Tag Archives: ashley

There Are No Mistakes, Only Discoveries

Back in 2016 I took my family on a Disney Cruise to the Mediterranean. While on the cruise my son and daughter decided to go to a workshop they were holding on how to draw different Disney characters. At the start of the class the crew passed out pencils. These particular pencils had no erasers […]

Celebrating Daughters and Sons

To be honest I’d never even heard of a National Daughters Day until I saw a post on Facebook over the weekend from my Mother wishing her five daughters a happy National Daughters Day. I of course immediately googled it to find out what she was referring to.  Come to find out Friday September 25th […]

Go To Bed, Get A Good Night Sleep. Tomorrow Will Be Better.

After an incredibly long busy day today all I could think about was wanting to go to bed. As I sat down to write a blog the thought came into my mind that I should search past blogs I’d written that had the phrase “go to bed” in them. So I did and it brought […]

If I’d Given Up…

Last Friday I was humbled to receive the Leadership in Business Award from the YWCA for my business accomplishments and the work I do championing women and girls through my foundation (the IPOP Foundation).  They put on a beautiful event of around 1,200 attendees Friday and I told them it was the sweetest way to […]

The Difference Between Okay and AWESOME

I believe strongly in the importance of paying attention to details because I know that the details can make the difference between something being okay and something being AWESOME. And I always prefer AWESOME! I once shared a story about an experience that happened when my daughter was 14 years old that shows how the […]

A Day In One Another’s Shoes

Last night my I went and saw the musical Freaky Friday with my daughter. I would guess all of you are familiar with the storyline from the Disney movie Freaky Friday already, but just in case your not, it’s about a mother and her teenage daughter who have been struggling to get along (as many […]

The Hardest Thing To Do

The hardest thing is watching someone you love suffering and there is literally nothing you can do to make it better…its especially hard when it’s your little 17 month old grandbaby. As I sit here at the hospital again tonight surrounded by my family as we watch the doctors and nurses working on baby Flynn […]

I Never Knew

When I became a parent I never knew I could love another human being so much. I still remember the way I felt when I became pregnant with my second child – I remember wondering how I could ever love another person as much as I loved my first child. But then 23 years ago […]

Insanely Exciting News – Bust out the pink bling and sparkles!

Several months ago the day after we’d spent time together as a family (with my two kids and their spouses and our grandbaby) my husband said, “I think we are going to be grandparents again.”  “Of course we will be” I replied with certainty given all the incentives I’ve thrown out to bribe my children […]

Sky Castles and Goal Posters

When my children were young we would lay down on our backs on the trampoline outside in our backyard and we would all three look up at the sky together and play a game we called “Sky Castles”. In our game we would take turns building our pretend sky castles by saying what we saw […]

What I’m Most Thankful For

As we head into this week of Thanksgiving I felt it might be an appropriate time for me to share what I’m most thankful for: My Faith. I am thankful for my faith in God.  My faith and love for my Heavenly Father is at the very core of who I am and it helps […]

Imagine Dragons, NASCAR, friends and family made for a birthday weekend to remember

For my birthday last Friday a group of friends took me down to Las Vegas in a private jet to go to a VIP meeting with the Imagine Dragons and then to hear the Imagine Dragons perform an acoustic concert for the Tyler Robinson Foundation Gala (the foundation raises money for the families dealing with […]

When We’ll Know That We Knew What Love Was

My daughter Ashley wrote a great guest blog for me last week about how her definition of love is growing as she comes to understand more about what love and marriage are all about. Reading her post I couldn’t help but thing about how my own definition of love has grown tremendously over the years […]

This Ain’t My First Rodeo

Tonight definitely wasn’t my first rodeo, but it was my grandbaby’s first rodeo and it was so much fun to be able to watch him as he watched his first rodeo. He was totally smitten watching all the cowboys ride their horses and the bulls. I personally love rodeos. I’ve been going to them for […]

Three Guiding Principles To Life Live By

Today was awesome! Our dear friends John Wayne Walding and his wife Amy Walding and their four fabulous children came over to spend a day in our home with us before they leave to go back to their home in Texas.  We first met the Walding’s when John Wayne came to give a keynote talk […]

