Meet Edie!

Hello everyone.  My name is Edie Murnane and having never written a blog before I was very hesitant on how to begin. My wise husband said to just pretend you're talking to your friends and go for it, so here we go.

I'm a retired teacher, wife of nearly 50 years, proud mother of two daughters and 6 wonderful grandchildren, daughter of wonderful parents now deceased, sister with seven siblings, friend to many, mother-in-law to two great men, aunt to many nieces and nephews, and most importantly, a child of God.

I am also the mommy to two fur babies.  We first got the Doxie about 12 years ago when he was about two. Funny story..he was a gift to my oldest granddaughter but then mommy got pregnant...lots of morning sickness..(phone call) "Mom, can you watch him until the baby comes and I get settled in with a toddler and a new baby?"  Mind you, that was over 12 years ago...I guess he's mine now..
We inherited our German Shepherd a couple years ago.  My brother passed away unexpectedly and we made a trip to Texas to take care of the arrangements and rescue her from the pound where she'd been taken.  They love each other, our Mutt and Jeff.

I would love to add some pictures, but since I'm what my grandkids call "computer challenged" those will have to wait for me to learn how.  That's another thing about me you should know, I don't give up easily.


I look forward to sharing more of myself with all of you, my thoughts and feelings, my wisdom or perhaps I should just say life experience.

Find the JOY in your life.

So, Tell Me About Yourself

August, 2009. It was the first day of Business Communications class. I had heard the class was an easy "A" and was fairly relaxed. My professor walked in the door, introduced herself, and went over her expectations for the semester. After a few minutes, my professor looked straight at me and said, “So, tell me about yourself.” Uh-oh.

I froze. My mind was completely blank. Surely I knew enough about myself to answer such a simple question? But the answer wasn't readily there. I sat quietly for what felt like an eternity. I thought to myself, "Who am I? How do I introduce myself?"

I told her my name, my major, and that I was a varsity lightweight rower. But the answer felt somewhat generic and hollow. I should have been able to say something more profound... more interesting. There was an awkward moment where I felt I should add more. But I had no idea what to say. To fill the void I asked, “What else would you like to know?”

My professor smiled and said, “If I do my job this semester, you will no longer need to ask me that.” She was right.

One of the first skills I learned in that class was how to handle introducing myself in many different environments and circumstances. No longer did I feel that sense of dread when someone uttered the phrase, "So, tell me about yourself." I was given a useful tool to guide my responses, and I relished it. In the business world, this tool is often referred to as your “Elevator Pitch”.

An elevator pitch can be described as a 30 second response to any situation which requires an introduction. Every business student is taught that an effective elevator pitch can make or break a future job prospect, promotion, sale, or valuable relationship. The most effective introduction will not only address who you are, but will also explain why a person should be interested in what you have to say. It will highlight your strengths and give your audience just enough interest to warrant further conversation and a deepening of the relationship. With practice, a carefully crafted elevator pitch becomes second nature and is a useful tool in a variety of circumstances.

In life, we are not often afforded an extended period of time to make an impression and introduce ourselves. First impressions begin to settle almost immediately upon meeting someone. Life is busy. The opportunity to make a connection may be as short as an elevator ride from the first floor to the fourth, if not shorter. We must, therefore, be able to introduce ourselves fully and succinctly within the limited time we have available to us.

I wasn't initially sure how to frame my introduction to you today. I didn't know what I wanted to say or how I wanted to say it. I had no idea where to start. Then, it hit me!

While an introduction written for a blog is very different from an introduction given in person, I feel there is a lot of applicability in utilizing this handy tool my professor gave me almost a decade ago...

