Love, Life and Everything

In my writer's workshop, we were given the assignment to write about one person in our lives who was influential. I thought to myself "Oh this will be easy. I know exactly who I'll pick." But then I realized it's not all that cut and dry. That's because the people that I allowed to impact my life are so interwoven throughout my history and the lessons I needed to learn, and am still learning, that it's hard to tell where one ends and another begins. And that is why I could not choose just one, and even though it is difficult to narrow it down, two key people stand out as important in my most difficult life lesson, my late Aunt Kathi and my husband Brandon. Without one, I never would have been in a place in my life that would have allowed me to meet the other. And without either, I would not be where I am today.  Kathi: A woman who touched so many lives, in ways words can never begin to express. No words even exist that could come close to expressing...

I absolutely LOVED college, and if I could have afforded it, I would have stayed in college much longer than the 5 years it took me to get my degree.  There were so many, many courses I wanted to take just because they sounded interesting, but I couldn't take them because they had nothing to do with my chosen major and usually conflicted with the classes I was required to take. I have often expressed interest to my family that I want to go back to college to get my Masters, but what I really wanted to do was go back and take all those other courses that sounded very interesting.  I guess that's one of the problems with having so many interests.  I really don't know many people who are interested in art, physics, biology, writing, astronomy, algebra, etc., at the same time.  But I think I may have found a way to take some of those courses online for free!!  I'm so excited!!! I'll even get a certificate of completion.  There are even some courses that I cou...

My husband challenged me to look back at the last few years and to find all the ways I've been creative when I thought my creativity was taking a hiatus.  I accepted his challenge. For most of my teaching career, I was not given the advantage of having a set curriculum complete with books and materials, so I had to create my own custom lessons based on what I was trying to teach.  That is incredibly creative, but I had completely overlooked that, thinking that my busy, hectic teaching planning was getting in the way of my writing. I also found creativity is in my part-time fudge making job.  I mean really, what isn't creative when it comes to candy making? I also discovered that I actually enjoy cooking.  This all came about as a result of my pinterest obsession, but I finally discovered that I can make things that my husband will actually eat.  This takes a lot of creativity because he likes things with a lot of flavor and ias a result is a little particular ...