Trying to catch up and catch my breath...

It has been way too long since I last posted. My apologies. So much has been going on....

My husband and I filed for a divorce on our 8th anniversary (June 19th) which was sorta long overdue. We've been separated for almost 4 years and the reasons we were waiting, no longer seemed important to me. The separation did have its benefits such as allowing all of us to get used to the idea of living separately, time to mourn the death of the marriage and heal the wounds, time to pay off marital debts and split up assets and allow our daughter to make the adjustment and grow up enough to understand a little bit better. The divorce was more than civil, friendly even; no drama for us...never has been. I did all the paperwork myself and it is uncontested so we are just waiting on the copy of the signed final judgement. It should be final by the end of August.

Our daughter turned 7 at the end of July and I planned out a huge LUAU for it. That took up most of my July getting all that planned and organized. We had about 30 people there and it turned out terrific. I even made the birthday cake myself! Two days, 5 boxes of cake batter, 14 cups of homemade buttercream icing and a little help from my neighbor...and this is the resulting work of art:

Now we are preparing for school to start back for us both. Sydni is going into the 2nd grade and I have two classes at night this semester. Thankfully, Ms. Patty will be coming over to sit with Sydni while I'm in class. I've been dreading the start of classes...they are getting harder and more time consuming. But I keep trudging along....keep moving forward and eventually I get to that bachelors degree.

We are looking forward to our trip to Boston to visit my friend, Kirsten and her family. This will be Sydni's first trip in a plane. She is becoming quite the traveler. She went to the Grand Canyon with my folks in July, she's been to the Smokie Mtns, Orlando, Atlanta SixFlags, Missouri and so on. I think she loves to travel as much as I do! She keeps reminding me that I told her I would one day take her to Italy. That will be my reward to myself for finishing my degree. She should be 10 or 11 by then!

Until then....I'm thinking our next trip may be to St. Augustine or maybe Ashville or maybe Cedar Park, TX or Sacremento, CA.... who knows?!