is delicious Baja taco stand heaven located in Burbank. It was a bitter sweet visit, only a short year ago we ate there after seeing one of Conan’s first tapings of THE TONIGHT SHOW. My ahi ahi taco just wasn’t as sweet this time…

Since we can’t just go to LA and come back, I talked my husband into driving me to The Standard Hotel. It was on the way to the giant donut, so really I was quite justified in wanting to go. **Read that last sentence again. It really makes you think about my sanity and whether or not I’m Homer Simpson** If you don’t know, that’s where parts of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang were filmed. I stopped by to see if Batman & Iron Man were hanging around. They weren’t. I took some pictures. Sent them to my Mom. Zing.

Next we were off to the big donut. The big donut (AKA Randy’s Donuts) is nowhere near other iconic things in Los Angeles. If you were to believe movies, it’s next to the Staples center, down the street from the Kodak theater and underneath the Hollywood sign. Josiah was thrilled with the donut. He kissed me several times once he woke up and saw it. He wasn’t even disappointed that Iron Man wasn’t sitting in it. It took us 20 minutes to get 2 donuts. There were two women working & only one of them was serving donuts, the other one was making them. This was quite the rag-tag operation. It works for them, obviously. They have 2 drive up windows and a walk up. The lines at each of the windows was fairly epic. Not Pink’s Hot Dogs epic, but close.  Here’s another movie shock- you cannot sit down inside of Randy’s donuts. That whole Nicky Fury/Natasha Romanoff/Tony Stark meeting did not go down there. Personally, I find it sad. You, personally, might find it sad that the most unrealistic part of a superhero movie to me is that you can’t dine in at Randy’s donuts.

Once again we had a fun LA adventure. It’s pretty swell to live so close.

I finally have a red tomato. Hoorah! Just in time for summer. These tomato plants are actually volunteers which makes me a pretty magical gardner.