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I said I would never get a dog.  ''I've cleaned up enough poop to last me a lifetime'' was my mantra.  And I kinda like my shoe collection without chew marks thank you very much. Nope, we're just not ''dog people''.And then we met Roxy.  Truman and I decided this past Monday (yep, three days ago), to saunter into the local pet store to ''look'' at ...

I am now clinically addicted to Mini Nilla Wafers.  Not big Nilla Wafers and not Vanilla Wafers, only Mini Nilla Wafers. Somehow it matters that they're smaller.It is the one kid treat that knows my name and sings it longingly, like a snack Siren sitting on the edge of the little plastic bowls in my boys' hands.  I don't like Goldfish or Ritz ...

I’ve been reading the book ''A New Earth'' by Eckhart Tolle, going to yoga more regularly, and posting reminders around the house to stay a bit more present and centered and in touch with myself and my family.  So last week while in the tub, where I get all of my best ideas; I had an “ah ha” moment.  Or maybe this one was more of an ...

Double Down! Split em’, Hit, Stay, Black Jack!This was my mantra last weekend in the windowless paradise of the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas.  Black Jack was the name of the game for my husband and I and another mom/dad team from the hood, as we morphed into hip high rollers for 48 hours.  This trip was months in the making for my friend Annie ...

Today is Valentine's Day. A day to feel loved.  Some say it’s just another Hallmark holiday, filled with sappy cards, mass-produced boxes of waxy chocolates and stuffed frogs holding red plastic hearts.  Maybe they’re right, but who cares.One thing is for sure.  Women and men view this day a little differently, especially if they've been married ...

Last night, like most Americans, my family and I huddled downstairs in front of our big screen, with chicken wings in hand to watch the Super bowl.  We are die-hard Steeler fans in this house, so last night meant picking a new team to root for.   It wasn’t all that hard to decide.   After the much talked about secret defensive signal filming ...

These two little words, usually spoken in the wee hours of the morning are able to evoke some BIG emotion. As you know here in the Mid West, our kids rarely get one of these special days. ( it’s the prairie, snow doesn’t scare us.)  But this morning I got the wake-up call kids dream of.  My guys had just started rustling around under their ...

   It’s down right freezing out there today. Some of us have our older kids home from school, and some of us just need to keep our preschool kids happy and entertained inside where it’s warm. So I thought I’d share a few unplugged, kid tested activities you can do right now, with the stuff you probably already have tucked around your ...

It’s Monday morning and my house is fabulously quiet, except for the Oscar Peterson jazz CD playing on the stereo, and the sound of melted snow trickling off my roof.  I have this glorious solitude for about 45 more minutes, when I will go and get Tru from kindergarten, feed him lunch and get him ready for the play-date happening here this ...

We call it by many names...yelling, shouting, raising our voices, screaming, and my personal favorite, hollering. (It’s the country girl in me.)Just reading these verbs makes me slightly uncomfortable, and guilt ridden. Yelling is something I personally loathe, but that can truthfully be a part of my life with little boys.  I have “spared ...