Dunder Mifflin, the zany, small-town paper company that captured America’s hearts since 2005, has closed it doors for the last time. Last night, in the season finale of The Office, one of the funniest TV comedies of all time, fans were not disappointed as we laughed, cried and flashed back over 9 seasons of heart-warming hilarity. Just like any great finale, it provided its devoted audience with closure to open-ended story lines and sneak peeks into the character’s lives once the cameras turn off. Between the retrospective that aired first and then the season finale, there were of course countless zingers, and almost as many lumps in the throat.

From Meredith’s son stripping at Angela’s Bachelorette Party to Ryan and Kelly hobbling off into the sunset, we were reminded why The Office has been a fan favorite for so many years running.

My favorite quotes from the finale:

• “If you film anybody long enough they’re going to do something stupid.” – Kevin Malone
• “Michael, You came.” “That’s what she said.” – Michael Scott
• “A stripper is only as good as his music” – Meredith Palmer
• “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good ol’ days before you’ve actually left them.” – Andy “Nard Dog” Bernard
• “There’s a lot of beauty in ordinary things. Isn’t that kinda the point?” – Pam Beesley Halpert
• “It would just make my heart soar if someone out there saw this and she said to herself, ‘be strong, trust yourself, love yourself, conquer your fears, just go after what you want, and act fast because life just isn’t that long.’” – Pam Beesley Halpert

With so many moments of side-splitting comedy over the years, I thought it would be difficult to pick my favorite moment. And then I remembered

This is a sponsored post, written by me, on behalf of the American Cancer Society.

The first person I knew, or at least remember knowing, to have cancer was a family-friend and neighbor, Norma Shiner. She lived a few houses down from the house we moved into when I was 8 years old. My mom and Norma clicked instantaneously and within months Norma, who at the time was battling breast cancer, convinced my mom to serve with her on the board of the American Cancer Society.

To me, at that time, the American Cancer Society was just another nonprofit that my mom helped out with her party-planning and fundraising skills, and cancer was just a 5 letter word that affected other people, not me. Nevertheless, I knew it was an important cause and I knew my mom was donating her time and energy to a worthwhile cause.

It wasn’t until I was 29 years old, when my dad was given 2 months to live, that the 5-letter word “cancer”, became a 4 letter word, and the American Cancer Society became more to me than just another non-profit.

I’ll never forget hearing the word cancer in regards to my dad, the numbness that took over my legs and mind and spirit. Then again, a few years later, about my sister, and then a few years later, about my best friend

My sister Marci holding me as a baby

Seven years ago today, just five years after my dad died, my half-sister Marci died from cancer. She was only 50 years old.

She and I were not very close. Not by choice, but more so because we didn’t have the time or opportunity to really know each other. Sixteen years separated us by age and, for most of our lives, we either lived in different homes (she with her mom and me with our dad) or in different cities completely. Nevertheless, in looking back, I think we had more in common than we ever discovered. We shared a similar dry sense of humor, which we got from our dad, a love of movies and theater, which we got from our dad, and an affection for wine, which we also got from our dad. I think about her often, especially when I hear certain songs or drive by certain places in San Diego that I know she used to love, and I long to hear her boisterous laugh just one more time.

Mostly, when I think about her, I think about the advice she gave me right before she died. I was five months pregnant with my first daughter, and she told me, in our final heart-to-heart, that a lot people were going to have opinions on the way I would parent, and that there would be a lot of outside forces trying to tell me what to do when it came down to my kid(s). Her advice to me was to take what people had to say in stride, but to ultimately quiet those voices and listen to my heart.  She said,

“You will know what to do.”

I haven’t had to make too many big decisions with my kids yet, except what to name them and most recently, whether or not to red-shirt them for Kindergarten, but I always keep her words close and know that when I have a fork in the road of my parenting I need to quiet the outside voices and listen to my heart. I will know what to do.

Thank you, sis, for those words of strength and courage. An invaluable gift that I’m not even sure you know you gave me.

I pass these same words on to other women who are expecting their first baby, and I pass them on now to Marci’s daughter who just had her second child.

Tonight I will toast to my gregarious, fun-loving sister Marci, as well as her two daughters, her grandkids she never got to meet, and her two other sisters who I know miss her terribly, with some chardonnay in my favorite wine glass that she gave me before she died.

I guess she knew me better than I thought she did.

I’ve said many times that I am glad I did not grow up in this generation of smart phones, social media and cyber-everything. I don’t even want to think about what embarrassing things I would have posted on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, or any of the myriad sharing sites, and, more importantly, what other people would have posted about me.

Raising kids in this digital era, however, is just as terrifying because now it is my little girls I have to worry about: their safety, their self-esteem, their image and their future.

A few years ago, my husband worked as a video producer for an Internet safety company and through him, I learned a lot about the various dangers with the Internet. Predators, identity theft and cyber-bullying are the most common issues, but really, it seems like new dangers are being discovered every day, like the catfishing of Manti Te’o and dangerous video memes like the Cinnamon Challenge.

