I am thankful for my blog.... post #1000

I received my first journal when I was 8. I wrote about the boys I had crushes on and the fights I had with friends. My middle school years were brutal and I have a couple of journal entries to prove it. While in high school, I kicked the writing up a notch and filled three journals solid. My college days are recorded in three others, only I never wrote a single entry about my good-looking friend Shumway until we became engaged. Odd, and very sad.

Our engagement is recorded only because I printed each and every email we sent. And we sent hundreds, living four hours away from one another. That book of emails is the ONE thing I would grab if my house was on fire (after my children, of course.) There is a lull in my journal writing from 2000-2003. I would dish out serious dough to have those years recorded. I was a full-time student, taking care of two baby boys and working overtime. I guess there wasn't a spare moment to record the crazy life we were living. When we moved away from our families in 2004, I created my own personal website to keep in touch.

It was a geocities site and everything had to be written in html.. so I learned to read and write in code. The pictures had to be small in order to fit as many on as possible and they only allowed one line of text per picture. Once the site was filled, I had to start another website. I think by the end of law school, I had ten or so different geocities webpages. I emailed out the links to our friends and family members and tried to document most of our funny stories in the body of the email. I often wondered if Aaron's siblings or my distant cousins wanted to hear about our adventures in the frozen tundra. Unfortunately, all of the benefits that came from creating those websites were only temporary. Geocities went out of business and all of our pictures and memories went with it. Blogger had begun registering blogspot addresses long before we moved in 2006, but I didn't catch on until the beginning of 2007.

We've lived in Vegas for almost 4 years and the most important events of our lives in the last four years have been documented on this blog. But my most cherished entries are not the holidays or birthday parties or vacations. My favorite posts are the mundane entries, the silly things the kids have said & the times when I've put my heart out on the line and stated that not everything about motherhood is hunky-dory. Over the past 20 years of journaling, it seems that I've picked up a pen and paper when I was feeling grateful and happy. I find myself still picking up an old fashion journal when I feel grateful and happy, but this blog has been a different kind of outlet. It's truly been therapeutic for me to write, connect with long lost friends and state my blunt (and sometimes offensive) opinion. At times, I felt very vulnerable and wasn't sure if it was worth it for me to be so open, so I took off comments and even went private for a while. Oh! the drama!

Even though I've overcome a lot of personal issues regarding my blog, it's still a sore subject to discuss with my husband. We avoid talking about the blog at all costs. Maybe it's because I post pictures of me flipping the bird or write about my visits to the gynecologist. (just maybe?) but every time I think about shutting it down completely (to please my man) I just can't do it. It means too much to me. I know that's why he doesn't ask me to stop, either. Because he knows it's an important part of my life. I am not fortunate enough to live close to any of my family, but some part of me feels like I am experiencing life with them because I am allowing them to read about and see pictures of my children frequently. I have also been able to create real friendships with people I have never met, and strengthen others who are dear to me, but circumstances won't allow us to keep in touch. This blog is so much more than a journal.

But let's not discount the fact that I have recorded lots of day to day happenings. The hardbound books we own sit in our living room and get flipped through occasionally. There will come a time-- I am most positive-- when those books will be priceless to me, and maybe even to my husband-- (no she di'nt!) For this reason, I will continue to write.

Today is a special day because this post is number ONE THOUSAND. That's right, 1,000 published posts on this blog. I am not going to list a thousand things about myself or wait until there's a thousand comments before I write again, but I did want to mention it because it's a big deal. At least to me, anyway.

So what AM I going to do to celebrate 1000 posts? First off, I wanted to say thanks to those who read. If you're out there, I am talking to you! Thanks for sticking around and loving me despite my mental problems. Thanks for commenting and making my day a little brighter. Thanks for clicking on the advertisements even though they're annoying. Thanks for keeping in touch with me. I blog for a lot of reasons, but one of those reasons is you.

Another thing I've wanted to do for some time now is update my "best of" list. The posts that are listed are old and not necessarily the best. But then again, how do I know? If you want to participate, I thought I would ask those of you who read to tell me which one of my posts you loved or which one influenced you the most. Next week, I will have a drawing and send a package to a random commenter. I don't know what will be in the package yet. You may or may not get a crazy albino child who will want to bandage your nipples! If that doesn't entice you to comment, what ever will???