Twenty-five years, and here we stand,
Side by side, still hand in hand.

From vows we spoke to dreams we made,
Through love and laughter, we’ve stayed brave.

We’ve raised two sons, our greatest pride,
Michael’s found his stunning bride.
This year we gain sweet Sabryn too
Our family grows, our love feels new.

And Finnegan, with his spark so bright,
Keeps our hearts forever light.

Our nest will soon quiet, just us two,
But what a life I’ve lived with you.

We’ll cheer them on, though hearts may ache,
As quiet fills the home we made.

Empty nesters, just us two,
A brand new chapter, bold and new.

So here’s to us, to all we’ve done,
To years of love, and still more fun.

A life of laughter, depth, and grace
Of knowing love in every space.

From first sweet kiss to family life,
I’m so proud to be your wife.

Happy 25th Anniversary Ryan! 

I don’t take for granted all of the blessings we have been given. I love you. 

***********

I can’t wait to annoy you from our first kiss to our last breath.

Renew our vows – three things I’m sorry for three things. I’m grateful for and three promises for the future. 

Sorry: anger, summer jealousy, telling sleep walking stories

Grateful: making babies with you, supporting me through school and work, team work on the house and kids, supporting me to follow all my dreams.

Promises: take care of you in sickness and health, deep conversations, make sure we both enjoy empty nesting

We have the same values and we live our lives moving together. Here’s a toast to 25 years of marriage. 

When we met, you deserved better, and I can’t see you with anyone else, so I became better ….

I found love when I found you
When I look in your eyes, I know it’s true
My life was lonely, broken and blue
Then I found love, when I found you

Once in a lifetime, that’s how it feels
Something so good (so damn good)
How can it be real
Girl, when you touch me

You touch me through and through
I know I found love when I found you
Girl, you’ve got all of me
And I want you to know

There’s nothin’ in this crazy ol’ world
Could make me want to let you go
‘Cause I found love when I found you
Everytime I look into your eyes, I know it’s true

Girl, when you touch me
You touch me through and through
I know I found love, when I found you

A nice little trip to Woodstock

Dinner outside 🌮 

Drinks outside 🍹 

Shower with all the jets 🚿 

Bed and Breakfast 🍳 

Concert tickets presale 🎼 

Iced coffee 🥤 

Farmers Market – Live Music 🎶 

Bookstore 📚

😴 Nap 💤 

Book on the deck 📕 

Paint Michael’s room 🎨 

Happy Gilmore with Finnegan 🍿 

Finish bags set 🌽 

Love is the universes wifi. Our bodies are antenna. 

Love, dreams, emotions are just proof we are more than our bodies. 

Every word they said whispers through the air forever. Every molecule which for a while made up your person, carries on in the air, or fits into a plant or bird. Every touch on your skin lives on in the neurons of your brain. Most of the atoms which make us up were born in a star. That light exists in us all. ⭐️ We are all made of stardust, we are all just light. And time ceases to exist at the speed of light. So we are all together in the now. Loving energy/ Consciousness/Life.

Your love crosses dimensions and never ends. ❤️  death ends a life, not a relationship 💔💐

Life is really defined by the moments we create and the love that we share together. So here we are, a collection of people that made up your beautiful, magical life.  

I want you to leave this funeral urgently wanting to deserve the life you have left to live. That’s why we gather. Not only to honor him, but to refocus and live life to the fullest, with kindness, bravery and curiosity. 

Why did he have to die?  A better question is why were they given to us? What did we do to deserve their love and joy, the sweet moments we shared. All those moments are a gift.  Their death isn’t a punishment.

Bats & Dolphins can hear shapes 🦇 🐬

Plants can eat light 🌱

Crickets can sing with their legs 🦗

Bees can dance maps 🐝

Spiders can taste with their feet 🕷️

Love can live on ❤️

LIFE ITSELF HAS NO MEANING.

LIFE IS THE OPPORTUNITY TO CREATE MEANING.

THE POINT OF THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE, IS JUST TO BE HUMAN.

EXPRESS CREATIVITY, EMOTIONS & IDEAS.

SING, DANCE, PAINT, WRITE, PLAY, READ, LOVE, LAUGH, CRY, RUN, TALK …

SHARE MORE OF THAT.

THAT’S HOW WE MATTER.

THAT’S HOW WE CAN CONNECT.

