• Jims guitar
    I've Got Mad Skillz,  Jim Has Mad Skillz,  Something That Could Change Your Life,  We Are An Awesome Couple

    Middle-Aged Dogs, New Tricks

    One of the trade-offs of having grown kids who live elsewhere (Wah! I miss them!!) is that we have a lot of spare time to do…well, whatever we want. A few months ago Jim made a couple of comments about possibly wanting to learn how to play guitar, something he did as a child but only short term. I thought about buying him a guitar for his birthday and, after debating with myself about whether he was really serious about wanting to take it on, I headed to Guitar Center. I bought him a basic acoustic guitar, figuring that if he didn’t really care to learn we could just return…

  • wedding day
    Amazing People,  Best Thing Ever,  Blessings,  Fun in Knoxville,  Jim Has Mad Skillz,  We Are An Awesome Couple

    On Getting Lost and Found

    The very first argument Jim and I had as a married couple was on our wedding day. We left the courthouse in Norfolk, Virginia and drove back to Knoxville; he was on leave from the Navy for the rest of the week. After a very long eight-hour drive, we got off the interstate and had to navigate through downtown Knoxville, which has lots of one way streets and odd intersections. It wasn’t long before we got completely turned around and totally lost. This was way before cell phones and GPS navigation (imagine that, kids!), and we didn’t have a map in the car. I wanted him to pull over so…

  • Best Thing Ever,  Blessings,  Jim Has Mad Skillz,  The House,  We Are An Awesome Couple

    The Dining Room and Other Ways We’re In Sync.

    I figured a month was long enough to have my toilet paper obsession have center stage. Actually, to be honest, I’ve been too busy even to think about blogging. It’s all good, though. I’m in the thick of LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER CHICAGO season (13 days until the show! Need tickets? Go here.), work is gearing up to Level: Crazytown (#BlogHer17 is only two months away! Need a ticket? Go here.), and Jim and I are busily working on our new house in Knoxville. The house thing? It’s been awesome. As unhappy as I was when Jim and I were hanging in that special kind of limbo that occurs when…

  • Family Fun,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  Jim Has Mad Skillz,  Too Funny To Ignore

    City Girl Farming

    Way back in the day, before I was spending a good chunk of my waking hours online (blogging and such) I spent a good chunk of my time playing games like “Sim City” and “Roller Coaster Tycoon”. Looking back, I can’t believe I played as much as I did, but I suppose in a few years I’ll be in disbelief about all the time I spend on the internet, too. Eventually blogging and other social media pursuits took over and I stopped playing computer games. Over the years I have received countless invitations from friends to play every game under the sun, like “Words With Friends”, “Candy Crush”, and lots…

  • Favorite Things,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  Jim Has Mad Skillz,  Pretty Pictures,  Travels

    Epic Road Trip: Check!

    I just drove in from New Jersey and boy, are my arms tired! Ba dum bump! Wait, that’s wrong. That’s an airplane joke. My arms aren’t tired at all because I didn’t fly to New Jersey. Also, I’m not a bird. Maybe I’m breaking that down a little more than necessary. Maybe you’re clicking awaaaay….WAIT! Over the past few years, my fondness for road trips has grown immensely. There’s something about being totally in control of where I’m going, when and why I’m stopping, and all kinds of other things. When I was planning my third annual fall visit to see my sistuh-from-anuthuh-muthuh and the rest of her (our!) family,…

  • Amazing People,  Blessings,  Confessions,  Friends,  I've Got Mad Skillz,  Jim Has Mad Skillz,  My Friends Have Mad Skillz,  My Kid Has Mad Skillz

    Coping Skills For Mostly Happy People

    I’m lucky in that I don’t have too many bad days. I’m constantly counting my blessings and I realize all the time that my life is pretty darn good. I am a completely normal human being though, which means that I’m not happy all the time. Life is a roller coaster: ups AND downs are part of the deal. Yesterday? Was a downer. Being a mostly happy person, I tend to freak people out when I’m having a bad day. It’s not that my friends think I cannot have a bad day (or am not allowed a bad day), but when I’m walking around living a 21st century Pollyanna life,…

  • Fun in Chicago,  Jim Has Mad Skillz,  Music

    Pretty Happy About The Blues

    If you’ve read this blog for any length of time at all, you already know that I’m pretty crazy about my husband. We’ve been married for nearly 28 years (back then it was legal for four-year-olds to marry, ba dum bum!) and we’re still making people sick with our hand-holding and happy togetherness. I often wonder how I got so lucky, but then I correct myself and think about how luck probably had just a little bit to do with it. Good relationships are hard work, and we really do work on our marriage a lot. Whenever I butt in on a conversation about marriages or relationships in person or…

  • Blessings,  Friends,  Jim Has Mad Skillz,  Travels

    Apparently My Word For 2014 Was “Travel”.

    This time last year I noticed many of my friends picking “a word for 2014”, something they would live by or strive for. I didn’t join in but it all worked out. As it turned out my word, “Travel”, found its way to me. While thinking about what kind of 2014 wrap-up post I wanted to write, what stuck out the most was how much travel I did this year. In fact, without even looking at my calendar to count days properly I figured out off the top of my head that I was away from my home for between six and eight weeks. That’s a lot of time living…

  • Jim Has Mad Skillz

    Keepers

    This past weekend I spent a few hours filing approximately 1300 emails that were just sitting in my inbox, driving me insane. A cluttered inbox equals a cluttered mind, and I’ve been all cluttery since about April. Many of the 1300 emails were LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER-related, of course, in ALL! THE! CATEGORIES! My extensive collection of not-really-used-since-April email file folders includes a LTYM folder as well as sub-folders for the Chicago show, the national team, and all twelve of the new cities I’m working with this season. And that’s just LTYM; don’t get me started on all of the other folders. It’s quite a system. When I use it,…