Without further delay, I give you my "Elevator Pitch":

My name is Rosemary. I met the love of my life in 2007. We were married in 2012 and life has since carried us in directions we could not have fathomed when we first met. I’m currently a full-time stay at home mother to two beautiful little girls, who are truly my world. When I am not devoting myself to the needs of my family, I am active in my church - running the nursery program and teaching Sunday preschool classes. I have a broad range of interests. These include music, the arts, reading, outdoor adventuring, fitness, history, economics, food, DIY projects, traveling, college football (O-H!), and whatever random tidbit happens to catch my fancy on a particular day. I am a student of life and seek to continue learning about myself and others through shared and differing thoughts, experiences, struggles and successes. I am truly honored to be a regular contributor to this blog, To Each Their Own. I sincerely hope that, as we begin this journey together, we might form a strong and beautiful community; a community which thrives on openness, acceptance and diversity of thought and experience.


Thank you for reading this post and being a part of our community! I can't wait to see where this blog takes us!

My Otherness

Hello there. Now I’m a bit of a newbie when it comes to blogging, so please pardon any of the awkwardness that may follow. I’m Melissa, a 27-year-old Central Florida native and crazy cat lady who spends WAY too much time watching HGTV. I have always struggled a bit to define myself, although as the years go by I am finding it less and less of a necessity. (Call it the wisdom of age.)

Now, if I am being perfectly honest I was a little reluctant to write for T.E.T.O., especially after taking a look at the other contributors. I wasn’t sure I would exactly fit in. I have worked very hard in my life to surround myself with people that fit the labels placed on me. I’m not sure if this was out of a desire to seek comfort or if it was solely out of fear… probably both. Even now, as an adult, I still let my fear and past experiences keep me from living a life that is wholly true to myself. 

One part of my identity that has caused me a great amount shame and fear over the course of my years is my sexual orientation. I am Bisexual. This was something I have always known, even before elementary school, but wasn’t ready to admit to myself until around high school. Even then, I treated it as a novelty because that is how I saw it portrayed in the world around me. My sexual identity seemed other, out of place, and if I tried to embrace it as anything real I worried about a backlash. So I dated boys. This was not to say I didn’t care for them, far from it in fact, but there always seemed to be something missing. 

I remember a weekend trip to Disney World with my Mom, my Nana, and one of my best friends. We stayed at the Grand Floridian and it just happened to be the first weekend in June. Now if you have ever been to Walt Disney World the first weekend of June you may remember the sea of red shirts and rainbows announcing it to be the annual Gay Days meet-up. We had been frequent Disney-goers in my childhood so this was far from our first time at Gay Days, although it had never been anything more than coincidence or just enjoying the festive atmosphere that always seemed to accompany that weekend. Well, anyways, the friend and I after a long day at the parks and with the adults back at the room decided to enjoy a nice evening swim. In an entirely un-serious manner, at one point we kissed. I know I was never anything more than a friend to her, but in that moment something felt so very right. Kissing a beautiful girl in the hotel pool during Gay Days at Disney just felt right. 

One of my first shows with the Rich Weirdoes.

That was when I started to take my still-shaky identity more seriously. It was around college that I began to find my place. Between acting in/directing The Vagina Monologues at Stetson, getting a job at Disney and finding myself amongst queer peers, and eventually getting up the courage to join The Rich Weirdoes (a Rocky Horror shadow cast) I began to meet others who made it okay to be queer. I was no longer other, and that meant the world to me. I remember evenings spent dancing or watching friends perform their drag at Pulse nightclub and the butterflies in my stomach when I went with my first girlfriend to see The Hunger Games on opening night. 

As time goes on and I shift away from the lifestyle that seems to fit so well with what I wanted to be I find myself questioning again, only this time it is not my sexual orientation so much as it is my identification with the community I once belonged to. I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I’m not a great dancer. Loud noises and crowded spaces make me incredibly anxious. My desire to participate is overwhelmingly trumped by my desire for comfort, and so once again I feel my otherness taking over. Part of it also comes from fear, although I am more willing to push through the fear than the discomfort because I know fear is something that doesn’t affect only myself. The fear comes from memories of nasty looks while I held my girlfriend’s hand in public, it comes from being run off the road and screamed at to “Go to hell you f***ing f**got!”, it comes from the emptiness in my gut when I think of the events of June 12th and waking up that morning praying that my friends weren’t dead. 

