I used to blog every. single. day.  There was barely a thought or event or special occasion that went undocumented in some form or another.
And then?  Well, I don’t know what.  Other shit became more important, I guess.  Or maybe I just got bored with it.  Or maybe I just started spewing all of my [...]

I received an email recently from Lauren Hoyt-Williams, PR Big Shot for SeaWorld, Busch Gardens and Discovery Cove.  It went something like this:
“So, um, I just wanted to follow up and see if you might actually be interested in RSVPing to the invitation I sent you for the upcoming event at Busch Gardens next week.”
Basically.
(She [...]

As of about two o’clock this morning, I am officially the mother of a ten year old.
Ten.
One Zero.
It now takes two whole digits to accurately describe him.  Or rather, his age.  It obviously takes more than mere numerals to describe the rest of him.
As we drove to Walt Disney World yesterday to celebrate his birthday [...]

Two weeks ago, I dragged two three children to the grocery store for our weekly shopping trip.
After they had endured more time than anyone should ever have to endure in a Wal-Mart, I took them to the nearby party supply store that had been converted into a costume shop for the Halloween season.
Emma had known [...]

On Sunday we – meaning me, Jared, Devin and Emma – set out for a day of fall festivities at a local pumpkin patch.  The temperatures  here in Florida were actually fall like, and it was the first family outing we would all be on together since before Hell Month.  I grabbed two camers to [...]

This is what Emma looks like when she needs a haircut:

This is what Emma looked like last week, when she was way beyond needing a haircut:

This is what Emma looks like after she has finally gotten her hair cut:

And this:

And this:

And, OK, actually more like this:

Oh, so cute!  So short and not tangled!  So “yes, [...]

“I watched them, thinking that little girls who make their mothers live grow up to be such powerful women.”  -Elizabeth Gilbert in Eat, Pray, Love
I read those words and stopped for a second, wondering if an editor in some glass New York City office building had missed a typo.
“…little girls who make their mothers live [...]

Kevin of Always Home and Uncool has asked me to post this as part of his effort to raise awareness in the blogosphere of juvenile myositis, a rare autoimmune disease his daughter was diagnosed with on this day seven years ago. The day also happens to be his wife’s birthday.
Take it away, Kevin…
*
Our [...]

I was laying in bed desperately trying to ignore the fact that I wasn’t sleeping, even though my alarm clock wouldn’t go off for another 15 minutes.
My annoyance at being awake before 6:00 am was softened by the squishy comfort of finding myself in the middle of  a kid burrito.
Emma was curled snugly into the [...]

“Is this for the shower?” Emma asked.
I was going through my morning “get ready” routine while she and Devin waited patiently for me to take them to school.
“Yep,” I replied.
“What’s it do?” she asked.
“It takes your hair off,” I told her.  And causes chemical burns like a motherfucker, I thought.
“Ohhhhhhh,” she nodded, impressed with her [...]

Dear Devin,
You told me over dinner that Grandma has taken you to Chuck E. Cheese like a million times.
You lamented the fact that I have never taken you to Chuck E. Cheese’s since we’ve lived in Florida.
“Yes, well, Grandma is clearly a better parent than me,” I told you.
“Can I move in with Grandma then?” [...]

The first night we got home, I forgot to feed my kids dinner.
I haven’t cooked a meal in over a month.  Jared and I ate out or ate string cheese and beer or, in most cases, just didn’t eat at all.  I’m always amazed by single people who go through the effort of cooking entire [...]

Friday night, there was this:
And this is Heather drinking absinthe in a fancy cafe in Atlanta.
And because she did it, I figured I would do it.  But do it cooler.  So I ordered an Absinthe Frappé. Because, I thought, an absinthe smoothie sounds awesome.  And if a frappuccino is a cappuccino frozen, then an absinthe [...]

I get my kids back tomorrow.
I’m heading towards them today.
Yes, I won’t see them until Saturday and I’ll be spending Friday night in Atlanta and not in Nashville – the drop off point that is halfway between here and there.
But at least, finally, I’m heading towards them.
Knowing that makes the ache left by their absence [...]

My kid is smarter than your kid.
I mean, probably.
But to be fair, he’s smarter than most kids.  This is not news to us.  (Nor is it the same as saying he is better than your kid.  I mean, clearly, I think so.  But I understand if we would have to agree to disagree [...]