**Tap** **Tap** Hello? Hello? **Tap** **Tap**

I love social media. Having lived across the world from family and friends for five years made it an important part of our lives to stay connected. And while we don't live across the world anymore, we are over 1,200 miles away from all our family and many friends. Social media has evolved to being more than a way to stay connected to people today, it also has become a way to stay connected to the past with things like #TBT (throwback Thursday) and Facebook memories.

The past few weeks as I was scouring my photo files for the "perfect" pictures for #TBT it really hit me just how short of a time left I have with my "babies". Emily is turning 20-years-old and already a sophomore in college, Chris is a junior and Sami is in 7th grade. In the next six years we will be "empty-nesters". Let's pause for a moment while I pick myself up off the floor at the thought of Matt and I alone. Yikes.

I haven't updated this blog in over a year. I don't really have a good excuse. Maybe it is because I can communicate easier than when I lived in Japan, or it's because we have gotten settled into a busy "American" life of driving (can I mention how much I HATE driving) to some sort of activity every night, or maybe it is because we are just boring people.

One thing I have learned in adulthood is that life is short. It can change in the blink of an eye. Kids grow up too fast, parents don't live forever. And while we all know this, sometimes I think we forget it until something happens to remind us. This morning I read an article that Lloyd Carr's 5-year-old grandson is dying. A year ago Chad Carr was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor and his time is coming to an end. It breaks my heart every time I hear that another parent has to join the "club". So today I decided that I don't care how boring or busy my life may be I need to take time to write because life is short and someday words may be all we have.

July, 2003 to August, 2015