A Majorly Overdue Update

Hello my beautiful friends!

Huge apologies for seemingly falling off the face of the planet. We’ve had quite the transitional past few years, and I’ve done a terrible job at posting about it anywhere.

So, if you’ve wondered where in the world we are (I have a hard time keeping track my self!), what the girls are up to and why do they keep growing up so fast?!?, how my writing endeavors are going, how my health is, or how Gladys the cat is doing as an International Cat of Mystery - ponder no longer. I’m here to set all the stories straight. Finally!

​Starting with a very brief recap for anyone who’s really feeling in the dark.

​In 2021, we made a rather rash decision to leave our beloved Boulder, Colorado for a year to experience life as expats in Cascais, Portugal just outside of Lisbon. We landed very comfortably in a great community full of lots of international friends doing the same thing as us. But we ended up cutting our year short by a few months when I found out my breast cancer had come back (I was originally diagnosed and treated smack dab in the middle of the pandemic in 2020.)

I’m definitely good at glossing over this part of the story, so apologies if that bit of information caught you off-guard. In my typical fashion, I’ll continue to gloss over it by assuring you that with the help of my beyond amazing medical team and insane support from my people, I’m now healthy and happy (despite no one in Portugal knowing how to spell my name.)

We spent the latter part of 2022 into 2023 back in Boulder, which was heavenly. But, due to a LOT of different considerations, we made the decision to move back to Portugal in August 2023.

We came back full of an entire mystery bag full of every kind of emotion. Like Bertie Bott’s beans. You never know which one you're gonna pull out at any given time. Sometimes you get a delicious green apple one, while other times you get vomit-flavored. To be fair, I'm not sure if the roller coaster of emotions can be chalked up entirely to the cross-ocean move, or in part to the fact that we now have pre-teen and teenage daughters… likely a combination of the two, because we like to live life on the edge like that.

(Please take a moment to zoom in on any one of us in this photo to see just how discombobulated we all are... including the cat, who we believe is upside down in her carrier in this photo, ha!!)

But mostly, it’s been a relatively peaceful transition. Thanks to all the craziness going on in the States right now (pick your topic…,) we’ve chosen to call Portugal our “indefinite” home. We kept our house in Boulder and will be back for breaks - we couldn’t bear to really truly close that door, but most of our time is now spent in Europe.

For example…

In the last six months alone, we’ve been to:

The Basque Country 

We went to San Sabastian and Saint-Jean-De-Luz with some great friends from Portugal right when we landed back in Europe. A great re-introduction back. 

Barcelona/Costa Brava
To visit some of our closest friends from Boulder who moved there a few years ago. Coincidentally enough, we also randomly ran into two other sets of friends from Boulder who happened to be there as well! Included a visit to the Sagrada Familia, and an insanely delish adult night out. 

I'm not sure why we're into taking photos in a circle looking up, but here we are again...

​​Rome and Florence

Played tourists in Rome. A pasta cooking class in Florence, as well as making Florentine paper and doing some sketching.

​London (Quincy spent the whole weekend with her friend there, so no pics of her... her loss.) 

We love London SO much!! It's so fun to have it so close to us! 

Philadelphia 
​(specifically so I could see my idol and spirit animal, Tina Fey, perform. Yes, I almost cried.) 

​Detroit ​to spend time with the Flagg side of the family. Always a treat

​Colorado! For some long-awaited snow and mountain time. We got to spend Christmas with the whole Walker side of the family, which was a riot. And saw our Boulder besties. 

So yeah, we’ve been staying busy.

When we're actually home, we’re all finding our ways with different friends and activities.

​Quincy and Olive were in the school musical, “The 25 Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” Olive rocked it in the ensemble and Quincy was a character named “Olive,” which was mildly confusing but everyone managed.

Quincy’s still loving contemporary dance, and is so fun to watch.

Olive has a great group of friends, and is trying out Speech & Debate this semester. And - for anyone who knows Olive, you’ll agree that this could be a great fit for her.

Pearl has been enjoying Padel (the European (and much cooler and more fun…fight me) equivalent to Pickleball,) and is currently cast as “Head of the Winkies” in her school's upcoming “Wizard of Oz” performance.

Bill continues to love how social his life is in Portugal. He has fun playing Padel and working out with his friends. We’re also in the process of building a house here, so he and I have been spending a lot of time working on those logistics.

And…drum roll… I’m super excited to share something I've been working on called Journal Jolts! (Guys, I promise this whole update hasn’t just been to lead up to a sales pitch…)

One of the things that lights me up most professionally has been helping other writers find their voices, and write down their stories. Without fail, there's always huge growth and discovery and healing that comes with it, which is insanely cool to get to be part of.

Because of that, I’ve gotten really passionate about helping other people WRITE! And not just “writers” or aspiring authors. ANYONE can benefit from putting pen to paper.

And so, I’m finally launching my Journal Jolts website!! You can sign up HERE for a monthly subscription to gain access to simple journaling prompts to help you stick to a daily habit.

So yeah. There it is. Our life in a mutant-sized nutshell.

​Oh! I forgot about Gladys the cat. Gladys is now the proud owner of a pet passport, so she’s free to roam the world as she pleases. Our little baby is growing up so fast.

---