This will probably come as no surprise to anyone who knows me even a little bit: I am a social being. I took one of those quizzes once and it told me that I was an introverted extrovert. That sums me up pretty perfectly. I do need my down time and feel the most balanced if I have quiet time to read and to write and to just recharge.

On the other hand, if I am at a social gathering  I become entirely energized and lose all track of time while I sit and chat with with friends of mine. I look forward to these times of connecting, so much so that I go on regular girls’ night and usually take a few solo trips a year to spend time with these people whom I hold close to my heart.

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When I returned from my trip to California I was refreshed, renewed, rejuvenated. Between work-related trips and fun-filled get-aways (such as the California one) I get the heck out of dodge a whole lot more than many Moms seem to do. And also, a whole lot more than my husband ever does.

My hubby, in all of his wonderfulness, takes care of our three kids on the many weekends that I go away with nary a complaint. OK, fine. He teases me a bit. My response upon returning from California was that he needed to book a trip. Correction. He was ORDERED to take a trip.

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Last February my husband and I brought our three kids to their grandparents’ house and spent a week in Mexico. Together. With no children. It was the first time we had both been away from them for longer than one night and amazing does not even begin to describe it. Towards the end of the week we talked about returning in a year or two with the kids and taking a family vacation in order to give us all a break from the long, cold winter.

Try as we might to find a good deal for the five of us to travel, we could not seem to do so.  Even with a decent price, once you multiply it by five it gets to be in the “ridiculous” range. It seemed a little extravagant to spend that sum of money in light of the economy. My husband and I were open to taking another jaunt that consisted of just the two of us but there is that issue of three small children who needed to be, you know, taken care of in our absence.

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I used that title on a personal post of mine that I wrote last year about my group of girlfriends, and the Google hits are still coming in. Who are the guys looking for “moms gone wild”? Would they not rather see hot college girls as opposed to women bearing stretch marks, skin tags and banana boobs?

The Google hits on that last sentence should be interesting.

Last night I hosted a “Girl’s Night In” at my house. I have a pretty fantastic group of girlfriends for whom I am eternally grateful. When my husband and I first moved to our small town we were the only young couple in our church. There were a few work colleagues our age, but nobody that we clicked with. I wanted a girlfriend. Just one.

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