I am not trying to bring these events up to be divisive, but in the hope that someone who has never experienced this particular type of fear can be a little more understanding of why “coming out” is such a big deal for those on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum and why it is a choice every day to simply be yourself. I bring these up because it is difficult for me to embrace that part of my identity when I don’t feel like a part of the community in the way that I used to. I know there is not just one correct way to be queer, but every day is a struggle to remind myself of that very fact and to live truthfully. 

       I have always been a fan of the Bard so I will leave you all with this fitting quotation as I am running late for work and in desperate need to wrap things up.

“This above all: to thine own self be true”  Hamlet, Act-I, Scene-III

Finally, Eventually

Remember that time I quit my job and started my own “LuLaRoe Boutique” because I was finally pregnant with baby #3, and I was finally going to get to stay home with my little ones, and I was finally figuring out who I was?

Funny word “finally”…there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of finality in this life. 

One year later and it turns out I’m not a lot of the things I thought I was going to be 365 days ago. 

I didn’t get my third baby like I had planned.  Being a direct-sales clothing retailer was not my forever home. And while I am home with my little ones for the time being- I only have a faint idea of who I am. 

I began To Each Their Own (T.E.T.O.), a blog on life and womanhood, in 2013 with five other (amazing) women.  I was very different then too.  Teaching middle school science was a huge part of my life and identity.  I had just given birth to my second boy- and after the summer was over I was juggling the working-mom thing.  I thought it would be a great idea to have a blog where women with different perspectives on life- but eventually life got in the way as life often does and put it on the back-burner for “someday”. 

Recently, as I was closing out my LuLaRoe boutique, my heart ached and I began to feel that familiar feeling- like I was quitting.  I knew it had been the right choice to join LuLaRoe at the time, and I knew it was the right choice to leave now- but it made me sad to think of losing the community that had grown in my group, and all the connections I had made. I wasn’t going to be the “LuLaRoe lady” anymore.  Just like I wasn’t a “teacher” anymore. I wasn’t a lot of things anymore. My life suddenly felt full of finalities, full of endings.

Then for some reason- I had the thought… what if I started blogging again?  I didn’t know what I would say, or who I would find to write with me.  But I had always planned to come back to T.E.T.O. one day, so why not today? I contacted the original authors to see if any of them were in a position where they could commit to writing, and while a few of them agreed to share some guest posts with us- no one was able to join the relaunch full-time.  Undeterred, I started scrolling through my Facebook friend’s list, and I reached out to four women who, to me, represent different kinds of strength and beauty that I knew would be an asset to our community.  I was thrilled to get a “yes” from all of them- and to find a referral for our sixth and final author, who also joined-in enthusiastically. 

A new chapter.

Right now, my life is in a transitional stage. Like new construction beginning after demolition, new growth after a forest fire, a new life with potential, hope, and undetermined possibilities. Old scars are healing and I’m working on figuring out how this “life” thing works again, and who I am for the first time.  

I'm Jessica Vergara. I am a 27 year old white Floridian woman who is married with two boys ages 3 & 5. I have a degree in Elementary Education, and a passion for writing and uplifting others. I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and I am currently exploring a career in graphic design with an Etsy Shop called Conversation Design. 

I’m the mom who wears workout clothes in the parent pick-up line instead of pajamas so you think I’m practical and hardworking instead of just tired. Who feels like super-mom when I make chocolate chip pancakes instead of regular pancakes, but feels guilty for not reading bedtime stories the way I “should”, and the way I want to. Who stares at my little ones sleeping & kneels on the floor beside them with tear-filled eyes, and prays to God to protect them.

I’m the wife who after 8 years of marriage is still struggling to figure out how to let down walls and be the woman my husband sees; to be slow to anger and quick to forgive.  Who smacks my husband’s butt in the grocery store and pretends to be a hardcore rapper on long car drives to make him laugh.  Who sometimes holds his one hand in both of mine just to make sure he’s really there.

I’m the friend who worries if I’m doing enough.  Who sometimes over-shares & loves when you over-share back. Who loves going to the movie theater, getting ice-cream, and talking late into the night about anything and everything.  Who whispers sarcastic jokes to you when no one else is listening, but still takes things seriously.  Who easily gets my feelings hurt, and worries after our conversations if I said too much, and has to message you to make sure everything is still ok. 

