The Three Little Words So Hard For Me To Say

This confession might shock you. There are three little words that are really hard for me to say. Sometimes even get stuck in my throat. Me, who writes each week about love, who shares how happy I am in my new marriage, how much I love being a mom. I have a hard time saying, “I love you.” It’s no big mystery to me why it’s so challenging. I didn’t grow up in a “I love you” kind of house. 

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What Would You Say If The Pope Called?

Apparently, Pope Francis continues his theme of being a more casual, people’s pope and has taken to calling folks who have written him letters. I found the  charming story is in the San Francisco Chronicle. The article shares some tips on what to do if the Pope happens to call you. So, I’m wondering, what would you say if Pope Francis called you up?

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The Issue That Almost Upended My Marriage Before It Began

Please catch my newspaper column each week in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Dayton Daily News and other newspapers across Ohio.  Here’s this week’s column. It is the issue that almost upended my marriage before it began. I can picture you, Dear Reader, nodding your head in understanding. “Yes, it’s tough to agree on religion, money, politics, how to raise our daughter.” Actually, for two people raised in very different backgrounds, my husband and I are remarkably compatible when it comes

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The Next Best Thing Might Be Right Out Your Front Door

Please catch my newspaper column each week in theAtlanta Journal Constitution and the Dayton Daily News. “If one more person told me ‘When one door closes, another door opens,’ I think I was going to scream,” a photographer named Mark Hirsch shared with me this week. Anyone who has gone through their share of losses has got to appreciate his honesty. The man sure did come by his cynicism honestly. First to go was his amazing job.  He was an oh so

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When I Used To Be Someone

Whoa! This column got a huge response. I’ve received more email than I have in a long time. Feel free to comment at the bottom. And please catch my column each week in the Atlanta Journal Constitution and the Dayton Daily News.   All I really wanted was a manicure. Really, just about a half-hour to myself, a trim of some nasty hangnails and a couple coats of pretty light pink nail polish. “Bubble Bath,” I read on the bottom

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Wishing A Good Friend Well & Faking It

You asked, you got it. Here’s my latest newspaper column. Please catch my column each week in The Atlanta Journal Constitution and The Dayton Daily News. Here’s hoping the ladies won’t mind some extra salty seasoning in the appetizers this weekend, as we gather to wish one of my favorite people in the world, “Goodbye.” For years, my friend, Lori and her husband have had this crazy dream—once their youngest child was out of high school they were up and

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Never Enough Time When You Love Someone

A stranger took my breath away this week. What would you do if a woman you just met told you, “I’m really not a risk taker,” followed by, “I married a man who told me on our first date that he only had 18 months to live.” “How’d that work out for you?” I couldn’t help but ask. “He lived 18 more years past that first date. We were married for 15 of those,” Brenda Zimmer Gibson told me. “They

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How I Found A Husband–I Settled

“Help!” the email started. “I need some words of encouragement for my 43-year-old never been married friend!” Of all the pleas this forever-single columnist thought she would never get.–That probably has to be it.  When you don’t get married for the first time until you’re 49, you hardly think you’ll be the one to be giving out advice on how to find a husband. Yet, as I close in on my first wedding anniversary, I look back thinking there is

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How Can It Be A Year Already?

I’ve never felt time go so fast! July 14, 2012–Three weeks after we got engaged, my fiance’ and I decided it was time to move in together. Since we didn’t want to just “live together, we gathered up or two girls and headed up to a beautiful waterfall outside of Cashiers, NC. My dress? Bought right off the rack on sale at a local department store. It had so many “markdown” stickers on the tag that I couldn’t even see

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Happy “Best Match Ever” Day!

Such a special anniversary to celebrate! Four years ago today I met a little girl who changed my life forever. There I was having a sad, lonely, woe-is-me Sunday night. Feeling sorry for myself being alone and single. After an appropriate amount of pity party time, I thought to myself, “You can feel sorry for yourself or do something about it.” That’s when I remembered one of my best friends, Cyndi, giving me a “talking to” about Big Brothers Big

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