For better or for worse

In the almost eleven years that Morgan and I have been together we have lived in a lot of places.  From my tiny shack in Dillon Beach to Bodega Bay, to Marshall, to Bodega, to Santa Rosa, to Guerneville and then to Valley Ford, we have covered a pretty good chunk of land.  For me, Valley Ford has always felt like home.  I think alot of it has to do with the fact that this is where I had my restaurant and this is where I lived when I first moved to CA.  To me, Valley Ford is home..  I know the people here- either in person or by word of mouth.  I know the back roads like the back of my hand and for me, the spirit of these lands is what really draws me in.  Rolling hills filled with grazing sheep, beef cows and dairys - whats not to love? 

The house that we now live in, used to be inhabited by a good friend of mine named Janet.  I remember coming over here for the first time a few years ago to help her get ready for a barn party.  I was sitting on the porch shucking corn and I thought to myself " This would be an awesome spot to raise a family."  Keep in mind this was many years before Morgan and I contemplated having kids.  Years go by, Morgan and I buy a one bedroom house in  Guerneville and are living "Happily Ever After".  And then there was Avrie.  I never wanted kids.  I dont know why, but I just didnt want to go that route.  But.....eventually you start to imagine the pitter patter of little feet and can't imagine your life without that sound.  After a full year of trying to get to the point of possibly hearing that sound - we finally got pregnant and well, that was that.  The older Avrie got, the less comfortable our little one bedroom house got.  I put the word out that we were looking to move into a bigger place and before we knew it, word came that Janet's old place - the place I thought would be great to raise a family in - was for rent.  It didnt take much convincing on my behalf to convince Morgan we needed to get out of Guernville and get into Janet's old place in Valley ford.

So, we packed up and moved. From Guerneville to Valley Ford - we were country again!  Yay!  We went from a tiny one bedroom place on a 1/4 acre to a three bedroom place on about 600 acres ( I think...) To make it even better this 600 acres is a working beef cow ranch.  We get all the joys of looking out the windows to see cows but dont have to deal with any of the headache.  Avrie LOVES playing in the hay barn, but we arent responsible for putting the hay in, we just get to enjoy it.  Across the way is a sheep ranch - oh what - yes we can stare at as many sheep as we want.  Across the road from us are some dairy cows.  Throw that all together with the random deer, turkeys, bobcats, quail etc that we encounter - its pretty easy to see why this is such an awesome spot.

We live in an extremely old house - old carpet, old appliances, old fireplace - thats what makes me love it.  If the girls spill a little juice on the carpet, big deal - clean it up and move on. Carpets older than dirt anyways who cares.  There has been so much "life" in this place over the years that it just, well, makes it liveable.  I love that we have enough land that we can have goats, sheep, cats and a dog.  Pretty much anything the girls want we can do.  If  I need to go chasing sheep in nothing but my bathrobe, nobody will notice and if they do they will probably just be thinking to themselves " Been there, done that."  Whatever happens I LOVE this place, I LOVE what it stand for and I LOVE what lives inside it..  I wouldnt have it any other way cause this really is my home, for better or for worse.

Avrie Appreciation Day

Overall Morgan and I have been pretty lucky to have such good kids. From birth they have both been laid back, calm and easy to get along with.  Most of the time...all kids have fits here and there but I think compared to most kids, my girls are way below the norm. When I was pregnant with Piper everyone kept telling me that she was going to be super difficult because there was just no way that I would get two easy kids in a row. Well,  I did!  Up until about two weeks ago...

About two weeks ago Avrie started to get a major attitude and in my opinion a bad behavior problem.  She went from getting one time out a month to about 5 a day.  Yes, 5 in a day - and they weren't the easy, sit her in the time out chair and wait 3 minutes kind of time outs. These were the ones where a 3 minute time out lasted about an hour.  Not fun.  She started kicking, hitting, throwing things, and even screamed the dreaded "I hate you" to me several times.  This behavior concerned me because it just wasn't like her.  I've watched enough Nanny 911 to know that kids usually act this way for a reason.

I started thinking about our daily routines, the daily conversations, everything that could give me a clue to why she could possibly be acting so badly.  It didn't take too long to figure it out.  Almost every time Avrie would ask for something, for me to color with her, for a snack, whatever - my usual response was something along the lines of "In a minute",  "After I...", "Let me finish this.."  You can see where I'm going.  Piper is at an age where she needs alot of attention, I think I might have forgotten about the part where Avrie needs alot of attention too.  Of course she's going to act up, its the only time she gets direct, uninterrupted attention from me.

Obviously this is not okay.  I need Avrie to know that she is as important to us as Piper is.  She needs our attention in an equal way, period.  So,  today we made arrangements to take Piper to the babysitter so Morgan and I could spend the day alone with Avrie.  We took her to see the new Kung Fu Panda movie - where she got to pick whatever snacks she wanted.  We went to the pet store so she could pet all the kitties, look at all the fish and tweet at all the birds.  We took her to the goat farm to see her new pet goats, went for Pizza and then grocery shopping.  She was allowed to pick a special treat at the grocery and she picked a 2 lb container of fresh blueberries.  Sort of reminded me of myself as a kid where I always wanted a head of cauliflower.  It was a fun day.

During the movie Avrie leaned over and whispered to me that the last time we went to a movie together Pipey was in my tummy.  Scary that she remembered that but even scarier - that day at the movies when I was prego with Piper was the last time Morgan and I had done anything with just Avrie.  That's sad to me and I am definitely going to make an effort to have more alone time with the kids.  Its important to do no matter how busy we are, and lets face it - we're never that busy. 

Having fun on the way to drop Piper off

With one of the full sized dwarf goats - just the right size for Avrie

Me holding one of our new goats.  It was like holding a puppy so cuddly

Tuckered out after a day of fun with mommy and daddy

"Sigh" School days

I am not one of those people that looks back on my high school years and thinks of them as the best times of my life.  I was painfully shy, socially awkward, had little self confidence and was just plain uncomfortable in my skin.  I wasn't involved in many after school activities - school sponsored or otherwise, went to very few dances, ball games, parties etc.  I had a few close friends that I could count on and hang out with.  Without them I probably wouldn't have any memories of high school at all.  I remember when I graduated high school I had basically no idea what I wanted to do in life, or even what kind of life I wanted to have. 




High School Graduation with one of my lifelong best friends Jessica

 Without any real plan I signed up for classes at the University of Louisville and just decided I would figure things out as I went.  I made new friends, tried new things, made some mistakes, had a few accomplishments and here I am, living in California - married with two kids.  Didn't see that one coming. 




Me at Kindergarten Graduation.  My mom made my dress along with a matching one for my Cabbage Patch doll

 With so many graduations going on right now it got me thinking.  What one piece of advice would I pass on to the new high school graduates?  What one thing was instrumental to my success as an adult. For me it was the willingness to take chances and try new things.  I had a pretty nice life in Kentucky when I got the offer to move to California.  I didn't need to run away from anything, I loved my friends and my family and had it pretty good. My heart told me to stay in Kentucky but my brain just kept telling me "You will never have this opportunity again".  So, as I've said before, Fat Cat and I boarded a plane to San Francisco and the rest is history.  Sure in my college years I made some mistakes - okay, maybe more than some.  (All my friends from college are getting a good laugh right now.)  But all of those mistakes made me who I am today, each one a lesson learned.  I am very happy with my life now and I owe it all to being willing to take a chance and see what happens.  I urge all you high school graduates to do the same - you never know where one little opportunity might get you, just be sure it doesn't get you in jail!



Senior prom with 2 more lifelong friends - Amanda and Jamie