Daily Life

Gunnison, Colorado is a small town with a mountain-sized music scene. There are always live music events happening, from small, intimate shows to large festivals. Whether you’re looking for bluegrass, rock, country, or something else entirely, you’re sure to find something to your taste in Gunnison. Here are a few of the best places to

Kat Kronenberg’s Dream Big was an accidental find for me. I was in search of a book by the same title to check off a genre on the PopSugar 2017 reading challenge that I’m having fun with this year. As I shared with you in my review of another book by the same name, anything with “Dream

Spring, ah, Spring! Quite possibly my favorite season of the year. I have to agree with Robin Williams: “Spring is nature’s way of saying, Let’s Party!” Days start to get longer, brighter, warmer. And if you sit with what nature is doing, stop a moment and look around, you’ll see that you’re standing in the

I learned about Leslie Zimmerman’s book, Dream Big, while I was reading George W. Bush’s Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief’s Tribute to America’s Warriors. Zimmerman, an Army Sergeant, served as a medic in Kuwait and later in Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. She returned home with PTS and depression and was spotlighted

Who doesn’t like reading a good book? I’ve not ever tried a particular reading challenge, rather been tossed along as a pebble in a stream from one book to the next. Sometimes getting stuck in a rut and doing a marathon read of an entire series or settling into one particular genre or the other.

I’ve been reading a lot of fiction lately, and with the new year, I thought it might be good to peruse a good professional book. One of my goals this year is to dust myself off and restart my goal of travel and lifestyle writing, and one of my favorite quotes is Jump, and the

It’s been almost 20 years since Duane and I happened to come through this part of North Texas to visit some friends. As we drove through the downtown area of Denton, we saw an office space with a “For Rent” sign hanging in the window and we felt it was the perfect place, and time, for us

I’m not sure how I stumbled upon Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, but I’m glad I did. Written in 1943, the book became an Academy Award winning movie in 1945 and was adapted into a Broadway musical in 1951. An often overlooked American literature classic, Smith takes the reader on a journey that

When you ask me (or Duane) where we’re from, we’ll tell you Texas. And if you ask further, what heritage we are, we will again tell you that we are Texan. In the melting pot that is America, it is rare for someone not to proudly state they are from another region of the world. However,

Life is hectic and often stressful. Overlooking great things that happen in our lives is easy because they get lost in the shuffle as we rush to meet deadlines, get kids shuttled to wherever they need to be, dinner on the table, dishes washed, or even running to catch that airplane to your next adventure.

A few weeks ago I accidentally discovered a product that is a contender for my favorite product of 2017: the MyHydrate Hydration System. In short, it’s a water bottle that tracks how much you drink in a 24 hour period. The perfect gadget for any endurance athlete (or anyone) that struggles to consume adequate amounts

New Orleans, Louisiana, or NOLA, is one of our favorite places to visit. It’s colorful, magical, dirty, dingy, and about a million other adjectives that could possibly describe a vibrant city steeped in culture that is centuries old. We first traveled to New Orleans in 2002 for me (Louellen) to run my first marathon, the Mardi

As I was dusting out shelves in the Journey Monkey blog posts and mulling over what direction this blog (and I) should evolve in 2017, I came across this post that I started way back in 2011. And while the story may be old, its essence, conveyed in the first line, rings through no matter

Our second hive arrived! I was tickled that I got to introduce them to their new home!   After literally dumping them in their new box, there are always a few that hang on. They love their queen so much that if you set them down outside the hive, they will clean up the box

Duane and I did something new this year. We purchased seasons tickets for the Dallas Summer Musical series. I’ll admit, the first show, Burn the Floor, was the show we were the most dubious about. Touted as “Ballroom. Reinvented.” (or in Duane’s terms, kind of like Dancing with the Stars meets Broadway), this show is