Tip toeing through the mad new flavor craze-Mountain Dew Fruit Quake — My husband greeted me at the door, “I found the next new flavor for our taste testing,” his energy bounced. I’d never seen him so giddy. “Can I get inside first?” “Mountain Dew Fruit Quake!” He paused for clapping. I wasn’t about to clap — not for stinkin’ fruit cake. …

Hi and welcome, Feb. 2022 — I’m a wife, mom, and writer. All at the same time. Yeah, I’m that talented! I was a Risk Manager and worked at NASA for over 20 years. I have a master’s degree in business administration and a certificate in project management. …

Watching them fade before your eyes and accepting what’s coming is about as fun as falling into cactus — Parent caregiving. It’s hard. It’s heartbreaking. It’s your duty. Unless they abused you, in that case, eff that — let professionals take care of them. My mother-in-law hated depending on others for help, but she learned to accept it. …

While ending your toilet paper replacement wars — Overly dramatic? Not if you’re married. Or live with someone. News flash — leaving two squares on the toilet paper roll does not considerately make. No, it’s a power play disguised as empathy. “You didn’t notice it was down to three squares of tissue?” Sigh. “I call BS!” You left…

A Printer Raid by the IT Department — They came in and took every desktop printer in our department. “It felt like the FBI came in and raided us.” They took antique fax machines too. Are we supposed to reprint all of our blank forms with new fax numbers? Stressed voices raised their concerns. Shell-shocked faces walked around…

I thought I was having asthma attacks, turns out they were freaking heart attacks and I’m a lucky son of a gun — Most have heard about chest pain that shoots down the left arm as a symptom of a heart attack, but there are other signs. They call them “silent”. I call them confusing, because most people don’t recognize them as warning symptoms for heart attacks. I was having most of them…

How to make your husband happy, it’s not as kinky as it sounds — yet — My husband said something to me this morning and to acknowledge that I had heard him, I said, “I am down and jiggy with everything you just said.” His heart leapt with joy. “Dayyyam. I wish I could hear that all the time.” A smile split his face in time…

New Mantra — don't get out of bed, or you'll wind up dead — We've entered a scary new hospice care phase. IT'S REAL! And not fun. Don't get out of bed, or you'll wind up dead. That's our new mantra for my 96-year-old mother-in-law. I woke up at 2 am and grabbed the baby monitor. My mother-in-law was not in bed! "What the hell?" I screamed as I launched upward. My husband bolted…

Fake flickering fire has come a long way in the last few years — Flames — we’ve come to accept that fake is flawed. But times have changed. Fake flames now flicker, and not in that old Pirates of the Caribbean orange and red shiny gel sheets blowing in the wind kind of way either. Gel — those thin sheets of flexible plastic with…