Introduction

Well - I've never done this before. I feel like a junior high student who is about to write in her diary for the first time. But, I need a spot to purge my thoughts, record memories, share the funny and crazy things that my children do. So, here it is! My Jar of Hearts!

I'm Monica.

I'm a wife. My husband and I dated off and on through high school, then consistently while I was in college and he was in the Navy. We married in July of 2006. He's my best friend.

I'm a mom. I have two precious daughters. My first was born in March of 2008, and my second was born in November of 2010. Gabriela Lucia, and Amelia Jane. My Girls, my world.

I'm a daughter. I have the best four parents in the universe! Yep, four. Mom, dad, stepmom, stepdad. I'll probably get to that someday...but just now for right now that I love those four people more than I can say.


I'm a sister. I have a brother who's 4.5 years younger than me, and a sister who is 14 years younger than me. I also have two sisters-in-law (who, despite our ups and downs, I love like my own sisters - having known them since they were literally little kids, they've become my sisters). And, I have a sister-in-law-to-be! She and my brother might as well be married, and since there's not a term for "my brother's girlfriend" that actually encompasses what she means to me, I refer to her as my sister-in-law also. My little sister is not married, or close to being married, and it better stay that way for a long time! ;-)

I'm a cousin, a niece, a granddaughter, a daughter-in-law (though my in-laws would probably deny that fact), etc. My family is, literally, spread out all over the world.

I'm a friend. I am one of those people who doesn't have a lot of friends. I have a few close friends; several friends that I don't talk to nearly often enough, but with whom I could catch up at any time, as though no time had passed. I've also formed a very close circle of Facebook friends...people that I met in one way or another, that I may not see or speak to in a physical sense...but people from whom I get a great deal of support, encouragement, and friendship.

And then there's just me...the girl who loves deeply (sometimes too deeply), who suffers from anxiety, who fears separation and death. The girl that would do anything for her friends and family. The girl who is compassionate to a fault. The girl who is terrified of bats, rodents, and cotton balls (yeah, you read that correctly). The girl who loves politics, travel, good books and deep conversation. The girl who above all else, just wants to leave this world a better place.