Some days, weeks even, I really hate Chance's schedule. I don't like complaining about it, because it's his livelihood and it's our way of life, but sometimes it gets the better of me.
I hate going a week without seeing him. I hate that he misses half of the kids lives.
I hate that if we aren't making the most of every day, it feels like it's been two weeks instead of just one. I hate that he's so exhausted for the first solid 24 hours that it's impossible to enjoy our time together. I don't usually have time to feel lonely, but sometimes I do.
I'm like a little kid when I hear his ring/text tone on my phone and it's outside of his normal available times, which are extremely limited.
I have enough perspective in my life to know that I should just be happy that we're not struggling, but some days, I would just love to have him home every day.
Last night for our date night, we went to see Lone Survivor. I saw a preview for it a few weeks ago and we saw one together this week. Chance immediately said he wanted to see it and I agreed, much to his complete shock. He then admitted to having a man crush on Mark Walhberg. Well, maybe he didn't say it that way, but it was inferred. Anyway. We both agreed on a movie, which doesn't happen often that we both genuinely want to watch the same thing.
I had no idea what it was really about, but it looked pretty good from the previews. Once I really knew what it was about, I was a bit worried that it was going to be more than I could handle. Movies that involve beatings and brutality are something I can't really handle watching, but I decided that if it ended up that way, I would suck it up and watch it.
The movie started and built up the relationship of the characters. Not too in depth, but enough for a man watching the show to get, which I figured was the target audience. The plot built really fast and the thing that had to happen to get the story moving happened fairly early (at least to me, though the movie is on the shorter end of average) which worried me even more. That's when the action started. And let me tell you, I sat cringing, covering my eyes, and eventually had to get up and go to the bathroom to take a break because it was so intense. Remember, I'm a baby with this stuff.
I was impressed with the story and the actors. Saddened that it all really happened, pretty accurate portrayal. There was a wonderful tribute that made me cry and made Chance almost cry. We talked about it all the way home and even after we got home and went to bed. It was a very interesting story and made me want to know more.
I definitely recommend it, with the disclaimer that if you're like me, it's tough to watch in parts. I wouldn't let that keep me from watching, it's worth it.
Over extended. The perfect title for my life right now. I need to learn to better manage everything. I leave my house at 6:30 every weekday, arrive home around 5 depending on how early I leave work and how heavy traffic is. (Traffic usually equals ridiculously slow drivers who enfuriate me. We're not talking gridlock here.)
I get home and think, "Dinner? Hmm, I'm supposed to feed these people?" And then it's either fast food or something thrown together like spaghetti and broccoli and cheese. I sometimes feel like I'm on chopped. I open my cabinets and just wonder what I can make in 30 minutes with the random assortment available.
Baths? Sometimes. I try to sneak in a shower after the heathens go to sleep, but sometimes that's after me. I pile us all in my bed, we (sometimes, not often enough) read a story and then I crash.
Sometimes I try to tidy my ridiculously messy house, but not daily. I don't have the motivation or stamina. It's exhausting just thinking about it. There is clothes vomit in every corner of my house. I just keep buying laundry baskets to hold everything. I feel like the house is closing in around me at times.
I know I should do better, but I just can't motivate myself. I'm not disciplined enough. That's not a cop-out, just stating facts.
I wish I could work 3 or 4 days a week, and still send Baby to daycare every day so that I would have time to really get caught up. Though, it's not like it matters, I've organized the toy bins every other day since break and he just keeps dumping them.
So there. My house and parenting skills are a mess and seriously lacking. Being out of my house 10.5 hours a day, then coming home to parent them alone half the time is kicking my butt. I'm not feeling sorry for myself, this is our life. But something's gotta give.
A friend recently wrote a blog post about parenting advice inspired by a news article she found online. My first thought when reading her blog was, that's something I could write about. I put it on the back burner, but today I came across a post I wrote several months ago that sort of tied in. So instead of writing a list of advice on how to parent your child, I'm offering suggestions on being a parent, mostly geared at new parents.
So, here's me, attempting advice.
First, before your baby comes, when you're imagining what life will be like with your brand new baby, know that you must have flexible expectations for yourself and baby. It does not matter what you want to do, plan to do, think you must do, if that doesn't work for your family or, most importantly, baby, it won't work at all. Having expectations for yourself and baby can sometimes result only in heartache. Not always, but sometimes.
