About Me

The slightly longer story...

I was born and raised in Oklahoma. I keep saying I’m going to move to the mountains, but it hasn’t happened yet! I was raised in a pastor’s home and church was my life. I have two siblings and we are all very different, but will defend each other no matter what.

I am a Gen-Xer, who loves 80’s music and 80’s movies. Seriously, who doesn’t like “Pretty in Pink,” “The Breakfast Club,” and “Some Kind of Wonderful?” I had the jeans with the French rolls and the big hair.

After I graduated high school, I headed to Bible School and married at 19-years-old. Almost two years later, I started having kiddos, three amazing boys! I was a housewife and homeschool mom. But life wasn’t what it seemed. Behind closed doors, I was being abused by my husband. One day I broke down, called my local domestic violence organization and I left. I was starting over after 15 years of marriage.

It took quite a while for us to settle, but we did. It was hard. Lots of tears. Some yelling. I had to go to work, the kids went to public schools, and I enrolled in college.

At five years in, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I spent a year in treatment. Some days I held on by simply being determined not to leave my kids. And the month the MRI showed the cancer was gone, was also the month my oldest son graduated High School. And I graduated college later that year.

While watching my boys grow up and graduate, I wrote a devotional for single parents, started speaking at women’s meetings and retreats, and started coaching. And when my youngest headed to college, I changed churches, started dating the one who convinced me to change my last name, and started grad school to finish my dream of being a therapist. Oh! I also have a daughter-in-law now and she’s just as amazing as my sons.

I’m the queen of organized chaos. I have a ton of books, because I am addicted to reading. I have all sorts of flavors of tea and my electric water kettle stays pretty busy. I keep a paper planner and have junk journals and tons of craft supplies. My life is contained on my iPhone. And I help my mom as she writes her book and launches out into the tech world.

I love living life to its fullest. I’ve been to Lebanon, Egypt, England, and all sorts of places around the U.S. I get to the ocean at least once a year and I’m always looking for a new adventure.