My Hometown

While I was growing up in a small town in Florida, I couldn’t wait to leave and live in a bigger city. I yearned to live in a place that had a first run movie theater and maybe even its own mall. I often wished that I lived in a town where people didn’t call your parents if you were up to no good. When I was in high school, I counted the days until I left and moved to Orlando for college…

• Posted 6 mon. ago.

My Secret

• Posted 6 mon. ago.

Our real anniversary celebration

On our 10-year wedding anniversary last month, I found myself holding back my tears as I sat at our kitchen table with my husband and kids. I had a bad case of bronchitis and really just wanted to go to sleep. Instead of being at the Angus Barn eating a delicious steak and contemplating ordering the key lime pie for dessert, we were eating Papa John's pizza while listening to the tornado coverage…

• Posted 7 mon. ago.

View of the Grand Canyon from a Helicopter

When my husband suggested that we take the kids to the Grand Canyon for spring break, I immediately thought of my lifelong dream of riding a mule to the bottom of the canyon. In case you are wondering, yes, I did get the idea from watching too many Brady Bunch reruns when I was a child. However, when I went to make the reservation I stopped dialing after entering the first three numbers. I realize…

• Posted 7 mon. ago.

A Princess and a NASCAR Driver

When I read Natalie's post "When I Grow Up" last week, I started thinking about how certain I was as a young child that I would be either a writer, a shepherd or the first woman president. Oh, I can’t forget the dream of being a quarterback for the Florida Gators.

• Posted 7 mon. ago.

Our Hilton Head Moment

I think that 30 years from now, my husband and I will still be talking about our Hilton Head moment.

• Posted 7 mon. ago.

The Myth of the Perfect House

When we first moved into our house nine years ago, I spent many nights pouring over home décor magazines.  I checked decorating books out of the library and even enrolled in an online decorating class. My main goal in my life at that time was to create a house that looked like those pictures of the homes that I saw in the books and magazines.

• Posted 8 mon. ago.

Journals for my kids

A few weeks ago while I was searching through old boxes to find high school photos to post on Facebook, I found an unexpected treasure.  Two boxes full of journals that I wrote throughout junior high school and high school.  Seventeen looseleaf notebooks in all.  

• Posted 8 mon. ago.

A Special Place in My Heart for Biscuit the Dog

There will always be a special corner of my heart reserved for Biscuit the dog.  He’s a furry yellow puppy who has many adventures, such as going to the farm, winning a prize, and spending the day at school.  He also has a fellow dog friend named Sam and says “Woof” all the time.  Oh, did I mention that he lives in the pages of an early reader written by Alyssa Satin Capuci…

• Posted 8 mon. ago.

Minutes in the Morning

I knew when my kids started elementary school that our lives would change dramatically. However, I didn’t realize that mornings would rapidly move from my favorite time of the day with my kids to my least favorite. Since my kids didn’t attend preschool or daycare, our mornings were a leisurely time filled with snuggles, art projects and reading books.

• Posted 8 mon. ago.