In honor of my sister-in-law and niece coming to visit today from South Carolina, I wanted to re-share a post from earlier this year! Since we just celebrated Mother’s Day, I wanted to write about a person who has been in my life for over eighteen years that I have always looked up to in regards to how she lives her life as a mother. A person who shows a strength and resolve while facing her responsibilities that takes extra effort beyond the normal mothering requirements. A woman that meets those responsibilities… Read More

Have you ever had those moments in life where you want something so bad it hurts? No is not a option and every time you hear it you plan and plot around it to attempt to get to yes in any way possible. Yet, despite all those efforts, we never really take the opportunity to put our request out in the universe, commit to it and in a fleeting moment our desire just passes us by. My entire life I have never been a person to accept no. If what I want… Read More

In the past two and a half years, I have had the opportunity to be in more nursing homes, assisted living facilities and senior centers than I ever thought I would be in during my life time. I experienced it first hand with my grandmother and then through the Bring Smiles program got to see what others see through the eyes of patients, nurses, administrators and the myriad of people that take care of those that need assistance. This got me to thinking about the caregivers. When someone is diagnosed with an… Read More

One of the most difficult in things in life are those things that we have absolutely no control over. Especially for people (like me) who like to feel they are always in control of every situation. Yet once in a while life throws us a curve ball and we have to step back and realize that we are only human and as such we have human limitations. This is especially true when a family member is diagnosed with cancer. We go through life hearing all about cancer. Given that cancer knows no… Read More

Have you ever been out and about and had that moment where someone held the door open for you, let you go first in line or let you pull out in front of them on the highway? Even better, you are sitting in line at the local coffee shop and you get to the window and are told that someone in front of you paid for your order. It tends to release a set of endorphins that make us smile and often gives us a good feeling for the rest of the… Read More

I have been thinking about grandma a lot lately and wanted to repost this one that always makes me smile. Bring Smiles to Seniors was started because of my grandmother and it will live on in her memory.  Because it was started in the last year of her life, I often wondered if she ever really knew that I had done it. I told her about it and described it to her, but the mute reaction that she had to my description left me wondering if she truly knew. On one of… Read More

Most of the time our days are non stop. We take care of family, pets, work, friendships and just about anything else that comes our way. It’s part of who we are and what we do. We often spend so much time making sure that everyone else is taken care of that we often forget the most important person of all, ourselves. Taking care of everyone else to the point where we neglect ourselves is not only detrimental to our psyche it can also be detrimental to our health. We certainly do… Read More

Everyone who has every struggled with a little OCD or the need to be perfect in everything they do is going to relate to this post. Me most of all! Growing up I always felt like I had to be the best at everything. Good grades only caused me to strive for better grades. Awards only caused me to work for more awards. Being second was never good enough as first was the only option. As I have grown, some of that stays with me to a degree, but I have learned… Read More

One of the beautiful things about our world is that we are all very different and each bring a unique perspective and outlook on life. Unfortunately, we have become a society where it isn’t OK to be different and we are often attacked for our beliefs or the way we choose to live our lives. It happens in every community across the country and it doesn’t say a lot for how we have evolved. My brother and I were brought up to respect all people. Race, gender, religion, sex or any other… Read More

Dealing with my mom and dad’s medical insurance after my dad’s recent cancer diagnosis is anything but fun. The paperwork, phone calls, deciphering of medical bills and everything that comes with those chores has turned out to be quite a task. I am somewhat familiar with the medical industry and there are times I want to pull my hair out. I can’t even imagine what people who know nothing about the process go through. Recently, I had an experience where we were trying to get me added to my mother’s policy so… Read More