A Little Freelance....

My friend Amanda is going to take over the blog once a week. She is a freelance writer who has agreed to let us into her life. Enjoy! :) She has started off pretty tame, but I know the REAL Amanda will break lose....get ready!


Not sure what I should exactly write for my first post on my friend Krista’s amazing blog. I guess I will start off by thanking Krista for allowing me another outlet to write, as a freelance writer any forum to showcase what we do is greatly appreciated. I love reading Krista’s blog and reading about her sweet miracle Adele and the rest of her family. 
I am also married and have two children, our daughter Grae is seven and she is grade two and our son Gage is 4 and is in pre-school. Two years ago my husband Ryan and I moved back to High River and bought our first house in our favorite area of town right by Sptizee School, the same school we both went to as children till grade six. Our children now go there and the school is now pre-school- grade 5.
Life seemed to finally be coming together and Ryan and I started to feel like the worst was behind us. 
I need to back track a little, Ryan and I have been together since 1996 I was 16 and he was 17, we got married in 2001 and moved from our home town of High River to Calgary. In 2005 I became pregnant with our first child, we were so over the moon and could not wait to be parents, sadly we lost that child when I was only four months pregnant.
Our prayers came true when Grae Lavaughn was born Sept 8, 2006. Another tragedy hit us on April 23, 2009 when my beloved mother  Lynn, at the age of 55 passed away suddenly from unknown heart disease, six weeks after losing my mother I gave birth to Gage Ryan Lynn on June 7. 
Moving home to High River just felt natural and made me feel closer to my mother as every street, every store had a memory of her at first that was overwhelming but in time became very comforting. I had even gotten a job at the local paper as a multi-media journalist, I loved it very much and loved being involved with the town I love so much, I made the hard choice to leave the job I loved to have more time with my family and pursue freelance writing, I was able to still stay involved by joining boards in town and volunteering.
Life once again was going great, little did I know I was about to be tipped on my head once again.

June 20th, our entire town was changed forever by a devastating flood that no one expected to do the damage it did. Sadly so many are still without their homes and lost all they had. In the big picture we got away very lucky, we lived in a fifth wheel on a farm for a month and we lost one car, our developed basement and all contents in it plus partially main floors. If that was not enough a few weeks after moving back home a hail storm came and we needed all new siding and a new roof. All that and I feel blessed, no I am not insane ( well actually that is debatable :) ) I know we lost a lot, but we have so much still and we have our house and our family and although June 20th was one of the scariest days of my life and left Ryan and I actually fleeing for our lives on foot well we saw our beloved town literally get swallowed up by the wrath of mother nature. 
There is a long road ahead for the town of High River, but my family along with so many others are not going anywhere and I will continue to be involved as much as  I can by volunteering on boards and being active in town. Another thing that I will keep doing is write, I love to write, it's in my bones, and I will write about anything and everything in my life so this is a warning to everyone that knows me, going forward, no one is safe, you never know what will end up in my posts :), Krista you still sure this is a good idea? Haha.

I still need to include pictures of the girls :)