As of November 28th, I am officially two years sober. That is two years without a sip of alcohol. Not a one-off beer or a sneaky sip of wine. Not a champagne toast on New Years or a Guinness on St. Patrick’s Day. I never in a million years thought I would be able to say this, and I definitely never expected to say that with enthusiasm! Sobriety is a never-ending journey and I keep learning more and more the longer I stay sober. Today I wanted to talk about my first year of sobriety compared with my second year of sobriety. While the whole journey has been exciting and eye-opening, there are de ..read more

I’ve been doing a lot of reflection this month. Specifically, reflection on the things I am grateful/thankful for. I haven’t always been very good at being intentional about my gratitude and this is something I am actively working on. I was fortunate to grow up in a healthy, loving family with all my physical, mental, and emotional needs being met with ease. Besides the normal teenage angst that all teenagers experience to some degree, my life has been relatively “easy,” so to speak. I was able to do the things I wanted to do, participate in the hobbies I wanted to participate in, make and kee ..read more

I have always been a list maker. It began in high school when I started to get busy with dance and school and other extra-curricular activities.  I needed to start keeping track of what I was doing and when so things didn’t fall through the cracks. I actually have those school agendas to thank for starting me on this habit! Any other millennials out there remember those big agendas they would give us in the beginning of the year? I think most people threw theirs directly in the trash or in their box of crap under their bed but I used the HELL out of mine! I organized it and categorized it ..read more

My sobriety date is November 28, 2021. That means my first month sober was the month of December. Do you know what happens in the month of December? Christmas parties with friends. Christmas movies. Christmas cookies. ALL the Christmas activities with kids. Christmas cooking. Time off work. Down time with family. All the games. All the music. You know what goes with all those things? Wine. Beer. Christmas cocktails. Spiked hot chocolate. Holiday-inspired mimosas. Christmas themed shots. Some people may say that starting my sobriety journey in the hardest month of the year was setting myself u ..read more

I am absolutely mortified to admit this, but I used to judge the shit out of people who don’t drink. When we were in a social situation and someone wasn’t drinking, I immediately wrote them off, stopped listening to anything they were saying, pretty much made up my mind to not even give them the time of day. I didn’t ask questions; I didn’t even wonder why. I kind of just removed that person from my realm of existence. Basically, I was an asshole. The one exception to this is my dad and I really have no explanation as to why. My dad quit drinking before I was born, and I guess to me he was the ..read more

Birthdays are an excellent opportunity for self-reflection, goal setting, and health resets. Kind of like a “personal New Year’s Eve,” it feels like a fresh start. My 35th birthday was this past weekend, so naturally, I have been consumed with all the “who the fuck am I?” questions I am flooded with whenever one of my trips around the sun is ending. My mother also reminded me that I am now officially closer to 50 than 20, so that’s great… As I’ve been pondering just who the fuck I am, I’ve been reflecting a lot on my sobriety and how getting sober has helped me answer so many more questions ab ..read more

Your alarm goes off at 5:30 am like you planned, so you could go upstairs and get on the Peloton before the kids wake up. You snooze it and then you half-consciously realize that it’s storming outside. What is better than sleeping in the rain? Plus, you didn’t get to bed as early as you wanted last night so you really need the extra sleep. You decide you can sleep in today and you will just find time later this afternoon or evening to get your ride in. The next time you wake up it’s to your 18 month old screaming because they are covered in puke. It’s 6:45 at this point and when you go into th ..read more

Let me start this out by saying that when this is posted it will be October 5th. If you want to participate in Sober October but already drank this month, DO NOT let that be an excuse to not join the club – it’s not too late! Start now. Add on however many days to the end to make it the full 31 days. I was the queen of excuses, and I can picture myself now: seeing something about Sober October on October 5th and thinking to myself “damn, that would have been a great idea. Too bad I missed the boat.” I am now removing that excuse for anyone reading this . In my humble opinion, October is the be ..read more

Remember that scene in Zootopia when Judy arrives in the big city for the first time? Anyone with small kids knows exactly what I’m talking about, but let me explain for anyone who enjoys some variety in their television and isn’t held captive to the same animated movies over and over and over and over again . Judy is a small rabbit from a small town who has a dream to become a cop in the big city of Zootopia. She’s confident, eager, and excited to go to the city to fulfill her dream and when she arrives on the train, she’s wide-eyed, curious, enthusiastic, and eager to experience all the thin ..read more

Let me paint a little picture for you. It’s February 2017 and Korey and I have baby Fischer at home. For whatever reason, we couldn’t celebrate Valentine’s Day on Valentine’s Day that year, so we ended up deciding to celebrate Valentine’s Day on a Sunday by going out for brunch. Because God forbid we just give each other a card, a smooch, and call it a day. I loved a reason to “celebrate,” aka drink. My parents were keeping Fischer for us, so we go out for brunch, which includes lots of food and mimosas/Bloody Mary’s/beers/seltzers/ciders/wine – you get the picture. After brunch we decide to g ..read more