Let's Celebrate 2014 Cybils and Saying Good-Bye!

It's time to CELEBRATE This Week with Ruth Ayres from Discover. Play. Build.  Every week Ruth invites us to share our celebrations from the week and link up at her blog. What a fun way to reflect on everything there is to be thankful for. 

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This week I'm celebrating Cybils and Saying Good-Bye!

*throws confetti*

It was great to be part of the 2014 Cybils Awards again! I've learned a lot about book apps from participating as a judge the last two years. We had a great shortlist this year and I'm happy that the winner is a very interactive app that readers will enjoy, Kalley's Machine Plus Cats. 

You can see all of the 2014 Cybils winners here and check out all the Books Apps that were shortlisted here.

The Cybils announcements are kind of bittersweet for me. It's exciting to see what the 2nd round judges picked but it reminds me of being chosen as a 1st round judge, seeing all the apps nominated, redeeming codes, reading the book apps with my kids, and discussing with the other judges. It's fascinating how time moves. I can look forward to something for so long, and then it comes and it's awesome, and then it's gone. I know that's life but sometimes it makes me sad. I tell myself to live in and soak up the moment and then to be happy for all the awesomeness I've experienced in my life. But there have seriously been times when I feel physically sick when something great ends. 

Friday night we went to have dinner at my parents. We picked up Mexican food along the way from a new restaurant a friend recommended. As we ate, we talked about all sorts of things but also plans for the weekend. When it came time to leave, we packed the kids into the car, my husband backed out of the driveway, and I quickly jabbed at the overhead light so my mom would see us wave good-bye. There she was, standing in the front door, holding her dog, waving to us.   

I'm not sure when that tradition started, maybe once I got my driver's license and was leaving home on my own? I know my friend Laura's family used to do it, too. I've always felt like they loved us just that extra tiny bit by waiting to see us off. 

Leaving isn't saying good-bye and closing the door, it's someone waving as you turn out of the driveway and start to make your way down the street. It's someone giving you a hug as you get in the car and then waiting to wave again before you drive out of sight. It's waving as you each get in your cars and then one more time before you turn different directions. It's turning back one more time to smile and wave. 

Time spent together means a lot to me so saying good-bye is hard. This is my little farewell, my attempt to bid adieu to, to wave wholeheartedly at my Cybils family. Somehow that last wave good-bye makes me less sad, makes me believe just a little more that fun and friends and family will come again. 

I'm not really celebrating saying good-bye but instead pointing out how a certain kind of good-bye is worth celebrating. Just remember, if I ever give too many hugs, get teary when it's time to say good-bye, text you one more time...it's only because I love you lots and cherish the time we have together.

What are you celebrating this week?