THAT’S HOW WE CAN FEEL OUR AUTHENTIC FEELINGS

🎶

It’s not where but who you’re with that really matters – Dave Matthews

Smell the sea and feel the sky – Van Morrison

Anchor where the ocean ends – Zac Brown

Choose to chance the rapids, and dare to dance the tide – Garth Brooks

I see my future in your eyes – Ed Sheeran

a weekend done right! No working 🚫 💻

Dog Fundraiser Dinner 🐶 

Live Dave Matthews in the She Shedd 🎶 

Saturday AM – Didn’t set an alarm 😴 🛌

Reading on the deck ☀️ 

Graduation party x2 🎉 

Sat on a boat with girlfriends 🚤 🌊 

Fireworks 🧨 

Orange theory 🍊 (met my June commit to fit goal)

Iced Coffee 🥤 

Netflix 📺 

Manicure / Pedicure 💅 

Artist Date 🎨 

Nap 💤 

Meditation 🧘 

Independent Bookstore 📚 🎂 

Swimming 🏊 🌊 

Simple dinner & chill at home while Finnegan 🎣 

📚

Big Magic – Liz Gilbert

Life Worth Living

Your Brain on Art by Ivy Ross and Susan Magsamen

The Creative Act: A Way of Beingby Rick Rubin

The Artist’s Way  by Julia Cameron

Untamed – Glennon Doyle

We can do hard things – Glennon Doyle

Einstein’s God – Krista Tippett

Becoming Better Grown Ups

Fiction —-

The midnight library

Remarkably Bright Creatures

Swear on this Life

📚 ✍️ 📓 📖 💻 📕 🖊️ 🗒️ 📚 ✍️ 📖 💻

If I were to book a writing retreat for myself for a week or weekend what would it look like? And how can I do the same thing on a budget?

Coffee Shop ☕️

Nap 💤

Sunrise & Sunset 🌅 ☀️

TV in bed 🛌

Hiking 🥾 🍂

Meditations 🧘‍♀️

Library 📚

Take out Chinese 🥢

When the kids are gone and Ryan’s coaching or at the bar … soak up this time alone, and pretend I booked myself a solo vacation, and create my own little writing retreat. ✍️

📚 ✍️ 📓 📖 💻 📕 🖊️ 🗒️ 📚 ✍️ 📖 💻

I am so proud of you! Not just because you’re graduating MHS today, but because you are a fabulous human and I am so lucky to be your mom! 🍀 💕 My heart is simultaneously exploding with joy and breaking just a little as it aches to let you go.

I feel like I swallowed the sun as I am bursting with delight. This is your milestone, and I am grateful to have a front row seat to the spectacular unfolding of your life.

I love you with my whole heart! I hope you always know I’m here for you, please feel both held and free by the support of your family.

I am so impressed that you fully step into whatever you’re responsible for, You don’t wait for someone to make a difference because YOU are someone!

Continue to live boldly and child-like. Your imagination will solve problems and create opportunities I could never dream of.

You are caring, hard working and brilliant. I know with all that I am, that you can achieve any dream that finds its way to your heart.

I love that you find the fun, go on adventures to Starved Rock to hike, think we can train a bobcat to dig holes, buy garbage bags and dish soap to go mud sledding on Election Day, going on the giant drop at Great America all by yourself, dress up for junior-senior wars in a gillie suit, go all-in for silly games like senior assassin, collecting pins at Cooperstown or playing neighborhood whiffle or pickle ball. I know you’ll be the same adventure-seeking human who follows his fascination at MSU and generally embraces life!

You amaze me. Not just by earning 2 varsity letters freshman year, the sportsmanship award for Mundelein Senior year cross country, Captain of the Track Team Senior year, the Mustang Athletic Directors Award, breaking the 5-minute mile, multiple AP and honors courses throughout HS, battling health concerns, and taking it all in stride. You’ve worked hard as a youth umpire, in the little league concession stand, starting your own lawn mowing/snow removal business, park district fitness attendant, beach gate keeper, mattress salesman, and your favorite job of banner day-camp counselor since 2023. I know you’ll keep that strong work ethic your entire life!

I am so excited for your next chapter; not just when you’re tearing it up on the bags court at every tournament you enter, or having some laughs on the basketball court with your team 4 1/2 men. Follow your passion. Belly up to the buffet of life; Meet new friends. Try a new sport or game. Major in chemistry or not. Aspire to be a person of generosity, integrity, humility and wisdom.

I soaked up every moment of your senior year, it felt like life’s highlight reel. However, I always try to live life like it’s urgent and there are closing credits ready to roll… which is why I treasure being a “photojournalist of an ordinary life” but having you in my life, Finn, makes life anything but ordinary. I love our photo adventures, driving with you, getting coffee with you, shopping with you, watching tv with you, filling out forms with you, really any chance to connect and talk with you. You elevate any experience, with your energy, joy, humor, thoughtful questions, patience and love. I really am so grateful I get to be your mom.

