The Time of My Life

At this moment, I am all alone in my house. There are no children arguing or screaming or throwing their toys down the stairs or demanding milk/crayons/entertainment. There are no sullen teenagers slamming doors or sleeping until 3:00 in the afternoon or blasting music. I have mixed feelings about the fact that every one of my children is now in school and I hope to write more about those feelings soon, but allow me to take a small moment to celebrate the part of me that’s been waiting for this moment for EIGHT LONG YEARS.

Because now, at last, that moment is here. It’s here! Seven hours a day, five days a week to do all the things I’ve been wanting to do and simply didn’t have the time/space to do it! I can write a book! Paint a wall! Organize family photos! See a movie! Take a nap! Go shopping! Draw a picture! Clean out closets! I can even sit in complete silence and DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

It’s heaven.

Of course, now that I have so much “free time,” the entire family has decided we need a dog. She’s coming tomorrow. She will be an inside dog. She had a troubled past and needs lots of attention. So my freedom will officially end again tomorrow at 3:30.

BUT I HAVE TODAY. And people? I’m going to enjoy it.

I’m beginning this day of freedom with a long overdue blog post. You, dear readers, have no idea how much I’ve missed you. I can’t believe how this entire year has flown by, but this summer in particular was a whirlwind the likes of which I’ve never seen before and will probably never see again. Most of you have been understanding. Many of you keep up with me on Facebook and know how much has been going on. But I’ve been surprised and amused to receive a few ANGRY e-mails about my absence. There are women out there who are absolutely LIVID that I’ve neglected my personal blog and temporarily cut back on my fashion posts for The Stir, and they’ve let me have it.

Which… Seriously? Write an angry e-mail because someone’s not blogging enough for your liking? WHO DOES THAT?

I chose to take those e-mails as backhanded compliments, and I chose to interpret their frustration and anger as something that has seeped out of their personal lives into their communications with total strangers. See? I’m maturing. It happens. However, lest ANYONE think I’ve been lazing around all summer on the sofa, watching “The Price is Right” and eating Hot Pockets, let me show you a partial list of what I’ve been up to over the past 3 1/2 months.

I kicked off my summer with a week in Manhattan, shooting half of season two of “I’ll Take That Dare” for CafeMom. Those dares included trapeze school, Kangoo, and performing in Times Square with nine Broadway dancers.

Oh yes. THAT TOTALLY HAPPENED.

I spent the next week in Nashville shooting the rest of those dares, which included laughter yoga, burlesque dancing, an NFL workout, and this…

Aerial yoga. It looks cool, but I think I’ll limit future yoga classes to those that keep me a little more… grounded.

As soon as I wrapped this shoot, my entire family went to the beach. We got to the Florida coast just in time to experience Tropical Storm something-or-other, but we didn’t care one bit because our condominium, which was on loan from an extraordinarily generous friend, was amazing. I can’t wait to tell you about that week and all we did.  We had a fantastic time.

Back at home for a few weeks, I did the summer camp/Vacation Bible School circuit with the kids. Punky did zoo camp and theater camp (pictured above) this year and loved both. Theater camp has been her favorite two years running. She also went to another camp which we didn’t love so much. Live and learn.

 

I also FINALLY scored reservations at The Catbird Seat, the hottest restaurant in Nashville, and as a special treat, I took my husband to dinner. The meal, which included about 20 tiny courses (one of the desserts is pictured above) and endless wine/cocktail pairings (thank God I’d thought to hire a driver) was the most incredible of my life. The bill at the end of the meal was shocking. SHOCKING. However, since I did not have six months to wash dishes for them in exchange for my food and wine, I paid it.

 

After that, I was off to New York again for a YouTube reporter conference, which included a surprise trip to see Diane Sawyer on the set of ABC News. She’s one of my heroes. I was thrilled.

I got home from that trip and got a shocking call from my father the next morning. My stepmother had died unexpectedly.

