Living Life

You haven't lived until you've owned a Lab, specifically a Yellow Lab named Hemi. Although they are "America's Dog", I don't know that such a status should come into effect until they are well past the age of 2, maybe 3 or 4. None the less, it's hard to imagine life without Hemi, although I know it would be calm and peaceful. There would be a void there without him. Noone to yell at, to dig in the trash, to bark for no reason and wake up Andi, noone to run away or get stuck in the grumpy neighbors backyard and make him even more grumpy, noone to get stung by a bunch of wasps the night before Easter Sunday when no vets are open and swell up like a balloon and require an emergency vet run Easter morning. Would really calm things down around here. I can hardly watch the movie Marley and Me, because it in so many ways is exactly like our family. Hemi snacked on my wedding shoes two weeks before my wedding. And last week decided to run away on the night I was gone and Todd was supposed to leave at 4am for Sturgis. He's such a helpful dog. But we do love him and yes he is found, still alive, bailed out of dog jail and now microchipped...just one of reasons I have not blogged recently. We've been living life :)

We are all doing great, yes that is what you would expect me to say. But we really are. When you have a baby everyone always tells you that your life is about to change, nothing will be the same. You always knod your head and say yeah I know, cause yes a huge event is about to take place. When I heard that I always thought of less time for dates, less time on the couch. Noone ever talks about how much it truly does change things. Nearly every dynamic of your life is altered in someway or another, and not always in a positive way. Things didn't change immediately for me, it took time and a lot of thinking. As Andi gets older and I look at her "I'm about to destroy this object and laugh at you" smile suddenly everything became more important to me. Suddenly my heart melted. I think I've spent most of my life moving from one thing to the next, leaving people and objects behind without really thinking twice about it. I realized so much. I've never really focused on what I want in life. Suddenly my friends became priceless, and my family a necessity. At Andi's first birthday I felt as though God was slapping me in the face saying, look at your family, look how much they love you. How blessed we are, it gives me goosebumps to think how everyone came, for my little girl. So many people. She'll never remember it, but I always will. And that in the end, thats all we really have is our family and our friends. For my little girl to spend every moment she can looking at the cows and rocking in the chair with her grandparents. To see all of that love for her, all I want is for her to be surrounded by it. To go fishing with her daddy and grandpa and know how to ride a dirt bike(daddys says no to 4 wheels :) ) and shoot a gun. And what I want in life suddenly became so incredibly clear a blind man could see it. To be surrounded by those people is truly the only thing in life that matters. And that to spend time with our friends is so important, to let them know how you feel and be able to grow with them in so amazing.
I think my relationship with Todd has changed more than any. In so many ways I can't even explain them all. My mom always told me the hardest thing I'll ever do is be married. Be married and have a child that is. You both go through so many changes that to stay on the same page and headed in the same direction is nearly impossible. We're guilty of surrounding ourselves with to many people. And being influenced by others to easily. We both think about others so much, we forget about ourselves. And in a time with so many changes from a new baby that is critical, to think of yourselves. I can honestly say we made it through the ugly and the sky is so clear and beautiful. That we are a family, we have each other and need each other. And as long as we are together and looking out for each other we can do anything. With each challenge you become stronger and better. He's a quiet fella and a lot of people have no idea what he's like. But I know that I'm so very blessed in so many ways, he is an amazing husband.
Andi is almost walking now, she was taking about 5 steps on her own. But has suddenly decided to stop trying. She walks better for daddy than for me, but shes doing awesome, she is a babbling fool. Her favorite words are daddy, doggy and hey. She could spot a dog a mile away, she truly loves animals. Animals and music. She wiggles with the beat of almost anything that is playing, it is pretty funny. She loves to play grammy's piano and rock to the beat. She's also got the worlds most adorable smile. Smiles and wrinkles up her nose and giggles. She knows she's cute, almost to cute. :)