I think a lot people would agree that child’s birthday parties have gotten out of hand.

As everyone sits around their Christmas tree, menorah, kinara or any other holiday symbol with their family this year, keep in mind what’s important – family.

So much can change in a year and has.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, a time to look at your life and see what all you have to be thankful for.

Don’t worry. That big, bright star in the sky is the sun.

This “new” policy regarding no recording at Halifax County Public Schools isn’t new at all.

“Don’t work for recognition but do work worthy of recognition,” is advice from American author H. Jackson Brown Jr. that we could all take. 

The other day as my friend pumped her gas, I heard from inside the car a noise I had become familiar with “gas station TV,” one of the many screens that we constantly have in our face.

Keaton Jones may be a household name at this point, a pseudo celebrity if you will, the latest every day kid to have his five minutes of fame in the spotlight.

We’ve all seen the photos and the jokes of the swarms of people who flood into stores to get that one toy on sale for $9.99 on Black Friday.

More often than ever I’ve seen my work resurface on websites, in brochures and in other areas.

I understand that print journalism and broadcast journalism are two completely different ball games, but with Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Jose in full force as this column is being written, I can’t help but question the tactics of some broadcast journalists.

This past Saturday was the two-year anniversary of the tragic event that took the lives of two young, vibrant individuals, news reporter Alison Parker and video journalist Adam Ward of WDBJ7.

So maybe if I was naïve, I might would’ve been almost $3,000 richer the other day.

When I was growing up, Sundays meant church, then to granny’s house for a late breakfast, the best breakfast.

If you’re on Facebook or listen to WAKG 103.3, I’m sure you haven’t been able to avoid the chatter or the videos from their recent competition, Sing For the Ring with Eden Jewelry.

I’ve felt like my world was crashing all around me, like I could hardly breathe, as if the unthinkable had happened, that he had hurt me. But even that wasn’t the end of the world.

Spinning its way around the world is a new trend — fidget spinners.

The past few weeks have not been very news worthy in my opinion. Nothing has really happened that has inspired conversation within me.

Sometimes it’s nice to do some self-reflection, and sometimes we need an outsider to call us out before we reach the point of examining oneself.

Maybe there’s no right or wrong, black or white, line drawn in the sand answer to handling feelings or relationships.

The more I try to make plans, the more they change. Some will say, “it’s God’s will” that something did or didn’t happen; others say, “Things happen for a reason.”

I recently read that 70 percent of all consumer retail-spending takes place after 6 p.m.

I have two small requests: read it all and read it thoroughly.

Just doing my job ma’am. I get it, you don’t want me there, and I’m sorry that these circumstances have brought us both together to the scene of this car accident.

It’s probably in your hand right now as you text your friend or post your latest update to Facebook.

More often than not, I hear whining and complaining about people not being able to get a job, needing a job, how there are no jobs around here, etc.

Don’t let your next relationship start where your last one ended.

Apparently a woman was recently harassed for wearing a tight dress to a wedding.

For the sake of this column, I have changed names of everyone involved, and those who I am referring too should be the only ones who know it’s them.

Ladies, if you don’t offer to pay, then you weren’t raised right, and men, if you don’t refuse to let them pay, then you weren’t raised right either.

When I first heard about the possibility of providing free meals for all schools, I crossed my fingers and my toes and hoped and hoped that all children in this county would be able to get free meals, but it didn’t quite work out that way.