Yesterday I met Mt. Evans of Colorado up close and personal and accomplished a big goal of mine = to climb a 14K mountain. Climbing a mountain is a big feat. Climbing a mountain of this elevation is a big feat. Climbing a mountain at this elevation, as a 46…

I used to be gone drinking every Memorial Day. It was tradition. I was pretending to have so much fun in pools and boats. Some of it was fun. Some of it was not. I am not faulting the company that I was in. I thank the hosts so much…

What happened to my friendships when I got sober? Navigating friendships and finding people to support you in sobriety can be one of the most challenging parts of getting sober. How did my friendships change when I ditched the drink? I lost people and it hurt. I have long, complicated, painful, and layered stories of friendships that are now over. There are stories left unwritten…

I used to do a lot of drinking when I got home from time away. I had a sunken feeling of being home. It felt like Sunday Scaries on steroids. I never knew what to do with myself. I didn’t know how to end the “good timing”. …

I had such a serendipitous experience on Spring Break. We stayed in Naples, FL for the first half with family and in Treasure Island, FL just the four of us (meeting our Chicagoland neighbors for dinner one night) for the second half of our stay. We had a hotel on…

I was inspired to take on the 75 Hard Challenge after seeing some of my Instagram friends do it. I started on a bit of a whim. I didn’t think much about it and just decided to do it. It is a big undertaking and a huge commitment in some…

At four years sober, looking back I can see how my whole life revolved around alcohol. St. Paddy’s Day is, of course, a huge drinking holiday. All I needed in the past was alcohol to make it a success. So much so, that it was my first night out just…

In an alcohol obsessed society it is so hard to be sober. As a child growing up in small town Wisconsin I had no alcohol free role models. Every adult I knew, minus two family members, drank beer. It was my understanding that the two people in my family who…

I fell to my knees the morning of February 20th, 2018 and surrendered to my husband. I was crying, miserable, terrified. For the first time in my whole life I said the words that seemed impossible to me, “I need help.” He held me and we cried together. I made…