I found this on Josh's inter-office Bio.

It's pretty funny when you put it that way. And it's all true! :o)

Married: to Rachel Stucki

If so, when: October 27, 2001

If so, how did you meet: I was 17, Rachel was 14, and we met on a church history cross country bus trip. I finally asked her out when she was 18 and she said no. A year later, I finally got her to go out with me, and I tried to kiss her and she turned away. We got married the next year. :o)

Just some other crap going on in the Harris Household...

We went to see "The Little Mermaid" play at Tuacahn. And because she is my daughter, Maddie turned to us at intermission and said, "I just want to go to sleep now." So awesome. I didn't fight it because I was tired too (and fell asleep on the car ride home along with Maddie) and Josh wasn't about to fight leaving a Disney play early either.

I read "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" and realized I am WAY behind on letting Maddie pick an instrument. She loves the piano and will continue that, but I wanted her to pick another instrument that she could learn and enjoy. She knew immediately it would be the guitar. I am pretty sure it has something to do with Taylor Swift. So we went and got her a small, beginner's guitar, and Josh taught her "Mary Had a Little Lamb", and I pulled out our copy of Jewel's concert DVD. Let's just say that she is beyond excited (and as you can see, she is taking it very seriously).

We went to the beach with Josh's siblings and had a great time. Well, the adults had a great time. Sleeping in and eating long meals and taking a long boat ride. It was very relaxing. But Maddie thought it was very boring. (See the previous post regarding the difficulty of balancing adult time and kid time when there is only one kid.)

And Maddie got her ears pierced again.....eventually. She took thirty minutes of going back and forth between wanting it done and then being too scared. The poor lady who works at Claire's probably really hated her job that day.

Avoid the Large Cat Exhibit

We also went to the San Francisco Zoo. Besides the horrible tiger attack a few years ago, it is my favorite zoo because you don't sweat or nearly melt in the sun. (Can you tell I am just plain done with Las Vegas summers.)

Maddie read us every word of every information board on every animal. And you know what? I didn't care. We took all the time in the world because it wasn't 110 degrees outside. It made me realize that I would be a much more patient mother if I didn't live through Las Vegas summers. (I am just plain done with Las Vegas summers. Did I mention that?)

And because I was a teenager before digital cameras and camera phones, I can't pass up a photo booth without going in.

Wear a Flower in Your Hair

We try to do something special right before school starts with Maddie every year. Last year it was Disneyland. This year it was San Francisco. The last time we took Maddie to that lovely city she was about 2 years old. And we promised we would never take her back there because she was a psycho, and it was obviously more of an adult city. (Actually, if I never did anything that was a miserable experience when she was two, I would never let her out of her room again...It would be a very Repunzel/stuck in a tower sorta situation.)

Anyway, we decided that since she is now six and much more reasonable now than she was as a toddler, we would try again. And I am happy to report that it was a success. We showed her some of the things we love about that city. (Of course, that included the Golden Gate Bridge, but the insane fog didn't cooperate long enough for me to get my picture.)

Chili in a breadbowl at Fishermans Wharf

The bush man. She thought this was hilarious.

The Giants. I was very nervous about this because Maddie hates sports. So I told Josh to invest some time into teaching her the sport and then maybe she will like it. Josh was the most patient, informative baseball teacher I have ever seen. He sat and taught her all about runs and fouls and stealing bases and everything else about baseball. (As you can tell, I wasn't really listening the whole time. I was eating my Cracker Jacks and enjoying sitting outside without sweating and melting in the sun.) They filled out an entire scorecard, and as you can see from this picture, Maddie took it very seriously. She is now a hard core Giants fan.

We also walked around Union Square. It was here, among all of the homeless people, that I realized that my daughter looks homeless. Besides the cute little bow in her hair, you would have no idea that she actually has two parents who love her. She still dresses herself, and this day she chose to wear her too short pajama bottoms and her white coat that got covered in chili and her favorite pair of shoes. Oh, those shoes were horrific. They are 2 sizes too small and no longer sparkling. So we then decided to get her a new pair of shoes before the new year. We walked to three different department stores to find some "Bella Ballerina" shoes that she saw advertised on Nickelodean. Of course, they are sold out in every store because every kid across the country also got suckered in by their massive advertisement campaign. When she was near tears and I started to get blisters from all of the walking, I got on my iPhone and bought some on Zappos and had them overnighted to our house so we would have them on our first day of school. (Oh how I love Steve Jobs for making my life easier.) Anyway, that big old long story is the explanation of how I was finally able to throw these lovely shoes away and that is why you will never see them again. Phew.

I like these two people.

I like these two people. They are pretty darn cute, in my opinion. I hang out with them every chance I get, and luckily, that's pretty often. But a few years ago, I realized that the two of them almost never spend one on one time together because I'm always there, right in the middle. Josh and I have a lot to talk about, and Maddie and I have a lot to talk about. So when I'm there, they both talk to me. I sometimes feel like a rope in a tug of war game, being pulled in one adult direction of law office management and impending trips, concerts, or sporting events, and being pulled in the opposite kid direction of stuffed animals and art classes and fairies. I sorta hate it. It is very difficult in an only child family to find that perfect balance of adult time and kid time, adult conversation and kid conversation, adult activities and kid activities. So I encouraged them both to do daddy daughter things WITHOUT mom there.

At first it was almost a little awkward. They just kinda looked at each other like the other one was obviously an alien from outer space. But over the years, they have bi-weekly daddy daughter dates and an annual daddy daughter trip without me. At first, I kind of felt left out. They looked like they were having fun! But I wouldn't butt in for anything. These two have a lot to learn from each other, and a lot of love to give to each other, and a lot of experiences and inside jokes to share with each other.

They just got back from their daddy daughter camping/jeeping trip in Colorado where they slept side by side and played games together. How cute is that?