About Me

The Path to Ever After
Be careful what you hope for. Isn’t that the truth. We were living in Southern Oregon and I was enjoying my job as managing editor of the Smart Start Your Business series of books…one for each state. I had worked with several entrepreneurs on their own books and it dawned on me one Spring day. I was stagnating…I wanted a challenge…I wanted to be a small business owner.

I had studied journalism since junior high and my passion is the written word. I someday wanted to write a book. Throughout high school and college, I especially enjoyed yearbook. This combined my love of photos with the written word. After marrying the man of my dreams, I moved to Grants Pass, Oregon and started a family. The birth of my son was one of the greatest days of my life. He became the focus of everything…including my newfound hobby…scrapbooking.

Then, one day, I had the great idea to start a scrapbooking consumer magazine. While writing my business plan, three other magazines entered the market. I was determined to find a Plan B. Sheer determination coupled with a dash of good fortune landed me in the path of a small store in Oceanside, California (near my hometown). I left my name and number and said, “If you ever want to sell, give me a call.” Three months later we received the call that would change our lives forever.

We wrote the business plan, worked with our local Small Business Development Center, put our home in Oregon up for rent and moved to Southern California within one month. We gave up all our creature comforts and lived with my best friend (my husband, son and I sharing her son’s 10x10 bedroom) for three months while we got the store up and running.

In my dream, I imagined running a successful business and putting my husband through medical school. I never envisioned the store beyond three, maybe four employees. And, after six months, it was clear…I needed my husband to partner with me to make this venture work. He gave up his dream of becoming a doctor to help me achieve mine. It took many 12-16 hour days, a lot of sacrifice and many prayers to launch what was about to be the biggest challenge of our lifetime.