I am...Mrs. Fraser

I am...

a daughter, the oldest of 3, raised on small town sports, a life in the country and the desire to be a good girl.

a sister, the first to do most things, lucky enough to have been born with 2 built-in best friends.

a granddaughter, missing the days spent in the country with my Nanny and Papaw and my 9 cousins, riding horses bareback, picking vegetables from the garden, sitting around the old dining room table for meals and domino games, going shopping in a Ford Crown Victoria piloted by my lead-footed grandmother and keeping in touch through letters with my family far away.

a Drury girl, where I learned about Alice Walker, the secrets of Pi Beta Phi, how to live with roommates, and that the world is much bigger than Cassville, Mo.

a wife to Ryan, my friend and partner since I was 19, a man who knows I don't like to talk when I first wake up, who loves me even though I don't like to cook, and who every day makes me feel like the smartest, prettiest, funniest girl he's ever known.

a mother to Macauley, a seventh grader who, just when I think he's left childhood behind, gets out his Legos and dives into a weeklong project, a far more outgoing child than I was, the delight of my life forever.

I am...

sweet tea and chocolate milk, chips and guacamole.

puffy, comfy white couches, ironstone pitchers and platters, chippy white furniture, burlap and linen, mismatched silverware and old photos, flea market finds and treasures that make me smile.

a tattered teddy bear bought with my birthday money in Eureka Springs when I was 8.

tightly folded notes passed between teenage boys and girls in class and church.

photos and scrapbooks and a project always in the works.

big, thick books and glossy magazines.

sleeping late on weekends, especially when it rains, in a soft bed with lots of covers and feather pillows.

I am...

dark blue eyes and my dad's olive skin, black-framed glasses when I read or watch TV.

leggings and Pikos, lots of black, jeans and flipflops, blonde hair in a messy ponytail, Uggs and a cardigan.

in the fourth decade of my life, closer to 50 than I am to 20 now, whether I feel like it or not.

not 16 anymore.

older and wiser, more experienced.