This morning as I sit on my balcony with my hot coffee and cool breeze in complete and utter comfort, the word “amends” was floating around my head. Not because I was on the 8th or 9th step of the 12-step program, but because Rob was having breakfast with someone who was, and Rob was ...
I will always pick a penny up when I see it because let’s face it, who doesn’t want good luck. This act has, however, has resulted in pennies randomly scattered in pockets, the washing machine and all over my house. I would pick pennies up even when I was a little girl. I taught my kids ...
A few weeks ago I saw a news story on Tess Holliday. She was beautiful, happy, just signed a modeling contract and was a size 22. Her genuine self-confidence shook me to my core. The interviewer asked her a question about her health, and she had the perfect answer: Health is a personal thing. ...
My daily check of Timehop revealed this quote from my Facebook status three years ago:”Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined.” That quote is from Thoreau, and I love it as much this morning as I did three years ago. Three years ago I was in culinary school on ...
What happens long term when you hold a grudge? Nothing good, I know, but do the people holding on tight to the grudge realize all they are missing? I’m not a grudge holder, at least not with people I love. People who I have no use for, like ex-husbands, I just assume they ...
I was having a conversation with an old friend the other day; it was about getting older and the things we’ve learned. It got me thinking about turning 50 in a year or so and how I was excited for that to happen. I know, my mother and her sisters would cringe at the thought ...
The other day, Alison and I were having a conversation about her final project for college. She was writing a paper on her relationship with Rob. We talked a little bit about stepfathers and how our relationships with them shaped our lives and the women we are today. Stepfather and real father were a term ...
I can’t write if I don’t run, and I hate running, but my self-imposed deadline of one blog post a week was looming on the horizon. So I laced up my running shoes and headed out the door. Two miles into my run it hit me, like it always does, A Woman of Contradiction Graduates. ...
That was the text that had me hyperventilating at 7:00 in the morning. I knew this day was coming for about a month, but never really expected it to get here. My dear friend, also a bakery owner, said to me “will you come and teach us how to make croissants?”. Before I even thought ...
Blessed according to the dictionary means: “Made holy; consecrated. A title preceding the name of a dead person considered to have led a holy life, especially a person formally beatified by the Roman Catholic Church.” Or from gotquestions.org it means: “Statements of blessing are a wish for God to restore His favor on others or ...
While running downtown on a gorgeous Spring day, you expect to die a number of ways. Cars being the number one guess, but there are other ways. Crazed, hardcore runners, all but pushing you off the sidewalk into the aforementioned cars. The pollen so thick, you come home choking and covered in yellow dust. The ...
Things I Hate people making fun of the underdog rain people telling me what to do cleaning the house running Things I Love the underdog rain people telling me what to do cleaning the house running I had the idea for this post when someone posted something I found offensive on Facebook. Their response was, ...
As a parent, you usually live your life with one goal in mind, the end. Preschool graduation, Middle School Graduation, High School Graduation, College Graduation and then, the wedding; the End, finish line crossed. You are semi-prepared for the “Empty Nest” syndrome to settle in when they leave for college or into their apartments, but ...
I handed all the cash in my wallet, which was only $2.00, to a lady at the exit ramp and she said “God Bless You”. It got me wondering, would God bless me because I gave a stranger $2.00? I’m not even going to get into the fact that I was urged by something deep ...
Are you who you thought you’d be when you grew up. I was never one of those little girls who dreamt about her wedding day and how many kids she wanted to raise in her little yellow house on the corner with the white picket fence. I never wanted to be a teacher or a ...
As I sit in the lobby of the Omni connected to the CNN building in Atlanta, I’m reminiscing of the time in late October when I was sitting in the same chair and same lobby, but with a very different life. Last time I was here, Rob was interviewing for a job, I was an ...
Five days into my month off has made me realize that’s all I need to be rested. With the tour “retooling” itself, our next stop is unclear at the moment, and I am here, on my couch, asking the question “now what?”. Seems like I should get that question tattooed on my arm. However, this ...
There are more days than not lately that I am feeling happy, lucky and loved. I wish I could go back in time to September 1, 2014, and tell that Gina not to worry. In 166 days, you will be sitting by a beautiful pool in Southern California reading a book and am happy. I’m ...
While I was watching morning tv, there was a commercial for mental illness and it asked an interesting question. If you had to describe yourself in one word what would it be? Now while this post isn’t about mental illness, it got me thinking about what word I would use to describe myself. As I ...
Who you are as a woman matters, especially to your daughters. I’m not sure how I raised a strong, smart, passionate, feminist for a daughter, but I did. She’s more intelligent than I am on any given day, and I often find myself having conversations with her that are over my head. One of those ...
“Is she a librarian? I SAID is she a librarian? You could have pointed me in that direction, you saw me standing in this long line”. That is what I heard when I entered the downtown Dallas Library. It was so distracting; I almost missed the glorious smell that hits you in the face upon ...
She said yes, and just like that, Sweet Baby Raymond became a man. When you have kids, no one gives you an instruction manual. So, as a parent, you are fundamentally unprepared for any significant milestones in that sweet baby’s life. You have no idea what to do with that baby the second you walk ...
You are beautiful inside and most certainly outside. Please stop talking about things you want to change about yourself. Every wrinkle on your face is from a precious memory. When you look at yourself in the mirror, and you see your mother, that’s an honor. Your mom was the sweetest, kindest, loving woman I knew. ...
They say that you can be on the same wavelength with people whether they are near or far, that you have a cosmic connection with people. When I took this job, my traveling superhero circus job, I was a little sad because I was leaving friends behind. It takes me a long time to make ...
As I laid in bed Christmas night, after the kids went back to their apartment, after the kitchen was cleaned and after setting my alarm for 4:30 am, I realized I feel stuck between two worlds. My kid’s world and my world. It’s weird navigating these two worlds. I was used to having little kids ...
