Sometimes I am amazed when I pause for a minute to look back at where I’ve come from. I lost so very much when my first marriage fell apart but every single bit has been redeemed and is now better than it was before. Today we bought the mid century house that we’ve been living in for the last two years and we couldn’t be happier. Life is good.

Today we’re pasting our photos on the side of FACTORY in support of the Dreamers. I believe that American Values are that we care for each other and kids who were raised in these United States are certainly our own. #loveyourneighbor #westslopebestslope

This seems to be like a good time for me to give my shopping local speech. What shopping local really boils down to is shopping with intention. Sometimes that takes more time and sometimes that takes a little bit more money. But it also means so much for your community.

Shopping small, at locally owned shores, means that 68% of each dollar you spend stays right in your community. Our city is primarily funded by sales tax so those dollars go to provide roads, sewer, police, fire, EMS, parks and so much more. This process is something I get to see happening close up everyday. Perhaps more importantly, that 68% staying in our community means that our friends and neighbors who own local businesses get to continue to do what they love, providing great service and unique products. Being a former retailer I can promise you that every single person who shopped at my store really did matter and really did make a difference to my business.

Here’s the work that I’m practicing right now:
I’m remembering that everyone is my teacher. I’m taking the longer view. I’m learning what I can from everyone, even when it’s hard. Even when they complain to me about parking.
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I’m sitting down every morning before I start my day to write three things I’m thankful for about my job. I’m focusing on three things I’m thankful for about my life, too. It’s a really good life.
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I’m learning how to protect my little, empathic self from feeling all of the things so I can focus on what’s important and feel what’s important.
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What is the work you’re doing right now?
#lookup

It’s been five years since Josh and I met. Gosh, how lucky I feel that Seth and Carrie talked him into driving over the mountains to carve pumpkins that day. It was only a couple weeks later that we started dating and he kept driving over the mountains to see me.

I’m so thankful for these memories to look back on and measure the way life changes. I could not have imagined then how good life would be now. This man would go on show me how very real redemption is and what it’s like to be loved unconditionally. I really am so lucky.

This is why I believe in public school: tonight we got to watch all of the musical kids at Palisade High School perform, all the bands and orchestras and choirs. Eden sang in two of the choirs and we marveled at the way her confidence to perform has changed over these last few years.

The night ended with the marching band filing into the auditorium, lining the room, and filling it with so much sound that you could feel it in your chest. As those kids marched in, joy exuding from them because of the music they were making, I teared up a little. I always tear up at my kids’ concerts, in rooms full of music that they are making. I can’t help but be eternally thankful for the opportunities that they have been given because of public school and I love to watch how it continues to make them grow.

You guys, I can’t even. I can’t believe I made this child.

I struggle to understand why it is so important to be so concerned with what other people do? I mean, I was raised to believe this way so I am familiar with the preoccupation with other people’s actions, especially whenever sex is involved. But, really. Why is it so important to be so worried about who someone else loves?
[Also, millennials don’t buy into a religion that builds a wall between “us” and “them” (in SO many ways.) We’re witnessing the death of Christianity and I think this, hypocrisy, is why.]

Washington Post: Nashville Statement

Printed in the August 17, 2017 edition of the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.

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As the the director of the Downtown Business Improvement District, and a longtime lover of these tree-lined streets in the center of our valley, I’m always fascinated by what visitors and those new to our community have to say about downtown. Most visitors wander our award-winning streets in awe, enjoying our little slice of heaven here in the western Colorado high desert. It’s fun to watch. Things are thriving here in downtown Grand Junction

So far in 2017 we’ve had 17 businesses either open or plan to open in our district. Our businesses are reporting that sales are up and vacancies are down. The new Mesa Theater owners have revitalized our music scene. The new outdoor dining patio at Barons has revitalized our night life. Tacoparty and Kiln Coffee Bar have drawn millennials and boomers alike. Pretty soon we’ll have a skate shop on Colorado Avenue and a western Colorado-made bath product shop on Main. Our beloved retailers, the staples of downtown, are changing things up too. Thirty of them got together this summer and expanded their hours on Fridays until 8 p.m. through the summer in a promotion called Fridays After Five.

Pinnacle, the company managing Two Rivers and the Avalon, has been a breath of fresh air, bringing fun, new ideas to downtown like the Sunset Patio concerts during the Fairway Independent Mortgage Farmers Market and expanding Dinner and a Movie on Tuesday nights to also include shopping. (Did you know that? Now on Tuesdays you can bring a receipt from any downtown business dated that day to the Avalon for two free movie tickets that night.)

The DDA board recently voted to move forward with a contract with Colorado developer REgeneration to build 36 unique townhouses on the empty lot at the old R-5 high school. Housing in downtown has long been a goal of the board and DDA/BID constituents and we’re about to see that come to fruition.

As of this spring, you can pay for parking on your phone (technology that many major cities have yet to adopt). You can also drop in to Factory and work for the day with access to gigabit internet or become a permanent member and work daily with like-minded entrepreneurs. The ultra-modern building that Factory occupies at 750 Main St., is full of all kinds of creative businesses, all which have made downtown their home in the last year.

Which brings me to, perhaps, my favorite thing: The #WestSlopeBestSlope hashtag that downtown spearheaded as part of a community pride initiative has been used more than 100,000 times on social media. Our community has taken extraordinary pride in this place we live, and downtown is at the heart of it all.

I’m incredibly proud to support and represent our diverse selection of businesses, restaurants and retailers. I don’t think there has ever been a better time to be a part of our vibrant and growing downtown community. More and more we see it’s true: Life happens here!