Once Upon a Time

I started a blog...
And I promised myself that unlike everything else in my life I wouldn't fall behind in this....well guess who failed. I don't know if anyone even bothers to read this. Maybe that's why I've fallen behind. I just feel...behind in everything I'm doing. It's always running and reaching out and missing and then sometimes you catch it and you feel like you're on top of the world, but then the rest of it slames behind you and realize how out of control everything really is.
I'm not really sure where I'm going with this my advice for you tonight...this morning is pick something...something just out of reach and go for it. I have faith and love for you all, whoever you are I don't care, just know that out there somewhere, someone loves you

Raptor on 9th and 9th

I am so in love with this blog and I'm telling people that constantly. But the problem is that there is just to much I want to say and show you here. I still haven't posted any of the pictures from California yet and I was going to do that Thursday but I had to leave. Then yesterday I took the girls to the children's museum and I took a ton of pictures but unfortunately had to leave again, I even started to write about the experience and then I had to flee to get back to Lara's sisters house to eat cookies and juice and hear her existing man pursuing stories. So here I am today determined to post something! So I will talk about an experience I had an hour ago. I took Lucy to 9th and 9th one of my favorite intersections here because of the people that populate it and how not alone in the world I feel when I'm there. We were sitting in the car and Lara was complaining about her stomach and how that croissant she had just eaten was not agreeing with her. I was on the phone with Nick trying to decide if we were going to dye his hair tonight when all of a sudden Lara yelled "DINOSAUR!" I looked over and there just in the middle of someones front lawn stood a copper stature of a velociraptor. It was not what I expected but was so typical for that street. I can see Lara doing something if not the exact same thing on her front lawn. So we took some pictures and here I am posting and documenting this epic moment of my life. It's the small moments like that with Lucy I'm going to miss the most. She leaves for college next Saturday and with her is taking a piece of my heart. I love that girl so entirely and I'm going to miss her, she's not that far away but even being up the street is too far away in my opinion. So without further ado here is Lara and her dinosaur

Carly's Favorite Thing

Everyday I anticipate coming to grandma's house and hearing Carly spin around in her chair and say "CAN WE GO SWIMMING?" Normally I just sigh and say "we'll see" but when they all gang up on you its hard to say no, so out comes my wallet. Not that sitting by the pool for two hours watching children play and swim while I sit there doing..well nothing is not my favorite thing to do but I'm sure that you can see why it's not the most entertaining. In any case today I caved and so we went on an epic journey to scrounge together $13 to go to swimming. The girls where overjoyed I was melancholy. But when we got there and I watched as Carly leaped head on into the deep cold pool I couldn't help but smile. Truthfully I love swimming and I miss when I use to do it every other day at school, true I faked my way through the grade while my friends were more dedicated but I still loved it. After taking a few pictures and laughing with the Carly I finally pulled her out and asked her "little girl why is swimming your favorite thing?" without missing a beat she beamed up at me and said "because it's so much FUN!" and whipped around and sprang back into the pool.

My favorite thing about Carly swimming is how serious she is the whole time she's trying to swim a distance and then she stops and just laughs.



Or the way she would constantly turn
around before she pushed off to make sure I was still watching her.



Or maybe the fact that the crazy kid used 4 kick pads at once.





Maybe it's just that she has fun wherever she goes in the Lazy river or the waterside.



Even the simple waterworks area. As long as theirs water involved she's happy.

And of course my two other favorite girls where there having just as much fun.







One of Kate's favorite things to do is to jump into the 9ft section of the pool. Mollie was terrified.



We coaxed and gently tried to get her to do it reassuring her that everything would be okay and that I would be right there to jump in after her if anything happened. She was close to the wall and could easily grab on and everything was safe. Kate taught her the prime way to jump and told her to plug her nose. But the fear kept creepen up and she just couldn't do it. But to all of our surprise SPLASH and in she went.



It was a blast we all cheered and were so happy. And then of course Carly says "Can I go too?"
Today has been a marvelous and tiring day but I'm so dog gone happy and I don't think getting me to take them swimming will be quite as much of a challenge, just don't tell them that.

Work

This summer I'm working two jobs. One of which I'm working for the Tagge's fruit stand. This is the first time I've ever been able to just sit down and eat half a watermelon by myself without having to take an allergy pill this is like a gift that's been sent to me. It's hot and not the easiest of work but it is so much fun and I love it!

My other job is working for my grandma kind of like as a nanny for my two cousins. Most of the time I bring Katie with me because things just seem to run more smoothly when she's around. She's always been such a peacemaker in our home and is such a calming influence to my family. I think Katie embodies the definition of "turn the other cheek" and with girls like Mollie and Carly that is very much appreciated. Most days we stay home and go with routine but sometimes we'll go swimming (which Carly asks to do EVERYDAY) or shopping or whatever around. This time we went to see Toy Story 3 which was a fantastic movie I must say, tear jerker for sure. On the car ride over the girls played with the fake cell phone Carly has and watching them made me miss being a child, the simple joy of pretending to own a bakery or in this case a chocolate shop




Delivering chocolate is very serious business.


And here we are at the theatre all ready to go, and look were still friends. The moment when everyone is happy were we all seem to get along are my favorite because they are far and in between.

They sure are cute when they're not trying to kill you





These pictures I think are perfect to illistrate exsactly how I feel about this movie just so everyone knows.



what I will say is this. Despite all the fighting and crying and wear and tare of day to day life I am so grateful for my family and for everything they've done for me. I love these girls with all my heart and will always be there for them. And I do get to say that yes I love my job!

Starting Off

I should explain where my title came from. My dearest friend Lucy and I went for a drive, as we so often did this winter. We would drive around until we were good and lost and look for new areas of town that we would have never discovered if we hadn't chanced down that back road or taken that turn. It normally be one of us driving and the other picking directions as we came to stop signs or daring to go down that one road that you just never had the time to on your way down a familiar rout. On one such night we were looking for beautiful houses, we stumbled down an area that reminded me of Toluca Lake in LA, its a fantastic mix of large mansions and small homes that mesh quite beautifully. Lara said "turn right" and I turned down a road with the sign "not a through street" I looked at it thoughtfully for a moment and said "oh, well were going through it anyway" Lara and I spent a good portion of the night disusing that very topic and how so much of life is like that. If you had known what you were singing up for you might have never done it. But we all did and here we are going through it anyway.