I love my family so much. I adore them. Growing up all I ever really wanted was to be a mom and wife. I didn’t have grand ambitions to be anything more. My life goals include being an exceptional wife and mom, and I fail at it daily. Let’s be real, life can be hard. I’m grateful that I get to wake up each day and try again. It’s part of Mixing Life Up and living an imperfectly perfect life, right? I tell my kids that I’m going to be an awesome Grandma because by then, I might actually figure it all out.
Meet Bryan
Bryan is the brains and IT behind the blog. I couldn’t do it without him. He is a senior software engineer for a popular car dealership by day and my teacher and business partner by night. He is extremely supportive and encouraging in helping me reach my goals with this page and in anything else I pursue.
Bryan is silly, goofy, and awkward in the best of ways. He loves Minions and Groot. He listens and dances around to rockabilly music while working around the house. He bounces out of bed every morning, ready to start the day, with unnatural energy and optimism, true to a gigantic man-child with ADHD (which also involves being able to hyper-focus, which is really helpful in doing software development). I’m not totally sure he’s human. He’s definitely out of this world (my kids will cringe over that).
He’s kind, passionate, and devoted to our family. We have been married since 2016. When we married Bryan became a father for the first time to my 3 teenagers. Can you imagine, becoming a first time parent to 3 teenagers!? I’m surprised he didn’t change his mind and run away… Actually, he almost did (eventually he’ll share that story from his own perspective). Deciding to go from being a bachelor to a family of 5 is a lot and I’m so, so grateful he decided to jump in. We had a whirlwind relationship, we went from meeting on Facebook, living in different states, to being married in under 4 months. Crazy, right?! I feel blessed every single day that we found each other. He is my very best friend and there is no one I’d rather do life with! You’ll be able to read more about our love story in a future post (it’s my favorite!).
Meet Alixandria
Ali is an inspiration. She is genuine, caring, brave, and confident, and a lot of fun to be around, also having ADHD. She will be be going into her senior year of high school. During her junior year she took CNA classes and got certified. She works as a CNA at a long term care and rehabilitation home. She absolutely loves her job and clients. She can often be quoted saying how much she “loves old people”.
Ali loves art and music. She enjoys sketching (she’s an amazing and talented artist! I’ll have to share some of her art in a post later.) and thinks it would be awesome to be a tattoo artist as a side hustle when she is older but her passion is the medical field. She loves to sing and has a beautiful voice.
Ali has had some mental health challenges over the last few years that turned our world upside down for a period of time. She spent a 6 month period dealing with seizures as well as paralysis, blindness, amnesia, speech impairment, and multiple other issues that seemingly came out of nowhere. She persisted and stayed determined to overcome them. She is being very open with her story and struggles in hope’s of helping others. She has also found that her challenges have helped her to better relate to the clients at work and she takes the time to empathize with them when they feel embarrassed over the assistance they need.
There will be a series of posts about her story starting soon.
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Meet Gabriella
Gabriella might be the funniest person I’ve ever met, even though she doesn’t have ADHD! (just had to add this, since she’s the only one living in our house who does not have ADHD) She’s so clever. Constantly coming up with one liners that surprise us and make us laugh. She is generous and thoughtful.
She loves playing guitar, singing, makeup and tacos. Like her sister, she also has a stunning voice. She has been teaching herself guitar and we’re so impressed with her determination. She is very talented when it comes to the art of makeup and loves trying out new looks.
Gabriella has had her own unique struggles with depression and anxiety that we will share along the way.
At 16, she is excited to take on life and learn about photography and videography. She enjoys doing photo shoots with her best friends and is teaching herself how to create quality video blogs and photo editing.
We look forward to sharing her future creations with you.
Meet Gavin
Gavin is a firecracker! He is so full of energy and excitement. He never sits still for more than a few minutes. Yes, there’s some ADHD involved there, if you wondered. He loves skateboarding, swimming, doing tricks on our trampoline, being outdoors with his friends, and training in Capoeira (which is Brazilian Martial Arts. Think dance fighting mixed with parkour ??). It’s pretty cool and exciting to watch! Gavin has learned to do standing front and back flips since starting this year. (I’ll post some videos later)
Gavin has spent this entire summer living in a large 5 person tent in our backyard. He has taken out his bed, stereo, and a small tv, making it his own man cave. He has it set up next to his trampoline, under a huge tree, so him and his friends always have a place to hang out.
Gavin is kind and giving. He will and has literally given away the coat off of his back. He is our peace maker, always trying to stop or deter arguments in our home. He stands over 6 feet tall at 13, almost 14. He still hugs and kisses me in front of his friends and always tells me he loves me when he leaves no matter who’s around. I like to think he’s a mamma’s boy but he might just have me wrapped around his little finger.
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