Hello World!

So, thanks to a suggestion from Robin and some inspiration from my friend Missy who passed away last week, I have decided that I want, no, actually I NEED to start a blog.  I have been thinking about this idea for awhile and thought maybe I would try it.  The theme is, people who have influenced my life.
See, I believe we are a sum total of all our experiences and a huge part of those experiences are the people we have encountered on our journey called life.  I believe that sometimes we are not aware of how we touch people's hearts and what affect we can have on people's lives without even realizing it.  The interesting part is, I am no one special, don't get me wrong, that is not a negative statement.  What I mean is that my experiences are experiences I am confident we all share and the people I have encountered on my journey are just (mostly) ordinary people.  The truth is we all have those people in our lives....everyone ranging from our parents, spouses, siblings, children, etc.  to an old high school friend or a waitress at a restaurant.  I want to recognize the role we all play in each others lives (mostly positive, but sometimes not so much) and how interwoven our paths are.  I want to mix the really big influences (my sister, my parents, my cousins, my aunt, my close friends, my spouse, my child, my step-daughters) with those that didn't realize they even played a role.  I promise to protect the names of the innocent (or in some cases the guilty) whenever necessary.  Hopefully along the way I can share some funny stories or even something touching.  We will just see how it goes.  What I do promise is honesty, which is sometimes hard because no matter how much we hate to admit it we all care what others think.
If you don't find the idea interesting, that's okay too, it is a journey mostly for myself.  Just remember, if you know me, you might just wind up a topic on my blog!