Marley and Me

So, have you seen Marley and Me? I am always up for a good movie. Casey and I are huge fans of lounging on the couch or in bed on a Friday night and watching movies. In fact, in our first place together, we used to push the couches together in the living room to make a bed and watch movies all night. We had no TV in the bedroom so we thought is was so fun to camp in the living room. Anyway....back to Marley and Me. Usually, I am very well informed about movies that we will be watching. So as to protect myself from watching incredibly crappy movies like the movie Superbad, for example. Superbad, supersucked, and I would so like that 90 minutes of my life back. But, the point I am trying to make, is that I am very seldomly caught off guard by movies.
Then, came Marley and Me.
I had failed to my research. I thought simply, good actors, cute dog, sounds good to me.
Casey and I watched, laughed, then cried. Oh, the crying. Oh, how we couldn't stop the crying. We couldn't even look at each other because we were both embarrassed at how much we were crying.
We both love animals. We, up until a year ago, had our very own Marley. Two of them. They both died within a year of each other. And, there has been a hole in our family ever since where they used to bark, play and love us.
My husband and I got our first dog, Dallas, when we were just dating. We had been together for a year. We had gone out to dinner and were on our way to a sorority dance. Instead of going to the dance, we skipped out and got a puppy. We were your typical, irresponsible, college students. Our parents thought we were crazy, our roommates wondered where we were going to keep him. But, we didn't care, he was our new baby. A cute, fluffy, 12 week old Norwegian Elkhound.
Dallas grew up in the fraternity house with Casey. He was very well socialized, ahem...
Bailey, our lab Rottweiler mix, came a year later when we were engaged and had our own place.
They gave us many Marley and Me moments. They rode everywhere with us in the car, slept in bed with us and grew to watch over our kids with us. They had there own gigantic bed with pawprints all over it. They even shared their bed with the cat. They were huge dogs, but often liked to lay on our laps....they never knew how big they really were. They were great with the kids. I have beautiful photos of our oldest daughter reading stories to them when she was just a year old.
It still brings tears to my eyes when I think of them being gone. Bailey became ill and died at our home. Dallas died in my arms at the vets office. It was the hardest thing that I have ever done. It felt like a rock being shoved down my throat.
I think of Bailey when we play outside in the water because she loved getting wet. I think of Dallas when fireworks go off or it storms because he was so scared of loud noises.
I miss them, our Marley and Me.

Back at the blog...

OK, so I know that I haven't written for a long time. Like a really long time...And, I changed my blog title. Shows total lack of commitment, right? But, I really do have a good excuse, a lot of them in fact.
We have been Sooooo busy... Do you know how long I've waited to utter those words? I'm soooooo busy, I always wanted to be one of THOSE moms, you know, the ones who are sooooo busy. The ones who are running to swimming lessons, practices, church meetings, camps, cooking dinner and keeping the house perfectly clean. HA! It sooooo doesn't work that way.
We moved into our new house in May. So, being organized is not something that I can even come close to claim being.
Moving, ahhh, moving. Who ever thought that was a good idea. I have decided that I would much rather be told that I will be staying in a house forever. Forever. End.of.story. There is no choice, Miss, you must live here forever, and you will never, ever be allowed to move again.
Oh, and did I mention that we moved back to my hometown, where I grew up. Now, I will say there are several benefits to this move. My family is finally close. Like really close. Like pajamas in the afternoon are no longer an option close.
But, seriously, I do love being here. The girls love it and it is great to have so many friends and family that I have known forever here to help us and share in our life. I have spent much of the summer showing our girls the things that I enjoyed as a child.
Which is really special.