My Story

WELCOME…

First, let me say welcome and thanks for stopping by. I hope that you will stay a while. DIG IN… Look around…  I hope that you will reach out so that I have the opportunity to get to know YOU as well.

This blog has been an on again, off again space for a long time now. I trust that you have found it in God’s timing. His is always better than ours. It’s a place where I let you in on the things that excite me. You will find out a lot about my passions, my hopes, my accomplishments and yes even my failures, my loss and my disappointments.

Most  of my life have been filled with much fun, great friendships and MUCHO “happy times”, but I have also experienced some not so happy times.   I’ve experienced the  pain of miscarriage, the agony and judgement of divorce , the death of many love ones ( including my husband) and found myself deep in a battle with depression many years ago.   I want to share with you just how God has shown up in my life over and over again to bring me peace and understanding.

Life can change in the blink of an eye. If you haven’t experienced that yet HOLD ON cause you will. 

LOSS AND LOVE….

I  Lost my birth father at the young age of 15 but was given the wonderful gift of an amazing STEP FATHER many years later.  I have an amazing SON and three grandchildren who keep life fun. Lost my daughter n law three years ago after a life time battle with diabetes. I had the privilege of caring for my mother and my step father in their later years yet experienced the anguish of losing them both. I lost my Mother in 2009 and then  lost my sweet sister to cancer after a courageous battle in 2011 , then in December 2013 I lost my step father very unexpectedly.  I was thinking “God , this is enough”, yet in December of 2014 I lost my sweet husband, Dennis. During the 23 years of our marriage he taught me many things.   Patience, kindness, peace beyond peace and above all… what true love really looked like in many years.

I’ve never felt the kind of emotional pain that came with the GRIEF of losing him. It was the deepest sadness and hardest challenge of my life.  I have walked through this valley yet been very transparent about it… It was  very scary . Looking back several years later I realized God had used it to bring  me new strength , renewed faith and  he had given me life lessons to share with others in their pain. 

His unexpected death changed me.

Grief taught me that I am broken but brave, hurt but hopeful, and sometimes fearful but always faithful.

My grandmother taught me as a young girl that the simplest pleasures in life make the fondest memories.  That could be baking a cake, playing cards, planting flowers, catching lightening bugs, reading a book and walking in the woods.  The woods to this day are one of my “happy” places.  (Wild flowers, little creatures, sun gaze coming through a cluster of trees, the smell of dirt and Oh the adventure.)

Losing those you love makes you appreciate the little things in life more than you ever knew possible.

I hope as I share parts of my “life” journey that you will find hope from my lessons of loss and learn to truly love and live life thru the plan that God has for you.

The journey of the last few years has brought me back to my love for wellness and writing. The ultimate goal for each of us should be to live WELL from the inside out. The first thing  is to know that GOD has created YOU to thrive, not just survive. I hope that as you hang out with me you will find encouragement and inspiration for your own life.

 A Little BACKSTORY…..

I believe that hindsight truly is 20/20. I can sure look back and see where God had been preparing me for this part of my Journey.  It was through these disappointments-loss and change that  I realized that I don’t need to keep looking for the perfect life, but just keep whole heartedly seeking the perfect God.

Many years ago I stopped making New Years resolutions. I found they usually faded away.   In about 2012 I began praying for a word  from God each year.  It would be a word that I could apply to my life for the next year. It may sound odd but it has held true for me. If you’ve never tried it I challenge you to do so.

In  mid 2013 God had given me the word Simplify. I thought, “Now God that is such a crazy word for me.” My life was anything but simple. ”  I was bouncing many balls at that time being a full-time wedding photographer, serving at my church, serving on community committees and spending time with grandkids.  Little did I know just how simple life would become. In December of 2013 I experienced  an unexpected retinal detachment.  Going into 2014 I faced a couple of eye surgeries and finally got some vision back.  Truth is though I realized that my days as a wedding photographer were coming to a close. I was heart broken.

What was I to do??

I have worked in some form or fashion since I was fifteen. It started out as an after school thing then years later I found myself raising my son alone. At one point when he was little I was attending nursing school during the day and working at night to make ends meet. I was meeting myself coming and going. I found myself very stressed  and simply worn out.  I was met with a lot of challenges during those years and learned to become an overachiever which then led to becoming a workaholic. You will stretch yourself to new lengths in everything when you only have YOU to depend on.  Survivor Syndrome  if you will.