I’m the daughter who shows up uninvited to her parent’s house, opens the door without knocking, and rearranges all their furniture when they’re out of town.  Who sees her parents as both the people they were and they people they are.  Who sometimes catches glimpses of them in the mirror, and feels both hesitant and proud about that.  Who calls my mom just to talk, and loves seeing my dad working in the garage to build something.  Who worries about them growing older, how they will retire, and whether or not my children know their grandparents enough. 

I’m the oldest sibling- the sister who thinks I have it all together except for when I really, really, don’t.  Who experienced having foster siblings in high school & adopted siblings as an adult, so I’m not sure whether to tell people I’m the oldest of 3 or 7.  Who feels different being the only one with a significant other, married, and with children. Who loves coming home for dinners & game nights- but no longer being on the chore chart.

I am a leader.  I am transparent. I am hopeful.  I am emotional.

I am finally figuring things out..eventually.

I can't wait to see where this journey leads.

All little about my Crazy Life

Where to begin? I've never been very good at introductions, I'm not sure what to say because I'm not a particularly interesting person. Some days the most exciting thing that happens to me is throwing rocks in the river with my daughters. It's a lot of fun, but not that exciting to read about. So, I'll just give you the basic details.

My name is Mandi, I'm originally from Utah and in 2006 I got married to the man of my dreams. He's in the Army and for the past 8 years I've been following him around trying to find the best out of everywhere we live. Some places are easier than others, at our last Duty station one of my very favorite things was simply the amazing array of Salsa they had at the local market, I love to cook with Salsa! Anyway, we got a bit off track there...

 My husband and I have been blessed with two sweet girls, Zoey was born June 2007 while Daddy was in Iraq. I moved back to Utah while he was away so the lucky girl is a Utahn just like Mom and Dad! Our second daughter Paige followed in May 2011, this time Daddy got to be there and she is our little Texan!

Being a Mommy is what I've always wanted. I'm lucky enough to be a stay at home mom, which most days is amazing and other days puts me on the verge of checking into a mental institution so I can get a chance at alone time. But really, my girls are my best friends. Wherever we move, whatever life throws at us, they are my one constant and I love that.

We're currently living in Alaska and exploring all it has to offer. We love the outdoors and we're excited to have the chance to live somewhere that we can go fishing in our backyard, camping 5 minutes away and see wildlife right outside the front door. Zoey wants to see Daddy fight a bear, I just hope to survive the extreme winters!

I'm happy to get a chance to share my perspectives on life and motherhood on "To Each Their Own" and hope that my posts will be enjoyable to readers each week.

Vulnerable and Loving it

One of the hardest things about writing an introductory blog entry is the pressure of feeling like it needs to be completely riveting and relatable. It’s like I can almost sense a swarm of index fingers slowly moving to a mouse to click off our blog and escape to a new virtual location. And to those of you who are about to do so, I say to you– Wait! Stay a little longer!

My name is Faye and I am a California-native married to my handsome and amazing Florida Beach Babe Hubby (BBH -for short) and we currently have made our home in the Sunshine state. BBH is like the cheese to my macaroni or the chocolate chip to my cookie. I seriously love this man and I have to say, macaroni would not be very good without the cheese and we all know everything tastes better with chocolate!

BBH and I married in the LDS Orlando Temple

We have been married for nine years and after several years of enduring and surviving infertility, we were finally blessed with our first daughter, Mini-me (now 3). A week before Mini-me turned one, we were doubly blessed (and our jaws literally dropped with surprise) to find out I was expecting once again with what my doctors called a miraculous “spontaneous pregnancy”. Nine months later, we welcomed our second beautiful munchkin, My-girl (now 18 months). Never did I think that after struggling to get pregnant for years, I could ever be blessed to be a mother of two children under two.

