Happy Mother’s Day to all my fellow friends, family, and blog readers. I hope your day is super special and spent with those you love the most! I am spending the day with the three most important people in my life — Randy, Derek and Cole. They are my everything. Unfortunately, I am unable to spend the day with my own mom (though equally as important in my life), but she is not far from my thoughts today and I…
February is American Hearth Month and February 14 is Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Day. Of course, we all know Valentine’s Day is a day filled with hearts and love, but also an excellent day to bring awareness to an extremely important and under advocated medical condition of the most vital heart of all – our own. According to the CDC, Congenital Heart Defects (CHDs), the most common type of birth defect in the United States, affects nearly 1% of live…
Children’s 24 piece Scooby Doo puzzle.
This will be one of my rare “non-puzzle” related posts. In keeping with the spirit of the blog being not only puzzle related, but also parenthood, TV, movie, and book related as well, I felt it was still appropriate. I have a funny story to share involving me and my kids, but first you need a little background for context. In 2006, we were in the height of popularity for the TV show American Idol. In its 5th season, and…
Remember the days when you always looked forward to the start of the new fall TV season every September? The promise of new shows to get hooked on, and the good / bad characters you would soon come to love and love to hate each and every week? I sure do. Nowadays, I am almost afraid to start watching a new show when it first premieres because nine times out of ten, it’s going to get cancelled somewhere within…
Falls Park – Greenville, SC On November 14, 2014, Randy and I celebrated our 10-year wedding anniversary. It has been a wonderful decade filled with lots of joy, some sadness, several moves, two beautiful children, and much laughter. When we were initially looking at options for our honeymoon, we were torn between Italy and Hawaii. The tour package we got for Italy (and the fact that IT WAS ITALY!) was better than the deal we could get for Hawaii, and…
At my baby shower for my firstborn son, Derek, I received a very cute stuffed blue dog as a gift. I cannot even recall at this point who it was that gave it to us, but ironically, I had given the same dog to a girlfriend of mine a few weeks earlier for her first baby shower. I began showing Derek the dog and laying it beside him as we played on the floor very early on, and it wasn’t…
For most of my life I have not been too bothered by celebrity deaths. With few exceptions, most of the people who passed were really old celebrities who were famous way before my time so there was no real emotional connection for me. The first celebrity death which I remember being very saddened by was John Candy. He died in 1994, two years after I graduated high school, and I just remember feeling it was a big loss for Hollywood…
It does not seem possible that 1980 was 34 years ago! I don’t know if it’s because that would mean I’m getting old, or if it’s because the 80s are still such a fond memory for so many people that it doesn’t feel like so much time has passed, but either way, I truly believe it was one of the most influential decades in American history…a decade of indulgence – a decade of silliness – a decade I often long…
My good friend Ellen is due the credit for turning me on to this fabulous writing duo and boy am I grateful she did! Even though she had read most of the books in the series already, she suggested I start with The Cabinet of Curiosities since it could be read as a stand alone book without having to have any previous knowledge of the characters, plots, etc., and she knew I would probably like it a lot. Personally, I think…