Some people choose to live life muddled, scared, and defeated. Life does not have to be that way. Life is messy but YOU have a choice of how you want to live. Don’t let life beat you down. Stand up and live it your way.
“You make a choice: continue living your life feeling muddled in this abyss of self-misunderstanding, or you find your identity independent of it. You draw your own box.”
— Duchess Meghan
Photo by Andrey Trush on Unsplash
Sometimes we get wrapped up in what others think we should be doing with our lives. We lose sight of what we really want to do. Through love and inspiration, you can do anything you put your mind to.
“Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.”
— Ella Fitzgerald
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
Today is my little sister’s birthday. She would have been 44 years old. Happy heavenly birthday, little one. It’s hard to believe that it’s been five years, and we haven’t been able to celebrate your birthday together. I know you are here with us everyday (and my session with Medium helped me realize that even more), but it still hurts that I can’t call you up on the phone and hear your voice.
This is a hard day for everyone that knew you, but I know we should celebrate the years we had with you. We need to look back on the memories and cherish all the laughs that we shared. You brightened up a room and our hearts every day.
I know this will be a hard day for my mom. I hope she has a good cry and then goes out doing something she loves to celebrate her giving birth day. She misses you so much. Maybe you can send her an extra sign from Heaven today to let her know how magical it is up there and that you are okay.
Birthdays can be exciting, but they also can be hard. As a little kid you can’t wait to get older! Then as an adult you keep wishing you were younger. (Or at least feel younger!) I feel like sometimes people are reluctant to tell you how old they are especially as that number gets higher. Why? Why should we be embarrassed as to how old we are? Why should we be reluctant to say a number of how many times we’ve been around the sun? My message to you is be loud and be proud of that number because there are some people who never get to celebrate that day.
My dear sister, we love you more than you will know and miss you twice as much. Life on Earth is hard without you but as you know we can’t quit living because of you dying. We know you’d love to be here with us but your calling came early and you were needed in Heaven. I know the best way to honor you is to live our lives with happiness, with grace, and with kindness. The best way to honor you is to let our hearts shine as yours did.
Love and miss you, little one, happy birthday!
April 2023 will forever hold a special place in my heart. We had the pleasure of hosting my brother-in-law, his girlfriend, our niece, and nephew at our home in Fort Myers. I was so excited they were coming for spring break. I hadn’t seen the kids since Christmas, and I couldn’t wait.
We had so much fun with them. They got here on my Birthday, which is the best present that I could have wished for. They were tired of being in the car and ready to swim. They immediately jumped in the pool wasting no time sitting in the house. After a while, we decided to open my presents by the pool. We Facetimed with my mom who was enjoying a mini vacation of her own with her cousin out in Las Vegas. I got a new driver and two new hybrids for golfing and a bottle of tequila. Perfect presents and a wonderful start to Spring Break.
That evening we went to a country concert at an outdoor venue called “Alliance for the Arts“. It’s a great place for concerts and any outdoor event. Plus, it was right down the road so we took the golf cart and two bicycles. It was a fun ride there and home! The bands were really good. They had Hayden Coffman, Cody Cozz, Drew Parker, and Kayley Bishop. Great up-and-coming artists. We danced and laughed and talked.
When we got home the kids decided it was time for a night swim. We could hardly keep them out of the pool. Once they got out we had some birthday ice cream and a Bailey’s and chocolate vodka nightcap. Jeff’s specialty (next to his famous margaritas). The kids were exhausted and went to bed. The adults decided it was time to sing on the two karaoke microphones my friend Dani sent me for my birthday. We stayed up way too late but had so much fun!
I don’t think my niece was very happy with us (for keeping her up with our singing) but it was a great beginning to our week. The next day we loaded up the bicycles in the truck and went down to Fort Myers beach. We rode around and showed them some of the devastation of Hurricane Ian. We played at the beach and swam in the Gulf. The kids had a great time as did we. We rode the bikes back over the bridge and then of course had to stop at the Love Boat for ice cream!
The kids got back in the pool when we got home. It was an early night because we wanted to get up and get on the boat the next day. We packed sandwiches and snacks and got out on the boat. We went to Sanibel Island and anchored off shore. My brother-in-law found some sand dollars which are all over the Gulf floor. We tried to go to Lover’s Key but the tide was too strong and it was still closed from the Hurricane.
We rode around the backside of Fort Myers beach and saw a huge stingray jump straight up and out of the water! We saw dolphins and they even played in our wake for a few minutes. It was another beautiful day on the boat.
Overall, it was a great spring break. We played card games and Rumikub. The kids swam all hours in the pool. We had so much fun giggling, laughing and getting to know each other better. I hope to make this spring break an annual event. (just hoping my brother-in-law feels the same way!) Maybe one day we can have the kids down for Camp Aunt Stacy!
Happy Birthday, America! Today, we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain. Our forefathers fought for our freedoms and today we recognize our lucky we are to live in the United States of America.
Most of us will celebrate by having the day off of work. We will eat hamburgers and hot dogs because that’s the American way. We will probably have a beer or two to celebrate the day off and the freedom we have to have a beer anytime we want to.
