This is my friend Dewey. Or I suppose the appropriate thing to say is "was". This photo was taken at my wedding ten years ago. Dewey and my godfather were goofing around with my veil and flowers, and the photographer snapped this priceless portrait of them. It captures the amazing man that Dewey was. His happiness, beautiful loving personality, and giving nature.

I am having a selfish year. Well...as much of a selfish year as the mother of a four year old and a two year old can have. I’m reclaiming some small bits of me before they fly away in the storm of reading lessons, potty training, breast feeding, house tending and meal making. I feel that I am at a crossroads in my life. I need to figure out where I’m going from here. Will I continue to be an academic scientist, as I was before children (and still am on a one day a week, contract basis)? Will I shift my life and do something completely different? What in the world would that thing be if I did it? How can I make my life meaningful? What can I offer to the world that will make it a better place? How do I fill that need within me to help people?

I swore that my first diary here would be an educated, intelligent, appropriate commentary on some significant event in the world. Instead, here I am asking for help in choosing schools. Of course, my children and their education are my world at the moment...like it or not!