To blog or not to blog

I must say, the idea of blogging is very new to me but I am definitely digging the concept. Recently, I have been following a few colleagues on twitter that have blogs and I am hooked on reading them.  Then this week my younger cousin started a blog while she's studying abroad in Australia and I am having a ton of fun reading all about her fabulous life out in aussie.  Finally, a good friend of ours, Michele, recently created a blog and her stories are extremely fun to read and help us stay up to date on her and her new hubby :) 

That said, I can guarantee my life is much less exciting than all of the professional bloggers out there and my writing skills are sure to be sub par, but I figured, why not, I'll give it a try! 

This week marks the first week of a new year and wow, how quickly 2010 passed!  For the most part, 2010 was a year filled with excitement and lots of joy.  I started a new job with my company in January, planned a wedding, got married, attended several friends weddings, a few of our good friends are now pregnant or had babies throughout the year, my sister Jenny graduated from college, my mother turned 50, and my grandmother turned 89 years old!  Not to mention, my father is now celebrating over 2 years of sobriety and I've never in my life been as close to him as I am now.  Go dad!

I really don't mean to get too deep while I'm this green in the world of blogging but I have realized this year how quickly life is moving and how precious our time here really is.  It's very easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the day to day:  You're late for work, your house is a mess, you're looking for a job, you dislike your job, etc.  but the one thing that I feel we neglect to do from time to time is appreciate the here and now.

Perhaps some recent advice has triggered this new way of thinking a bit.  I stood up in one of my best friends weddings in November, and I recall the priest giving the wedding party his advice during the rehearsal the night before the wedding.   He made his speech extremely climatic and we were all anxious to hear what he would have to say, finally, he told us if there is one thing we can do while we stand up there by their sides it is to "be there with them at that moment".  Don't think about how you should be standing, where to put the flowers, if your strapless bra is showing, etc. Just be there in the moment with Mal and Nick.  Recently, I have taken his advice and applied it to my life.  I am no longer obsessed with what could go wrong at work or on a presentation at school, how we're going to get everything done in a day/week/month, etc.  I'm trying to live in every moment.  Many of you have probably already mastered this but it was quite a difficult task for me! 

Just yesterday I feel like we were juniors in college with a huge walter payton cut out hanging from our wall next to a quote board of all things hilarious said by our friends.  Almost 6 years has passed and I am not sure where the time went.  We are quickly approaching 30 and I really cannot believe it! I think I might actually keel over in shock when that day comes.

While we all have career goals, it is important to take some time to be in the here and now with your family and friends.  In December my wonderful, fearless, and fabulous mother turned 50.  All that she wanted for her 50th birthday was to spend that day with everyone she loved the most in Ft. Myers where my Grandpa lives.  All of her sisters, her mother, and Jason and I went out there for a long weekend and had the best time.  We turned off the rest of the world and just laughed for about 72 hours straight.  I don't think any of us will forget that weekend or when Linda asked the girl if she knew where the lighthouse was. LOL.

Two weeks later we helped my Grandma Eileen celebrate her 89th birthday. 89! Can you believe it?  She is still as vibrant and beautiful as ever before and she might still be the most enjoyable person to be around.  She has lost much of her short term memory due to dementia but we all sat around the table and asked her to remember how Grandpa proposed to her 70 years ago and she remembered every last detail.  Her eyes lit up and you could tell that she missed those days. 

Well quite the sappy post but another year is over and we're all another year older, it's important to stop and enjoy the here and now with those you love every once in a while.

I promise my next post will be fun and light hearted :)

Tara