Here's a little more about me and my loves:

 1)      I love learning and teaching. I am a semi-retired high school Spanish teacher. (Sí, yo hablo español). There are times I miss it, though and find that I gravitate towards teaching whether I’m at church or at home. Currently I am a full-time, stay-at-home 30-something mama, teacher, and student to my two spunky, independent daughters.  They teach me more about myself than any classroom I've been in so far. 

2)     I enjoy long, romantic walks…to my fridge.  I love to cook. Baking and cooking are major stress relievers to me. And of course, so is eating. Which brings me to my next love…

3)      I love to run. Well, it’s really a love-hate relationship. I love the feeling I get AFTER a long, relaxing run and ultimately it makes me happy. And as we all know, exercise gives you endorphins-endorphins make people happy and happy people just don’t shoot their husbands…they just don’t. (Name that movie)!

BBH's and my silliness captured on camera

   4)     One of my favorite things to do is laugh.  I love laughing with my family about silly movie lines, at jokes, at crazy & random YouTube videos and "memes", while we play games together, while we cook, etc.. I find that laughing is very therapeutic no matter how you feel at that moment and it’s contagious to everyone around you.

   5)      I am a Mormon and love it. I also love learning about all types of religions and positive outlooks on life. When I was younger, I was a missionary for my church and enjoyed learning about different cultures and loved talking to people from all walks of life. No matter what one's background is, we can make a big difference by supporting one another in this world.

If I could sum up in one word my (limited) experience with Motherhood, it would be vulnerable. And yet, I never thought I could be so vulnerable and love it so much.  I can now relate to those who have said that becoming a parent is like deciding to have your heart live outside of your body for forever. For me, being a mom is sometimes like simultaneously feeling butterflies in my stomach, light headed, and feeling like I’m going to fall off a cliff at any moment. Or maybe I can blame those feelings on the lack of sleep or on the fact that I never fully recovered those lost brain cells while I was experiencing the infamous pregnancy brain? Who knows?! Being vulnerable as a mom has taught me humility and how to love truly and deeply. As C.S. Lewis said:  "To love at all is to be vulnerable" and how grateful I am to be able to love at all. 

Although each day I struggle and minute by minute I’m learning how to be a better mom, I try never to take it for granted. Coping with infertility and other trials have taught me to slow down a little more, enjoy as many moments of my daughters’ lives as possible, and to not sweat the small stuff (or even the big stuff…like the mountain of laundry I still need to conquer today).

Me, My-girl, Mini-me, BBH

I’m very excited to contribute to our To Each Their Own blog and to learn more from wonderful moms who hit the ground running each and every day with their little or big ones. I hope to share my thoughts and love for motherhood in a positive, uplifting way and to maybe, keep you laughing just long enough to side track you and your index fingers from clicking on your mouse button and escaping. Welcome and stay tuned for some laughs and tears and then some more laughs!

A Two and a Half-er

Hi! Hola! Bonjour! Thank you for joining us! My name is Bianca. I am 22. I have been married to my husband for almost three years now! Well, just over two and a half. It just isn’t fair to those who have ACTUALLY been married for three years to have a two and a half-er claiming a three year marriage status. After all, marriage is NOT easy. So I willingly retract that “three years” comment.

 

Here are some important experiences and facts that have shaped who I am today:

I was born in Camden, NJ. Interesting and sad fact: Camden, at some point, was rated the fourth most dangerous city in the US.

I was raised in New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and Florida! I speak Spanish and a little French. A very little. I do consider myself a Floridian now.

I spent a portion of younger years in foster care. Years later, I reunited with my father and two of my siblings. Then I reunited with my mother and more siblings!

I have two older sisters, two younger sisters, and one younger brother. One of my younger sisters is adopted into another family and lives in Puerto Rico. She’s utterly obsessed with Justin Bieber.

I am an aunt to two girls, and three boys!

I love to dance, but never get a chance to. I love salsa, hip-hop, swing, ballet, and tap. My ankles are still recovering from my ballet years. If I’d only known!  Somebody, please invite us out to dance!

 

Here I am dancing at our wedding to Shakira’s Waka-Waka something song. One of my favorites!

