Allie Potts's Blog, page 33

If you are irreplaceable why try to replace someone else?

My parents divorced early in my childhood and my mom was lucky enough to meet and marry my stepdada few years later. One afternoon, shortly afterwards, my mom pulled me aside. She wanted me to know that my stepdad was not trying to replace my father, but that we were all going to have to make some adjustments.

Bored… (Photo credit: Thomas Leuthard)

Now I do not recall intentionally acting out, or purposefully saying hurtful things to my new stepdad before this talk, but I assume since she went...

What do cloudy days and rejection have in common other than being dreary?

File photo of the childcraft books (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Shortly after my son was born my parents decided to use the excuse of our new addition to rid themselves of some of the clutter around their house. We came back from one visit with a crate full of children’s encyclopedias which sat in my son’s closet for the next several years. I found myself just as unable to throw them out as my parents even though they were definitely out of date. They had been my encyclopedias after all, from a t...

Some times a little change is good for you

Tooth fairy trinket (Photo credit: JanetR3)

My eldest son recently lost his very first baby tooth. The tooth fairy had luckily been anticipating a visit to our house in theory, but he didn’t give her a ton of notice when it came time for the actual event. The tooth was loose and gone within the same day. My son nearly broke the sound barrier getting ready for bed that evening eager to see whether or not the tooth fairy would come.

The following day, he reached under his pillow and pulled out a...

Lessons from mom

I’ve blogged a few times about the life lessons my children have taught me, but in celebration of Mother’s Day I thought I would join the masses and write about someof the things my mom has taught me over the years.

1) We all have it in us to beinnovators- especially when small, exhausted children are involved.

Who needs a pack n’ play? My parents, apparently. Don’t worry, Mom assures me that the car was not moving when this photograph was taken.

If you were to stroll down the feeding aisle at t...

Is your safety net actually a drag chute?

21st annual California Hot Rod Reunion (Photo credit: ATOMIC Hot Links)

Over the last few weeks I have watched a few of the blogs I follow sign off for good. The authors were moving on to other day job challenges and no longer could put in the time to write. Considering one of my goals is to find a way to write more, their choice was somewhat puzzling to me, but I respect that they made the decision that worked best for their personal situation.

The Lonely Vacuum Of Space (Photo credit: JD Hanc...

Are you a supporter or do you truly believe?

When I was in high school I played basketball in a churchleague. I have to qualify my league of play because I am not exactly what anyone would describe as being tall. My high school’s coaches would have laughed me off the court had I shown up for try outs. My team was made up of several other like-minded individuals. We were there out of friendship rather than talent.

In other words, we were awful.I fouled out many of those games because I had a better chance of preventing the other team from...

Adventures in goal setting

Before I had children, my work sent me to Hong Kong for a period of eight weeks. During this time I was housed in hotel room only a few train stops from the office. I couldn’t speak the language. I couldn’t even read it. My days were my friends and family’s nights back home and vice versa.I was surrounded by millions of people, and yet was alone.

I arrived in early summer, and it rained almost daily over the first several weeks. My hotel only offered three English-speaking television channels....

Staying positive is tough, but I’ve always liked a challenge

English: Think positive (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My husband and I visited several parts of Australia for our honeymoon. While there we were entertained to learn that there was an entire news program dedicated to Happy News. The other programs were following the pattern of increasing the scare factor in order to generate ratings, butthis program had decided that they were going to focus on the inspirational and feel good pieces.

Watching the program was like eating a scoop of sorbet after a mea...

Willing myself marathon strong

2009-08-30-signs (Photo credit: Dawn – Pink Chick)

“Don’t you giveup on me 583! You are not a quitter 583!”

While I am not, nor probably will ever be, a qualified racer for the Boston Marathon, I deeply admire those who participate,andI also admire the fans. It is the fans, thefriends, family, and volunteerswhotransform marathons or other racesfrom terribly long runs into events.

Marathons take a while to complete. Marathons hosted in cities other than Boston can take even longer as the racers a...

The promises we make to ourselves are often the hardest to keep

Easter Eggs (Photo credit: .imelda)

We celebrated Easter over the weekend. My older sister came to visit with her family and we all celebrated with good food, conversation, and bags and bags of candy. I will be honest with you, I wanted to give myself a vacation from writing. What is the good of setting your own schedule if you don’t get to take some time off now and then. I rationalized that I could take a holiday off and no one would notice.

I announced this to my husband. As soon as the word...