Present Day

 April 2012 and I feel as if my life is just now at my finger tips. Moving from grade 5 to grade 1 for the upcoming school year, defining career moves for my husband which could mean another 12 years in the military or starting our life in the civilian world, the Warrior Games which could earn my husband a spot on the US Paralympic team and finishing my 1st semester of graduate school. Comfy in my home surrounded by a family that loves me and friends that help me enjoy this ride they call life and plunging head first into the next chapter of my life.

Aunt Tay Tay

February 17, 2011 my very first niece Abigail Renee Wilson was born and has had the entire family wrapped around her finger ever since. She is sassy and full of spunk and makes me look forward to being a parent one day.

Quite a Change

I went from being the student to now being the teacher. Terrified of the new journey I am going on, I am ready to embrace the 26 young souls that walk into my classroom. Ten going on Twenty-five, I not only survive but thrive during my first year as a teacher. I form many new friendships, learn things about myself that I never knew and am able to end on a happy yet tearful note.The children that walked into my life were a blessing and having to let them go was hard.

Finally Made It

 College Graduation is here. A day that I never thought not only would come but that I would actually make it to. May 2010 and I am ready to embrace the world. Twenty-two, vibrant and ready to take on any challenge that comes my way. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

The Call

5am on 22 April, 2008 and nothing could have prepared me for what was on the other end of that line. Everything from that call is blurry, gun shot, 3,  and amputation were the defining words that kept ringing in my head after I hung up the phone. I was ready to go to Iraq, I was ready to go find my husband and make sure he would be ok but in reality, all I did was hurry up, and wait. Wait for a phone call, wait to be told where I was going and wait for everything to be ok. Hurry up and get all my i's dotted and t's crossed, bags packed and arrangements made. Three days later I was living in a house with families of wounded service members with very little privacy in a new city and a husband who was not the same as when he left me. Eight surgeries and 21 days later, he left the hospital and I was the person who had to help put all of our pieces back together, while still recovering from my own injuries.

Crash

Twelve weeks of surviving with out my husband and I feel as if I am in a groove of life. Work, school, rest is the routine I have found and enjoy. On a typical Monday, I pack my lunch, get all of my school materials ready so I can study at lunch and head to work. Within 20 minutes I would be in a helicopter, unconscious and heading to Dallas for a week long stay on the cardiac unit. I never saw the truck coming, I never felt any pain although my entire world as I knew it would be different. Weeks of intensive therapy, exercises to help my brain heal, 24/7 care and a loss of all independence is what my world now consisted of. At the time I was angry at everyone and everything but now, I consider it a blessing that I was chosen for.

The Hardest Good-bye

Good-bye's are temporary, sometimes a day, or even a month but this time, I say good-bye for 15 months. Staring at the most daunting task I have ever encountered, I say good bye to my new husband in November of 2007 and let him leave me for a war on the other side of the world for 15 whole months.

Going to the Chapel

31 March 2007 is a day that I will always remember. Though, not your traditional wedding, the important people were there. With every intention of having a 'big' wedding in the future, we said 'I do' and started our new life together.

College Days

Community College is nothing as I expected but just what I needed. Going into school just as my parents and not having any college graduates in my immediate family, the mentality of never making it to graduation is not a healthy one. I will overcome the odds, transfer to Texas A&M-Commerce and receive a teaching certificate. Some days it is an uphill battle along with the feeling of walking against the crowd but others are successes along with finding many things out about myself that I never knew.

The Day Has Come

The day has come to graduate high school. The first day of the rest of my life. Feelings of excitement, nervousness, uncertainty and freedom are all running around my head simultaneously. Independence can be a scary thing but I am ready to embrace it and find my way in the w

SRD

One of the most defining moments of my high school career happened today. I am officially a Silver Rhythm Dancer. The next three years I will work harder than I have in my teenage life, tears will be shed, friendships created, laughter shared and memories that will carry me through adult hood. This will be one wild ride but my seat belt is fastened and I am more than ready.

High School Newbie

August of 2001 and I am now the new girl. Again. My parents have decided to give marriage another shot, moving me into a new home and new school district. Informing them they were ruining my life in the most dramatic way, they always knew what was best and it turned out that was the fresh new step I needed. New friends, new activities and many more opportunities surrounded me and the sky really was the limit.

New Digs

A student of the private school system for the past 7 years, I am now taking the plunge into public school. It's not just a school change but a life change. No more prayer before eating, going to school with my friends since I was 4 and now jumping into a drastically different new world, not knowing how good for me it actually was.

Spring Sting

It's the spring of 1997 and my parents have dropped a ball on our family that I never saw coming. I would now be labeled as a 'D-family'. Moving out of our suburb town in a beautiful home, we were now residents of Dallas in a small apartment complex that suited our needs. Life was forever changed.

Happy Birthday

 I came into this world with a force to reckon with. Bright green eyes, olive skin and ruby red lips, my parents had no clue what a 'strong willed' child really was. Refusing to go to bed because my bangs were too long or having to have mustard on everything that entered my mouth, to name a few, I was surely going to give them a run for their money.

I will be the only child for 4 years and 8 months. Along comes my sister in February 1992. We have as much in common as oil and water but that is what makes me love her so much.