We finally did it,  after 2 years of test driving and researching and procrastination we bought a new car.  My 2005 Honda Pilot with over 217K miles on it was traded in and will go off to a wholesaler.  There is no escaping that we put a lot of miles on a car,  so leasing is out of the question.  When you live in a rural area leasing a vehicle makes little sense.  Having to travel 40 miles to work each day eats up the 12k allowable lease mileage really fast.
        I honestly feel like I have test driven every mid size SUV in my price class in the past 2 years.  (That is excluding BMW,  Audi, Porche, or Lexus.) I can give you their MPG,  their sizes,  and their standard features.
     I am proud to say decision made,  car bought,  I didn’t feel like a needed a shower after the process. 

   

    Do we ever really grow up and stop needing our parents?  My answer to that would be a resounding NO!!  Just because I am an adult does not mean I don’t need my Mom and Dad.  They raised me with great values, morals and standards.  Taught me how to be an adult,  how to be a good parent,  how to succeed and most of all how to accept my failures. With failures come the ability to learn,  grow and move forward. 
     Sometimes  admitting you don’t have all the answers or that your answers are wrong can be hard.  It is one of the parts of adulting that really sucks.  Admitting that you don’t know everything is both humbling and embarrassing at the same time.  Humbling I can do,  embarrassing not so much.
     Looking to your parents for the answers is both easy and hard all at the same time.  Easy because I know that they have them,  and hard because I don’t want to disappoint them.  In my eyes I am an adult with children of my own,  who look to me for answers.  Why should I have to look to someone else,  why should I not have all of them?  Realistically I know that is just pride and Irish Stubbornness getting in my way,  but I want to prove that I can do it on my own.
     The reality is no one can do this all alone,  I am truly fortunate to have amazing and fantastic parents.  They have taught me how to be independent and strong and tough.  But have also showed me that there is nothing wrong with asking for a little help.

  

   Our lives are a big circle,  one enters this world and another leaves it, completing the circle. Those entrances and exits don’t necessarily happen in the same day,  but they are usually pretty close in calendar proximity.  The same day that my oldest was born,  an elderly aunt exited the world.  When I was waiting for my youngest to be born,  as much as I wanted him to get here soon.  I knew that once he came,  my mother’s  dear friend battling colon cancer would exit this world. She was my angel, a peds nurse who constantly checked on me during my terrible pregnancy.  No matter how bad,  or sick she was feeling.  I knew once Connor entered this world that Susie would exit it,  the circle would be complete,  but there would be heartbreak as well as joy.

     These circles are never easy,  it doesn’t matter how long you have been on this earth. You or your family are never ready to let go. To let you slip from your earthly bounds and walk with angels.
     That is the internal struggle that is waging within me right now.  No matter how many years,  months, days or minutes you have with a loved one.  It never is enough.  So it begs the question “how much time is enough?”  In my opinion I don’t think we ever think we have enough time.  We always want more,  time,  moments,  precious memories made. 

     At the risk of sounding like a bad Hallmark Card,  take it from someone whose heart is hurting right now.  Love everyone around you,  forgive easily,  remember the good times and put the bad ones to rest.  We all have this ride to enjoy and make the best of the ups and downs, give yourself a break and let yourself cry. 

   

    It should come as no surprise that women are catty to each other. We are back biting,  underhanded mean and downright nasty. When in all reality we should be holding each up but what what we are really doing is putting each other down every chance we get. We are the first to find fault in each other and ourselves we point out flaws  mercilessly. Whether it be weight, clothing styles, choice in partner,  the way others raise their children or educate them. It is all up for grabs.
     The movie “Mean Girls” personifies how we treat each other and it only gets worse with age. The popularity race intensifies and threatens to overtake our lives.  None of this behavior serves a purpose other than to make one lady feel better than someone else. It is adult bullying, plain and simple. We try to teach our children to be nice to everyone, but at the same time we are snickering about their friends mom’s behind their backs.
     How can we expect our daughters to behave any better, change their ways of we still act like spoiled children ourselves?

    
    

Back in June I wrote a blog post about a Detox/Rehab center coming to a nearby town. How many area residents are unhappy about it, and debunked their reasoning.

Yesterday the City of Greenfield signed an agreement with the Rehab/Detox center to use the abandoned Lunt facility as a new site. The townspeople are apoplectic about it. They see their property values declining and crime soaring. No amount of convincing will make these townspeople see that this rehab center fills a need. Kicking addiction takes a village, but addicts need a ticket into that village, and they are few and far between – and very very costly. We in Franklin County are at the center of the problem, therefore we need to be at the center of the solution.

A need so insidious that there is a reason this section of New England is called The Heroin Highway. A need that runs so deep,  it is killing our young children at an alarming rate.  These are not throw away people, they are human beings. People who made mistakes,  daughter’s and sons, grandchildren, best friends, even moms and dads. This has to stop, and although this center can’t fix all of the mess. It can make a dent in the problem.

So it is time for everyone to understand the problem is in Your Backyard, therefore the solution needs to be there as well.