Moving forward through the years, working at that pace, became a stumbling block for me. I became very self sufficient, really didn’t trust anyone and pushed myself to the point of exhaustion.  I realize now most of those actions from fear driven.  Fear was something I worked hard on through  the years. FEAR is nothing more than  False Evidence Appearing Real.   BUT GOD…. He made a way along every step of the way when I didn’t know there was a WAY.

WHEN THINGS CHANGED…

In July of 2014 Dennis and I celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary. He had worked off-shore since we had met and in November 2014 he left for his usual hitch. It was back to work as usual. ( or so I thought).  A couple weeks went by and it was about 6  days before he was to return home I got a phone call leaving church that Sunday afternoon that would change my life forever.  I got the call that he had been air-lifted off the rig for a medical emergency.  ( what do you mean… he wasn’t sick when he left home)    Long story short 30 hours later they were flying him from Trinadad to Ft. Lauderdale Florida to a medical center for what they called ” a chance of recovery”.   ( back story) His company flew  me and his Son to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida  to meet the incoming plane.  They had told me that the flight would take about 5 hours but that turned  into an almost 9 hour flight. We had been taken to the ER of the hospital where they were bringing him and finally at approximately 11:46 pm we got word they had landed.  They placed us in a small side room by the ER entrance and said to make ourselves comfortable.” They should be arriving soon.”

EVERYTHING CHANGED.  The tone in the ER, my heart rate, and fear was rising.  That room seemed so small and the clock on the wall seemed to come to life with tick tock, tick tock.  The next thing I remember was the sound of the emergency room doors pulling apart and what sounds like a herd of horses running in our direction.  They brought him past us in a full blown code and  everything seemed to go into slow motion. Minutes turned into seconds and then everything WENT STILL.   A Nurse shoved us back into our little room and the next thing I really remember was the medical team coming in and telling me he didn’t make it.  My body went rigid, my mind began to spin and I was screaming from my inner core, “someone please wake me up and tell me this is a dream.”  “Someone please make the madness STOP.” In that instant, I can’t ever remember feeling SO alone and SO scared in my life.

We left Florida  the next morning. FLEW back to NOLA where my car was and made the drive home. The truth is I hardly remember boarding that plane.

GOD SHOWS UP BIG…..

During the heights of my grief journey I struggled for several weeks with praying and talking to God. I wasn’t mad at God but I found myself paralyzed, feeling alone and simply trying to breathe. One Sunday afternoon after going to church I found myself in our big ole quiet house alone.  I mean really alone.  Truthfully I felt pretty hopeless. I remember making my way to my bed  and climbed in on top of the covers.  ( I had not been near my bed since his death).  I remember gathering up my pillows, burying my head and sobbing for what seemed  like hours. GRIEF is a monster. The pain  was so deep and paralyzing. I remember crying  out to GOD.   It was a personal time with God that I had never encountered before. In that moment God began to open my heart and minister to me.

In that moment LIFE changed…..

Laying there feeling helpless and hopeless …….I knew I had a choice to make. 

After what seemed like an eternity this still soft voice said, ” I got you… Come to me, lean on me, depend on me and I will see you through.”   Sometimes it is in the darkest of moments that God rushes in, rescues us and holds us close.. It was the first time in months I felt a glimpse of HOPE.

They say when God closes a door he opens a window and he has BUT don’t say that to people when they lose someone.  HONESTLY…. those cliche’s were like a burr in my saddle at times.

Over the next couple of years God made way for a lot of personal growth and a much deeper faith walk  in my life. I obtained my Certification as a 200-Hr Christian Yoga Teacher with a speciality in Trauma Sensitive training, lead a couple of women’s bible studies, spent time ministering to people, life coaching and began writing again. Writing is actually something I’ve loved since I was a little girl.  I was blessed in the fall of 2025 to be a part of a writing project with Hope Writers. I am one of 10 authors in a new book they have just published called “My Hope Story.” Volume one. Guess what that story is about.. You got it loss and love. 

Isaiah 40:31 is one of my favorite bible verses.  “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

YOU ARE SPECIAL…

I want you to know that God has a purpose and a plan for your life and that there is nothing too big for God.  I have also found new “JOY”.  I got re-married four years ago to an amazing man. Joe… He is an encourager in his own right and he makes me laugh and showers me with his love everyday.  We truthly are a great team. We have a precious golden doodle “COCO” and she rules our lives.  Or so she thinks she does. ha

I hope that you will join me as I encourage you to create more in your life by becoming your happiest, healthiest, authentic YOU.

Come Back Often… XO XO XO