Welcome cl-i_b_sandradee

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-31-2003
Welcome cl-i_b_sandradee
8
Tue, 06-20-2006 - 4:42pm

Welcome your new host of Breaking Up is Hard to Do!


Image hosting by Photobucket


Avatar for northwestwanderer
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Tue, 06-20-2006 - 4:49pm

Yay! That's great news! Congrats!

Sheri

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-05-2006
Tue, 06-20-2006 - 4:49pm
Hooray! I think Sandradee is a great choice!
Avatar for iamdelightful
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Tue, 06-20-2006 - 5:02pm
Congratulations, Sandra! You will be a great community leader.
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-12-2005
Tue, 06-20-2006 - 11:09pm

Thanks :)

Myspace Codes

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 06-21-2006 - 5:35pm

I must add my congratulations to your resident Girl Extraordinaire, Ms. Sandra!!!! She is a wonderful choice, always ready with great advice! You are very lucky!

To all of you newly heartbroken, I wanted to share a brief version of my long story. Perhaps it will inspire you....

I came to Ivillage several years ago when I was desperately looking for SOMETHING to help me with my sudden separation from my husband. It is hard to put into words what that whole experience was like. I'll sum it up by saying I was devastated and felt as if my whole world was falling apart, and I was only 27. I met some wonderful women on the now defunct "Divorced and Under 30 board", many of whom I still keep in touch with to this day. The board was a huge support and comfort and I truly don't know how I would have made it through some days without their encouragement and understanding. (BTW, if any of you are going through a divorce, one of those wonderful women is now a Co-CL for "Surviving Divorce". Stop by there too!). Anyway, my personal journey to healing took a couple of years...it was a daily struggle to keep my optimism and push forward. I cried more tears than I thought were possible, I dealt with the devastation of watching him move his clothes into the spare room, crying myself to sleep at night missing him with all my heart while he partied into the wee hours with his new friends. I dealt with the embarrassment of losing my home and half my possessions, moving back in with my mom, changing my name back, attending my HS reunion as a divorcee (when everyone I knew had known we were married, as we dated shortly after HS), getting back out there on the dating market after 7 years with NO CLUE what I was doing. The list goes on and on. However, I was smart enough to lean on my family, friends, and the wonderful women I met on the board, and I managed to push through it, earn my Masters degree, land my dream job as a teacher in the best school imaginable, made some great new friends, had some awesome experiences, traveled, discovered my love of wine (Hehe), and genuinely found the social and fabulous, confident, happy "me" I had lost somehow in my marriage. If you would have told me three years ago I would be GRATEFUL to my XH for ending it, I would have thought you had lost your flippin' mind, but I AM. I am so happy now I am practically floating. I take care of ME, I am so proud of where I've come, I love my house, my job, my friends my family and my BF. I have found in him someone who meshes so well with me, we finish eachother's thoughts. Our goals and values match up, our dreams are the same. We make eachother laugh, connect on a level like no other I have ever experienced. I never would have known what I was missing had I stayed with my XH and I thought I knew everything. I loved him, he loved me, but we were not right for eachother, and in retrospect, I can say the break up was for the best. I am so glad NOT to be in that relationship anymore, as my work on myself made me infinitely happier and put me in a place where I was ready and able to accept this wonderful guy into my life. Sidenote, he and I went to HS together, and reconnected at the reunion I was reluctant to set foot in. I pushed myself to do it, and I am SO glad. As it happens, he has been overseas in Afghanistan, which is how I met Sandra on another board....he's coming home for good next week and I am beyond excited. But I'll be sticking around that board to help out in any way I can because of the wonderful community there that supported me through the challenges that experience posed. Sandra is a GREAT girl and if she has decided to be part of this board, it MUST be good! So, to all of you who are hurting, stick around and listen to those who have gone before you. It WILL get better and you will be happy again. Trust in yourself and lean on these women when you can't quite manage it on your own.

Good luck to all of you. My one piece of advice would be to FEEL whatever you feel. There is no way to get over it but to walk THROUGH it. Deal with the pain as it comes, and indulge whatever you are feeling at the time. Treat yourself kindly and take it one day at a time.

Hugs (AND CONGRATS SANDRA!!!)

-Michelle :)

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2005
Thu, 06-22-2006 - 12:53am

Yay Sandra!! I am SO happy you are the CL over here. It is SO helpful to have you on two different boards. I really did not want to join this board (no offense ladies). What I mean is I wish my guy did not break up with me. I am happy to be around ladies that understand and are feeling the same thing that I am.

Congrats Sandra!!

Shelly/20/TX

Photobucket
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-10-2003
Thu, 06-22-2006 - 9:23am

hey congrats, Sandra!

You do always give awesome, insightful and level-headed advice. It's good to know you stepped up to become a cl. How nice of you.

Keep up the good work... :)

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-04-2006
Fri, 06-23-2006 - 1:31pm

Congratulations Sandra! :-)

Erin