First Blog Anniversary

O.K., well technically yesterday was the first anniversary of my blog, which was born September 14, 2007. It's not only amazing how quickly time goes, but also amazing how much can happen in a year, I'm fairly certain had you asked me last year what my life would look like this year, I wouldn't have come up with anything close to the reality, although honestly I doubt if a fortune teller had predicted my future that I would have been horribly surprised, sad, but not suprised.

As I'm all about celebrating milestones, I'm going to dedicate my one year anniversary post to my all time favorite blog. Now I don't want anyone I know to have their feelings hurt because my favorite blog is not the blog of anyone I know or have met in anyway, heck I haven't even posted a comment on the blog, even though I have been reading it now for a couple years. It's not that I don't love the blogs of people I know, I definitely do, it's a great way to find out details of people's day to day lives that I wouldn't otherwise know, and to see sides of people that I don't necessarily see. It's a fun way to keep up, and to keep in touch, to laugh, nod my head, and occasionally be surprised at different aspects of the personalities of people I talk to all the time. The blogs of people I know though don't take me inside a world, or mind, or viewpoint that I'm not familiar with, and that is why my favorite blog is written by someone that is completely different than I am.

The name of the Blog is "Jew Eat Yet", by Danny Miller, I won't link it because well I don't even know him, and I'm not sure how blog ettiquette goes in these things, but it is the first hit you get if you google "Jew Eat Yet" so Mr. Miller is not hard to find it you are curious. I'm not sure what a 39 (and holding tight) LDS girl from Utah has in common with a 50 something (he does a birthday post so if I wasn't lazy I could find out how old he is) Jewish guy that grew up in Chicago and lives in LA. Well after reading his blog, I'm a little bit sure, our lives are completely different, but we share a love of pop culture, old movies, are both quite liberal, and we are both pretty neurotic Mr. Miller is just much more comfortable (or willing) to put that "out there" in his blog, I'm not quite there yet, but hope to get there (warning I suppose on some level to my friends/family). I stumbled across the blog years ago while Googling something about "Wizard of Oz" (I'm sure for Jake), and found Mr. Miller's lovely post (November 7, 2005, Schlepping Over the Rainbow), and I've been a fan ever since. I've never seen the Jewish symbolism in "Wizard of Oz" most people I know probably haven't, although I do remember a talk in LDS conference one year that used the line "what a world, what a world where a little girl can destroy all my beautiful wickeness". "Wizard of Oz" is one of those films that spans every generation, and brings people together, and even apparently includes religious symbolism if you are willing to look for it. Oh what the heck, internet manners be damned I'm going to link http://dannymiller.typepad.com/blog/2005/11/schlepping_over.html

Anyway, Danny Miller pretty much epitomizes what I love about the blogging movement, people that are fabulous writers, with interesting ideas, writing about what they think, and what they experience; people, that if we couldn't just publish our thoughts on-line, probably wouldn't have an audience, and they definitely deserve one. As I said if you get a chance check him out.

In "other" news (I haven't written much about us the last couple weeks) everything here with us is going well. Jake and I seem to have developed a good little routine, and things aren't as uncomfortable, and up in the air as they were even a few weeks ago. The first month or so after Rob left it was a hard adjustment for both of us, and it definitely showed a lot in Jake's behavior, esp. his behavior at home. It was like he had to retest all the established boundaries we've had over the years, just to make sure that things hadn't completely changed. A huge thanks to everyone for pitching in and making sure this transition for us has been smoother than I could have hoped. There is still a lot of "stuff" (for want of a better word) to deal with, but so far things are going really well. A very big thanks to Circe for being willing to take Jakey everday and allowing him to establish a routine, there is so much happening in his life that he just doesn't understand, and having some predictability right now has made things really smooth. I know everyone has wanted to help, and I also really appreciate people standing back when necessary so we can do what is best for Jakey, it really is making a huge difference, and it's really good the past couple of weeks to see my "old" Jakey back.

I have arranged with work for the next few months to either work 9 hour days Monday-Thursday (which hopefully won't be as long with Legacy opening this week) or just take some time off, so that I can only work half days on Friday. I want Jake to have a chance on the short days to come home, and have some time playing at his house, so he doesn't always feel like he is going somewhere, or that people aren't welcome here (I'm not so much in the mood for "playdates" at 7:00 p.m. when we often get home, so we have a "no friends over" rule Mon-Thurs.) This is an open invitation to anyone reading for a playdate at our house every Friday from 2:30 p.m. to "whenever". Please feel free to bring your kids over any Friday afternoon, we will be here, and you know me, I probably won't be sending out formal invitations, everyone is welcome. This is a good time for Jake to start understanding that things aren't transitional, that this is really how our lives are from now on. Plus he needs to work on his hosting skills, he's becoming a fairly good guest (unless you are all lying to me and he's really a terror), and he's pretty good at "sharing" everyone else's toys, not so good at sharing his own.

We love you all, and feel so incredibly blessed, and have felt the strength of everyone's love and prayers!!! This divorce business is much more painful that I had ever anticipated (and I didn't really anticipate it was going to be a walk in the park) but I have felt buoyed by love none the less, and I know wihtout a doubt how very lucky Jakey and I both are to have the wonderful support system that we do.

I was trying to come up with some appropriate lyrics to close with this one year post, and I've been listening to the Tabernacle Choir again, and have had a song from their "Love is Spoken Here" CD in my head all day so I guess it's there for a reason. Here's to "home" in all it's many forms including this blog which is starting finally starting to feel like home:

(song by David Grant for "Wind in the Willows")

Home is a special kind of feeling
The feeling of a place where you belong
A feeling that the world is left behind you
Like a shelter from your care
That seems to want you there.

Home is that special kind of feeling
The feeling that you've made it on your own
Somewhere which you know is really your place
A place for living
Your special place, your home.