Welcome to my-life-unscripted

What do you do at 49?

After 22 years of motherhood, with one senior left to graduate high school... who am I after being "just" a mom?

(And can we talk about that phrase for a hot minute? "Just" a mom? As if orchestrating the daily chaos of being a mom to three and stepmom to three—though we'd only have five living at home at any given time and that would eventually become 4 most of the time—was somehow just anything. But I digress... we'll unpack that gem another day.)

Truth is, I don't know who I am now.

The walls of my home, once saturated with laughter and sibling rivalry, holidays and birthdays, last-minute dance ties and forgotten school projects, are now eerily quiet. The kitchen actually stays clean most days. Our trash isn't overflowing every week. There's no endless parade of mysterious cups abandoned throughout the house (though I still find full water bottles everywhere thanks to my final boy at home—some things never change).

The bedtime stories have all stopped. The smell of sweaty cleats and the endless cycle of washing tattered uniforms is coming to an end. I find myself sitting alone, replaying thousands of moments over and over. It's painful and comforting at the same time—like pressing on a bruise you can't stop touching.

I didn't always know what I was doing. I made a thousand mistakes. There are things I wish I could change, moments I'd handle differently, words I'd take back. I've watched my kids' hearts break, and sometimes—God, this is hard to admit—it was because of something I did or didn't do.

Here's what I know for sure:

Life doesn't always have a plan. It doesn't always go how you thought it would. Sometimes it's better than you imagined, and sometimes... well, sometimes it isn't.

So here I am at 49, deciding to blog. (Yes, blogging—is that totally dated? Probably. Do I care? Not really.) Maybe I'll try podcasting too. Who knows? Am I too old for any of this? Maybe. But perhaps this is my way of reminding myself that I'm still alive. Where so much of my life has been spent in survival mode, maybe now I can actually live it and find a new purpose. Reinvent myself, so to speak.

Why I'm really here:

I have stories. And if you're reading this, I'm guessing you do too. Stories that have shaped us, broken us, rebuilt us. Stories that make us laugh until we cry, or just... cry. Stories that remind us we're not alone in this beautifully messy thing called life.

I want to share mine—the adoption that brought me into this world, childhood trauma that tried to define me, marriages (plural), adult trauma that knocked me sideways, addiction that touched our family, mental illness that we're still learning to navigate, divorce that felt like failure, the season I lost my faith entirely, the unexpected road back to belief, second chances at love, blended families and all their beautiful complications.

Heavy stuff, right? But here's the thing—these aren't just sob stories. They're survival stories. They're proof that we're stronger than we think, more resilient than we know, and definitely more connected than we realize.

This is our space:

I'm creating this corner of the internet as a safe place. A place where we can share our unscripted moments without shame, without judgment, without having to tie everything up in a neat little bow. Because real life? It's messy. It's unscripted. And it's absolutely beautiful in its imperfection.

Whether you're 29 or 59 or anywhere in between, whether you're in the thick of motherhood or wondering who you are on the other side of it, whether you're fighting battles no one can see or celebrating victories no one expected—you belong here.

Your story matters. Your voice matters. You matter.

So grab your coffee, Dirty Dr. Pepper (Utah thing)...or wine—no judgment here, get comfortable, and come along with me on this journey. Let's figure out this next chapter together.

Welcome to Life...Unscripted.

Where real women share real stories, and nobody has to pretend they have it all figured out.

P.S. I'd love to hear from you. What brought you here today? What's your "what do I do now?" moment? Drop a comment below or send me a message. This is just the beginning of our conversation.

P.P.S. Yes, I know there are typos in my original draft above. I'm leaving them because, well... life is unscripted, and so apparently is my proofreading. We're all works in progress here. 💕