Babies to the rescue!

This is my baby, Marilyn Monroe. Yes, that's her real name, but her nickname is Squirt. She's our little blonde bombshell and she definitely has the diva attitude down pat. If you come to our house, she will snub you. She's really not very social, but she's round and snuggly and a beauty queen. Yes, I really called my dog a beauty queen. She even won a tiara; the stones are arranged in the shape of a bone! The day she won the Cutest Pet Contest hosted by the local newspaper she was only about 3 months old and she was fat and oh so cute! I just love fat little puppies. I think she was bigger around than she was tall, but she was (and still is) beautiful. I was such a proud Mama. However, when I tried to put the tiara on her she squirmed and hissed and cussed out loud at me. It was real ugly. So, she was done with beauty pageants.

This is our big girl, Diamond. Hey, if you have Marilyn Monroe in the house, you've got to have her best friend, Diamond, there too. They are best, best friends and you cannot separate them. If you do, it's a non-stop cry fest. She is built like a supermodel;  tall, slender, athletic, beautiful and graceful. She has my heart. When I look into her eyes, I still see that little puppy with the floppy ears and huge feet. She uses her paws like hands and, unlike Marilyn, she'll sleep anywhere. Marilyn requires a soft bed (I told you she was a diva), but Diamond is so laid back that she's been known to use a food bowl as a pillow! She makes me feel safe and last night, she did her job as Mama's protector!

We had an intruder last night. I'm sure this same guy has been to your house. He disguises himself as Daddy but he's really there to dish out a tickle thrashing on unsuspecting victims. I always have that fear of being tickled too much and then wetting my pants. Oh ladies, don't judge, I know ALL OF YOU know exactly what I'm talking about - especially if you've had kids. After a few firm kicks to defend myself, I warned him that I was being nice and hadn't kicked him hard, but I was about to. A warning that went unheeded. Tsk, tsk. I was getting the upper hand on him (if you ask him he'll refute that) and then I started laughing and when you're laughing during a wrestling match, you're going to lose. Your muscles just don't work right. You try to brace yourself and resist and push and punch and kick and bite, but they're all futile attempts. Miss Diamond did not know what to think so she started growling and barking at him. She opened her mouth and I could see that she was thinking about biting him, but she knows it's a no-no and then she got confused. "Do I save Mama or do I let Daddy go? Mama is screaming, that must mean I should bite him. But, Daddy wouldn't hurt Mama. What to do, oh what to do?!" Then Marilyn decided to get in on the action and she even gave a little "woof". Marilyn never "woofs", unless she's chasing armadillos or rabbits in the front yard (which is hysterical, by the way) or alerting to stranger-danger at the door. With help from the babies, Daddy had to relent and let go. It was a beat down by an all female army! His arm was mangled and torn and a bloody mess from the attack. Okay, okay, not really. But, I was so happy that Diamond came to my rescue when she thought I was in trouble - that's exactly why we have her! She got some extra lovins from me!! Oh, and I managed to not wet my pants. It was a near miss.

Exciting News!

We have some exciting changes going on in our lives! Last Thursday (Aug 23, 2012) we made the decision to become a host family to a foreign exchange student! After several phone calls from the AYA organization, we were in. We thought we would have to wait until next year to become hosts, but apparently this can be a VERY fast process when they're on a deadline.  Our student, a young man from Germany named Jakob, will be here this coming weekend! Excited? Yes. Nervous? Hell yes.

I have to admire this young man and his family. When I was 18 I left home and moved to California. I thought I was a big girl and I couldn't wait to get out of here. When the day finally came for me to leave, I didn't want to go. Suddenly, things seemed to be moving way too fast and I desperately wanted to slow them down or stop them altogether. I managed to say goodbye to my family without turning on the water works and we (my first husband and I) headed out. Bye-bye Stillwater!