 

Her death has been hard on all of us. My husband and I left  just a few hours after her funeral for a planned 10th anniversary trip to Quebec and I’ve been going hard ever since then, so I have been grieving during odd private moments here and there. Again, I’ll write more on this subject later.

 

Quebec City was absolutely lovely. We spent two nights in the upper part of the city, three nights in the countryside, and two more nights in the lower part of the city. We can’t wait to go back. I’ll tell you all about our experience in a future post. Promise.

 

The highlight for me was a whale watching expedition on the St. Lawrence River. We saw about a hundred whales, many from just a few feet away. It was one of the greatest moments of my life.

 

We returned from Quebec on a Saturday and I left a day later for a two-week road trip for Moms Matter through swing states Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida. You can see the videos from that trip here.

 

I had never been to Pennsylvania before. My favorite part was our drive through Amish country. It was gorgeous and I’d love to go back and spend a few days there.

 

We had a great time in Florida as well, although my only beach time was a quick run down to the ocean and back to the car! I met a lot of interesting people and learned about the personal side of a number of national issues, from voter fraud to teacher layoffs.

 

Back at home for a couple of weeks, I tried to fit in more of our traditional summertime family activities, from pool visits to walks in the park.

Many of you have asked me who took care of the children while I was out of town. My 19-year-old stepdaughter took the bulk of those days- We were basically her summer job. We also worked favorite babysitters into the mix throughout the summer, too, just to change things up- a few live here in our neighborhood and the kids love going over to their houses to play with their dogs and childhood toys. My husband has also really stepped up this year in helping with the kids and we’ve both agreed it’s been good for all of us. Not only does he know what’s it’s REALLY like for me now to have a full-time job (even from home) AND take care of most of the kids’ day-to-day needs, but he takes pride in the fact that he now knows how to do everything himself, from shampooing and conditioning Punky’s hair to making snacks and lunches to getting them dressed for school in the morning. Best of all, they now rely on him every bit as much as they’ve always relied on me. They ask for his help with things when he’s home now as much as they ask for mine- and that’s been good for all of us.

 

School started August first and I was grateful to be home for Bruiser’s first day of kindergarten. He has a fantastic teacher (as does Punky), and he already knew several kids in his class from preschool, so this transition wasn’t too stressful for us– a good thing since I had to leave two days later for BlogHer! Yes, I was headed back to New York City for a third time this summer (SIXTH time this year)!

Some of the highlights of my BlogHer weekend- I got to interview McDonalds CEO Jan Fields for The Stir. (She’s on the left. McDonalds nutritionist Cindy Goody is on the right.) I have gotten to know Jan pretty well over the last few years through my work with McDonalds and she’s really one of my idols. I love how warm and down-to-earth she is (not to mention how stylish!) despite the fact that she’s CEO of a MAJOR corporation. She’s a true business role model for me and I’m proud to know her.

The lovely ladies and men behind CafeMom hosted a fabulous party at their new offices on 5th Avenue and I got to lead the guests in a Burlesque lesson. While there, I also participated in this:

 

Yeah.

 

And I co-hosted the sixth annual CheeseburgHer Party along with Lena and Yvonne, who were pretty much the greatest friends to me that weekend that a girl could ever ask for. We’ve realized lately how many business partnerships we’ve seen over the years that have gone down in flames, with former friends becoming enemies because of the tension and stress of working together. I’m so grateful that our bond is stronger than ever.  And we’ve been through a lot together, so that’s saying something!

The day after I returned from BlogHer, I started work on Season Three of “I’ll Take That Dare.” I don’t want to give too much away, but…

 

Mmm hmm.

Wondering what I’m doing here? Well, all those little blurs in the shot are BATS.

Yep. I was in the zoo’s bat cave with dozens and dozens of bats going crazy all around me. *shudder*

And I did lots more, too, but you’ll have to wait for Season Three’s debut on CafeMom Studios to see what happened!

As soon as Season Three wrapped,  I packed up the kids and went to visit my dad in Northeast Georgia.

