Auburn Ghost Tours

Auburn has an amazing history and we want to preserve all of it for all generations, including that of our dearly departed souls who have stayed on in our little town. Every year we all can’t wait for October! One of our good friends Melany Hall was born and raised in Auburn, she left when she became an officer in the US Army, she traveled the world and came back to Auburn where she is raising her family. She started the Auburn Ghost Tours to share Auburn's rich, spooky history. This year, Dave and I got to participate by telling another part of Adolph Webber's story and I helped by sharing some of the spooky stories of more present day oddities in one particular building in Old Town Auburn. If you are going to be in our neck of the woods in October, try to get tickets and do the tour, it's incredibly interesting and so fun. Even more fun, Mason helped do makeup this year! I so love our little town!

Stop the Insanity!

Mason and I are here in Sheboygan! Well, we were when I penned this post (12/4-8). The Blue Harbor Resort is beautiful, and the water park is exceeding our expectations. As many of you know, I've struggled with my weight my whole life, and now Mason is finding some of the same challenges and body insecurities as well. He was looking for loose shirts to wear to cover himself up before heading down to the water park. Without a second thought, I put on my swim suit and said, “Here’s the deal, we are going to have a great trip, enjoy our time together, and not let anything stand in our way. We are going down to the water park where we will ask someone to take out picture together, wearing only our swim suits and I’m going to post it on Facebook for everyone to see.” He looked at me and replied, “So you are going to post a picture of you in your swim suit on Facebook?” “Yep, and I’m not going to hide behind you either!” So here's a picture of the two of us, in our swimsuits getting ready for another time of our lives! 

Life is about more than the number on the scale and I’m the first one to admit that more than one occasion has been spoiled by me being upset about my weight, body, clothes, lack of clothes, or any other number of things concerning my body image. How can I encourage him to let go and not worry about his weight when I am always worried about mine? I suppose as a society we think this is an issue that mother’s only need to deal with with their daughters, but that’s not so. I read a blog post a number of years ago that a woman wrote about not being in any family photos. She never wanted her photo taken because she was fat and she decided to let it go and step back into life with her family. I liked the post and I got it, but I wasn’t ready to really embrace that message for myself. After all, I take lots of photos with my family. Yeah, well, sort of. I make sure we are shot from the shoulders up, and when someone takes our photo and includes our bodies, I crop them. I hide behind Dave or Mason, basically, I do whatever I can to not be seen all the way. Then, on our long flight to Wisconsin I watched an episode of This Is Us and there was a very fitting exchange between two characters who are attending meetings for over eaters, Kate and Toby. The gist of it was that Toby wants to go to a party and Kate won’t agree because she's fat. Toby says he gets it, but their entire lives can’t be about their fat, at some point they need to live, and laugh, and dance, and love, and he knows she's fat, and he loves her just the way she is. Our kids don’t care if we think we are fat, or even if we are fat, they love us, they want us to play with them, and swim with them, and be with them in pictures.

So I faced my fears to put Mason at ease and I posted the photo of the two of us on Facebook. Ultimately, I’m just trying to live my best life and encourage Mason to live his, too. I hate that I struggle with my body image and how it reflects on who I am. I really want to be done with that and TRULY be grateful for all that I have, and I'm well aware, I have a lot. That public post was one step in the right direction and I’m going to try, really, truly, sincerely try to redirect my thinking when it comes to what I want or don’t want to do because of my body. I really love my life and I’m going to do my best to live it all the way, every day. Now I have gifts to wrap, baking to do, cookies to decorate, and so much more. 'Tis the season!

Grateful for My Really, Really Great Guy!

Bubblegum Alley in Downtown SLO

Last week Dave and I took a quick trip to San Luis Obispo, a Monday through Wednesday kind of get away. You see, Dave has to be in SLO frequently for work, and every time he goes he tells me how much he wishes I could come with him. He will call me from wherever he is dining and share with me that the sun is setting and it would be so much more fun if we were together. It's been nearly impossible to schedule for us both the be there, especially in December. In the last 3 or 4 years, I've been in school and that time of year we are taking finals. The other challenges are someone to stay with Mason (he's still in school) and also someone to stay with the dogs. This year we planned it and made it happen. There was the little bump in the road with Gunner having to have surgery, but we just paid to have him stay at the vet where he could get the medical care he needed.

Sunset at Schooners

Dave booked us in a lovely little Inn, the Granada Inn & Bistro right in the heart of downtown. The room was quaint with a big shower and a fireplace. It was just what we needed to relax and reconnect. I know couples have a hard time making time to get away, but I believe it is imperative to being happily married. The best gift we can give our kids is happily married parents, and these kinds of excursions are what couples need to remember who they are together, still in love, and why they wanted those pesky kids to begin with. Yes, kids are hard. They are hard to raise, hard to discipline, hard to juggle schedules, and taking the money out of the family finances to get away can be another challenge. I get it. The thing is, when things fall apart, we often would give all we have to make it right again. We would sell our most cherished belongings to have our family together and happy again. Make the sacrifice while things are still good and make them better. We are so lucky that we can combine business with pleasure and include our families. I get that, but where there is a will, there is a way.

A walk on the beach

We stopped in lots of little bars, we walked along the creek, we shopped, we dined, and we drove up the coast to Cayucos where we walked on the beach, had some clam chowder while we watched the sun set, and then had a drink in the old Saloon across the street. It was magical! It was just what we needed and I feel like the luckiest woman in the whole world to have my guy. Dave is one of the really good ones, the kind of guy that after 15 years of marriage still makes me feel like he adores me. I love that every year he still wants me with him when he travels and when I can't go, he can't wait to get home to where I am, where we are, where we are us. I love us.