Category: Family

Family, Husband's Crazy Frequent Flyer Mile Hobby, Kids, Parenting, Travel

The CRAZY, Never-Before-Seen Thing I Saw On Our Family Trip To Africa

8,342 miles. Three plane rides. 29 hours of travel. What a trip. To see the sights of South Africa. Elephant, hippos, rhinos! Come on over and I’ll be happy to inundate you with our family’s vacation photos and videos. [iframe id=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ye-FRJ0NuGI” align=”center”] None comes close to the most remarkable thing I witnessed on this adventure with my husband and two kids. After all, How do you prepare a teenager they are about to enter a world they’ve never experienced? A

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Family, I Screwed Up, Overcoming Obstacles

My Most Unrealistic New Year’s Resolution Ever

     It’s possible I’m setting myself up for failure.      It is true.      After all, don’t all those psychologist types recommend you keep it realistic on New Year’s resolutions?      I don’t care.      I’m going big.      Shooting for the stars.      Or rather, for the socks.      Yes, socks.      My New Year’s resolution is simply socks.      I want to be able to open that vestibule I call my “sock drawer” and find one matching

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Family, Food, Marriage

I Need My Husband To Fall In Love Again

I need my husband to fall in love again. To take that plunge of “all in” emotion with the same hopeful abandon he had the day he proposed. As if to say, “I don’t know everything about you, but enough to know I love you, we’re a match, we can make a life together!” I miss that man. The man who used to wake up with an expectant passion just because he was to see his great love. And then

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Family, Kids, Parenting

The Last Place I Ever Expected To Find My Daughter

I thought we were so special. So different. No one else had a story like ours when it came to becoming a family. This kind of story of adoption. And there are a lot of great stories. We have cousins just back from Ethiopia with the son they worked two years to adopt. Me? I found my daughter in the funnel cake line. Yep, funnel cakes. Truth is, I actually didn’t find her. My friend, Craig, did. One hot, sticky

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Family, Food, Kids, Parenting, Pets

Why Does Everyone Else’s Plate Look Tastier?

Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? That’s turning out not to be true at our house. My 15 ½ year old dog, Darla, so sharp, she’s taught herself. Do I sound pleased? Because I’m not. This trick involves the cat. Darla has lived every day of her life with a cat. She’s never shown any interest in the dry cat food I leave down for the diva, I mean, the cat. A couple weeks ago, something

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Family, Life Lessons Took Me Long Time To Learn, Parenting

13 Wishes For Our Daughter’s 17th Birthday

Dear Daughter, It seems like just last week I was sharing, “14 Wishes For My Daughter’s 16th Birthday.” yourcialisrx.com/cialis_soft_tabs.html With your 17th birthday upon us, the window is closing on your time under our roof.  Please allow me to get a few more wishes in: -I wish you know there are so many ways to win at high school than just grades and test scores. -I wish you know that despite crazy college admission arms race, you do not need

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Family, I Screwed Up, Parenting

Do My Fat Thumbs Make Me Look Old?

“That makes you look old,” daughter informed me this week, as she watched me do something I do several times a day. Was she looking at emerging “non-pigmented” roots along my hairline. (I prefer not to use the “g-four letter word.”) Reach for reading glasses? Inspect a new crevice working it’s way onto my face. Oh, I do have all that going on. This, however, is bigger. According to my daughter. More public. More horrifying. And something she thinks I

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Family, Life Lessons Took Me Long Time To Learn, Marriage

My Happy Marriage That Surely Will Not Last

Of all the punch lines I never planned on, this must surely be it. Somehow, I, out of all people, wake up today on the third anniversary of being married to a perfectly imperfect man. A man with more quirks than a roomful of brilliant physicists. After all, what could be quirkier than a man who loves me and treats me with such kindness and respect? Yeah, me. The forever-single gal who must’ve dated every non-commital man in America. Yeah,

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Animals, Family, Pets

My Dog’s Name-The One I Never Wanted To Give Her, But Had No Choice

Oh, yes I did. Simply did what any other crazy dog lover would do. When I saw a new survey announcing “The Most Popular Dog Names In America,” I clicked. Clicked first. Ahead of checking out any stories on world peace, the volatile stock market or the environment, for surely, knowing where my dog’s name placed on the survey was more important, more pressing than any of those matters. I see you and your dog nodding, “Yes, of course.” It’s

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Picking your grandparent name.
Family

Picking Grandparent Names: Is This The New Baby Boomer Contact Sport?

My cousin is doing well, thank you very much. She survived a life milestone which I had no idea was supposed to be so challenging. And yet, as it often is with life passages, things like puberty, parenthood, or gray hair, we learn from those who bravely go before us. My cousin has picked her grandmother name. As my mom’s first cousin, she’s actually kind of late to the grandparent game. Her older daughter hasn’t had kids and her youngest

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