I have been inspired to write again. How did this happen? Well, two of my friends have very prolific blogs and I find myself so delighted by their words that I want to tell everyone about their blogs.

My friend, Sarah, writes the first blog I want to mention. When I first met Sarah, it was in the context of seeing her for the first time as someone I agreed to “hire” when I was the project manager over a new Web site at Brigham Young University. Sarah needed an internship and she came highly recommended by the professor over the project. I agreed to bring her aboard because we so desperately needed some help with writing. And well, I really couldn’t refuse, because Sarah came “free.” Her internship was a non-paid one.

Our office was like a janitor’s closet, so there wasn’t much room for the computers and desks and chairs and people. I had talked with Sarah on the phone about work but had yet to talk face to face with her. When I opened up the door to the office one morning, there Sarah sat with hair so red, pulled back in barrettes; glasses a bit thicker than mine, and a stuffy nose. (She happened to have a cold that morning and wasn’t feeling her best, hence the glasses, barrettes, and nose.) I knew I was seeing Sarah, although I had not pictured her with red hair. We became acquainted that morning and soon became friends.

Sarah was a quick learner and started to do the html for the site because the programmer always had too much to do to bother with all of the little changes that we needed. (He concentrated on the bigger issues and Sarah took care of the maintenance of the pages.) And well, over time, Sarah saved the site many times with her ability quickly adapt to whatever task was needed.

Well, Sarah moved on from that job to marriage and now has three redheads of her own. You can read about Sarah’s adventures at http://raisingredheads.blogspot.com.

Here is an excerpt from her entry of Sunday, June 29, 2008:

“As we were backing out of the garage, I looked back in the car and saw the kids back there, Gemma expectantly waiting for awesomeness, Ainsleigh and Donovan giving each other “5″ as hard as they possibly could, and erupting into giggles. And I looked at Joel and then at our house that I love. And all of a sudden I was remembering how, as teenager and pre-marriage Sarah, I envisioned myself in my 30s. There was always a nice home, a husband, three kids. And as I sat there in the car, heading to get ice cream, doing such a simple but familial thing, I felt very humbled by love and gratitude because I realized: I am where I always envisioned. I looked at my kids and thought, ‘Hey! We’re all here! We made it!’”

The next blog I want to brag about in this blog is by Holly. I also met Holly during my job as project manager for the same BYU Web site where I met Sarah. Holly also came highly recommended so I hired her. Little did I know that I would soon come to rely on Holly’s skills, just like I did with Sarah.

Holly and I also became good friends and I hired her again as my assistant when I changed jobs and started working full time for the Center for Instructional Design (now the Center for Teaching and Learning). Holly did a lot of writing during that time and I just loved her sarcastic wit that came through in her words. I told her that she could make millions from her writing. We made a pact that, whomever made it to their first millions, would generously share the wealth with the other. I knew that I would not make it, but was/am convinced that Holly would/will arrive at her millions just in time to save me from myself.

You can read all about Holly’s adventures at http://bosscox.wordpress.com. Here is an excerpt from a recent entry where she talks about all of the things she should never have to do alone:

“Yesterday we got a letter in the mail informing us that we don’t have the proper plumbing on our sprinkling system, and have 30 days to rectify this before the city turns our water off. Now, I could have SWORN we installed the backflow thingermajig when we put in the sprinkling system. That’s all up in the air still … but in the meantime, that means that my evening was full of fix the house-type things. Including a visit to the least favorite part of our house … the crawl space.”