On this week’s Ask the Moms segment on Fox, we’ll be talking about this subject, so I wanted to write some of the tips I learned from my husband and his former company:

• Become well versed in social media and technology. Parents need to understand the social media outlets and technology just as much as their kids. You don’t have to have your own accounts, but at least you should still understand how they all work. You should also be aware of the all the dangers yourself so you can talk to them about what they are getting their .
• Monitor your kids usage of their iDevices. Yes, that means snoop on them. Actually, it’s not snooping if you tell up front that you will be monitoring their, texts, emails, tweets, posts, Instagrams, pins, vlogs and Internet history, DAILY if needed.
• Talk to your kids about what they’re doing online. Have frequent, open dialogues about the dangers and  repercussions of various actions, like posting inappropriate pictures or sending slanderous, profanity-filled emails to your sorority sisters.
• Set a good example. Don’t be on the phone at the dinner table, don’t send heated emails when you are angry, don’t post inappropriate photos of yourself or your kids. Bath photos are cute and all, but remember the old saying that “Everything on the Internet ends up as porn.”
• Don’t be naive. You may have a very trustworthy kid, but even if you trust your own child with a iPhone at a young age, you still can’t control what they might inadvertently find or what their mischievous friends might get them to do. Be sure to put parental controls on the phone and consider taking it at night and/or during homework and dinner times.

Fellow blogger, Amy Lupold Bair, of Resourceful Mommy just published Raising Digital Families for Dummies.

In the book she “walks you through creating a digital family policy,” which is basically, setting the rules and expectations and consequences with regards to technology and social media for your household. I think that is a brilliant idea and will definitely be doing that with my children.

I even have a copy of Raising Digital Families for Dummies to giveaway to one lucky reader!

Just leave a comment telling me some of the ways you manage technology and the use of social media in your household and a random winner will be selected on Tuesday, May 7th, 2013. Deadline to enter is Monday, May 6th at 11:59 PST.

UPDATE: Both of our Ask the Moms segments from today, Tuesday, April 30th touched on several of these topics and can be seen on the Fox site.

Ask the Moms Part 1 – Social Media and kids, iPhones and kids, and Naked pictures and kids.

Ask the Moms Part 2 – Dissecting Instagram #BeautyPageants, banning homework and the controversial, profane letter from a Delta Gamma president. 

Soap Opera fans everywhere want to hear this news!

All My Children and One Life to Live are BACK, and they are steamier than ever. Now, after a 19 month hiatus, two of the most beloved daytime soaps are returning, thanks to our friend, the world wide web (and the Online Network).  Beginning at Midnight on Monday, April 29^th, new, racier episodes of both ALM and OLTL can be seen on Hulu, iTunes, and Hulu+.

I was a HUGE fan of both of these soaps back in my youth (as in, I carried photos of my favorite characters in a plastic photo sleeve with me at all times, and I faked sickness a few times so I could stay home from school to watch them), so I jumped at the chance to watch screener copies of the premiere episodes.

Let me tell you, they did not disappoint. The long dramatic pauses have not lost their magic, and now, since the shows are on the web, the content has A LOT more flexibility (as in, side boobs and profanity).

I can’t reveal what happened in the first episodes, but here is a video of my reactions to some of the new, steamy scenes.

So, now that the suspense is killing you, be sure to check out AMC and OLTL on Hulu, iTunes or Hulu+, stat!

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This is a sponsored post from One2One Network and The Online Network. All opinions stated are my own.

From as early as I can remember, my mother has been chairing fundraisers and social events for various organizations, such as the American Cancer Society, the Navy League and the USO. I inherited my event planning chops from her, in addition to my (over)zealous laugh and my (over)active tear ducts.

This past weekend I was able to witness my mom at work, yet again, when she and her husband, Jim, co-chaired the annual USO Gala that I wrote about yesterday. I watched her as she worked the room like the quintessential social butterfly that she is, and then listened as various party guests relayed to me how much they love, respect and admire her. All I could do was nod my head in agreement to the outpouring of compliments since I know first hand how true all those compliments are. I have loved, respected, and admired her for my entire life.

I often wonder if I tell her enough how much she means to me. How she inspires me. And how happy it makes me when someone tells me that I remind them of her.

I spend a lot of time lamenting the loss of my dad, but I am not sure I spend enough time praising and uplifting my mom. So, with Mother’s Day coming up, I was excited to find a way to tell her exactly how I feel (you know, besides writing this blog post about her). I just learned of a company called cardstore.com where I can create a greeting card, personalize it with a photo, an original message and my own signature, but have them make, stamp and send it. Boom!

They gave me a coupon code to try one out for Mother’s Day and it was like a virtual jaunt down a card aisle at CVS, but I didn’t have to put make-up or a bra on. It’s a perfect combination for those of us who are now accustomed to shopping online but also remember the “good old days” of sending and receiving peronalized cards in the mail. Though there is no actual putting on of make-up, nor moving my body up and down the