Annie has big news!

Thanks for waiting. Here is my big news:

It looks like I am going to need a new t-shirt for the Fruita Fall Festival!

It turns out, "I'm a big an even BIGGER deal around here!"

Last week I went to lunch with my friend Allyson, (She's moving and I'm super sad.) her sister, Adi (who is looking super hot), Adi's daughter (who loves the movie "Annie" therefore she loves me), Allyson's mom (one of the most powerful women in the Grand Valley), and Allyson's mom's friend. (Lost yet?)

At lunch Allyson's mom told her friend that I write for the Charm page (the women's page in the Daily Sentinel). To which her friend responded,

"Isn't the Charm page about to go through the a big change?"

(I'm like, wah? I thought you worked for the Heart Association. How come you know more about my job than I do?)

Not wanting to look like I was the last to know, I replied.

"Well, yes, they are going to re-tool and make it more relevant."

I thought it was a good cover, but I was actually way off base.

This news made me really nervous. I didn't know how much writing my column meant to me until I thought it might be coming to an end. I stewed over this for a couple of days until I got a call from my editor. She said, in fact, the Charm page was coming to an end. It will be replaced by a photo page.

BUT, because my column is "extremely popular" (her words not mine) they would like to move me to the Home and Garden section!

Home and Garden?! Wah? Then I realized that the Home and Garden section is in the weekend edition. They aren't burying me. They are promoting me! The Saturday edition has way more readership than the Thursday edition!

So that's it! That's my big news. I hope you are not disappointed. I'm not. I am really excited for the change. Of course, I will continue to put the Internet links to my column for you out-of-towners, so you can keep up with me.

I know that words in general have been few and far between on my blog lately. It's hard to imagine by all the weird Idol pics and video logs that this blogger is actually a paid writer, but it's true. I save up all my words for The Daily Sentinel and the Denver Post blog. I would like to think I am forever-flowing fountain of creativity, but there is a limit to what I can produce.

Here is the text of my last and final column for the Charm page.

Hi Mom. Hi Dad. Hi Frank. Sometimes I think my parents and Frank, my favorite checker at City Market, are the only people who read my column.

There has to be more than that, after all I have been writing for the Charm page for a year now.

I keep writing my column and Ann Wright keeps putting it in. She’s good like that.

I know I’m not controversial like Gary Harmon. Well, except for the time that I had the gall to suggest that Vans weren’t appropriate footwear for a professional environment. Can you believe the nerve of me?

No, I am not controversial, I am just Annie. I write about traumatizing my twins, living with a Secret Agent Man, Bollywood movies, globe-trotting, well, globe-tripping in my case.

Do you recall my column about the vision I had complete with angels and devils when I saw the red front-loading washer and dryers for the first time at Lowe's? Or the two-part column about the time I switched our dead pet hamster for a live one without my kids knowing? That was a goody.

People, and by people I mean my parents and Frank, often ask me where I get the ideas for my column. I tell ya, I’m brilliant at two o’clock in the morning. When it’s quiet and dark in my house that is when I come up with my best stuff.

I have a little notebook next to my bed where I write down all my ideas. Fortunately, Secret Agent Man is a heavy sleeper and doesn’t mind the lamp clicking on and off 3 and 4 times a night.

But, then the sun rises and the reality filter shines a bright light on my “brilliance” from the night before, it ends up that only a third of what I write in the middle of the night is actually good. But hey, one-third, that’s not bad odds, I’ll take it. If you like one out of the three columns I write that’s good enough for me.

Now, more than a year after the conception of the Charm page it is coming to an end. But, before you go and cancel your subscription, you should know that you will now be able to find me in the Saturday edition on the Home and Garden page.

I am so excited about this change. My greatest passion is for my family and making our house a home for them. To be able to share with you my ideas, successes, and some missteps in homemaking is going to be a wonderful journey and dare I say, a piece of cake?

So, if you’re out there and you like what you read, follow me to the Home and Garden page. We will keep the conversation going and leave a comment box on each of my columns at GJSentinel.com, so you can leave your own ideas, comments, and criticisms.

Just be gentle, I’m really sensitive. Remember, I cry at hamster funerals.

But, for the love of Dick Maynard, please don’t leave me all alone, just let me know you’re out there.

Mom, Dad, Frank and I thank you for it.