 

I attended the University of South Florida where I studied Advertising and Marketing for just under 2 years. I haven’t graduated. Don’t know if I ever will. I’ve yet to find a good personal reason to go back. There's a possibility I'll go back years from now and pick up where I left off with Advertising. We'll see.
 

I’d like to start my own business someday. Something that involves hands on creativity and design.
 

I met my husband at Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens during a group outing for some of the singles (like myself) in the church. We flirted. We became friends and stalked each other on Facebook for about a week. Now we’re married. That’s usually how it works, right?

Our son was born to us on July 5^th , 2011. His name is Jesse. He’ll be two very soon!

 

Here we are together with our new baby for the first time! We were so proud!

 

Look at how happy and exhausted I look!

 

  

 

My son has some physical and mental challenges. He was diagnosed with infantile spasms, which we are still trying to get rid of with ACTH. He also has some congenital deformities cause by Amniotic Band Syndrome. He meets with therapists five times a week. He works out more than I ever will! He is incredibly happy most of the time and has an inspiring motivation to be independent!

 

Here is in his fairly new gait trainer. He loves going out for walks.

Daddy swinging him high!

 

 

 

I have Hoshimoto's Chronic Thyroiditis. It just means that my body has antibodies that attack my thyroid glad, causing it to misfire and get aggravated. The side effect I struggle with the most is anxiety and lack of energy. Often, I feel great! It's unpredictable.

 

I design, make, and sell tutu dresses and accessories on Etsy.com. It’s a hobby that pays. I work at night once the little guy is snoozing away in the comfort of his crib.

 

 This picture sums up my work. This is the Ella Belle  Birthday Tutu Dress.

 

I love to sew. I am not very good at it yet, but I love to learn.

I am Mormon. I have been a Mormon since August of 2009, two days before leaving my small home town, Palatka, FL, to head to college.

My days are usually pretty jam packed! Scheduling and going to doctors’ appointments. Making tutu dresses. Cleaning. Washing. Bathing. Diaper Changing. You know, the usual!

 

Here is Jesse with his hand surgeon, Dr. Hess, admiring his new and improved hand with separate fingers!

 

After the day's chaos has subsided and I’ve successfully cribbed the toddler, I usually sit on the couch and weigh my failures and triumphs.

I usually feel a bit of separation anxiety (this never fails to surprise me, but he IS with me ALL the time!).

I decide whether I deserve to relax and watch an episode or two of One Upon A Time and Dancing With The Stars OR do some more chores. Despite the outcome, I try to remind myself to “Never let a problem to be solved, become more important than a person to be loved,” as Thomas S. Monson once said.

When I remember that, I have to redefine and reexamine my triumphs and failures. Did I love my baby and husband enough today? Yes? Great! No? I’ll do better tomorrow. We can always count on the sun to rise again! At least here in Florida we can!

 

First portrait as a family

 

Well, I hope that something about me and my experiences will in some way make you feel at peace with your abilities and potential as a mom and individual. I hope that you are able to feel that you’re not alone in your journey.

I hope that you may acquire stronger feelings of individuality, affirmation, and confidence in your personal parenting methods. Hopefully you’ll feel some sense of safety from the unyielding societal influences that we moms are often bombarded with.

Thank you for getting to know me! Hope you have a simple, complication-free day! Oh, and who cares if you didn’t have time to shower today?! Maybe your husband… But, hey! He’ll still love you! (:

Woo-hoo! I'm introduced!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Worth It

Hi Ya’ll! (that’s what I feel I should say now that I have lived in Texas for nearly a year!)

I am Sarah-

a young mama to 3 teeny boys

a lawyer’s wife

a lover of yellow

a two-time thyroid cancer fighter

a daughter of God and divorced parents

a girly girl who doesn’t mind if her little boys get dirty

a West Virginian turned Kansan turned Texan

a stubborn soul

a crier

a chocolate chip cookie addict

a student (surprise, I’m starting my college education again this fall)

a lover of music from classical and country to rap and rock (current favs:  Fall Out Boy’s “Light‘em Up” and Amber Carrington’s version of “Sad”)

a little naïve

a hater of washing dishes

a Mormon

a friend, I love GNO!

a DIY’er

I am on a journey to rediscover myself now that I have three boys four and under! My newest edition, Aaron, is 12 weeks old today. My oldest, Payton, turned 4 in April…so for two weeks I had three kids three years old and under!

