Over the holidays we ran into this rooster that was a little bit on the nutty side.  For some reason he was territorial with the Christmas tent at the Hunt Club Farms.  He came running up to us and started pecking at our feet, chasing us, kicking dust up at us, growling, and flapping his wings.  It was hilarious to watch him get riled up, and that didn’t take much!  He was a beautiful rooster but I think he had a few screws loose upstairs.

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I was scratching my head trying to figure out a good post to close out the year 2009.  I could say all of the usual stuff like, ‘I can’t believe the year has gone by so fast,’ or ‘my resolutions for 2010 are,’ and on and on but I don’t want to bore you with stuff like that, so I am going to post my Top 10 Photos of 2009.  Thanks Tonggumomma for the great idea!

1) We were taking photos for the first day of 2009.  Catherine is such a …

A family member recently had a baby and as I looked through the photos of the happy parents with their little, tiny newborn either laying on their chests or swaddled in a sling, I couldn’t help but get a little choked up thinking about Catherine at that age.  I felt a bit envious of the new baby, all of the cuddles and snuggles he was getting.  I felt sad thinking that this baby’s cries were answered with a bottle, a coo, or a pat on the back while Catherine’s cries …

I am thankful for so many things but these three things seem to sum it up the best: my faith, family, and friends.    Happy Thanksgiving dear family and friends.  I hope your day is filled with blessings and plenty of food!

As first responders, emergency workers and chaplains, it is our first instinct to want to help when a tragedy or disaster occurs. Something stirs inside each of us and we can’t seem to calm ourselves until we have assisted in relief efforts. This reaction held true when Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. With over 92,000 square miles of devastation, our hearts broke for those who were deeply impacted by the storm.

For many of us, our first instinct was to pick up and run to one of those …

A little over a year ago, a friendship that was very dear to me came to an end. I had loved this person dearly and enjoyed the time I spent with this friend. We experienced some tremendous highs and struggled through some painful lows. We invested a lot of time, energy into our friendship. So, when our friendship was hit by a fatal blow of circumstances, the loss almost felt like a death. I turned from the path of friendship to the path of grief. To this day I still …

Most of you know that I have HUGE fear of flying!  I don’t like balloons.  Elevators freak me out.  Flying terrifies me.  It’s kind of funny to write that out because I fly all over this country, and I fly almost monthly and yet each time I board the plane I have to talk myself onto the jetway.
(Over Phoenix)
I used to love to fly!  Any chance that I could get, I would fly.  I had to fly to Utah in order to meet my future husband (of course I didn’t …

The days are quickly becoming blurry.  They go by so fast that it’s sometimes hard to believe a week went by and now we are nearing the middle of September.  The blur is my life.  The blur means my life is full because when we all collapse on the couch at the end of the day, we have a few moments of peace to think about all that is going on with our lives. We feel content and happy.
I had to go to the hospital the other night because every …

We have had a pretty laid back summer and while I am ready for the heat to go away, I am a little sad to see the summer of 2009 fade away.  We spent quite a bit of time playing in the water but didn’t swim at the pool as much as I had hoped we would.  Catherine is such a water baby that I had figured we would have spent nearly every day at the pool.  It didn’t work out that way but we still managed to make some …

Twelve years ago today…it really seems like yesterday and yet, a lifetime ago.  Twelve whole years ago I laid on an ambulance gurney wondering if the next day would even come.  I laid there waiting for the medics to choose whether to life-flight me or send me to the closest hospital which was only a few blocks away but didn’t have a trauma center.  Twelve years ago decisions were made, mistakes were made, and lives were changed forever.  Twelve years ago.

Twelve years ago, my career as a firefighter ended and …

I had a rather humorous experience the other day that just reminded me how much my life is so yin and yang.  I was trying to get my two year old daughter off the toilet, when I somehow ended up with bodily fluids on my left hand and in my right hand my phone was ringing because a very well known fire chief was calling me.  I was flipping out because I had poop on one hand (not sure how it happened) and that this particular person was calling …