Is this thing on?

My name is Ms.Carson.
My long dead grandfather called me Buttercup.
My birthstone is peridot.

I am someone's mother (thrice over), someone's wife, someone's manager (a few people actually but maybe not once I am back from mat. leave - we will have to see).
I am a daughter, a sister, a granddaughter, a niece. I have wonderful, interesting friends.

I do not have a daughter. For a long time (relatively) I felt like she was missing from my family. That feeling is fading.

Edited* Then it wasn't fading it was intense and painful all through my third pregnancy and then on June 6 my daughter was born. She is beautiful and amazing to me. Do you know what it is like to have a dream that you thought was impossible actually come true? It is beyond wonderful - it is like a thousand birthdays and a thousand Christmas mornings every time I look at her.

I am very proudly Canadian. The choices I make for myself are pretty conservative but when it comes to everyone and everything else I am pretty liberal. I think government or state health care is phenomenal. Not perfect but phenomenal. My son had neurosurgery when he was less than 24 hours old at one of the best children's hospitals in the world. He was fixed and whole and well. And it cost us nothing.

I own dogs and a house, a mini van, more Martha Stewart magazines and books than I will ever dare to count or admit.

I have a degree in English. I wanted to be a writer. In the end all I wanted was a job.

I went to law school because I didn't know what to do next; I kept expecting roadblocks. There were no roadblocks. Except me. I was going to be a lawyer who just wanted to be home for dinner. Did you know that lawyers aren't usually home for dinner? I had no idea. In the end I never practiced. I found a job I love (sometimes). I am a civil servant - I am usually civil and I am usually home in time to cook dinner.

I always wanted to be a mother. This dream came true in 2003. Again in 2006. Again in 2009.

I am not the mother I thought I would be. I didn't have the children I thought I would have. It is so much harder and so much better than I expected. All of it.

I dressed up as Martha Stewart last year for Halloween.
I like food and dogs - really, the similarities end there.