do i even dare say it?

After a very loooooong hiatus, I think I may be back at the blogging desk (note the indecisive, non-committal tone here). I know you're all asking yourselves, "What made her leave? And why is she back?" Well, when I originally started this blog way back in the olden days, it was primarily to keep in touch with my parents who were living out of the country for a period of time. They came back and I could see them all the time, so the blog just sort of sputtered out and died. And then I got really busy being a wife and mom to three active little kids and didn't feel like I had time to keep the blog going. And then, wouldn't you know it, out of nowhere on November 2, 2010, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. What?!? You read that right--I was a healthy, 37-year-old woman and that came along and completely turned our little family's lives upside-down (check out the sah-weet last day of chemo pic!).

The past year has been pretty brutal--six months of chemotherapy, four surgeries and lots of visits to doctors--so I've been mostly out of commission. But as I was going through all my treatment, I really started to think about a lot of things. As with any life-changing experience, I started to assess what was most important to me and what I should really be spending my time doing. I started thinking a lot about this here little blog and it's just been here nagging me to pick it up, dust it off and give it a second chance. This has mostly been a journal and place for musings, observations and such but I've really wanted it to evolve into something useful, engaging and interesting--decor, crafts, projects, travel, photography, scrapbooking, bargains, thrifting--you get the idea. I have been completely blown away by so many talented people out there who are already in this space and I don't know if I'll have much to contribute, but I'm going to try. And saying I'm going to get this going may motivate me to dig into my piles of projects around here! Anyway, if anyone's out there reading this, welcome! I hope you'll come back and visit me often. I'm off to go figure out how to get everything updated and looking pretty (how is everybody doing that? Remember, I said I've been out of commission? I mean, really out of commission!) so I can get this party started!