Next It's important to know that it's okay to need help. If you've never needed help as a parent, by all means, tell me your secret, because everyone (especially brand new parents) need help. What kind of help? Anything. I was so set on being able to do everything myself that I didn't need anyone. I don't need to take a nap, I'm enjoying my baby and I can handle it. It doesn't matter if I haven't really slept for days, because all moms do this; if they can do it, I can do it. I was really stubborn and really set on proving to everyone I knew that I didn't need any help that I made life a lot harder than it needed to be, on myself and my family who was dying to just be helpful. It is okay to need help, and it is okay to ask for it. I promise. No one will think any less of you. And if they do, they shouldn't be part of your life anyway.
Enjoy your time with your baby, but don't forget that you have other roles in your life also. Chance's are, unless your a nanny and not a parent, that you aren't only responsible for holding a baby all day long. I know it's wonderful and amazing, but in addition to being moms (and dads) we are spouses first, or significant others, whatever. It is so easy to fall into dream world of baby and how awesome it is to finally get to spend time with your baby that we really do forget that we do have other loved ones in our life.
This can be really stressful for marriages, especially for dads, who unless they are stay at home dads really don't get as much bonding time in and don't always understand why we moms don't talk to them anymore or acknowledge their presence. I had a really difficult adjustment period realizing that my husband did need me to spend time with him as a wife and not a new mom. It's a hard mindset to even realize you are in, and then even harder to get out of it. I wanted to spend all this time with my new baby, because I knew he wouldn't be a baby for long. BUT, you won't miss much if you go out for dinner alone with the spouse or if you skip taking a nap with baby to actually talk about non-baby things for more than five minutes.
The best advice I can give here, is just to be flexible and realize that the dynamics of your relationship have changed, on both sides. You have to balance being a mom and wife, and Dad's have to realize that you are learning a whole new role, while on minimal sleep and a tide of emotions.
Might be more of a side note, and this may not happen to everyone, but my complete lack of sleep for several months has resulted in loss of memory for months of my child's early life. So, take pictures, start a blog, keep a notebook, something that keeps your memories intact so that you can look back on them and tell stories about them. (These memories are especially useful for the terrible 2's and 3's, because they help you remember how wonderful it was to hold a tiny sweet baby, when said baby is screaming their head off over who-knows-what and you're starting to wonder what you were thinking becoming a parent in the first place.)
The last one is a big one, and it's pretty hard to do at times. Every been there, done that mom has advice. She knows how it worked at her house, and why. But she doesn't know how it works at your house, so when she offers her unsolicited advice kindly smile and thank her for her words. and avoid punching her in the face. You can even try her advice if you want, but know that what works for your sister/mom/aunt/mother-in-law whoever, won't always work for you and your baby. No matter how many times she tells you what to do, or sometimes what you're doing wrong and how to fix it, know that she means well, but she isn't always right. It gets frustrating sometimes having to hear everyone give you unsolicited advice, but it never ends so just get used to it. :)
Being a parent is truly one of the most rewarding, stressful, wonderful, tiresome, scary, beautiful adventures you will ever go on; and it lasts forever. It never gets any easier, but the good news is, you will have a reason to smile for the rest of your life.
So, be flexible, don't take anything too seriously, and enjoy the ride.
My sweet boy and I our first day home from the hospital.
Two of my bloggy friends posted blogs today about marriage advice. First, let me say, I like theme blog topics because I love seeing others post their very personal (some times very different) thoughts on the same topics.
After you read Rikki's blog and Nikki's blog, you will see that mine is set up very differently. Not because I want to be different, but because I've learned my lessons in very different ways. So here's what not to do:
First, do not just expect your spouse to know what you are thinking. I am guilty of this marriage sin, but I truly have tried so hard to either tell him what's bothering me or what I need him to do, or just keep it to myself and deal with it on my own. Not like, secret keeping, but if it bugs me that he didn't do something I asked him to do, I just walk away and decide it's not important. He'll either remember or he won't and if he doesn't, I'll politely ask him to do it. (I will admit here, that I do lose my patience with him when he won't take the trash out or leave a bag in it, but its not so much that I get angry and we fight...anymore.) This is especially important when it comes to having a new baby. I know it's really hard, but people do not know what you need or don't need, especially the new dad who is freaking out at this monumental change more than he is letting on. If you need to sleep, tell him. If he's a truly loving and caring husband/father, he will let you, if that means calling your mom to come babysit so you can both nap, or just taking care of the baby alone. So, quick review, No one can read your mind, not even your spouse. Tell them how you feel, what you need, and what you want. Otherwise, no complaining when your expectations aren't met.
