​Hey FABulous Reader, ,

I thought I would share something personal with you this week! We just celebrated 24 years of marriage. YES! 24 years. I know, I know. You thought I was just 29 years old. hehehe

I gotta say thanks to my wonderful husband, Marcus, aka DadJonz, for these beautiful 24 years and for “treating” me to an amazing concert last night. Now listen… I had a front row seat and everything. Even got to participate in a few songs.

The group? M & T.

Never heard of them? They are an up and coming band and do NOT recommend you going to see them perform.

M & T stands for Marcus and Tiana. And when I tell you they BOTH snored all night? OMG. Harmony and everything.

And let’s talk about the disrespect for just a second. Tiana did not care that it was our 24th wedding anniversary. Not one bit. She had me sitting on the couch by myself while she sat with Marcus watching TV and reading news articles like they were co-hosting their own little evening show. I said oh… so this is what we’re doing today?! And yep. Continued sitting on the couch alone minding my business.

Now, before y’all think it was all chaos, we did celebrate for real. Sunday, we went out, did a little shopping (and no, don’t ask what we bought… mind your business 😏), and had dinner. Then on our actual anniversary, I kept it real simple. I made fried chili dogs with chips and dip because that’s what I wanted. I’m a simple gal. I truly am.

But as I was sitting in all of this—the laughs, the mess, the memories I realized something else is coming up for me too. My 5-year stroke-aversary on April 17th. And that one hits a little different. Why? Because we have moved back to Northern Virginia, where my stroke happened. Yes folks. We moved to California and Bahrain for my husband's job. Hey, if you didn't know this part already, he is a US Naval Officer. And the day of my stroke? We were at his farewell party because my family was about to move to California. That move? Yes it happened, but with a slight delay thanks to me. You can even read about my story that was published by the hospital.

What really got me thinking was this… do you know what I was doing 5 years ago on my wedding anniversary? I was doing a book launch interview. Yep. A whole book launch. Something I don’t talk about much (because the excitement of the book was a bit overshadowed by my stroke happening), but it’s true—I have two chapters published in a book.

Life was life-ing. I was showing up, doing my thing, celebrating accomplishments, not even realizing what was just weeks away.

Now, that should make you pause for a second and ask yourself about YOU will continue to or start pouring into YOUrself.

Because life will have you laughing at a snoring concert one minute… and completely shift on you the next.

But here I am. Still here. Still celebrating 24 years of marriage. Still able to laugh, reflect, and share these moments with you. And now I get to look back and say, yeah… I did that. And I’m still doing it.

So if you didn’t know… now you know.

And yes, go check out the book on Amazon and support your girl. Because clearly, I’ve been out here doing more than just cooking chili dogs. 😏 I do a lot more than most know that I rarely promote or toot my own horn about. Why? Because fear, I didn't want to bother people, come across as aggressive or "doing too much!" But you know what? Forget that! I'm here, I'm ME, and showing up loud and clear as I did before.

Now I’m curious… what’s something about you that people would be surprised to learn? You know we keep it real over here, so don’t hold back. Hit reply to this email and tell me. I wanna know and let's talk about it.

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