 

We had a great time hanging out with him, roller skating at the rink I used to visit as a child (which hasn’t changed ONE SINGLE BIT), playing with cousins, and visiting an awesome children’s museum, where Punky found her grandpa guilty and sentenced him to jail.

The case is being appealed.

On our last day, I drove to Atlanta to spend the night at my mom and stepdad’s house. We got a quick visit in with them…

 

…and with Chick Chick, their great grandmother, who has her own apartment downstairs and is still (as she was when I was a kid) the purveyor of a seemingly endless supply of Little Debbie snacks. Consequently, the children find many, many, many excuses to go downstairs and check in on her throughout the day!

 

While the kids stayed with their grandparents, I stopped by CNN headquarters in downtown Atlanta for an interview about the CafeMom Road Trip with Kyra Phillips on HLN.

 

All week long, HLN aired our Moms Matter Road Trip reports on “Evening Express.” This was HUGE for me personally. As many of you know, I was a TV reporter and anchor and I gave that up in 2002 to take care of my stepdaughters and have children of my own. To leave my career for an entire decade and then have the opportunity to return and appear on national television was a terrific feeling. It has been nice this year to discover that I haven’t lost my TV news skills. I like to think that my life experience, coupled with the fact that my self-worth no longer hinges on how I do in my career, has actually made me better.

And this (are you stil with me?) brings us to the moment I had been anticipating/dreading all summer long.

The political conventions. They were big. They were back-to-back. And since I had agreed to moderate a panel at The Niche Mommy Conference in New Orleans right before the first convention started, they meant that I’d essentially be away from my family for 14 days— longer than I’d ever been apart from them before.

CafeMom partnered with HLN for coverage of both conventions, which meant I would be reporting for Moms Matter on YouTube, co-moderating mom panels at both conventions for CafeMom and  HLN, and appearing live on HLN during the conventions to discuss what moms were saying about convention events and speakers.

No pressure!

Sooo many things could have gone wrong. But I got lucky. Everything went right.

For starters, the HLN staff was AMAZING.  They couldn’t have been nicer or more helpful. Kyra Phillips was a dream to work with (and she has 18-month-old twins of her own!) and she completely put me at ease. As a result, the mom panels ended up being less stilted television interviews and more wonderful, warm conversations between bright, eloquent women from both parties.

HLN also shared their camera platform at the conventions with us, which meant that we got fantastic footage of the major campaign speeches–

 

— and that this was MY view of my first ever convention.

Not to mention this– another of those once-in-a-lifetime moments I’ll never forget.

 

Of course, being the host of “I’ll Take That Dare,” you know I had to work a little fun into the convention coverage as well…

But on the serious side, I’m so proud of, and frankly, awed by, all we managed to accomplish. Over eight actual convention days, our team managed to post 48 videos, ranging from interviews with cabinet members like Kathleen Sebelius (pictured above), to campaign speech highlights, to protest videos, to stories about Mormon moms, Latina moms, 18-year-old delegates, and hot-button issues like abortion. Things literally couldn’t have gone any better and I’m so grateful I got to work with a team of people who had tremendous talent  as well as patience and kindness. To spend two weeks in close quarters with eleven other people, do so much, and get along so well, was truly a testament to… well, to everyone!

I flew home on a red-eye Friday morning, beyond exhausted but so very happy. I remember looking at my summer schedule back in May and thinking to myself that I just needed to put my head down and get through it… and as I did just that, I tried to continually remind myself that this busy time would only last a few months. Now I’m at the end, and I can’t believe all that’s happened in such a short time. Today, I’m home, my kids are happy, my husband is happy, and I’m happy and proud of all I’ve done. I’m also happy that my September calendar (at this moment, anyway) is EMPTY. Sure, Election Day is coming up and we’ll have plenty more Moms Matter coverage before then, but the conventions were my major hurdles and it feels good to have cleared them. It also feels good to have time to blog again!

So in summary, to those women who were angry that I haven’t blogged much lately? Three words.

I’VE BEEN BUSY.