Okay, here goes ...

I have been toying with the idea of starting a blog for quite a while and now that I have actually begun this thing, I am wondering why I thought I might have something to say. I must credit a couple of friends who have recently started their own blogs with inspiring me to actually do this thing. And, if I can't come up with posts interesting enough to hold any one's attention, I'll just blame them.

One thing that kept holding me back in starting a blog was choosing a name. I wanted it to be something catchy, but didn't want anything too silly. Finally, a couple of nights ago, my daughter said something and I felt as if I was looking into a mirror and seeing myself at 9 years old. As usual, she was talking much louder than necessary and as I was telling her again that "it is not necessary for you to yell, I am standing right in front of you" I felt as if I was channeling my mother. It was at that moment that the name for this blog came to me. I truly feel as if I am "paying" for all of the stuff I put my parents through.

I am sure that most of us have heard our parents say that they hope we have children just like us one day ... well, my parents' wishes came true. I have three of the loudest and clumsiest children in the world. Rarely do we complete a meal that one of them doesn't spill something. My Daddy loved to tell me that if I would just take time and pay attention to what I was doing then ... (fill in annoying situation here) wouldn't have happened. I cannot even begin to count the number of times I have used that same line on my own kids.

There is also a flip side to this name thing ... while my children are providing me with plenty of reasons to apologize to my parents, they are also helping me to see many of the reasons why I am thankful for the way my parents raised me. My parents bucked the system all of their lives and while there were times that I hated that as a child, now I recognize that I am still drawing on their courage when I have to make hard decisions. I am more convinced than ever that the decisions we are making now for our children will affect them for the rest of their lives ... what a frightening, and yet, humbling thought.