And the challenge begins!

*deep breath*

Okay, I'm ready.  30 Day Blog Challenge begins...NOW!

Day 1:  Your current relationship, if single, discuss how single life is.

My current relationship status is married.  I haven't been single in for what feels like 150 years.  In reality, it's nearly 18 together, 16 married.  Holy cow.  That's a looooong time to be with just one person and still both be alive.

Todd and I have been together since just after my 22nd birthday, and I'll be 40 in two weeks.  We met on December 31, 1993 at Rodeo, a country-western line dance saloon.  (Stop laughing!)  The next morning, when my mom asked me if I'd met anybody the night before, I told her I met the man I was going to marry.

  On August 27, 1994, Todd proposed during a dinner cruise aboard the Liberty Belle Clipper.  He was so nervous he dropped the ring and it almost went through the boards of the deck.  It was so cute!  I knew something was up, and everybody in my family was acting squirrelly and giving me sappy smiles and "awwww"ing a lot.  He even asked my dad for my hand in marriage.  Such a traditionalist, my guy is!  On September 9, 1995, we said "I do".

The past 16 years have been full of ups and downs.  Some of the ups have been amazing (the births of our 3 kids), and some of the downs have been devastating (the deaths of my grandmother, my niece and my father).    We've overcome the tough stuff and we're still together.  There are times where we want to absolutely KILL each other, but we work through it and get over it and move on.  He drives me nuts at times, and there have been moments where I haven't been sure we'd make it.  But despite those bad days, there isn't anyone else I can imagine growing old with.  Like he always tells me (in his best Forrest Gump voice) "We go together like peas and carrots, Jenny."

Todd and I have always said we wanted to follow in our respective parents' footsteps:  we both come from families where the parents have 40+ year marriages.  We're nearly halfway there...I think we might must make it!

*tap tap* Is this thing on???

Instead of apologizing for being a terrible blogger and making half-hearted promises to be a better blogess, I think I'm just going to go ahead and BLOG, already!  Thanks to a friend, I have a 30 day blog challenge to inspire me.  Some of the questions are silly and shallow ("What are the first 10 songs that come up on your iPod on shuffle?") and others are much deeper ("What are your views on religion?").  It definitely runs the gamut from the mundane to the fantastic.

I'm starting December 1st.  This should be interesting.  And hopefully lots of fun!

Inspiration...I could sure use some!

I watched the movie "Julie & Julia" yesterday and felt inspired, yet oddly disappointed in myself. I've had this blog for three years now and have barely posted on it, and I'm fairly certain that (almost) nobody reads it. I wish I could come up with an idea for an innovative theme to this blog so I could take it in a whole new direction. You know--one where I actually post entries and people actually read them. So far, it's been nothing more than a collection of random thoughts that pass through my head, but I really wish I could hit on that great idea and begin a blogging sensation.

I think it's time for a brainstorming session...

Charge me with neglect

I don't know why I can't seem to keep up with this blog. I blog on CafeMom, Facebook and Myspace, yet it's practically impossible for me to remember to come here and even just copy and paste what I've put up on other sites.

I think I'll go back and pick some stuff from my other writings and put them up here so it doesn't look quite so desolate. 6 months between postings is kind of shameful.

Neglected and abandoned

Once again, I realize that I've been neglecting my blog. Bad blogger!!! I will try to pay more attention to this sad little corner of the blogging world. There may suddenly be an influx of blogs posted (most of which will probably be copied and pasted from my CafeMom page). So much to write, so little time to spread it all over the internet!