Which brings me to marriage no-no number two. Do not set unrealistic expectations for yourself or your spouse. No one is a perfect wife. No one has their house immaculately clean every day, with the kids perfect and waiting patiently in their rooms when dad gets home from work. No one, not every day. Not that any of those things are bad. If you have the time, energy and desire to run your household that way, by all means. But just because some live that way, does not mean that everyone should. Relationship roles and expectations need to be known before you actually get married. That's important. If you're husband expects you to have a meal cooke before he's home, and you get off work after him, that's really not going to work.
Next: Always expect these expectations to change. If your life situations, jobs, kids, etc change, the things you expect of your spouse, and they you, also must change. When I was in college and working, it was expected that I would take care of the house. I knew this, and I was always on top of it. Once I started working full time, we started sharing duties. When I was pregnant, things shifted dramatically and I was tired and nauseous (and still working full time) so Chance took over a lot of the duties of the house. When I stayed at home after Archer was born I took care of the entire house, the kid, and my husband. I struggled. A lot. We didn't have set expectations of each other (and I expected him to read my mind) so we fought a lot.
Wanna know what causes most fights? A lack of communication, which is the next marriage sin. If you aren't communicating, in any way, you aren't being fair to each other. Nikki said in her blog that she and her husband wrote letters and emails to each other, which I love. Instead of saying they didn't like to talk it out so they avoided talking about issues, they use a format that works for them. Chance and I usually text in fights. I know that sounds dumb, but not being face to face cuts down on so much of the emotion and intensity of the situation. But we also have moments where we sit down and just talk everything out. You have to talk, and you have to talk about stupid not important things that don't even matter and also the serious things that keep your relationship going.
And last but not least, like each other. And show it. I tease Chance because I'll say, I love you so much, I just don't like you very much. ( A BIG lie ) But liking each other, I mean doing things that they enjoy, showing them that you enjoy spending time with them, no matter how. Know what your spouse likes to do, and share in that with them. Be nice to them, be respectful of them, and genuinely like each other.
We've been married for five years, and dated five years before that. I'm not an expert, marriage is a daily lesson of many disciplines. Every day you learn new patience, new love, new friendship, new anger and frustration. Marriage is not always sunshine and roses. It's not always perfect, in fact, it's never perfect. But it should always be something you invest your all in.
Several of my friends posted this photo on pinterest saying that if we want to have men who are more chivalrous, we must be more feminine, in the recent past, and I have to admit in my feminist perspective, I have a really hard time stomaching it. Firstly, "chivalry" is defined by dictionary.com as: the sum of the ideal qualifications of a knight, including courtesy, generosity, valor, and dexterity in arms.
Those knights those values were modeled after, while may have been sworn by a code of honor to be chivalrous to the women of their own country, often found ways of pillaging, raping, killing, and enslaving women of other countries.
In a small discussion on facebook about the pin, one of the posters said she didn't mean chivalry from it's origins, but the more contemporary view. The idea of the Southern Gentleman. You know, the guy who opens the doors, who refuses to let a woman even think of paying for dinner, the guy who works hard to provide for his wife so she doesn't have to work and can instead stay home taking care of their children. That guy. That guy who was probably one in a million in those days. That same guy who always made a show of opening the door for his wife in public and talked down to her and treated her as property, while the nation allowed her to be treated as such. That guy who would never be with a woman who might have more money than him, that guy who would never let his wife work. That guy who doesn't have time for his wife and children, but instead comes home and goes to his study or out with friends while he drinks whiskey. That guy who only has time for his wife when he expects her to submit to him in bed. That's what the vast majority of women married to "Southern Gentlemen" with chivalrous values experienced. Those dependent women were miserable in their lives but had no other option, as the men in their family, chivalrous gentlemen controlled every aspect of it.
This isn't to say that some men aren't real gentlemen. Not all men who open doors and pay for dinner are jerks. But the men those ideals were based on, most likely were. I know of men who work hard to provide for their wives and children. Who work extra hours to ensure that their wives and children have nice, new clothes while theirs might be last years and a little worn. Those guys do exist, I've seen it.