Basically, they are my world. Sometimes this is a good thing. Sometimes it drives me crazy. But, always, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I am married to this man, Brandon:

It’s been a hard, but blessed, five years of marriage. He is my best friend.

Brandon is a smarty pants and just graduated with an LL.M. in tax law. Now he is on the hunt for a nice-paying job (three kids = $$$). In the meantime money is tight as he clerks for a local law firm.  

I truly believe that my life comes in waves:  waves of ease and waves of trials. My pregnancy with Aaron and that time in our life was pretty simple. It was not trial free, but it was doable. Then we had the fussiest-least sleeping baby on the earth, and then Brandon graduated and needed a new job...and then I was recently re-diagnosed with Papillary Thyroid Cancer. Previously, after Derek (age 2) was born the cancer was discovered and I went through surgery and a type of radioactive treatment called I-131. Sadly, at a routine checkup after Aaron’s birth, the cancer was found again in lymph nodes in my neck.

Two days ago I had surgery to remove those lymph nodes. And, lucky me, an MRI showed still more lymph nodes that need further investigation. Soon I will have more biopsies and probably more surgeries.  

But, today, I feel peace. Life is not easy but cancer doesn’t define me. It adds to me. Motherhood also doesn’t define me; it too adds to who I already am. When it comes to motherhood…well, I have a lot to learn. I fail at it every day. But, you know, I also triumph in little--and sometimes big-- ways. Each of us does.

So breathe, try to be happy, let your kids get messy, and to be easy on yourself. At the end of the day this motherhood thing, this life thing, is not easy but it is worth it.

keepin' it real
this is what my family pictures typically look like

I’m excited to blog for “To Each Their Own”! Selfishly, I’m happy to have something to think about other than cancer, cloth diapers, and cleaning!

So here’s to this new adventure!

Once Upon a Time...

Once upon a time there was a quirky, flat-chested, 18 year old girl who set-off for college.

In the end they all lived happily ever after.

I’m stuck somewhere between those two lines.  I’m no longer 18, no longer quite-so-flat-chested, but still pretty quirky.  In the fall of 2007, I met my best friend (my knight in shining armor/handsome prince as it were).  We started dating early 2008, got engaged that June, and were married in November.   Four and a half years and two kids later, I think we’re doing pretty good.

I used to blog- a few years ago.  I felt like I wasn’t too shabby at it either.  I would post daily (sometimes more than once daily) but then life happened and I started to post monthly, quarterly, yearly, never.   Once I graduated with a degree in Elementary Education and we had our first child (Graham-June 2011), I pretty much gave up on the whole social-journaling “thing” and started with the whole trying to get a job and raise a child “thing”.

With much searching, applying, interviewing, and praying- I was blessed with a job teaching Middle School Science.   I think I’m pretty good at teaching- and I enjoy it.  I feel like I’ve learned so much as an educator.  I have the opportunity to spend time with kids, to inspire them.  That being said… it is also incredibly challenging. Especially now that we’ve added baby number two into the mix! (Xander- June 2013)

While I am off battling the beasts of pubescent body odor, apathetic eye-rolls, and the general wrath of working-mother’s-guilt, my knight in shining armor is home conquering nap-time, temper-tantrums, and swimming lakes of spilled-milk.  I greatly admire him as he takes the time after hours to also overthrow the evilness of chemistry, statistics, and slay all other dragons of dreadful college academics. 

One day, when he’s done with school we will switch places.  The thought is both thrilling and terrifying.  But I don’t think about it too much now.  I’m more concerned with this part of the story than the ending.  I already know the ending.  I know everything will turn out right- we will get our happily ever after. 

But it is definitely being an adventure getting there.

I’m really looking forward to writing for “To Each Their Own” and I hope my posts will be a positive addition each week.

Here we go!