Real Life

Have you ever seen the movie
Marley and Me?
It's a couple years old.
I watched it when it first came out.
I'm not really a huge animal person, but I still managed to cry.
So I bought it last year on black friday.
I'm kind of a movie hoarder on black friday.
Who wouldn't be when you can get a million movies for $3!
Ellie and Tripp found it yesterday in the grown up movie drawer and wanted to watch it.
We have a special drawer for all of their kid movies so they don't open ours and scratch them.
But sometimes they sneak in the other drawer and try to convince me "Die Hard" was really in their section.
Right...
But Marley and Me is a sweet movie, so I let them watch it.
And I watched it with them.
And cried again.
I love how it's actually real life.
Their house is messy!
She actually looks slightly squishy after just having a baby.
Neato.
She cries and is exhausted being home with her children.
But she wouldn't want to do anything else and miss that time.
They fight. About changing diapers, money, jobs, babies, schedules, and crazy dogs.
They are devoted to each other.
It's real.
It's funny.
It's messy.
It's learning to love where you're at, the stage you're in, and not always looking for something bigger and better...what your life and dreams were for yourself compared to where you are now.
To realize it's so much better.
Yes, the dog is a huge silly part of the whole story, but in one part, they realize they'd have the same problems, the same issues, even if they got rid of Marley.
Which is good to know.
'Cause I can relate to the entire story and we don't even have a dog.
You give up things, you have really hard, crazy days and feel like your world is kind of crashing down.
And then you look back and realize you learned so much and it's perfect the way it is.
It's life.
We're still in the hard, screaming babies, having babies, messy house, planning our future, diaper changing part of life.
It seems long, and tiring, and sleepless, and unknown and slightly endless.
It reassuring to see a movie that has all that in it.
And to see life after that part.
All squished in to 2 lovely hours.
So if real life is leaving you a little exhausted, cuddle up with your munchkins and watch a movie about real life.
It'll make you feel better.
And maybe even want to get a dog...preferably not as crazy as Marley.
It's extraordinary...this thing called life.