I have much to be thankful for. I have my health, I have a job, a home, a family, great friends. I am lacking nothing. 

This year I chose my word of the year to be strength. I chose that word because of our dear friend Lyla. She had strength like no other. There have been times in my year where I was feeling weak and losing my confidence. But then I would quietly focus on our friend and her family and tapped into their strength to rise above my insecurities and my fears. 

I accomplished a dream race just a few weeks ago. I ran the New York City marathon. I have wanted to run that race for 15 years. I applied for the past four years and was selected. To this day it was my favorite marathon. It was epic. I felt amazing before, during, and after the race. I ran this race hard and am proud of my finish time. It wasn’t a PR for me, but it was a personal boost I needed to get my head back into racing and believing in myself. 

I set some goals for myself this year to grow my blog and my social media presence. I attended several conferences and met a lot of great people. I am thankful that I invested in myself.  I was brave and made some bold moves and stopped worrying about what other people say or do.  These bold moves have given me the chance to work with and meet some great people. People that I admire in the industry. I am going to continue to grow and hope to achieve greater things over the next year. 

My children have made me proud this year. Adrienne has overcome her anxiety and surprised me this week. We surprised the kids with our annual trip to NYC to see the balloon Inflation Celebration for the parade and she told me she was sad that she was missing school!  She also stepped up as a softball player and really embraced the sport this year as the pitcher. Her leadership on the team is also spilling over into her role in her classroom too. 

Kevin has made me so proud with his trumpet playing. He definitely has the musical ear from me. He has a natural talent and plays beautifully by ear.  I enjoy listening to him practice.  He continues to do well in school and enjoys running with me. He has become my 5K buddy. He is also a true friend to his classmates. He works hard and wants to do the right thing always. 

I am so grateful to my husband. He suffers through so much pain, yet no one has any idea. Only those of us who are very close to him know when he is struggling. But even then he still gets up every day and does what he needs to do and helps our kids and the family.

I am so grateful for my core four. We are us, we have fun, we love life, work hard, play hard and remember what is most important – each other.