You have an amazing soul and even when you meet new people they quickly recognize it (like your “guy” Emilio in Punta Cana).

Be kind to yourself and to others.

Be curious about life and follow your fascination.

Be brave and stand up for what is right, try new things, keep learning and growing… and sometimes bravery feels like fear, but keep going!

Remember your dreams, keep dreaming big. Who especially could these dreams belong to except for you? And to quote my favorite show …

As you head off to college, remember if you can’t find a friend, be one. Be yourself out there.

Your only Rx is a daily dose of novelty: try something new, talk to someone new, walk around being genuinely curious.

Lace up your running shoes; as you learned all through high school, they can take you places you didn’t think you could go!

Have an amazing adventure! Seek wonder and awe. Please call or text whenever you want to or need to, I’ll always be here for you. I love you Finnegan! Happy Graduation!! 🧑‍🎓

I watched this very cute movie today and it made me think, what dreams did my younger self have? And have I accomplished them? It’s always a great idea to check in to make sure you’re on the right path …

✔️ Raise, cheer for, support, and fully love two kind, brave, curious children

✔️ Work on the collaborative work of art called marriage

✔️ College (x4) & Career

✔️ Publish a book (x5+)

✔️ Artists Dates & Writing

✔️ Personal Goals: SUP, OTF, WMOTY, Improv…

Got to experience so many breathtaking things! Sunrises at the beach, Snow falling on my eyelashes in the Mountains, being splashed by Niagara Falls, 5th grade opening day date with each of my sons, Cubs World Series Parade, Met the Dolphins at CMA, countless amazing Live Music & Comedy & Art …I can sleep at night knowing I really gave life my all, I lived deep and wide (and will live as long as the universe allows).

✅ ongoing adventure & art & awe ….

Life shouldn’t just be lived, it should be celebrated! 🥂 🍾

Throw a party for no reason… 💯 birthday party, Keegan de Mayo, Neighborhood Olympics …. Have fun out there!

I love this concept of “normal plus” and I loved this book! The main character is wrestling with her mortality as she faces her cancer diagnosis. Her husband offers to make all her wildest dreams come true (bucket list): a trip to Machu Picchu, swimming with dolphins, whatever she dreamed of… and she just wanted more normal days, feeling healthy, time with her kids, dinner with friends and they coined the phrase “normal plus”…. And I totally relate!!

I don’t dream of a bucket-list life, I dream of an ordinary plus life. Where nothing feels particularly remarkable, yet everything is. And ordinary day +with your family and friends, but finding a way to make it special. Take a cute selfie together, soak in the sun, order a fun cocktail at dinner, buy the fancy soap for your daily shower (so it feels like the spa), burn the fancy candle while you work from home… don’t save it!

Appreciate your health, weather, friends, family, music, food and drinks 💕

Life IS the special occassion.

I also think it’s important to reclaim the word plus. I wear plus-size clothing, but what I really want is a plus-sized life, one that is as wide and deep as it is long 💕

When you ask a sick person or mother of sick child, they just want a “normal day” where the go to school, hang out with friends and hang out with loved ones, eat the foods they love without nausea…

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Unless you get up and go to the beach for sunrise you’ll never know how strong the wind blows, how warm the waves feel, how brilliant the sky changes color every second. How dreamy the world is. How peaceful the body looks anchored close to shore. How melodic the sounds echo. How healing the whole sensory experience is. A magical unfolding of the day.

🏝️ 🌴 🏝️ 🌴🏝️ 🌴🏝️ 🌴🏝️ 🌴🏝️ 🌴

the salty breeze and crashing waves are the breath and heartbeat of earth

the rhythmic, peaceful energy of the waves vibrate into my soul 

the sea breeze forces my breath deeper, like the deep ocean, telling me not to hold my breath; to be authentically myself, to just be.

there is poetry in the connectedness of the sky & sea & land, like our breath leaves our lungs and interacts with the outside world

the warmth and pressure of the waves wash away all my worries. 

there is magic in the abundant sand, barefoot, grounded, connected to Earth, moveable, but supported, soft and strong 

You walk along the beach and so quickly your footprints 👣 get erased by a wave, a metaphor for our time on Earth. 

Enjoy the sun and sand, the beach sounds and the salty breeze on your face. A day at the beach is everything that is wonderful about being an earthling. 

What is a good life? Experiencing moments of awe. The beach is filled with awe, dreams, emotions, memories and wonder: you can feel them all directing your life like a compass from the sky.

Everyone feels like a child again, jumping and playing in the waves. When else do we play with the Earth? What a gift to play with waves, snowflakes, autumn leaves. I’m drawn to them all …. 🌊 ❄️ 🍂