Remember me?

The past few weeks--and especially the past week--something incredible has happened...I feel almost like MYSELF. For a long time, I've been living under this terrible fog. Then Tuesday (glorious Tuesday!) came, and it was lifted. I feel like ME. I've laughed. I've joked. I've hung out with girlfriends. I've hung out with guy friends. I've played with my kids. I've made plans...and The Fraud has scarcely crossed my mind the past few days...and that's as it should be. The whole reason I did this was so he would be excised from my life, because he never belonged there in the first place. I just didn't realize how quickly and effectively it would actually work!

I spent the weekend with the two best daughters anyone could ask for. Friday night, Em had a friend sleep over. Saturday, I took the girls to the mall. Saturday night, I got together with a bunch of girlfriends and their kids to watch the game and celebrate Mother's Day, and I had a blast, even though our Thunder lost. Today was wonderful...my girls are incredible, and they are the culmination of everything good in my life. How they managed to get the best of everything in us is truly a mystery, but it happened. They have been so strong through this whole mess, and it hasn't been easy on them. You see, they both really liked him. Having to explain that everything about him was a lie was relatively tough. I spared Chicken as much as I could...but Emily, well...she's 13 and nobody's fool. She was angry, and that's okay. We were ALL taken in by a con man. It wasn't just me he was lying to...that's been rough for them. Especially for her.

The beautiful thing is, we're all out from under the cloud. We're looking forward to the summer...we talked about vacation plans. We went out for Mexican food. (Well, we tried to go for Turkish food, but Simply Falafel was closed for Mother's Day.) We just had fun together...which hasn't happened nearly enough in the past six months. It has me happier and more hopeful than I remember being in a long time. Being their mom is the best thing about me...I'm pretty good at it...just talk to them for a few minutes if you're not sure. ;)