Snippets of life

So much going on around here so little time to blog. Here is a few snippets of life around our house:

Sarah my younger much more beautiful cousin( she is going to love me) can to visit and we had a great time having her.

We planted our 2007 garden last thursday and we already have blooms and I will give weekly photo updates.

Last weekend was so busy with Easter stuff but it was well worth it because the sacrfice that was made for us is so much more than alittle time taken out for him.

This week........................back to the grind....................it has been a rough one getting back on track from our mini vacation.

school is moving at a ants pace and one day all I wanted to do was go back to bed.

Things heard and said around here worth sharing:

" Mom, I think when sis and I grow up we will still be good friends like we are now"
( doesn 't that just make your heart sing)

Elizabeth lost her two front teeth and anything she says is just about the cutest thing you have ever seen. She has a slight lisp that is just heart melting.

Today we went to lunch with my friend and her daughter. Her daughter is 5 and the worlds biggest pistol. She says some really doozies " shulie, you suck" ( just repeating) "shulie, your house is messy" ( i beg to differ)

Well today, she had a answer for everything I said. We were talking( her mom R and I) about how Marty pulled Elizabeth's teeth and how R never pulled her kids ever. Well I told R her daughter that she could come to our house and I would pull her teeth for her and she said " I dont think so" so funny. The best is yet to come: R starts telling me how all the daughter has been watching all week is 'Free Willy" and the little girl says " there is a boy with long hair and red lipstick in that movie" and I was sitting there thinking when I watched that movie 50,000 times with my favorite kid to babysit Kevin F. I never remember seeing that part but it has been 10 yrs+ so anyways my friend says " You know who she is talking about right?" I respond "Uh, No" R. says " Michael Jackson" I start laughing hysterically....oh, it gets better....The little girl says "he's a girl/boy" she is 5 mind you. I am laughing and then she says " I want him to be my boyfriend" I am screaming laughing. We politely told her it wouldnt work out and then she kept reapting something her mom said about MJ the whole time I am ordering crying laughing at the Mc Donalds worker. So funny!

Put two talkers together

And they will talk for 7 hrs straight. Rachel and I got back on the phone after the last blog because she went the wrong way on the freeway after she left and ended up going the wrong way. So We talked until 3 am. Ten yrs to talk about in 7 hrs. It was alot of funny but boy am I tired:)

Rachel

Wow, today I got the surprise of my life. My friend from high school Rachel called me and was like"So whatca doing?" and I told her going to dinner with some girlfriends. She told me she was driving up to see her sister in San Jose and that she wanted to stop by. I almost fell over! Most friends tell me later they have driven by Visalia or been around my area but nobody calls to stop by. The last time that happened was about 2002 and my friend Lee came by on his way home from Sacramento. So I was so excited and she got here and it was just wonderful. Living so far from people that know me and know who I was and see who I am now is hard at times. So seeing a old friend is medicine to the soul. We had such a great time and kept her alittle too long but it was so great to hear about her life and to see where she is going and to share my life and for her to see where I was going. She shared some things with me that I needed to hear and she said I shared some things that she needed to hear. I am so thankful to Rachel for going above and beyond and being such a great friend. I really appreciated that and will be forever thankful.

11 yrs

Today Marty and I have been married 11 years! Wow, last year at 10 it never hit me we are in the double digits now. It has truly been 11 wonderful years that we have been able to enjoy together. We are a team together we can accomplish anything. We have never struggled in our marriage with each other.

 We have faced many other obstacles with health, money and people but never with each other. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful husband who works so hard for our family and loves us so much. We fight for our time together and really try to be protective of that so that we can continue on in happiness.

 We look forward to this day each year with excitement that we have made it another year longer. Being married at 19 a lot of people really did'nt think we would make it or thought we did'nt know what we were getting into. We did we told them that we were sure and look at us now! We really did know all the way back then and not much has changed to this day. I love Marty more and more each day and that things are only getting better.

So to Marty, I am sorry you are sick today and I hope you get better soon. I love you more and more each day and each passing year. Happy Anniversary, Julie

The Cousins

Since I have been thinking alot about this today:

I guess I grew up in such a different way of life than most people. My dad's family was a central part of my growing up and a huge part of my life still today. My grandparents have 5 children who 3 out of five have 3 children, one has two and the other 4. I am the oldest of 14 grandchildren that 11 of that girls! 3 boys one of which is younger than my own son. That being explained if you can imagine we spent every weekend together for the better part of our formative years. This would mean friday night pizza,pizza and TGIF. Then saturday consisted of swimming in the pool or playing some made up something( lots of Kids Inc.) and then spending sat night at someone's house and then back to grandma and grandpa's on Sunday for more of the same playing and swimming and of course eating food all buffet style and sitting at the pinic table out back. Granted most people see there cousins on holidays and family occasions and maybe the summer reunion( we never have had those because we never had a need too)

Now there are a bunch of us girls that are very close in age and are more like sisters than cousins. We fought, got mad, made up and played like crazy. Then there is the KING the long awaited boy who mostly was made to play like a girl and fought hard to retain his manhood in the girl enviroment. Then his two buddies came along and they all played dress up together:) He won't admit that if you ask him but there is proof. Some of our cousins lived far away but we would go to visit and they would come to stay.

