I’m back – and WOW does this place look fantastic!

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I have been on an island. With no internet access. During the very week we launched our new look – and added four fabulous new sister sites. It has been rough. Thankfully, my twin sister and co-blogger Susan was still connected and working day and night. (And apparently long nights.)

While life on the island was idyllic, spending so many delicious hours with my family while my hubby ran the program for the junior teens Bible camp we volunteer at each summer, I was in agony waiting to see all the sites and their gorgeous new outfits!

As Susan told you, developing the designs with Ruby & Roja has been a very involved and exciting process. Beth and Christy definitely win the client satisfaction award as we tweaked each design to get them to this perfection.

But, right as we neared the launch date, I had to pack up my laptop and cameras, and head to camp! While I had my blackberry to keep in contact via email and phone, I had no internet connection. Yes ladies, it was a bit painful.

But since I knew the sites were in such capable hands, I relaxed and enjoyed every second of fun with my family and friends. It was wonderful to be with Olivia all day and night. (At home she sleeps in her crib. So I love it when we are away because then she and I indulge in co-sleeping. And lately, we have been working so hard, that I don’t get to spend enough time with her and I miss her so much.)

On the island, I didn’t get to see Jackson as much as in past years when I had to be with him all the time. He is so grown up now, it seemed like I only saw him when he checked in with me to ask permission to buy candy. He was always off hanging out with campers and staff or the other workers’ kids.

He had so much fun that last night when we got home, he was crying for over two hours straight. “I don’t want to be home. I want to live at camp with all my friends,” he wailed. When he was in the bath, and I was scrubbing off his dirt-stained skin, he was still crying. By that point he was almost hyperventilating, “I am dying. I can’t breathe. I have never had this reaction before.”

I was a bit frustrated, but I just tried to remember how depressing it was for me as a kid and as a teenager coming home from camp. Life at home pales in comparison. Jackson feels every emotion so intensely and he loves camp so much, that I am not surprised that coming home is devastating for him.

But for me, coming home this time was exciting. While I will definitely miss camp life, I couldn’t wait to get back online and see all the sites up.

And I was not disappointed! They look incredible, with such great writers making up each team – well – it is just about as exciting as my heart can handle. To borrow from Kelly’s post over at 5 Minutes for Parenting, I am GIDDY!

Seriously ladies – the writers that have joined the sister site teams are so fantastic, I can’t stop reading them! I have a ton of work to get done before BlogHer, but I am sitting here soaking up their every sentence. Here is a taste from Kelly’s post:

Yet, if you’re reading this blog, I suspect you understand this tension. I don’t know a mom alive who doesn’t fall madly in love with her children every night when she tucks them into bed. Sleeping children – hair smelling like Johnson’s, skin kissed by the sun – are the closest thing to angels this side of heaven. (Don’t even get me started on sleeping babies, with their little bums in the air like tiny stink bugs, cheeks rosy and damp. It’s too much to take.)

But that loving maternal glow has a way of vanishing at 3:30 AM when one of the angels screams, “Mommy! Come in here quick!”

I know – isn’t that just the perfect description? And that is just one little sample of the beyond yummy content over at our sister sites. Seriously – go enjoy!!!

So now, it is time to say goodbye to camp until next year and to scramble to get ready for BlogHer…