Dear Blog,

I haven't forgotten about you. Really. You're on my mind every night when my cursor briefly hovers over your dashboard bookmark. I feel guilty momentarily when I don't stop by your url and instead visit gmail or facebook or bloglines. But I've got a problem with you and I might as well confess it right now. You are high maintenance. It's true. I love you and you've given me a lot over the years -- emotional support, friendship, a sounding board, and good advice (just to name a few). But sometimes I just don't have the emotional energy that you require; that you deserve. You see, with gmail I can be straight-to-the-point. With facebook I can be pithy and sarcastic, short and sweet. And best of all, with bloglines I can be totally a consumer. But you, my blog, you require energy, thought, introspection, complete sentences and well-formed paragraphs. Let's also not forget the attention to grammar AND spelling that you demand. And all that is OK, because the trade-offs are worth it. You've been there for me when I needed you and I feel lucky to have you.

I just wanted to let you know that even though I haven't been by much lately, I still think of you. Like today, for instance, when I went shopping for a digital camera I thought about how great it would be to share more photos with you. And the other day when Oliver cut his finger with the potato peeler and then tolerated a band-aid for the rest of the day as if it were no big deal, I wanted to share it with you because, hey, last time he had a cut our house looked like scene from Evil Dead.

I'm almost finished with my certification program. You know, the one that has me working almost every evening. The one that causes me extreme deadline anxiety! We're leaving for Switzerland at the end of the month and by then I hope to be finished. And then, Then!! I'm all yours. Well, after I return fat and happy from chez Mother-in-Law, home of the perpetually filled ice-cream freezer and chocolate cupboard. I'll take a picture with my new digital camera and share it with you. You won't believe it.

If there is time before I leave I'll drop you a little note or two and tell you about Bo Bo the Rabbit. I'll complain to you a little bit about why I can never do anything part-way and why I should have thought twice before picking up anything written by Michael Pollen. I'll tell you about a grant we received from a national foundation that will pay for Oliver's speech therapy. And I'll tell you about our amazing adopted tribe.

But before I leave I will most definitely sit down for at least a couple of minutes and tell you about the beautiful, perfect, amazing tie dye shirt that we received from John, Sam and Kal over at AutismTwins, and I will ask for your help in recruiting kids who would like to keep the color flowing (feel free to get started on this immediately).

So.

Are we better now? Because I feel better. You're such a good listener, blog.

Gotta run, now though.

Be back soon.