Introducing Melanie, Mom and Photographer and Hopefully Guest Blogger

I took a leap today and gave a family member the address of this blog. Uh-oh. So, special shout-out to my wonderful and talented sister, Melanie, who took the amazing photo you see at the top of the page. (You can check out her photography here.)

I'm fairly certain I'm going to be able to rope her into guest blogging here.* She's a new(ish) mom, too, with a 20-month-old and a little baby bun in the oven, due out this December.
She sends me pictures of the photos she's working on editing on the regular, and they're beautiful and make me feel things.

Since I can't ask her how I look every morning before I put all hundred and fifty pounds of this out into the world, I thought I'd ask her to at least look at the blog and tell me what she thinks. I was nervous about this. It's always tough to show your writing to people closest to you.

But because I opened this up to her and finally spilled the URL, I was able to ask her, "What do I have to offer? Why would people want to read me?" And she reassured that my "personality" and "daily adventures" would be enough to keep you coming back for more. I'm not so sure about that. I know you don't have a lot of time on your hands. I know you need better than that.

So I'm working on it. But I feel good, and you should, too. Really, everyone's story is worth telling and worth hearing. And how would I ever know if I don't tell it?

Thank god for sisters.

*Hoping that publicly announcing this will guilt/shame/insertemotionhere her into doing so.

P.S.: I originally ended the post here, but thought I'd tell you more about my sister. She's the yin to my yang. We are complete opposites in a lot of ways. She takes photos, I write. She's brunette, I'm blonde, she's tall and thin, I'm average and curvy, she loves salty foods, I've got one of the biggest sweet tooths you'll ever see.
But we're the same where it matters: we're both storytellers, she through photos, I through words. We're both moms and family is always #1 to us. Mostly we get along. We don't often talk about the line we drew down the bedroom wall we shared as kids, dividing our shared room. She's awesome and bitchy and sweet and smart. You'll love her.