When we crossed the state line from Oklahoma into Texas on I40, he was napping and I silently bawled my eyes out behind my sunglasses. I remember looking at the state sign and thinking, "I'm never going to see it again!" And that thought immediately flew on a tangent to, "I'm never going to see my Mom again! Or my brother! Or my grandparents! Or Braum's!" I felt my heart slowly being ripped apart inside. I wanted to scream and pull over and tell him to take me home, but I knew that I couldn't. After all, this was MY big girl decision. No one forced me into it. No one held a gun to my head and said, "Go west, young woman!" Where had all of my courage gone? Where was the girl who had bragged about moving to California for the last several months? She certainly wasn't in that moving truck. I'm pretty sure she was hiding back home in my Mom's house, in the deepest, darkest corner of my old closet, shamefully saying, "I was wrong! I want to stay here!"

If you've never driven along I40 through west Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, let me tell you, the view doesn't change much. I saw a picturesque mountain off in the distance and 4 hours later I was still looking at the same mountain. Back then, satellite radio didn't exist, radio stations were few and far between and that road is l-o-n-g. We drove through the desert. Then we drove through the desert. And then we drove through the desert. Did I tell you that we drove through the desert? I thought it would never end.

We finally approached Barstow and after sitting in stop-and-go traffic for 13 days we topped the mountain and down the other side we went. The desert was behind us, the landscape had trees and grass and we were among the living, once again. As we got closer to the coast, the road became MUCH wider. I had never seen so many lanes of traffic before and all of them were congested! It was mind boggling to an 18 year old girl from a small town in Oklahoma. And I thought traffic in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area was bad, wow, this was way worse. Then, about 5 miles from our exit, there it was, the ocean! I saw it for 1.39 seconds and the view was gone, obscured by buildings and trees.

Gas in California was about $1.29 per gallon back then. I almost died. It was SO expensive! Or so I thought. Gas was still about $0.89 per gallon in Oklahoma. If only I'd known that gas prices would get worse. We finally reached our 1 bedroom tri-plex apartment that was only a block from the ocean and I was shocked to find that it did not have an air conditioner. Let me remind you, I grew up in Oklahoma. It's hot. It's real hot. There is no surviving the summer without an air conditioner. I was on the verge of a minor freak-out. I'd been holding in all of my angst since we left, but the whole "no a/c thing" was about to do me in. Do the neighbors have an a/c? What about stores? Surely someone around here has an a/c? I soon learned that when you live that close to the ocean, you don't necessarily need an a/c. You just open up your windows and let the breeze cool you down - and then you pray that some killer or rapist doesn't tear through your screen and have his way with you. 

That trip was unbelievably stressful for me at that time in my life. If I were making that same trip today, with 17 more years of life and knowledge in me, I probably would be excited and wouldn't have such intense homesickness. But at 18, it was terrifying. I had spent months anticipating and looking forward to moving and "taking California by storm" and then reality hit. I cried all day while my husband was at work and would make sure I was presentable by the time he got home. I didn't want to cry in front of anyone for fear that I would make them feel bad. I wish someone had told me that it was okay to cry, to miss my family and the life I left behind. Eventually, the homesickness waned, I adapted and came to love living in California and the friendships I made there. It was a year that taught me a lot about who I am, where I want to be, what I can tolerate and what I can't. I was only a 24 hour drive from home, Jakob will be almost halfway around the world! I expect him to go through some of the same culture shock and homesickness that I did, but I pray that he still embraces his life here for the next 9 months and like me, comes to love it here. I pray that his new experiences and friendships enrich his life and that he takes something positive back to Germany in May. We're excited and can't wait to meet him!

Shawna & I met the Pioneer Woman!

Check out this fun story my friend, Shawna, blogged about our weekend. Excuse my shininess in the photo. But, take notice that PW and I almost have the same hair color! Thank goodness my hair is long & I wore it down so it covers my large ears. Shawna and her husband are also hosting a foreign exchange student this year. Jimmy arrived on Sunday and is already in school. Can't wait for Jakob to get here so we can get him enrolled! Peace out!