Chapter One, in which our heroine is introduced

Given the possibility that someone may read this who doesn't already know me, it seems an introduction is in order. While pondering what to say, it occurred to me that introducing oneself to strangers is rather like placing a personal ad: what you choose to say about yourself tells people more about you than the information you include.

So here are the important things about me (make of this what you will):

I am happily married (something I try never to take for granted and thank God for on a daily basis) to a wonderful man who happens to be an active duty service member. Thanks to the United States Air Force, we are currently residing in a small town (47,000 people) in Oklahoma.

I am a city girl, San Francisco born and raised, and this is my first experience of living more than an hour away from a city. I hate it here. A lot. I keep telling myself it's a great place to raise the kids but that can only go so far. (After all, Honolulu was a great place to raise the kids, too. After 2 1/2 years here we still refer to Hawaii as home.)

We have three beautiful daughters (8, 11 and almost 13), two cats and one dog and I am lucky enough to be a stay at home mom.

I don't drink and I don't smoke but I do have an addiction: BOOKS. I have a five book a week habit. My husband is also a big reader and one of the many reasons I married him is that, for the most part, we like similar books so we share (which helps justify the initial expense) books and then talk about them afterward.

My girls and I also collect American Girl dolls. The American Girl dolls have introduced the girls to history, encouraged them to read and brought us so many friendships. My youngest daughter Miss K's travelling American Girl doll, Kealoha, spent most of last year visiting other military families around the United States; she even got to fly with the USAF Thunderbirds! You can visit her blog at http://kealohasadventures.blogspot.com.

So, now that we've been formally introduced...welcome to my blog.