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I've chosen my 2016 word of the year and it is Laughter. I have been lucky enough to have the past two nights full of laughter, the kind where you're wiping your eyes hoping there's no mascara running down your face. The type where your face literally hurts from smiling. The kind that comes from being with people who 'get you' and make you a better person just by being present in your life. So, Laughter is the 2016 word. May we share it, hear it, see it, seek it out, feel it throughout the year and years to come.

This weekend seemed like a wash to me. I had some sort of stomach bug and never seemed to feel 100%. I missed one the best Christmas parties with some great friends. I had dropped the kid off at my parents and should have had quite a good time with little responsibilities. I ended up staying home with Netflix and the dogs instead. Then Sunday happened and I had committed to working the Angel Tree with my Sunday School class. I rushed to grab the kid and we went to the mall where I locked my keys in the car. Furious with myself, I called a locksmith after exhausting all other avenues and being angry at myself for not having a hidden key or having the garage door keypad fixed. So forty dollars lighter and later I was in the car rushing the kid to a birthday party at the trampoline place. I was so looking forward to being home for that hour and a half before picking kid up and dropping him off for youth group. All weekend long I had an inner monologue of whining. Inner that sometimes w

That damned Elf on a Shelf is back. I thought that last year was my last to worry about moving the elf and planning escapades for him...but then I heard the excitement in the boy's voice a few days before Thanksgiving, "Jakey-Poo will be here in less than a week!" I admit that for a brief moment I thought about outing that impish elf right then and there so that I wouldn't have to deal with him for the next month. I need to back up a bit and explain that I was one of  "those moms" with our elf. I had him doing adventurous things like parachute from the ceiling fan and make a snow angel in powdered sugar. I even took pictures of his adventures and for 2 years I had a Shutterfly books printed up with the pics and my editorialization of Jakey Poo's adventures. I wanted to keep the magic alive as long as I could, until I grew tired of it. I phoned it in the 3rd year, heck it wasn't even the same elf as I had lost the original and had to buy a replaceme

In December a woman's thoughts are on the joys of the holidays, buying gifts, socializing, being with family. And then January happens and you suddenly realize that it's T-minus three months and counting until Spring Break. It doesn't help that all the "spas" in town start advertising various ways to remove hair from your body in December. <Just note here guys, no matter what these spas say, a woman DOES NOT want a hair removal system/plan for Christmas!! I don't care if your lady herself leaves gentle or not so gentle hints about wanting this for Christmas, don't fall for it. If you do please have a nice piece of jewelry as a buffer offering.> Now you have to think about hair removal and the inevitable bathing suit. So you begin the process of getting ready for a bathing suit. If you are one of those ladies who keeps it all together all winter you may want to quit reading. Or maybe keep reading as a warning to keep it up girl! Playboy has done a

I was unlucky enough to have had the stomach flu this past week. Yesterday I was at a local drug store waiting for my phenergan (another word for love) prescription to be filled and I was afforded the opportunity to do some people watching. This particular drug store attracts most of the city so there's a great cross-section of people coming and going. My eyes fixed on one particular lady. She looked to be in her mid 80's and was perfectly turned out. She had a starched white shirt with a bright green cable-knit sweater pulled over it and all matched to her pressed khakis. Her makeup was subtle and defined her face rather than painted it. And the topper to her look was just that, a wig that you could tell had been styled just right. Again, subtle enough to allow her beauty to show through rather than let it wear her.  I watched her for awhile as she went up and down each aisle. Remember, I was bored and nauseous so fixating on her was helping me to pass the time. I noti

I am a big believer in "signs". Not of the burning bush variety, but wouldn't those be nice when faced with a difficult choice? No, I look for and think I see soft, subtle signs. Are they really signs or are they something I manufactured to justify a choice, purchase, behavior? I don't really know the answer to that although I'd like to think it's a hybrid. A little of everything sprinkled in with a real and true sign. Lately I have been trying to not read or look for signs to see if they present themselves plainer to me. Think Vegas neon style in the middle of a desert. Hard to miss and pretty to look at! Recently I decided I must be a little calcium deficient because I am not the best at drinking my milk, sorry mom. I found out that antacids have a large quantity of calcium in them and there's a new chewable kind on the market I really, really like. So I start chewing the recommended amount. Flash forward a week or so and I began to get...uncomfortabl

With the new year often also comes resolutions. I have never really subscribed to making absolute resolutions as I am a constant work in progress. So much more than a more than a list of resolutions could handle! So rather than a list of the usual resolution suspects, I try to choose one area of life to work on. This year that area is love. Telling and showing it as often as I can so that there is never a doubt where someone stands with me. Years ago I volunteered for a group called RAIN (Regional AIDsInterfaith Network). The care partner our group was assigned was an amazingly hilarious man in the end stages of the disease. He showed me pictures and told wonderful tales of living in Key West. In the pictures I saw a gorgeous 6ft and then some tanned man who had the world at his feet. The man holding the pictures was still attractive but was gaunt, pale, and a shadow of his former self. He lived in an apartment in a not so great part of town and one night after the movie was over I r