Don't miss Here Comes the Sun, an important column about sunscreen, sun damage and the importance of freckles!

Let's hear it for the return of BLUE FOLDER!! It's amazing how many people have asked me about BLUE FOLDER since I wrote Three Ring Binder.

So here is my new column, BLUE FOLDER, PART TWO. Now everyone knows what a complete weird-O I am, including all of my neighbors. 

Yes, I seem to have topped myself in the sarcastic-ooops-I-forgot-to-censor-myself category this week!

Oh well. Best to speak the truth while one still can.

Hope you enjoy this week's column, Dear Bride-to-be:. 

I am a woman on the edge-I lost my main folder that carried my life around...and I can't stop looking for it.

I wrote my latest column, A Three Ring Binder, about my organizational obsessions and latest technique for curbing the chaos. Let me know what you think.  Am I on the right track? 

Check out this awesome email got from the Surfer Dad I wrote about in my latest column, Park for Dummies.  Got to LOVE dads like this one:

Hi Christine,

One of the mom's in town told me to read your article becuase she feels confident I am the Surfer Dad at the park referred to in your article...

I must confess I too had trouble adjusting to playing with my 4 sons at the park, especially since there are not a lot of guys to shoot the breeze with.  What works for me, as your article touched on, is bringing the rights toys/props.  Of course it starts with attitude, and for this endeavor I transform myself into a giant kid/referee/community outreach rep.  Many kids are taken back by seeing a dad at the park, add to that one that asks them to play along with our group.  It really is fun!  Laguna's' kids are hilarious, interesting and full of personality, like their parents... and once they deem that you are listening to what they have to say, well the skies the limit on using our imaginations...

So much of the time what we go through as adults (also touched on in your article) is being played out in the kids lives during park time.  I try to make all the kids feel included.

I love going places around town and kids from 18 to 2 will come up and say "hi Chris!" their parents sometimes scratching their heads wondering,  "who is this guy?"...  now  I will just say, "Oh I'm the Park Dad."

I explored my love hate of the park in Park for Dummies. 

I'd like to send a shout out to all my friends who took the time to teach me how to 'do park.' I haven't been back since but I have certainly thought about it! 

My response to the column that was printed with my name on it came out in the Laguna paper this weekend: Car Wash Take Two.  Check it out.  The link to the column that was credited to me is at the bottom.

I haven't gotten any nasty phonecalls yet, so that's a good thing.  

My New Year's column, A Dusty Year, is finally online. (It hit the papers last week.) I dragged my feet because I am not that happy with it. My husband said it showed how tired I am. Or was.

Anyway, hope you enjoy it. I cried while I wrote it.  Not sure why. It was a hard year between the printed and not-fit-to-print events. Enough whining though.

2008 is going to be great! 

My holiday column, Turtle Love, is finally online. If you haven't read it already in the paper, Enjoy! 

p.s. Fortunately, there will no turtle under our tree...the obsesssion faded.

Well it was a struggle to knock out my column amidst the chaos of no Internet, the school Thanksgiving plays, and my deadline for Christmas articles, but here it is, Taking the Bonnet Call.

I dove into my past and probably offended my mother, but isn't that what being a writer is all about?

Enjoy the day with your family eating, drinking and demanding lots of loving attention. I, for one, will be on cooking strike.  Am thinking about housework strike too but then we may not be able to find a path out the door... 

My annual Halloween column, Costume Conversations,  is up.  Not as funny as last year's (how can I beat the dead baby pumpkin?) but I still chuckel just the same. Hope you will, too.  I rarely do the 'kids say the darnedest things' kind of b.s. but this one was so funny and took me by surprise.

My Etiquette Quandary column has caused a bit of a stir.  Phonecalls, letters and park conversations.  I love it!  This is my favorite email that I got today:

Hi Christine,
 
After reading your recent column asking Mrs. Brady Bunch for parenting advice, it came as no surprise to read that you were teaching your children to address adults by their first name. I know I sound harsh, but really, thinking it appropriate that children should address adults by their first name? I shudder to think if I had tried doing that, even once, as a child--what stern reprimand would ensue!  Today, at age 50, I still address my friends' parents by Mr. and Mrs. and their last name. It shows respect and acknowledges the ongoing truth that I was once a "child" to their "adult." They in a sense helped raise me, knew me as a youngster, and I can tell you, not once in my life have one of my friends' parents asked me to call them by their first name. It goes beyond tradition and respect. It speaks to decent civilization.
 
As a Laguna resident, I have enjoyed reading your column in the weekly Laguna rag. Keep up the fine writing, but also continue to listen to your mother. Yes, I agree wholeheartedly with Peter Post's etiquette views, but you need look no further than your mother for solid parenting advice.
 
Sincerely,
 
Phil Ruland  

One of my favorite columns this year is up and out!  I really needed to know what my kids should address adults, and I found out! 

Take a read and let me know what you think.