Being a parent is soooooo hard no matter how old your kids get. You want what is best for them but that’s not always what’s best for you…

Today my oldest daughter left the state where she was born & raised. She’s left before but I’ve always known it was temporary.

She went to Florida for college but she came back.

This picture is hilarious & does a great job of highlighting the difference between men and women. I'd like to share how that came into play in our house last night.

<Important background info: we had a mouse in the house...>

Setting the scene: Mousetrap set up in morning after seeing a mouse in the pantry... Husband & wife watching a movie on the couch. Suddenly, a snap, a whimper, and a cough...

I don't know if anyone but my fellow AOL old timers will truly understand this.... AOL was such a special place in the early days. And I wasn't early, early - I was just semi early. Back when it was called America Online, and it was #3 behind Prodigy and CompuServe. I began my AOL life in 1993. I spent 13 years there. It changed a lot. And I changed a lot. I had a hard time letting go of it. It was such a big part of my life...

The one thing that I'll always remember & hold dear to my heart is the INCREDIBLE people that worked there. The AMAZINGLY SMART people who I got to work with every day. And the MISSION we locked arm in arm to accomplish that we felt so passionate about - "to build a global medium as central to people's lives as the telephone and the television...and even more valuable..."

I had a chance to meet this incredible 96 year old grandmother of the bride yesterday. I was drawn to her perkiness and wanted to talk to her. In our 1st conversation, I asked her what she does in her spare time. She said she doesn't really watch much tv but she does love Dancing with the Stars.

In our 2nd conversation, I asked how she stays so active and if she exercised. She said no. Remembering our earlier conversation, I asked if she danced and her eyes lit up and she said "oh yes!" I taught dance at Arthur Murray. She didn't elaborate.

The truth is extremely important to me. It always has been and always will be. It’s just one of the values I hold in very high regard. If someone lies to me, it will cause irreparable harm to our relationship.

Unfortunately, I was lied to twice over my vacation, and that is why I will never recommend a Royal Caribbean cruise and, in fact, will tell people not to choose them. They did some damage to their brand, and I am sure I’m not the only one who feels this way.

Lie #1:

We got through the check-in process fairly quickly and were put in a holding room where we were to wait a short time before boarding the ship. The room, which I’d say held about 500 people, filled up but they were not letting anyone board the boat. As we were beginning to wonder what was going on, a voice came through a loud speaker and told us they were experiencing computer problems. They apologized and said they were hoping to resolve the issues quickly.

I’m not sure what they were...

One of my favorite things to watch is the Olympic games. I admire the heck out of the athletes who have worked so hard to get there. While watching, I sometimes wonder if I have their mental toughness - is my mind capable of pushing my body to its limits and dealing with what I imagine is unbelievable pressure? So when I came upon this great article in a Shape magazine recently called "Think Like a Winner," it resonated. I loved how they explained that there are four aspects to mental toughness: Resilience, Confidence, Grit, and Focus.

Here are a few highlights from the article:

1. Resilience - The quicker you can bounce back from mishaps, the quicker you'll find success.
   • Welcome failure: We learn more when we lose than when we win. Mistakes teach you what to do differently next time.
   • Fact-check your thoughts: We almost always distort things after a loss and can easily get stuck in a "I'm no good" mode. Watch your inner dialogue. Just because you were edged out by someone else...

If you are not feeling 100%, my best advice to you is to go see a chiropractor ASAP!!! That is one thing I wish I would have figured out earlier in life. A chiropractor would have saved me a few aches and pains and definitely some dollars! I consider my chiropractor my HEALTH HERO. I had no clue about chiropractic medicine and how the foundational structure of your body can easily be compromised, especially if you have a weak area that you subconsciously favor.

For people like me who work out a lot, misalignment of the foundational structure can wreak havoc. These misalignments can cause not only back and neck pain but also a host of other symptoms throughout the body.

This is because the spinal cord and nerves conduct sensation and movement signals from the brain to other areas of the body. Any interruption to the proper processing of these nerve signals can cause pain, loss of function, organ dysfunction, hormonal imbalances and other health problems. Spinal and extremity...

I like to pass along information I find interesting & potentially valuable and this falls into that category... You probably don't know this but I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome when I was 28 years old. I remember going on a business trip to Buffalo and feeling horrible. I went to the doctor right before I left but continued with the trip anyway.

To top it off, there was a snowstorm and all I had with me was high heels. (There was no weather.com to check in those days!) Then I got the call from the doctor's office. I had strep throat! Ugh!

So I had to trudge in my heels in a foot of snow to the drugstore across the street from the hotel to get my prescription. I don't remember much more about that trip except that after I got home, I continued to feel awful so I went back to the doctor.

The tests indicated I had mono - for the 3rd time in less than 10 years. As with the other two times, the case seemed fairly mild. Only this time, I didn't get my energy...

Do you know how awesome it is to say you're going to do something and actually do it?!!! And it's something that takes a whole year... 365 actions - once a day for a whole year! I'm someone who always gets excited with new ideas. I start a lot of them but often they either lose their pizzazz or I get excited about something else and move on to that. I just don't stay committed to them for whatever reason.

But I read a book that really impacted my mindset about committing to following through on my actions. In the book, "The Compound Effect," Darren Hardy talks about how the smallest of actions over time have a compound effect. In other words, seemly small and insignificant actions, if repeated and continued over a long period, will make a HUGE difference.

I just experienced the joy of seeing the compounding of my actions in effect as 2015 came to a close. It is the result of a suggestion that Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of the book "Eat, Pray, Love," posted on her Facebook page...

Do you realize that if you are 58 years old, you have the potential, in this day and age, to live another 40 years? And don't you think you deserve to be doing what you love? That's why I took a huge leap of faith this past June and left my 20+ year career in project management. I finally found what I wanted to do! Late in life I know, but it happened, and I wasn't going to not go for it.

Some might think it was a huge risk. It definitely made my husband nervous! But I just felt it was what I was meant to do. And I had enough experience from my past jobs, that I knew I'd be successful.

Like Gary Vaynerchuk says in the video below: "You are actually more likely to be successful at building a company  at 45 or 50 years old today than the 18 years olds that are coming out because there is a naivete and a lack of experience.... You have REAL experience!"

Watch this video! It's amazing!!! And when you are done, if you are over 50 like me, you will feel like anything is possible...