I was the first to marry and the first to have kids and the first to leave and move to far away. We have stayed close even despite of that and when I go to visit who are the first people to come calling my girls! I love them more than words can explain they mean so much to me when my relationship with my own sisters is so bad. So this morning when I got a call that one of them is hurt my heart hurts. We never have accidents happen in this family and people don't get hurt. I am having a hard time that my little sidekick growing up is laying in a hospital bed hurt. I am so thankful that we will have many more days together and that she will recover but it has been a reality check for sure.

To my cousins: I am so thankful for our crazy group it is something special only we share or understand and I love you more than you will ever know.

The Queen

So Marty and I went out on a date to see The Queen a movie about the Queen of England and her response to the death of Princess Diana.

I have been dying to see this movie since first hearing of it several months ago. But, I would have to wait since it was only showing in limited release and since I live in a small town you know we didn't get it. So finally after months of waiting and awards season came along it showed up in our theatre.

Why am I so obsessed you ask?

It all started when I was five and my older sister got me up at 3 am to watch the wedding of Charles and Di. All little girls dream of being a princess and watching that wedding with all of the flowers,silk,tulle and diamonds I was enthralled. A real life fairytale and I never read another fairytale again. I would beg my parents to buy me Princess Di books and magazines. For a period of two years, I would cut out the picture of the Princess Di bride doll every time my Gramie got a new Good Housekeeping or Enquirer. I knew every memeber of the Royal family before I knew all the presidents or states.

 I got a cabbage patch and a new book on Princess Di the same Christmas in 1984 and which one do you think I still have? My favorite birthday present of all time? When I was nine I was informed I was getting something big , bigger than a breadbox and smaller than a horse. My two grandmothers got together and bought me the Princess Di Bride Doll by the Danbury mint. I was shocked and amazed as I pulled her out of her box , smelled the lace and tulle and saw the "real'' cubic zirconia tiara! I put her back in the box and up in the closet awaiting a special case for her. She is so big she doesn't fit a standard doll case plus she has a 5 foot train and veil that make her even bigger. I would take her down and look at her every once in awhile but in the box she remained and eventually moved to my Gramie's for safe keeping.

Fast forward to 1997.. I am married and pregnant with my first child and the Princess Diana fairytale is long gone. I am adult and have seen my fantasy of Diana collapse into reality. The Sotheby's auction was that summer and I was hoping to get the auction book which was autographed. Marty's dad had passed away and I inherited his Grandma's china cabinet. So we drove over to Gram's to bring the doll home and display her for the first time. I go into the closet and drag out the black trash bag containing the box. I decide to take a peak and check her out and Marty was laughing at me.

 My Gram comes into the room and says "You better come see the news on the television. It's Diana she has been in an accident" all of the sudden fantasy and reality collided. It was real she was in Paris and there has been a wreck. I grabbed the doll went home to watch the events unfold.

I had a answering machine full of messages as I get home with people calling to tell me the news. My dad called to ask me if I had heard the news? As we were talking and he says " did you just see that?" and I said "no" and he says "She is gone".  My Dad delivered the news to me, my childhood idol was gone.

 I am a hysterical mess over someone I didn't know. I guess for me it was the same as it was for many when Elvis died or Kennedy died. I had people calling me for days offering their condolences and people at work doing the same. I wanted to go to LA to the embassy to sign the condolence book but Marty couldn't go and I was too pregnant to go alone. So my friend/co-worker Catt went with me to LA to sign the book a truly kind gesture. Days later,I once again got up at 3 am to watch the funeral and this time cried so hard from grief and sadness mixed with anger.

So here we are almost 10 years later and this movie comes out. I no longer follow the Royal family and that is just a sepia-tone memory tucked away in the file cabinet of life. I go to see the movie and it was a flood of emotion that I am not sure ten years is long enough to relive just yet. A docu-drama with actual footage mixed between the acting. I was able to see things I have never seen before and live it again. Helen Mirren nailed QEII and deserves a Oscar at one point she was walking toward a room and it felt as if I was watching the real Queen. I can see why only Helen Mirren got award nods because it is all about her character and Tony Blair in the days following Diana's death. The old regime and the new and both fighting for their ground in Britian. To wrap this book up... Highly recommend to any anglophile out there but if you don't know about the Royal family and could care less wait until it is a blockbuster in the old release section because this movie will bore you to tears. To my wonderful husband, Thank you for sitting through this with me and reliving something you would like to forget all over again. It meant the world to me!

Little Miss Sunshine

The other night I finally rented " Little Miss Sunshine" This movie has to be one of the funniest movie's I have seen in years. It is absolutely hysterical. I was crying and laughing so hard it was so funny. Not for the faint at heart it has alot of profanity but it is hilarious! Highly recommended and I think the little girl deserves her Oscar nomination for her acting in this movie!

Next...My wait is over... Visalia has finally gotten a showing of "The Queen" I have been waiting for months and hoped it got nominated for some awards because then we would finally get it. Now we have and I MUST find a way to go see it. I dont think that will happen until next week sadly.