Come on in. Stay awhile.
This is gonna sound weird, but I really love growing up on Facebook. I love watching my friends grow up (not old!) with me. I love seeing their smiling faces on Facebook every day (ok, sometimes every couple of hours. what?) and knowing they are happy. Or not. Either way, I have the gift of knowing and being there, for the good and the bad.Also: my friends? The best looking group on earth. They are all so beautiful, and they get better looking all the time. The laugh lines, the sparkling eyes, the goofy smiles. It's all right there in front of me, beside me, whether they are down the street or on the other side of the world.And it makes me so, so, so very happy.

Have wings, will fly
I speak often of the gifts my children give me--the life lessons, the hard lessons I need to learn as a parent and to grow as a person. It has been two and a half months since I wrote this post about my 2.5 year old daughter's speech delays, and I have slowly come to understand her lesson to me in this part of our relationship: I need to let her do things on her own time...and I need to learn to let go.In just under 3 months, my daughter went from speaking just a few words to now speaking full short sentences and bringing in almost a dozen new words and phrases a day. Like so many

The tattoo? It was for me, not you
Oh I just love disappointing people. I think I'm becoming quite good at it as I age. The thing is, I know who I am, and what I am not. Some people just see something different based on their own expectations, experiences and points of reference.We all go through life with so many public personas but really they are all one in the same. When I became a reporter, one of my relatives said she was shocked because she always imagined I would become an English teacher. She always saw me as reserved and bookish (read: nerdy). I've met many other comments along the way in my life of not meeting others' expectations based on their perceptions of who I am, my likes, dislikes, values, prio

Pictures of You
"Screamed at the make-believe,screamed at the skyand you finally foundall the courage to let it all go"Pictures of You by The Cure was her favorite song. At least, it was the last time we spoke. When I was in high school, that song used to make me all angsty about boys and sometimes it still does but for the most part, it now makes me think of her. It was playing on the radio when I got into the car this morning after dropping my kids off at school and BOOM. Tears.I miss her.My friend that was taken away from us way too young, way too fast. I didn't even have the chance to tell her how much she meant to me all those years. I honestly don

Girlie Girl Glow
My daughter is a girlie girl. She was born that way and I've not only come to accept it, but I am trying to follow her cues and let her do the things that make her so happy and just glow and revel in all the girlie girlness. Like putting barretts in her hair. She used to hate it but now the bigger and brighter the hair accessories, the better. Like indulging her love of shoes. Like letting her wear a girlie girl butterfly princess-like costume that I swore I would NEVER let my daughter wear. Ever.Never say never.My son had decided we should all be superheroes this Halloween, but after seeing the poor quality of superhero costumes in person (really, they were $30 wort