Brave Heart, Brave Soul. She who is brave is free.

“When we get to the end of our lives together, the house we had, the cars we drove, the things we possessed won’t matter. What will matter, is that I had you, and you had me.” ~ Unknown Let’s be honest. My life’s been an adventure. From the moment I was born, l was handed a passport and a suitcase full of wacky and whimsical shenanigans. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t off on an escapade somewhere or juggling uncertainty. Sure, I was born a free-spirit, but I was also raised to question everything, explore the outlands and venture out past the limit signs. While I was growing up my parents seemed to be restless souls to me with a little bit of gypsy in their hearts, traveling all around the world together.   Now I gotta tell y'all within seconds of taking my first breath, mama and daddy welcomed their baby girl into what was a small, but inclusive adventurers club. After all, adventure was out there. And if it was calling our names, you can bet we were go...

"We are praying that you make it through the rain. I know nothing's gonna break the will of Houston. Oh, and we can't wait to go down there again" ~ Coldplay It's funny when I was a little girl I loved thunderstorms. I might've jumped back a time or two listening to the lighting crackle across the sky or hide when the  sound of the thunder came crashing in  a little too close for comfort. Still my mama was always there soothing my fears. assuring me everything was going to be OK. When fear crept in she held me tight, wrapped me up in her arms and whispered a prayer of peace in my ear.  My love for the rain comes from my mom. All these years later, she still loves listening to the rain beat down on the top of the roof when she's sleeping.  When I was small, I 'd listen to the rain falling and smile. It was beautiful, peaceful and magical almost. Rainy days meant coloring books, paint by numbers, and listening to as many Disney records as my ...

“Strength grows in the moments when you think you can’t go on but you keep going anyway.” ~Anonymous In this last post for October, I just want to say how humbled I am to share my thoughts, my stories and my life with you. This blog started out as a means to cope, to deal with cancer and to fight back. Little did I know back then not only would I survive breast cancer but I’d also develop a voice of my own along the way. In finding my voice and in battling the big C, I’ve come to understand the deeper meaning in Marianne Williamson’s words, “Something very beautiful happens to people when their world has fallen apart: a humility, a nobility, a higher intelligence emerges at just the point when our knees hit the floor.” My knees did indeed hit the floor but today, October 31, 2016, some 10 years since cancer came for me I have emerged stronger. I sit here in awe, blessed and grateful to be able to call myself a SURVIVOR. Ten years ago this past December I found a lump in my...

Stepping back and looking at my life, the story most woven into my soul are the imprints of my children.   Once with tiny feet, and small hands inside mine, now they wrap theirs around my own aging hands protectively, walking beside me strong and tall, towering over my small frame these days. My boys, almost 18 and 15, are becoming more like men every day, no longer babies anymore, but grown, independent young men, living side by side with Johnny and me as equals. When I say life has been one big, at times overwhelming test of faith and bravery for these two, it’s no joke. I’m struggling to even find the words to begin to express the hurdles in a nutshell in which life has thrown their way. Preschool brought the near loss of their Nana, due to heart issues, who is one of the most incredible forces of unconditional love and spiritual influence in their lives. In grade school life handed them the fear of losing their mother to breast cancer followed by the diagnosis of prost...

Sometimes life just goes off course, and I don’t mean by a little bit. No, I mean the kind of day when you land in the under construction zone, skid into the ditch, have a blown tire because you failed to see the curb or take the wrong exit all because you missed yours three signs back kind of bad day. Not a flat tire, take a U-turn, get back on the highway kind of day, nope I mean, a total collision, ejection, skidding on the pavement, followed by your gas tank exploding kind of day. These are the kind of days, maybe even months when you know you have been completely thrown off course, your break lines cut, careening full throttle towards a brick wall. These are the times you smack your head with both hands because you have no control of your approaching and seemingly impending doomed future. This wall of distress, doubt and dread seems impossible to get around, without an escape route anywhere in sight, and all we can do is watch the agony and suffering continue to push full speed...

Do you ever feel your life should have a sign in front of it? Seriously, I sometimes feel like a “Caution: Children Texting” sign needs to be invested in at our home or how about “Leaving Normal” for right outside the driveway? If we had road signs available for all of life’s exists, they would be pretty much something like this: New Life, Old Life, Success, Failure, Right Way, Wrong Way, Changes, Choices, Decisions and Oops! Wow, I’m out of breath just thinking about all of those road signs. Moment of truth: Life with kids can feel beyond navigation sometimes. Personally, my road sign needs to say: “Welcome to My Life, Viewer Discretion Advised”. The truth is I have exited an off ramp in my life and I am now entering a totally unknown, very much “are we there yet”, “do I have to”, and “you expect me to go where?” kind of on ramp. Seriously, the signs are a bit fuzzy if you ask me. I don't want to say it, nope, I don’t even want to have to admit it or accept this new pl...

I have been in remission from breast cancer for over four years now. I honestly don’t think about " the how long" much. I don’t have huge celebrations; in fact birthdays even kinda slip past me too. I have never been a looking backwards kind of girl, instead I am always moving forward, a pressing on kind of girly girl is more like it.  I guess you could say this kind of crazy thinking insured my daily mental survival during my initial diagnosis of breast cancer, treatment and follow up care. I have only one picture of my bald head and one of me ringing out of chemo. Most of the pictures during my battle with breast cancer show everything in between really. I never actually slowed down; in fact I think maybe I pushed the gas pedal a little too hard if we are going to keep it real!  Honestly I wish I had more photos from those days so I could share them with you, to remember. Maybe if I had stopped to celebrate each and every victory I would have more pictures to share, but I...

Over this last weekend my parents treated the whole family to Disney’s Tangled. After checking times and deciding which theater we were going to Johnny and I made our way with kids in tow to meet my parents at our local mall on Sunday. Truthfully it has been a while since we have all been to the movies so I was very excited about this little adventure of ours. You know how it goes… the giant movie posters lined up in a row, the smell of popcorn and the excitement of grabbing the best seats in the house makes going to the movies a real adventure for most of us. So with our tickets, popcorn and drinks in hand we found our seats and waited for the lights to go down so we could be transported to a land far, far away. STOP! Alright you are tangled up in Tangled right? You are asking yourself, with two boys, seriously, a princess movie? Well truthfully it’s not so bad allowing the men in your life a movie from time to time where the hero trips over his own feet, learns a little hum...