TheMorrisonFamilyBlog

  My Name is "Julee" and I'm a Bon Jovi Addict!       I remember it like it was yesterday. It was 1985:   HE looked like this....   I looked like this...   I can admit it, he was MUCH hotter than I, but I'm not a jealous person.   My ritual that summer was waking up, doing my chores and heading to the University of Utah Hospital to spend the afternoon with my best friend, newly paralyzed after a motor-cross accident.   The weekends were time away from my best friend. It made Friday's drive home from the University longer than the other days' drive. It was a drive of reflection over the past week. Monday, however, was always one of anticipation and I delighted in walking through the door and seeing my best friend. His mom and dad had come up to visit him over the weekend. He was in good spirits today. "Come here." he smiles, moving his index finger to guide me to him. "What?" I stand alongside him now, curious as to what he want...

  40 is NOT What I Thought It Would Be I'm not going to lie. It happened. I turned 40. If only it was THAT simple. You also know that my birthday is a BIG deal if you know me. I count down. I remind you periodically that my birthday is coming. It's typically a week before, the day of, and a week after the celebration. When it's over, I remind you that it all starts again in just 364 more days. It started innocently enough. My routine was not even the slightest bit disrupted. The countdown had begun! This was a momentous year. One of those years you look forward to, like 16, 21, 30...there was a giddiness in me and a bounce to my stride. Then, about four hours before the minute of my birth was to be reached, I heard forty screaming for me to join the "Dark Side." I kid you not. Even the heavy breathing, though that quite possibly could have been me reaching the top of the stairs. Why did it happen? I have no clue. Suddenly, my parade of celebration was a death marc...