It doesn't happen that way in my house. My husband worked hard when I was in college to provide for our future, even if that meant I would be the bread winner. I'm fine with that. He's fine with that. I wouldn't trade being financially mutual, feeling accomplished in my job and education, being able to share the feeling of equally providing for our family; I wouldn't trade that for anything.
Remember though, I was a stay at home mom for over a year, I've seen both sides of the coin and I prefer the one I'm on now.
Here's a quote on chivalry I can get down with, "We are told that men protect us; that they are generous, even chivalric in their protection. Gentlemen, if your protectors were women, and they took all your property and your children, and paid you half as much for your work, though as well or better done than your own, would you think much of chivalry?" -Mary B Clay
A few weeks back I won a free photo shoot. It was 30 minutes with a free copy right free cd. I wanted some pictures of the whole family, and then I wanted some pictures of just Chance and I. There are like 5, and they are the kind where one of you holds the camera. I wanted real pictures of us.
My local news station is doing a piece on how facebook ruins marriages. There are divorce attorneys coming on using statistics like social network sites are involved in 50% of divorces.
It’s not really the story that bothers me, but the message it sends. Facebook is an incredible place to catch up with people you haven’t talked to in a long time, or leave a short note for your mom telling her you love her. It’s a place to share photos of your children with family members who live far away. It’s also a place that people are catching up with high school sweethearts, college lovers, and that person in the workplace you once had great chemistry with. Is that a bad thing? Possibly, if you’re married or in a committed relationship. Is facebook to blame? No. They don’t force you to message that person you know you shouldn’t. They don’t force you to then meet up with them or pursue any kind of relationship, emotional or physical.
One thing I've heard of a ton of couples doing is creating a couples facebook page. One pastor is even suggesting his congregation do this. Can I just say, I have no issue with that. If you want a couples page, that's fine. But please, don't think for a second that if you have a spouse who would use facebook to cheat won't find some other way to cheat. Don't think they won't (ps, I know that's a double negative, but I like how it sounds) create a page and keep it a secret.
This is a bit of a soapbox issue for me, but honestly, it’s not acceptable to blame someone/something for your personal decisions. If your relationship is causing you to seek out someone else, talk to your significant other about it, not someone else. Seek counseling, not another person. I think our current society, one in which the most pleasurable thing that you can get the quickest, we go after those quick fixes that make us feel good. I wish that we, as a race of humans, instead weren’t so proud to ask for help when we need it, for ourselves and our relationships.
I have, fortunately, never personally been in a situation of infidelity, but I mostly just hate hearing people blame a social networking site or other third party cause for something so complex as a marriage. There are so many other factors involved that you cannot put it off on something so simple as facebook.
I found this very insightful article when searching “Facebook Ruined My Marriage” (which is what the local news article searches for info on their article). It has basically the same tone as this blog, except with a first hand account from a woman who actually cheated on her husband of 20 years after reuniting with her long lost high school sweetheart. Thought I would share for anyone interested.
If you'll remember, my ten year anniversary (since dating) was last month. Chance and I (well, mostly just I) decided to take a picture of just the two of us every year around our anniversary. I thought it would be a fun way of measuring the years.
So, we took this picture.
Well as I was recently going through my photos and organzing them on my computer I found a random picture in my phone from the same time last year. We actually took a picture of just the two of us, both dressed nicely, on the exact same day the previous year. Apparently I must have thought about taking an anniversary pic that year too and just forgot? Who knows, but it's most definitely a tradition I'm starting.
How about you? Any traditions for your anniversary? Any you want to start?
Ten years ago today, I had my last first kiss. It was in my room, at the foot of my bed. It was after weeks and weeks of debating what being his girlfriend would be. I had a boyfriend before, so I knew what it was like to be a girlfriend, just not his. I knew he was different. He was a close friend for years before we got to the point that we liked each other that way, even though secretly as a child I would pretend that he was Ken to my Barbie. PS, if you didn't already know this, my BFF and I played Barbies for years. I mean, longer than we should have. lol
I knew that being his girlfriend would be something not to be taken lightly. I knew it would be the last time I would be someone's girlfriend. I knew we would end up married someday.
And five years later, we were married. I'm so glad I made that decision as he is the most amazing husband a girl could ask for.
After researching and publishing my post on Disney Princesses last night, I got to thinking about other fictional role models that girls look up to, or wish to be.
