There’s something about working in social media that makes everyone think you are open to professional advice.  Maybe it’s because as long as I’m awake, I’m accessible through one channel or another – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn message, email, cell phone attached to my hip… – or maybe it’s because the social media community thrives on…

Today on September 10th as I explain to my seven year old daughter for the first time why there are flags flying everywhere this weekend, I’m thinking about the day before 9/11. In the beginning of September of 2001, I was a newlywed, just back from a honeymoon in St. Lucia and living in Silver…

I have loved every second of being a member of the Mamavation Sistahood.  I had the pleasure of getting to know this amazing group of women through the Twitter Parties with @Bookieboo where they playfully called me Twitter Oprah (a pair of Earth Shoes for you, and for you, and for you!!!) and patiently waited…

Monday my baby started kindergarten.  In that moment I felt as though I was watching a piece of my heart walk away from me, and yet at the same time felt reborn as I started the new life of a business woman, seven solid work hours, no more desperate struggling and scrambling as the norm….

Wordless Wednesday Linky

“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”  John 16:33 Alternatively titled Five Days After the Earthquake OR The Day Before Kindergarten…Maybe What a week. Sometimes we get so busy surviving the day to…

I have four posts I intended to write today. To be honest, three of them I intended to write earlier this week, but the unexpected earthquake and subsequent clean-up in my house left me feeling discombobulated and unproductive.  Then yesterday the reality of my baby going to kindergarten hit me like a ton of bricks…

I’m feeling introspective and yet uncharacteristically short-winded in this week leading up to back-to-school.  Today I’m thinking not just about the things I want to do with the kids in their final days {hours} of summer, but also what I’d like to do in the time I hope to have left here on this earth….

I grew up going to a lake in west-central Pennsylvania every other weekend and usually for a week at the end of the summer.  While I spent a lot of time just sort of floating around on my parents’ boat, I also enjoyed tubing, jet skiing and water skiing.  By the time I was a…

Thirteen years ago this Saturday, I sat across from a skinny kid at a Whataburger somewhere between San Antonio and Austin and said these words while dipping Texas Toast into a puddle of white gravy, “You know, we should really just go ahead and be a couple because if we don’t decide at some point…

One last outing with mom before kindergarten and second grade begin… Wordless Wednesday Linky

I’m going to start with some positives: I feel great. I look better than I have in years. I have new energy and enthusiasm for life in general. Losing weight, exercising, and changing the way I eat has changed my life for the better. But now I have to deal with the elephant in the…

With kindergarten just weeks away, I can’t help looking through old photographs… Wordless Wednesday Linky

This year’s BlogHer Conference was outstanding, just like the previous two BlogHers I attended.  I met with clients, made new connections, and enjoyed the occasional pampering that made me forget for just a moment that my feet ached from walking miles each day in adorable and not-at-all sensible shoes.  But there was something different and…

Though the intense July heat has taken its toll on the tree in front of my house, we are still enjoying these beautiful pink blooms. It’s incredible to realize that it was just a few months ago that snow and ice nearly killed my favorite tree, a third of it snapped completely off, leveled by…

No, this is not the defensive line of a World War 2 league of their own type all-female football team.  These women are my relatives.  The second lady in from the left is one of my favorites, my great-great Aunt Hilda.  Her little brother Albert who annoyed her so much that she told me about…

Early last summer I noticed in the church bulletin that a mission group was planning a trip to an orphanage in Africa.  Our church is very active in mission trips throughout the year both in the states and abroad, but something about this particular mission called to me.  My heart began to race.  I always…

As of today I am no longer a woman who just lost 15 pounds over the first half of the summer. I am a woman who needs to lose 15 pounds and is going to start from scratch preparing to run a 5K. While I’m thrilled with my progress so far, the fact is that…

Today is the three year anniversary of the first time I wrote a blog post.  Before that there had been a Geocities community – what were those? – and I had a Facebook account that I populated far too frequently.  There were also the scores of emails that I wrote during bedrest with my husband’s…

Some of my favorite images from last weekend’s getaway… (Top to bottom: lightning storm over EPCOT, “Wishes” fireworks as seen from the Contemporary roof deck, Cinderella’s Castle and Tomorrowland as seen from the Contemporary roof deck, Spaceship Earth, Cinderella’s Castle, Walt & Mickey) Wordless Wednesday Linky

It’s official.  Last week I registered for Disney’s Halloween 5K October 1st at Animal Kingdom.  I’ve been considering visiting Walt Disney World that weekend for a long time because October 1st is the 40th Anniversary of the day Walt Disney World first opened.  To make it more alluring, my children have a day and a…