About the Happy Mama

It dawned on me this morning in the afterglow of the creation of my blog (seriously, I am so proud of myself for figuring out how to do this thing on my own, of course, it IS practically idiot proof--click and type, even I can do that, for pete's sake!) that you might want to know a little something about me.

On a side note, and not that this has anything to do with anything, but I am having the toughest time typing this morning because apparently I had too much coffee and not enough food.  Hands are shaking and tummy is gurgling.  Not.  Good. 

Anyway...

OK, so I was born in Alabama in 1970, so for you mathematically challenged folks out there like me, that makes me 40. 

This is from my 40th birthday party.  It was fun.  We had a "Key West" theme going, complete with a guy that juggled fire and a dude that dressed up like a robot.  You know, like all those crazy people in Mallory Square that perform at sunset every night.  Notice that I am not in the picture.  I would post a picture of me celebrating my 40 years on this earth, but there were none taken.  It got a little wild.  Fuzzy memories...

When I was 10, we moved to Bainbridge, Georgia, in the southwest corner of the state way down by the Florida and Alabama line.  Think 110% humidity in the summertime, gnats, slow Southern drawls (music to my ears), fish frys, hunting, fishing on the river, and small town life.  We used to say, "Welcome to Bainbridge, set your clocks back 10 years."  It was a great place for me and my older brother, Alan, to grow up.

This is my bro reading a nite-nite story to my kidlets.  He'd make a good Dad.

When I went to college, I went to FSU.  This was during the years that Bobby Bowden was in his prime.  The year that I graduated was the year that we won our first national championship.  Yes, it was a fantastic football team and party, I mean, education.

After college, I had my sights set on Broadway.  Me, a small town girl, totally naive, wanted to go work on Broadway in the Big Apple.  I didn't care what I was doing, ushering, working backstage, selling tickets, didn't matter as long as I was there!  I went to an acting conservatory for a brief time before I got really, really, REALLY sick. 

Homesick, that is.  All I could think about was getting home, back to my family, back to my roots.  I left New York, moved back to Georgia and back in with my parents.  Now what?

I decided that I wanted to open a coffee shop, but my Dad, being the pragmatic banker that he was, said go back to school, get a business degree and then I will be your partner.  OK, easy enough. 

But, as we all know, life never goes the way you think it should.

So the long story in the shortened version is this, in this order---I met an awesome guy, my Dad had a really horrible car accident, I moved (multiple times, all over the place) with the aforementioned guy, I got married, my Dad passed away, we moved back down to Florida, lived overseas (twice) for a short period of time, moved from one part of Florida to another, had 2 kiddos right in a row, and here I am, almost 7 years later after my eldest was born.

Being a mom has changed my life in so many ways.  Well, hello, Captain Obvious!  Of course it's changed my life!  How could it not?!  Any mother knows that.  But what I mean is that I had spent so much time worrying about what I was gonna do, what I was gonna be, moving from one thing to another and never being satisified.  Always searching for...something, I just didn't know what.  Once I held that baby, it was all over, I was filled with a happiness and a satisfaction that I had never known.  I knew what I was meant to do---be a mama.  And as it turns out, I'm pretty good at it, or at least I like to think that I am.  My baby boy tells me that I am the best mom in the whole, whole, whole (his words) world and that he could never have a better mama.  I'll take his word for it.

That's me and my boy.  We don't normally dress like this.  It was Halloween.  He wuvs his Mama.  And I wuv him.  Lots and lots.

So, that's me in a nutshell.  Thanks for reading!