About Me

I am a woman who has always LOVED words. I aspire to be a writer and speaker. Even as a little girl, I would write short stories for fun and read lots of books during the summer. I have also journaled since I was 8 years old. I find deep meaning in the everyday happenings. I learn lessons and see God in everything. He uses my kids, my husband and my life to reveal His goodness, beauty and wisdom on a daily basis.

My Interests include Reading, Writing, Speaking, Ministry, Shopping, Working out, Watching Football, Spending time with my family, a good conversation with a girlfriend. I also enjoy the power of praying and am always available if anyone would like to be prayed for to conceive a baby or to do some spiritual housekeeping in their home.

Proud of My Hometown

When I tell people I am from California, they raise their eyebrows and say, “Oh so you’re a California Girl.” My husband quickly responds for me, “It’s not at all what you think it is.”

I grew up in Northern California in a small town of about 90-100 thousand people called Chico not to be confused with Chino in Southern California. In fact it is about 8 hours north of San Diego and 3 and a half hours inland from San Francisco. It is surrounded first by farm lands and then mountains. The hobbies of choice usually include mountain bike riding, hiking, camping, water skiing and snowboarding. It is cold and rainy in the winter, blazing hot and dry in the summer, cool breezes with leaves that change colors in the fall and warm air with flowers blooming in the spring. Deeply breathing in all of that fresh, crisp, dry air is one of the things I miss the most since living in Florida.

We have some claims to fames. Our Welcome to Chico sign now says Home of Aaron Rodgers. Who is the MVP quarterback of the Green Bay Packers winners of the Super Bowl in 2011. We also claim hometown to Kyle Loshe who is a pitcher of the St. Louis Cardinals who won the World Series in 2011 although he really grew up in a tiny town 10 minutes away. We were the college town for Matt Kearney who is now a popular music artist but don’t quote me on this one because I don’t know how long he actually lived there. We are home of Sierra Nevada Brewery which is nationally sold. And home of Klean Kanteen. That’s all I can think of. Oh yeah, and home of R.W. Knudson as well. I am sure I will be contacted by my fellow Chicoans to tell me I forgot someone or something!

Not too bad for a little town, huh? Chico is a very special place. Those of us who moved away call it the Chico Bubble. My mom says the whole world should be like Chico. It is very family oriented, a slower pace of life full of friends, flying kites in the park and serving the community. Most people are open and warm with lots of hospitality and no facades or pretenses about them.

It has a very laid back attitude not paying much attention to name brands, huge houses or luxury cars. The downtown is quaint and looks like a picture out of a movie with lots of brick, one way streets and mom and pop shops and restaurants. It takes about 10 minutes to drive across town on the one highway with 9 exits.  It was a very big deal when we got a Wal-Mart. There is a mall but that is slowly dying. It’s the kind of town that you will see someone you know everywhere you go. Although, we say that we are surprised my mom doesn’t know everyone everywhere she goes after living there almost 30 years. She is the biggest Chico fan you will ever meet. If you have a conversation with her for just a few minutes, you would find that out.

 There is Chico State, so you have about 20 thousand college students during the school year and it used to be ranked as one of the top 5 party schools in the nation but not so much anymore. There is definitely a sub-culture of typical Northern Californian hippy, hug a tree, save the planet kind of people that live there. Lots of Birkenstock’s and Tevo’s which you might not even know what those are. But then there is also a spiritual culture that resides there. And not in a New Age kind of way but in a Super Natural Presence of God kind of way.  This is how I was raised.

I was taught the power of prayer at 14 or 15 years old. We would get up early to have prayer meetings and sometimes stay up all night. We would pray for revival at our small Christian school and pray for our country. We would pray for our future husbands and children. We would pray that we could be used by God to make a difference in this world for Him. We would pray that we would become more like Christ every day. We were taught how to daily read the Bible and apply it to our lives. We were taught about how to be filled with the Holy Spirit, the importance of generational curses and blessings, how to battle in spiritual warfare, how to do ministry and reach out to our community. I had good parents, relatives, pastors, teachers, mentors and friends. It takes a village. I can only pray my kids have the same.

Some of my friends went through a time of rebellion in high school or college and then came back stronger than ever. A couple of my friends are wayward right now. But for the most part, we are all following God whole heartedly and are living out answered prayers and are continuing to pray big things for ourselves, our families, our churches, our communities and our country.

People ask me if my hometown is similar to Tampa. Um, No.  Definitely not. It took me a very long time to adjust to life here. I just couldn’t understand why my husband did not get off work at 5pm and home by 5:15 for dinner.  I didn’t understand how other Christians did not know the basics of how to pray and read the bible. I didn’t understand a lot of things.

Living here has opened the eyes of my heart and mind both physically and spiritually. I have grown up here probably more than I would have if I stayed in Chico. I have had to challenge my own thinking and faith in ways I didn’t know existed. I thought everyone grew up like me. Yes, I was a little sheltered.

My parents left a successful and thriving business in Las Vegas when I was 5 years old so they could raise their family in a community like Chico. Now that I am a mom, I understand their sacrifice better. They left everything to move to a town where they knew no one. They took a chance and a risk. They went through years of struggling financially.They did it all for my brother and I.

I will probably never live there again and I don’t think I really could after adapting to life in the “big city”. I wish Tampa had some of the aspects that Chico does but Tampa is pretty special too in a different sort of way.

We are all products of our environment and I just hope that my husband and I will be willing to make the right choices and sacrifices for my kids that my parents made for me.

 I am who I am today because I grew up in Chico and it will always hold a special place in my heart.

Thank you Mom and Dad from the bottom of my heart. I am very proud of my hometown.