One who gets a lot of flack in my mind is Bella Swan. This meek, insecure girl who has new clue about inner beauty and self worth is projecting her image to millions of girls (women and boys as well); and I'm just not sure it's the image I would want my teenage daughter receiving. If you haven't read the books, then you might not be getting the full picture of Bella, but even the books are a bit iffy with me.
Bella is having to essentially parent her mother, and deal with her strings of relationships, which in a polar opposite from my last post is reality. However, she is giving up too much of herself for the happiness of her mother, who should really just grow up and be a mother herself. In all her self-sacrificial glory, she moves to horrible, rainy Washington State (that she loathes) to live with her dad. While living with her dad, she does all of the housework and cooking, and again is taking care of her parent in a way that's just not kosher with me personally.
Then, her biggest failure of all comes when she meets a boy. Not just any boy, a boy who wants to literally suck the life out of her. Again, her self-sacrificial self does not see the warning signs, and is actually drawn to this boy, Edward (if you didn't know). Her self-preservation skills are terribly impaired, again, not the message I want sent to my (non-existent, hypothetical) daughter.
Throughout the four novels, Bella continually shows a lack of want to stay alive, quite the opposite in fact, she wants to become a undead, like Edward. She allows herself to be manipulated and controlled; and states in various ways that her life revolves around Edward and his love. Her life, which is in jeopardy many times, just ends when he's not around; and is at risk to whenever he is. It's a very slippery slope with those two. But honestly, what can you expect from a teenage couple whose ideals are based on late 19th and early 20th century values. She longs to be a Jane Austen character, and he could be one.
My next biggest issue with Bella, is that she's dying (no pun intended) to get married just so that she can have sex. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for a girl waiting until she's married to have sex, but let's not twist that notion into, getting married at 18 just to have sex. (I totally realize that she does love him, but again, many girls *think* they love boys, when they really don't.) Not to mention the fact that if she's the one chomping at the bit, and the boy is the one abstaining, that's not really teaching much of a lesson, because there aren't that many teenage boys on the boat for abstaining.
Then I was trying to come up with a fictional role model I would want my daughter looking up to. Possibly Rosalie, for all her fierceness, she has a pretty good head on her shoulders now that she's had nearly a century to learn from her human mistakes. Alice...no, I don't make enough money for my daughter to look up to Alice.
Which had me thinking of other supernatural fictional characters...How about Buffy? Her benefits include, ferocity, self-sufficient-ness, intelligence, and great work ethic. Her negatives include having sex in high school, with vampires. Guess you just can't win.
So, here I sit, having bashed a series that I've read multiple times. I read them through two or three times before I read a comical online commentary about how awful of a person Edward was. And then I went back and read it again. And then I saw the awfulness. He actually unhooked something in her car so that she couldn't leave. Makes me wish she would have just taken the police cruiser that Charlie offered. Does all of this mean I won't read the books anymore? No. Does it mean that I will ban them from my teenage daughters room? No, but I will follow it up with a feminist lesson in how girls and boys should work, and not how they do.
All of this stems from somewhere personal. When reading the books I knew exactly what that head over heels, first love felt like. I knew it well. I knew what it was like if it were the end of the world if you didn't get to see that boy. I was that girl, and it is NOT the life or the choices I would ever choose for my daughter. Not that I'll be making her choices, because that would be very anti-fem of me. However, I will tell her my story, and I will hope, pray, and probably cry and lose sleep hoping and crying that she will learn from my mistakes, and live her teenage years in a completely different way than I did.
How did I turn out so well? Maybe because I was an avid Buffy fan. Maybe because I knew how I wanted to be treated and wasn't putting up with any male chauvinist crap. Maybe it was simply because the boy I loved didn't feel the need to control me because I was so ridiculously in love with him.
On that note, here is an old blog I wrote while I was being very melancholic about love, and I do still think that some of those things stand, but maybe not all of them. Love is just a very difficult thing.
A common question on formspring is how Chance and I met. I said I was going to blog about it a while back, so here it is.
Chance and I actually met in kindergarten. No, really. We went to school in a town where the population was about 600 max. There were never more than 25 kids in our entire class. So, as you can imagine, these same numbers also go back to our parents day, so subsequently, our parents went to school together too. His mom and my aunt were best friends in HS.
We were always in the same group, maybe even a little clique-ish for elementary school. He was best friends with my cousin, and we all went to the lake together. As a child, I thought we went to the lake to play, but realize now it was probably so our still young parents could drink and socialize.
