About me
After all this, I have finally realized that time is the most valuable asset in life.
My name is Heather and this is my blog. I’m a cool mom, I love my family & friends, I love nutrition, I love fitness, I love golf, I love to make candles, I love to say the word fuck and I think I’m one of the funniest people on earth – just ask me. This blog exists to provide you with the tools & inspiration to become more knowledgeable, become confident, be unstoppable, and feel like a badass.
My Story Starts in early 1984
I don’t remember much about my childhood before my mom had a brain aneurysm when I was 10. But I will remember the day it happened for the rest of my life. My dad, sister, and I left my mom in bed with a headache to go to our school carnival. My mom was actually supposed to work at the school carnival but because of her headache, she stayed home.
For reasons I don’t remember we went back home. We got 1/2 way to the school and we turned around. When we got back home my mom was unresponsive. We took her to the hospital, and from that point forward none of our lives would be any resemblance to the way they were just a few hours before.
I remember “code blue”, “code blue” being screamed amongst the emergency staff at the hospital, and doctors and nurses were running everywhere. As I watched my dad sit there wondering what was going on, I could see his pulse beating in his neck. It seemed like forever before they came to tell us about my mom’s condition. She had suffered a brain aneurysm, was in a coma, and was on life support with a not – so -positive prognosis.
How Situations Shape Us
Time passed, and I don’t even know how long it was but we visited my mom daily in the hospital. I’ll never forget the smell of the lotion they put on her tracheotomy hole and the sound it made as it pumped air into her lungs. Despite her unresponsiveness all of us would sing and read to her while she lay in her hospital bed. She loved to sing and play the guitar before her aneurysm. I would wake up in the morning and walk into our living room as my dad listened to recordings my mommy had made of herself singing and playing the guitar. He missed her just as much as I did.
And then one day, just like that, she woke up. We began to see signs of life when we spoke, sang, and read to her. We said “Debbie! If you can hear us squeeze your eyes” and she would squeeze her eyes. Her recovery was slow… months and months in rehab and physical therapy. But her determination never wained. Today she owns her own home and lives independently with only the help of a service to make her meals and drive her to appointments. She sits in a wheelchair and has severe muscle tremors and her voice is raspy & loud from the tracheotomy. But if you ask her she’s lucky to be alive and she is seated not defeated. She loves life and I love her.
This situation has shaped how I look at life and the situations that happen to me. I have learned that time is our most valuable asset. I live every day like it’s my last because you never know what is going to happen.
I Became Confident & Strong
After seeing my mom overcome her aneurysm and then beat breast cancer just a few years ago ( I know – how many bad things can happen to such a good person) I knew that I could do anything I set out to. She has been my inspiration for becoming a mom and entrepreneur. I’m a badass because anytime something challenging in my life arises – I compare it to her challenge and soon realize that mine is minuscule in comparison.
It took me a while in life to figure out “what I wanted to be”. For years I rode horses and taught horseback riding lessons. I was never into sports at school so my dad tried to provide me with the opportunity to find other hobbies. I barrel raced, showed hunter jump horses and trail rode. Every now and then I would exercise some racehorses. It was fun but dangerous and didn’t pay a lot so I got out of that world. My claim to fame was my short stint as a Hooters Girl which turned bland very quickly. I became a real estate agent for a short time and I worked as a dental assistant. Later the DA job turned into an office management job and I ended up working at that dental office, for almost 18 years. Although I wasn’t an athlete in school I had always loved to run. During my years at the dental office I would run on my lunch break. In the break room one day, I saw a picture of this girl in a fitness magazine. I wanted to look like her. She had muscles but was lean. I cut out the picture and took it to the local Gold’s Gym. I hired a personal trainer and told him I wanted to look like this picture.
She had abs, she had muscles and she was hot! The trainer looked at the picture, looked at me, and said “ok – let’s go”. One year later I looked like the picture. I had fallen in love with the process of working out, lifting weights, and changing the way my body looked. I learned and read about the process and decided I wanted to get out of the dental field and become a personal trainer. By this time I had met my husband Todd and had our two kids Ethan now 16 and Paxton now 12.
I became certified and was hired by Golds Gym part-time while I was working for the dental office. One of the other PTs at Gold’s was moving and her clients were looking for a home. I slowly increased my client load at the gym until I could afford to quit my dental job. I was able to quit and began to train full time.
Start your badass journey today!
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