You think you can contain me? Game on. And that scrape on my nose? You should have seen the other kid!
At 15 months old, my youngest escaped from her crib for the first time. I heard her crying upstairs, and knew the sound was a little too close to her door. We were shocked. And scared. We weren’t ready. She wasn’t ready. But fortunately, the fall must have scared her, because she didn’t try it again. But now, she’s a little bit bigger, a little bit older, and at 17 months, she’s got it down. Just a lift of the leg, a hoist, and she’s free. Game on.
I’m completely unprepared for this. My first daughter didn’t start doing this until 20 months or so, and even then, she just didn’t care to escape, even …
Everyone has their thing they get all “pitchforks” about. And by pitchforks, I mean that thing they believe so strongly in, that they’re quick to pick up their pitchforks and chase down whatever threatens their “thing.” Mine is healthy media for kids. And while watching the presidential debate the other night, I have admit my fingers were itching to pick up my pitchfork and fly into action. When Mitt Romney said, “I’m going to stop the subsidy to PBS,” I was a little worried. Do I want that to happen? Absolutely not. But do I think PBS would go away if it did? No, after doing some research, I don’t. It would suffer, but it probably wouldn’t disappear entirely.
But the question that some are asking, and it’s an important one, is this: why do we …
A friend of mine mentioned the other day that she wished she could wave a magic wand and magically make things from Pinterest appear in her home. I hear ya, sister. I’m not much of a crafty person, so I feel a little incredulous that people are actually making what they see on Pinterest rather than just idly pinning and pining away. So I’ve decided to start sharing things that my friends (and possibly me if I get a wild hair) have tried for themselves. (And in case you didn’t know, IRL means “in real life.”)
My friend Ashlei is brave enough to try Pinterest ideas herself and has written up reviews on her blog. You can check that out here.
So here’s my first Pinterest IRL, a comfy seat my friend Aimee created using …
“It’s cancer.”
Although I’d braced myself for this diagnosis from the vet, I was still completely shocked. I forced down the lump in my throat, and started asking questions. “When can we remove it? What treatments are available? Is this common? Do dogs survive this?” I looked down at our happy black lab, and my mind was flooded with memories of bringing her home on that cold February night, as a surprise Valentine’s gift for my husband. A snuggly ball of black fur, she blended in with my dark wool coat, and greeted me with a casual “hello” before noticing what I had in my arms. He was ecstatic. And she has been our “baby” ever since. She even had her own blog. That was nearly five years ago.
She’s always had what I thought …
These were THE jeans. The unstoppable ones. The ones I swore I would wear again one day.
4…6…29…
The numbers boggled my mind.
Pencil skirts…low-rise ripped jeans…designer labels…
These styles seem like such a distant memory.
Piece by piece, I pulled items out of the blue plastic tub. Stale and wrinkled, they didn’t provide the fond memories I thought they would. Didn’t make me long for the days when I wore them with flair. I was thin. Very thin. But I didn’t know it at the time. I was insecure. I pinched every jiggle, willing it away. I worked out for hours, desperate to tone, trim, firm. I tried to catch every mirror I could, desperate to like what I saw. Most of the time, though, I didn’t.
Out of curiosity, I pulled one of the shirts over my head. “Medium. …
When my oldest daughter was almost a year old, my husband brought home a unique gift for Mother’s Day. Two rose bushes. One red, and one yellow. At the time, I was flattered, but had no idea just how amazing that gift would turn out to be. While I like yellow and red roses, my favorite is a pink or peach rose. I’m not sure my husband had any idea this would happen, but the two plants, placed several feet apart in our front flower bed, have started to cross pollinate (or something like that). I know nothing about roses, except that I like to look at them and smell them. But somehow, the yellow rose bush has started to produce peach and pinkish roses, even some yellow roses with red spots. They’re gorgeous, absolutely …