The last 4 months have been absolutely monumental in my life, probably the most monumental 4 months in my entire 31 years. A series of recent events have shaped the way I view my past, present, and future in such an intense way that I thought the rest of the world would want to hear about it. You do, right?

Well, you might not, but here you are reading anyway. I realize there may be only one or two of you reading this (you know who you are), and I’ll be the first to admit that starting this blog may be very self serving and could end up being very boring for my few readers. Oh well. Like I said, you’re here now and so am I, the choice to continue reading is all yours.

Aren’t you curious about these “amazing” events I’ve mentioned above, or why I’ve named my blog, “You’re the Heart of Us?”

I’ll start with the events (details in later posts):

Event Numero Uno (no, I do not speak Spanish at all and have completely forgotten the years and years of French I took): I gave birth to one boy and one girl.  Yes, twins. No, they are not identical. (I get that question all the time. Apparently, it’s not obvious that they’re not identical just by the fact that one is a boy and one is a girl. Think about it people, IDENTICAL means they are exactly the same.

Event B: Just kidding…Event #2: My rockstar husband matched for his residency in orthopedic surgery. His program is 5 years and there was a 1 in 8 chance that we would have to move for his residency. We don’t have to move! He matched here at the University of New Mexico!

Event #3: My parents sold their property and home in the Pecos Canyon. My dad had lived on the same piece of property since he was 14 years old. And this my friends, is where the name of this here blog came from!

Way back in 1956, my grandparents, Newcomb (yes, all the grandkids actually called him by his first name) and Kitty (who conveniently had a first name that was quite well suited to being a grandmother) started Brush Ranch Camps, a residential performing arts camp for girls. In the 70s, they also started a boarding school to utilize the camp property during the winter months when funds tended to dry up and everyone was pretty much just cold and bored. Or something. My parents actually met at Brush Ranch and lived happily ever after, mostly. More about their history later.

Back to the blog name. Somewhere along the line, someone wrote a song for Brush Ranch that was sung by hordes of children for 54 (is that right?!) years and it went like this:

Brush Ranch, Brush Ranch
Brush Ranch, Brush Ranch
Brush Ranch a part of us,
now you’re the heart of us.
Please don’t forget us,
now that you’ve met us.
We’ll always sing your song,
where ‘er we roll along.
Brush Ranch, Brush Ranch
Brush Ranch Brush Ranch.

This is the song that never ends, it just goes on and on my friends…you get the point.

So…I’ve taken a line from this song that I’ve sung well over a million times because the events I listed above are the heart of me now, they are what shapes my past, present and future, and what will inform this blog. Don’t worry, I’ll go into detail about each and plan to share stories of my twins, my experience as a resident’s wife, and lots of family history as it relates to good old Brush Ranch Camps!