Inspirational Stuff

The Dudes’ 5th Annual Alex’s Lemonade Stand – Why This Year Is Special

June 7, 2018
photo

It’s craaaazy to think that this is our 5th year holding an Alex’s Lemonade Stand! (The photo to the left shows Middle Dude working at our very first stand!) You have all been so generous and supportive of our efforts over these past four years and we hope you will once again support raising funds for […]

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4th Annual Alex’s Lemonade Stand…Why We Continue To Do This

June 5, 2017
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For the 4th year in a row, we are holding our Alex’s Lemonade Stand fundraiser to raise money for a cause that means SO much to us: childhood cancer. Middle Dude and I are getting ready to make our homemade lemonade and we hope you’ll be eager to drink a cup either in person or donate to our stand online… Did you […]

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A Mom, Her Son and The Hope Of One More

September 14, 2016

As many of you know, the cause I support the most now and always will be to help raise funds for childhood cancer research. Sometimes, however, I like to support fundraising for happy reasons too and this one is a goodie. The woman I am about to tell you about has photographed my children on […]

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3rd Annual Alex’s Lemonade Stand: Why We Do This

June 7, 2016
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For the 3rd year in a row, we are holding our Alex’s Lemonade Stand fundraiser to raise money for a cause that means SO much to us: childhood cancer. Middle Dude and I are getting ready to make our homemade lemonade and we hope you’ll be eager to drink a cup either in person or online and help us raise […]

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One Word for the New Year

January 7, 2016
Edits-Disruption

Forget those dumb resolutions. But, a word for 2016 makes a lot of sense to me. A word that has meaning and is motivating. A word that will remind me to keep following my passion, even when I’m busy and/or lazy. So, my 2016 word of the year is…. WRITE! And yes, I need that […]

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Big Dude Turns 18…With A Special Gift From Me

August 6, 2015
Letter

Well, I did it. For anyone who’s been reading my blog from the early days (anyone? anyone?), you may recall the post where I divulged that I’ve been writing letters to my three boys since they were little. My plan was/is to write about their milestones, as well as fun times they may have already […]

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A BIG Birthday Milestone: I’m Halfway There…?

July 28, 2015
Jon Bon Jovi

I recently celebrated a “big” birthday and I’ve been trying to decide how I feel about it. If you’re wondering which birthday I’m talking about, let’s just say Bon Jovi sings it best: If I truly am “halfway there” as Bon Jovi says, then I also want to make sure I’m not just “livin’ on […]

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A Montana Retreat: Beauty, Inspiration and A Circle of Trust

June 15, 2015

So, I have a “big” birthday coming up (yeah, you know, I’m turning 29 again – wink wink) and I wasn’t sure I wanted to have a party. For my 40th, I had rejected the party idea and chose a nice vacation instead. For this one, I knew I wanted to do something special, something I would […]

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Middle Dude’s 2nd Annual Alex’s Lemonade Stand

June 8, 2015
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  It’s that time of year again…lemonade time! It also means it’s time to raise money for a very important cause: childhood cancer. Middle Dude and I are already preparing to make our homemade lemonade (with a little help from Ina Garten’s recipe) and we hope you’ll be ready to drink a cup and help […]

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How I Became A Bucket-Filler

March 18, 2015

Is compassion an inherent trait or can it be taught? Or, is it something you discover only after you’ve needed it the most? I’ve thought about this a lot over the past year, as I count each month that we are further away from what was a really BAD year. It was a year when we […]

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Courage Isn’t Always About Bungee Jumping

December 11, 2014
English: Jump from Nevis Bungee Platform near ...

This past year, I had a lot of time to think about courage. What it means. What it looks like. How it feels. I used to think courage was having the guts to do something really scary, like bungee jump, sky dive, or walk a tightrope between two of Chicago’s skyscrapers (did anyone watch that […]

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