02.20.2026: My 2nd Anniversary!!!

Happy Friday & Happy 2nd Anniversary of brain tumor surgery!! 

Annual reminder to friends & family (and me): 

Live NOW.  

Love BIG. 

Celebrate EVERY day. 

Celebrate every THING - the bigs and the littles! 

Be safe, but take ALL the risks.

Don't wait for more money or more time,....now will ALWAYS be the right time!!

Vince and I celebrated by going to an early dinner/happy hour at White Chocolate Grill. It was nice to be out after a supper busy work week, and never want to get lazy and not celebrate this day! 

11.21.2025: The After-Party

 Drake wanted to do dinner with us after graduation, so we stayed in Old Town and walked across the street to AZ88 for drinks & some dinner.   Parker, his friend from high school, who joined the Coast Guard a few years ago and has been on a few vacations with us, came along! So good seeing Parker and celebrating with Drake.  Drake's friend Austin came a bit later to join in the fun before they all headed out to the bars with their friends.  Good food, good drinks, good times - GREAT people!!

11.21.2025: Drake Hearn is a Tempe Firefighter!!

It is official! Drake Hearn is a fire fighter for Tempe Fire Medical Rescue! Tonight was Drake's graduation ceremony and also a reminder for us of the incredible path he has chosen. The ceremony was held at the Scottsdale baseball stadium - in one of their nice banquet halls. It was an honor to be there and witness the family of firefighting he has entered into. 

Drake had a very large contingent of family & friends come. He asked Vince to pin him - and to wear his Air Force uniform. Of course, he got lots of attention as well and everyone wanted to come meet him and talk to him. It was super emotional.  Drake looked so proud to have his Dad pin him - but nowhere near as proud as Vince looked to be there doing it.  The ceremony itself was incredible - very patriotic, moving speeches, and a little glimpse into how close these guys have all become in such a short period of time.

Drake has worked hard, pushed through every challenge, and showed what true heart and grit look like.

Congratulations, Firefighter Hearn!!! Your dedication, courage, and compassion are needed in this world more than ever. We love you and could not be more proud.

11.19.2025: Drake's Fire Academy Grad Family Night

We went and celebrated Family Night tonight at Drake's fire academy. He has been attending the fire academy for Tempe fire, but it was at the Scottsdale academy.  It has been cold & raining all week and all day - and there was a tornado warning not too far from where we were at - but the show must go on. Luckily, we had perfect clear skies right above us for the whole night.

This was a pre-graduation demo for the families to show us what the recruits have been doing the past 16 weeks.  They had speeches, fed us dinner, showed a slide show, allowed us to walk around all the skills areas to see what they have been doing for the past 4 months, then did some demos. It was awesome!!! 

For the skills demo, Drake was picked to fight a fire on a "vehicle". It was a full experience from call, dress, ride in truck, suit up, prep, fight fire, to end of fire.  It was very cool. Most of the other recruits did other skills tests but this was the biggest, with an actual real fire to fight.

At the end of the evening they burned their red recruit shirts to celebrate moving to the next step as full blown fire fighters!  What an amazing evening!! So very proud of Drake!!! 

06.11.2024: Lasagna in Cologne

After walking about 5,000 miles throughout Cologne today, I needed fooooood.  And a drink!  I stopped off at Little Nonna, which is right around the corner from our hotel.  A crisp Sav Blanc and lasagna sounded fabulous!  The lasagna came with a whole salad on top, drizzled with a beautiful pesto dressing.  Wow.  It was delicious!!  Highly recommend if you are ever in Cologne!