Hi everyone. I'm Sparkling, I did say hi in the intro section, but didn't type out my "back story" so I decided to do it here for those who want a good read. I'm 43 (44 in Nov.) and a full-time working mom of 2 boys, 12 and 14, who keep me pretty busy. I am a project manager for large scale flight projects, have my master's degree, and am living a whole new life now. LOL

I divorced my ex-husband when we were just shy of our 20 year wedding anniversary. I told him I was leaving him for good. I could forgive a lot in our marriage, the lies, the women, the excessive spending, putting his friends first, ignoring me and my needs... all for the sake of keeping our family in tact for our children... but as my kids are getting into their teen years, I could no longer tolerate the drug abuse. The Ex and I have an amicable relationship and have managed to stay pretty friendly for the most part. I mean, don't get me wrong, if I didn't have kids with him, I'd never speak to him again... but since we do, I am not a petty person and try to make the best of any situation, even when the odds seem stacked against me.

My relationship with him left me very broken inside - I'm sure many of you can relate with how we as women look at ourselves and say "what am I doing wrong that is making him treat me this way?" and how hard we work to improve ourselves and our home life, giving in to anything and everything to try to please the person we are supposed to love the most... sigh... It took me a long time to realize I was naive, that it wasn't me that was the problem. The problem was that I was married to a narcissist, and that in itself took me a long time to realize since one would think a narcissist's mannerisms would be over the top boisterous, loud, or cocky. The simple truth of a narcissist is that they are so self-involved that they can't put anyone first but themselves and have no clue how.

Anyway - I met a man through online gaming several years ago. We started out as friends just on the same team playing games... then we built a friendship and since we were so far apart, and had zero friends in common, we could confide in each other. He would give me insight and advice from a man's point of view and I would do the same from a woman's point of view. Before you judge me... I was very open with my at the time husband about the friendship I had with this man, I had nothing to hide. He was so self involved he didn't care as long as I left him alone. When I decided to move us out, I told my friend (my now SO) I could no longer be his friend, that I had to sort out my life. I wished him well and hoped he and his wife could work out their problems. We didn't speak for some time as I believed it was wrong since I was newly single.

After some time had passed, I heard from a mutual friend that he was also getting a divorce and wanted to reach out to me.... we began talking more and video chatting and he asked if he could come out and visit me... it was the most wonderful weekend I'd ever had with a man! He felt so natural and so right. I lacked so many things in my marriage that I didn't realize what I was missing until I met him.

We seen each other in person 6x over the past 8 months and each visit gets better and better. He comes out next week and we are going to Vegas! he's never been, so I'm very excited to show him the sites up there!