This weekend I’ll be in Louisiana at what will likely be our family’s last family reunion. We’ve had maybe 4 in my lifetime, and now it’s amazing to see the cousins I played with with their own children.

And my grandma is 90. Enough reason to celebrate.

We’re Cajun, so what that means is a lot of liquor and spicy foods, as well as music and dancing. I cannot wait.

What are you doing for Labor Day?

PS Max starts school the day after we come back. This year ’round school takes some getting used to!

Despite not eating red meat from the age of 16 to 28 or so, I am now a steak monster. My husband says he doesn’t even know who I am anymore. Last year at Type A Mom Con, I met Gary Whetstone from Chef’s Requested. I liked Gary right away, not just because he worked for a company that produces steaks but also because he was there, paying attention to what bloggers were saying.

Fast forward a year. My family has eaten a ton of Chef’s Requested 100 calorie steaks and bacon wrapped filets. So it was a natural fit for the company to sponsor me to attend Type A Mom again this year. Talk about steak? Yes, please!

So thank you to Gary and Chef’s Requested for helping me get to Asheville for this amazing conference. And if you’ll be at the conference, leave a comment, and find me so I can give you some steak freebies (not actual steak. I don’t carry them in my pocket. Often).

I was thinking about the girls I was friends with in college. Wild and far left of center, they…experimented with life and everything in it. I toed the line but was afraid to cross it. I admired them for their ability to try new things without fear.

I guess I imagined they’d always be so untamed. But they, like me, are moms. Moms who talk about diapers and school. Moms who make lunch (although their rebellion is now in the form of organic almond butter, as is mine).

We all ended up in the same place, from different paths.

I just think it’s funny. And my friends, who consider me to be the most unique and brave person in our group (or so I perceive) would be surprised to know that at one time, I was the timid one, the one afraid of new experiences.

Rock on, mamas.