Family Road Trips – No Better Way To Test Your Love For One Another

Nothing bonds a family like traveling in an RV without air-conditioning in 105 degree heat…At least I suppose one could call it bonding the family together when all of us were so sweaty hot that our bodies were literally sticking to the sofa seats of the RV as we made our long drive back from […]

A Day Best Described With Actual Pictures And Videos

Today was an absolutely amazing Fourth of July! From having my entire family with me all day, to having our friends John Wayne Walding (a true American Hero you can read about at www.johnwaynewalding.com) and his wife Amy Walding and their four kids with us, to meeting George Washington, to going to Stadium of Fire […]

My First Fortnite Experience

Fortnite. I had heard there was a lot of hype about the video game, but I had never actually seen or played this game…until this weekend… My family traveled down in our RV to Bryce Canyon Utah (where our daughter-in-law is from) to support her family as they welcomed back her brother who was returning […]

Everyone Needs A Five Second Dance Break!

Often when everyone is heads down working on things at our house someone in our family will randomly call out “DANCE BREAK” and everyone immediately stops whatever they are doing, stands up, and starts dancing in place for five seconds to our own beatboxing sounds – then everyone quickly sits right back down and keeps […]

No husband has ever been shot while doing dishes – just sayin’

My newly married daughter called me tonight and the conversation went something like this:  Mom, I had just cleaned and dried the kitchen counter…and he had totally watched me do it…and then he took his dripping wet plate and laid it right on my freshly cleaned and dried counter!  I asked him, “Did you not […]

If You’re Gonna Do It, You Gotta Own It!

“If you’re gonna do it, you gotta own it!” That’s what my daughter yelled out to her now husband as he and her brother were talking about whether he should do a funny dance number at her wedding reception a week ago.  She pointed out that anytime you are going to do something public like […]

Work as if everything depends on you, Pray as if everything depends on God

I must have been out of my mind to think it was going to be possible for me to be gone for a week to London and then come home for a few days and go right back out of country again to Prague, Cesky Krumlov, Vienna, and Budapest for another full week and then […]

Feed A Cold, Starve A Fever, but what the heck are you supposed to do when you have both?!

Forever people have said, “Feed a cold, starve a fever.”  So all I want to know is what the heck you are supposed to do when you have both?! Being sick is the pits! And according to the news there are a whole bunch of people painfully aware of how miserable it is to be […]

It’s the things that take the most effort in life that end up meaning the very most

22 years ago today, February 5th , my baby girl Ashley was born. Ashley was as beautiful as any baby could be. You see, most babies come out with their heads looking a bit odd shaped and their faces a little swollen, but not Ashley. That’s because while I was in labor giving birth to her, […]

Only 48 Days Until Christmas – Let The Countdown Begin!

Can you believe there are only 48 days until Christmas??!!  It’s just so exciting!  So because it takes so much work to decorate the house for Christmas and put op our 13 foot tall Christmas tree we decided that from now on we are going to enjoy those decorations as long as possible, which is […]

Protect that what you value most

When my two children were young they started calling me “Mama Bear” because they knew their Mama would fight fiercely to protect her two little cubs. That’s because we protect what we value most, and my kids have always been what I value most. Becoming a parent is one of the most surreal experiences in […]

There is no such thing as a perfect parent

“There is no such thing as a perfect parent so just be a real one.” – Sue Atkins Without a doubt the hardest job on the planet is that of being a parent. The stakes are so high because every mistake you make as a parent affects your children and you realize that so you […]

Treasure Every Precious Moment

Today was the baby blessing of my grandson Flynn Dalton Anderson. When I saw him in his little white outfit I was amazed at how much he looked exactly like his father, my son Dalton. I remember my son Dalton’s blessing day as if it was just yesterday. I remember getting him into his cute […]

If your future self could speak to you…

I have been out in Washington DC for the last few days and I was reminded of how beautiful Virginia is.  I lived in Vienna, Virginia when I was a teenager in High School and during this visit I was able to drive past the house I used to live in while I was there […]

Leave it all on the ice

These last few months have been a roller coaster for me. Between my family and both our extended families we have experienced some of life’s highest highs and some of its lowest lows all within a matter of just a few months. In those months there have been days of being happier than I could […]