Happy August! We hope you enjoyed the July issue of This Awful Awesome Life. Thank you to our incredible writing team for their creativity and hard work.

This month we’re taking a look at poetry. Many claim poetry is a dying art form, but all around us we can see and hear the poetry of life. We scoured the globe to uncover some amazing poets. Be sure to check out Orlando Bartro’s article about poetry, and in honor of those creative teachers who taught us to identify iambic pentameter and encouraged us to write acrostic poems and haikus for every occasion, our August quiz is about poetry.

For back to school, I have a few suggestions about what your child really needs to insure they have a great year and a great life.

We didn’t forget you empty nesters. Jim O’Brien is back with a touching remembrance of how it felt to be a father watching his daughters leaving the nest. In our new movie column, we’re highlighting a few of our favorite movies about empty nesters.

Terry Kish and Corey Flynn are on vacation, but before she left, Cory hooked us up with some amazing lay articles from students at the University of Pittsburgh Nutrition and Dietetics program. Gail Neustadt is also taking some time off, but she will be back in September with some more tips for green living.

Linda Cahill and her husband Joe are celebrating one year embracing the Vegan lifestyle and they’ve agreed to share a few tips they have learned on their journey. Plus, Linda is sharing some quick and easy breakfast recipes and cooking tips from The Pampered Chef to help get your family off to school and work.

We have a Q&A with Kim Epp Frenette writer, entrepreneur and inventor of the TuckTop, the first top with hidden pockets to lets you nix the purse and be hands free without an unsightly fanny pack or bulging pants pockets.

We have some recommendations for your end of summer reading list as well as our Author’s Page with great books from some of the authors we have featured in This Awful Awesome Life.

If you follow us on Facebook, which you should, I’m sure you know Sam Sayers, the daughter of my friend and fellow cancer survivor, Lisa Sayers, (https://www.thisawfulawesomelife.com/home/2017/10/14/still-dancing-in-the-rain-by-fran-joyce-with-contributions-from-lisa-sayers-and-susan-veitch?rq=Lisa%20Sayers)

has been missing since August 1, when she failed to return from a solo hike at Vesper Peak near Seattle, Washington. Sam is an experienced hiker who was familiar with Vesper Peak. The Snohomish sheriff’s department and SAR volunteers have been searching tirelessly to find her. The Sayers family is from Girard, Pennsylvania (the Erie area) where Sam grew up before attending the University of New York - Fredonia to study theater arts. Sam relocated to the Seattle area for work. Please keep thinking positive thoughts for Sam, her family and the Snohomish sheriff’s department and SAR volunteers, and if you are a person of faith, please pray for her safe return to her family. Because we are an online publication, we will update this article and our Facebook page with any news about her rescue. You can also visit a special Facebook page #findsamsayers for information and ways to donate to help keep search efforts going. Please be sure any comments you leave are positive and kind. This is an incredibly stressful time for her family.

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Enjoy,

Fran