For the past two years, my Prince and I celebrated July 4th with friends on Lake Anna in Virginia. They have a wonderful fireworks display every year, and we were blessed enough to be out on a boat looking up at these amazing lights.
This year we also spent the holiday weekend on the water. Our friends took us out on their boat Saturday and out on jet skies on Sunday. This time we were in the great state of Wisconsin. We got to experience the water of Green Bay and saw the vastness of Lake Michigan. It is amazing how big the Great Lakes are.
The shoreline around Green Bay was amazing. It was full of rocks, limestone, cliffs and beautiful houses. My Rock and I had a great time on the water. I had not been on water skies in over 30 years, but I was able to pop right up! It makes me appreciate our lifestyle. We try to eat well and stay in shape (make sure you check out my recipes and workouts) so that we can do these activities even if we only get the opportunity once every few years!
Overall, our time in Green Bay was pretty amazing. We saw some great sunsets, had some good laughs, and spent some quality time with friends. We saw Egg Harbor, Door County, Fish Creek, as well as other stops along the way. Thank you friends for the wonderful weekend!
If you haven’t heard, last Thursday we started our trek out west where we will spend some time in Park City, Utah. We spent Thursday night in Chicago and then the weekend in Green Bay. Yesterday, we drove to Lincoln, Nebraska where we saw fireworks going off all along the water. The displays went on forever. Today, we will continue our drive and celebrate our independence somewhere in Wyoming. Hopefully we can find a wonderful fireworks display tonight.
I wish you all a safe and happy holiday! Celebrate and appreciate the independence that we have.
As I have said several times before don’t let others bring you down. You are a light. Shine it as bright as you can. Don’t let others steal your sunshine.
“Do not allow people to dim your shine because they are blinded. Tell them to put some sunglasses on.”
– Lady Gaga
Photo by Greyson Joralemon on Unsplash
If you have been reading my blog you know that my sister passed away a little over five years ago. We all still miss her everyday. I wanted to create a way that her memory would live on but I wasn’t sure what to do. Last year, my husband and I decided to create a memorial scholarship at our hometown high school.
We created a scholarship in which we wanted female high school seniors who displayed the characteristics of my sister to apply. We asked for candidates that had good grades and attendance, who were involved in sports and/or activities, and who were pursuing further education. We also created an essay question they needed to answer. Each year we will change the essay question. We also established a committee to review the applicants and their essays. The committee is made of five people who knew and loved my sister. We also are blessed with three people at the high school who also knew my sister and who are helping us to spread the word about this scholarship and what it means.
We have been honored to receive the applications over the past two years. The girls who have applied for this scholarship have written some pretty amazing essays. Even though they didn’t personally know my sister I feel they understand who she was. The two winners have expressed what an honor it was to receive the award. We wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors.
Time is moving on and my sister’s children are growing up fast! I hope to share this scholarship award with them and each winner’s essay. I hope they enjoy knowing a little bit more about their mom and the wonderful, small town where she grew up.
If you’d like to read more about my sister and the scholarship winners please visit this website we also created to honor her.
Never be afraid to ask questions and learn something new. Always be a student who wants to experience more.
“Take the attitude of a student, never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new.”
– Augustine Og Mandino
Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash
Luck doesn’t always just happen by chance. You need to create your own luck by taking chances and giving yourselves opportunities to be in the right place at the right time.
When it comes to luck, you make your own.
– Bruce Springsteen
Photo by Dayne Topkin on Unsplash
This week my niece will be graduating from fifth grade. It is so hard to believe. It seems like just last week she was born and yesterday she was starting kindergarten. But here we are six years of school already completed and the first graduation is upon us.
My sister and I grew up in a town where we went to elementary school from Kindergarten through sixth grade. Then middle school and high school were in the same building. Therefore, you graduated from sixth grade and twelfth grade. That was it. Only two graduations.
It makes me sad that my sister isn’t here to watch her baby walk down her first aisle of many. It makes me sad that she won’t be there to hug her princess and tell her how proud she is of her. So I thought I would try to let my niece know how much she is loved. I was able to go to Virginia last week, and I spent some time with my niece having lunch and giving her a few graduation gifts.
If you know me, you know I enjoy taking pictures and then making books and calendars. I use Snapfish and have for years. I love the company and the products. I make the kids a book of memories every year for their birthdays. And every year for Christmas I make the members of our families a calendar to hang on their wall. Therefore, I thought it would be a fun idea to make my niece a book of her first 10 years of memories for her graduation.
In this book, I also included some younger pictures of my sister and myself. I wanted my niece to see how cute we were 🙂 when we were younger and how fun the clothing and hair styles were! It was fun yet sad to look back on all the pictures of my sis and me. Man, did it make me miss her.
I do hope my niece cherishes the book. She may not understand all that it means. Right now she wants to be a kid who plays softball, who swims, who smiles, who dances and who doesn’t necessarily want to think about missing her mom. Maybe she just wants to be a kid who is normal. And I am proud of her for being that kid. But as she gets older I hope she realizes how special her mother was. And I hope she will look back on the memories that are shared with her, and she will smile and treasure all that there are.
Photo by Jason Dent on Unsplash