A decade of blogging

 As astounding as it seems, exactly 10 years ago today I started this blog. I just can't believe it's been that long. Looking back at the first month or two of my posts, I'm amazed at how many things have happened and changed in that amount of time. When I began this blog, I had just moved back to Florence after 3 years of living 20 miles out in the country. I was still working as the store manager at Pier 1 Imports of Florence, but unbeknownst to me our little store was about to go out of business later that year. Now Pier 1 Imports as a company is out of business altogether. I loved that job and it was a sad day when our store closed down. When I started this blog, Gregg had not been diagnosed with cancer yet, and now he's an 8 year cancer survivor. I've changed jobs twice since then, made lots of friends, and finally bought a home of our own (which meant another move). Life has had its ups and downs. Ginger was still a young, high energy pup when I started writing here, Marco was still a baby, and George wouldn't come along for another 3 years. We had a little House Sparrow named Chip who lived with us, too. My mother in law was still alive and her mind was still sharp (I miss her so much), and our favorite niece and nephew were young teenagers. That same niece just got married last year, and last month she and her husband moved all the way across the country to Oregon where she'll be starting law school later this month. How life moves along! If I manage to keep blogging for another 10 years who knows what my life will look like then. I hope most of the changes that are sure to happen are mostly happy ones, and that I can meet the challenges and bad times with courage and heart.

Thank you for being here. Thank you for reading. Writing this blog has enriched my life more than I could ever have anticipated back in 2010. I treasure each and every one of you.

This double rainbow appeared in the sky beyond our house two days ago after an afternoon rain shower.