I was born & raised in a medium sized town in Bradenton Florida along the gulf coast. I went to Manatee High School where I was part of the marching band, playing the flute and sang with many choral groups. I was a member the Baptist church since I was very young. I can’t even remember a time when I wasn’t involved in church. My Dad was a deacon and my Mom was very involved with the women’s groups. My Dad was an auto body man and opened his own body shop when I was a senior in high school. My Mom did the bookkeeping and other paperwork involved with the business. I believe I got my entrepreneurship from my parents.  I have an older brother and I was the youngest in the family until I was 10. My parents adopted other children, so I became the 2nd oldest in the family.

I met my 1st husband, Dave when I was 19. We married when I was 20 and we had 3 sons within quick succession. My sons were all born in the same hospital that I was born in. When we were in our early to mid 30’s we felt the call to become missionaries. We served under Child Evangelism Fellowship for 5 years. It was this organization that brought us out to Colorado. Towards the end of the 5 years in ministry, I went to work for UPS as a delivery driver to help support 3 growing boys. I worked there for 10 years and really enjoyed the job. It was extremely physical and demanding. I ended up with a work injury that ended my time there in 2007.

Before leaving UPS, I started working in investment real estate. I started “flipping houses” before it became in vogue in 2004. I also bought rental houses when the market tanked and continued to flip houses & buy rentals. I was turning between 12 -15 houses a year in the “flipping” business.  It was very profitable and rewarding to take complete disasters and turn them into something beautiful that someone would be happy to call home. I got my real estate license and my general contractor license in 2014. It has been very beneficial to have both and has allowed me to do things I would never have been able to do before.

In the year 2021, my 1st husband, Dave, ended up with quite a few health issues and at the end of that year, covid took him to his eternal home with Jesus.

I met my new husband, Darren, through a mutual friend. Having so much in common, being of an older age, we decided to take the plunge and married shortly after. It was clear to us that it was God’s will. Darren had lost his 1st wife to breast cancer. So, we were 2 widowed people that God brought together.

Our journey has been at times difficult. Blending 2 families at any age would be hard. Thankfully, we’re at the age where we don’t have children living with us and don’t have to figure out how we’ll make a living or where we’ll live. We have really enjoyed traveling and look forward to many more trips across the country in our class A motorhome. If you’d like to follow along with us on our journeys and see more about our experiences, click here.