About

So what's it all about? What am I all about? Why am I doing this? I want to write. I love writing. Well, I guess I should say I love having written. The process of writing brings out my natural lazy side ... I'd rather be eating cookies or reading or drinking a nice cup of tea, to be perfectly honest. But, here's this blog, and here are all these ideas swimming in my head needing a place to jump the dam.

I'm a 31-year-old mommy to a squishy-sweet 9-month-old beauty. Her daddy's name is Robert ... Good, strong rock of a name for the man who keeps me clear, positive, and focused. READ: The man tolerates no foolishness. This incites great mental gymnastics for me because I am extremely prone to foolishness, of the drama queen, slam-the-door-in-your-face-because-your-opinion-differs-from-mine variety. So he tries really hard to be patient with me. And I try really hard to keep my head from exploding. My darling baby inspires me to be a better wife, mom, citizen, human. I stay home with her and my cockapoo, Pippin. My days are always full of excitement ... cleaning, cooking, laundry, eating, sleeping, breathing ... I love it. My only responsibilities are to keep the house clean and the baby happy and healthy.

I grew up in Colorado, lived there until I went off to college, and proudly root for all the sports teams. I'd like to live there again someday and I'd like for my kid(s) to call it home. I graduated from Green Mountain High School in Lakewood. I played baritone then trumpet in the marching band, pep band, concert band, and pit orchestra, sang soprano in four different choirs, played viola in the string orchestra ... I also attended other classes and occasionally did homework.

I ended up at Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska, by the grace of God. I'll post that story one of these days. I earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music. Those four years solidified my commitment to live my life in service to Christ. The spiritual culture there was incredible. I loved my professors, my classes, my fellow students. The school song starts out "I wanna go back to Union again," and it's so true.

After college, I planned to go right back to school to earn my Master's Degree, but out of sheer mental and physical exhaustion, I needed to take a year off before I plunged back in to the books. I volunteered as a task force music teacher in Paradise, California. Ah, Paradise, what a great place to relax. Well, that one year off turned in to three years off when I got a job at Thunderbird Academy in Phoenix. And then I got married and couldn't afford grad school without establishing my California residency, so I took a part time job at Glendale Academy. And in my fifth year of teaching at Glendale, I got pregnant and decided to be a SAHM. So here I am, eight years of teaching under my belt and no Master's Degree. And I've never been happier.

My daughter was born in April of 2012. My labor was amazing, delivery was a breeze, and the first three months were the most difficult of my life. I felt like I was watching my life from a theater box. I could not shake the fog of post-partum depression. Finally, when my daughter was almost seven months old, I told my husband that I needed help, or I was going to end up dead or in a mental hospital. I started seeing a counselor. She asked me to make a list of things that would make me happy. I couldn't think of a single thing. I mean, sure, I thought of things I wanted to do, but I knew that the only way I was going to be happy was if I decided to be happy. So one day, I told Robert I didn't want to fight with him anymore, and I started praying. It's been a little over a month, and we really have only argued once or twice. And that decision to be happy? The best decision I ever made.

And then, this blog. I had a lame blog once upon a time, but I hadn't updated it since I got engaged. Plus, I was stupid and young and ... Just, ugh. In high school, sophomore year was the year of the Big Chief. Everyone had to write at least 12 pages a week in these tablets, about anything we wanted, and at the end of the year we compiled them into a big notebook full of thoughts and stories. I remember how easy it was to fill those pages, how cathartic it was to write, and how rewarding it was to go back and see all I had written. Well, I guess this blog is my new Big Chief.

I hope you enjoy my random musings, I hope I can make you smile a little, I hope to inspire someone, maybe you, to write your own story and learn a little about yourself in the process.