The more time our families spent time together, the more I hung out with his sister. She was older than me, but there were usually only two or three girls, so we stuck together. I even spent the night at their house with his sister a few times because we were both smart and a little nerdy.
In junior high, his parents bought a house in the country and we began riding the same bus.
Secretly, I always had a little crush on him. I think it was his bad-boy demeanor. ; )
Well, in the 9th grade I starting dating another boy who rode our bus. He teased me relentlessly for that, and actually still does.
After a month said boy first told me he loved me (to which I responded was just to soon to say back) and then broke up with me the next week.
Chance used my broken heartedness to his advantage and began talking to me more.
He started asking me to be his girlfriend in February I believe. He called all the time, wrote me hundreds of notes, which I think I still have.
Back then, Chance partied quite a bit. His older sister lived with her boyfriend her senior year, and all of their friends drank and smoked weed at their house. He naturally followed in their footsteps. Well, actually, he did it side by side with them.
So, he invited me to parties, and my parents were very much againt their 15 year old drinking with 18-21 year olds. Imagine that.
Eventually, his sister broke up with her live-in boyfriend of 3 years, and starting dating her now husband. This ended most of the partying, and Chance started driving (at 15) to my house after school to hang out.
Even though I had had this massive crush, I kind of knew that I if we began dating it would be forever, isn't that wild. So, I resisted for a very long time.
In April, the 21st of April, 2001, I said yes. The very next day, a Sunday, he kissed me for the very first time. His first kiss. : )
We dated all through high school. The June after we graduated high school we moved into a small house in the same town we're in town with my best friend.
We lived there, happily ever after until the next summer when Chance joined the Navy. He was having a hard time finding a full time job, and wanted more from himself. He spent a month in basic training before was discharged for a substantial hearing loss in his left ear. He had been given a waiver from the recruiting office, got to Chicago and they couldn't believe he even made it there.
He came home in August, and we spent three awful months at his parents house. It really wasn't that bad, but we had lived on our own, and you just can't go back.
In December, we got the smallest house ever in my favorite town, where my dream house and the college I graduated from are. It was outrageously priced and we had to buy appliances for it, but it was better than a bedroom with his parents anyday.
That's the house we lived in when we were married in 2006, on our five year anniversary. No engagement, no honeymoon. Still, we don't do much to celebrate, we have a good marriage, and we celebrate each other daily.
Eventually, we'll do more but right now, I'm content with a nice dinner at home and snuggling on the couch. Even Archer can hang with us.
A friend mentioned the other day that cheating wasn't a marriage ended for her. She simply said she told her husband if he felt it necessary, he should expect her to reciprocate.
I'm not sure that's the healthiest view, but I guess when entering a marriage with vows, you do promise for better or worse.
I'm just not sure how I feel, or could deal with cheating.
I have only ever been intimate with my husband. And I think we are matched body and soul. I don't think I would want to be with anyone else just because he cheated first.
I also don't know that I could ever get past that kind of indiscretion.
And I mean, either type of cheating: an emotional relationship like Brad and Angelina supposedly developed, or a physical one. I'm not sure which I feel is worse.
What do you think? Have you ever dealt with this? How?
Today's forecast called for dreary gray skies. That and Archer waking us up at 730, I was sure this day would be awful.
As Chance and I began grating each others nerves I asked him to take us driving. I really dislike driving for leisure, because if I drive we have to take my truck and it's too small for all 3 of us to be comfortable, as his is a standard.
After much sweet talking, he agreed. I told him to take us where ever. Generally when we do this, we both gaze at the pretty houses and wish we lived in them, but with the fog even the road trip seemed yucky and doomed.
We start heading toward his parents, and then past, so I knew we were headed for the lake and I was instantly ticked that I hadn't thought to grab my camera.
We cruised through the golf course and past the marina. We saw several geese and even a pelican. Then we headed down "Cove Road," here in Oklahoma we are simple with names, so as you imagine, it's a big long road that winds through the coves on the lake.
The water was up fairly high, and the ducks were scattered all over the water. It was so beautiful. That yucky fog was hovering over the water in such a photographic way that I was internally beating myself or not bringing it again.
We eventually stopped and let Arch get out and move. He loved it. He loves nature and being outside, he just wanted to run and inspect leaves and fallen trees. But mostly, he wanted to run TO the water and get in. I had to pull him back. He went right in, no hesitation. I had to drag the poor thing away.
We spent a few hours just milling around, and this has just been such a wonderful day.
