Joyful Miles Blog

Hey Hey Hey! It's the end of May and let me tell you, it has been one hell of a month! Let's jump right into it! First, a check in on the walking journey! I officially registered for my first 5k. It will be in October and I am feeling pretty good about it (ask me after we get back from NYC if I still feel this way. lol). If you would like to join my team (we also have a virtual option), check out www.foreverhomerun.com. You can register there, my team is called "Joyful Heart:

I have always been a dreamer. Big, elaborate dreams. Growing up, my friends had dreams to be teachers, lawyers, doctors...then there was me. I wanted to be a record label owner. I wanted to find talent and introduce it to the world. This was a dream of mine for most of my childhood and teenage years. My dad was one of the only people who supported this dream. He would listen to me talk about the music industry non stop. He may have not known how to help me reach that dream, b

These past few weeks have been packed with community theatre shows. Growing up, I loved being in the audience of shows. There was no feeling greater than the moment the lights went down and the actors take you into a new world for just a little while. My first memory of seeing a live performance was Disney's Beauty and the Beast on Ice. I was probably 5 or 6 at the time. I just remember being so impressed with the production. Being transported to the world that I loved so muc

So I have written this blog a few different ways and each time, it doesn't feel right. The first draft was written full of anger. Then I pulled it back a little and made it a mix of anger and sadness. Then I found this passage and it has taken on a new life of it's own. Instead of talking about how I am so angry that estranged adult children are always blamed for stepping away and saving themselves while their parent is praised for being so courageous and strong for continuin

April was such a busy month! It went by super fast. I know the past 2 recaps have talked a lot about the anxiety I was dealing with, but April seemed to be pretty okay. I had a little anxiety near the beginning of the month but as time went on, the anxiety lessened drastically. I am going to say that it is because the sun started shinning more, we had more warm days, and it is now my favorite time of year...Spring. One of the biggest moments of this month came at the very beg

I have been very open about my dive back into fandoms, but I don't think I have talked a lot about how important being in fandoms has been in my life. I joined my first fandom back in 2006. I had just started watching American Idol with my mom and her husband at the time. I instantly gravitated to Paula Abdul. She was warm and kind and very maternal to the contestants, and we all know that I was STARVING for a mother figure. I started finding message boards online. I started

Tomorrow is my 35th birthday. I (along with Rhiannon) am very shocked that I am not dreading it as much as I thought I would. My 23rd birthday was a lot for me. That was the one I freaked out the most with, but I am pretty chill about 35. In fact, I am excited for it. I used to fear aging. I used to say that I would never make it past 50, but these past few months, something has flipped and I am really excited to see how far this life takes me. I had lunch yesterday with a fr

Monday morning, almost as soon as I woke up, Rhiannon sent me an article on Facebook saying that Mariska Hargitay was going to Broadway. I knew April Fools was coming up so I double checked the date and realized this was not a joke. I was immediately overcome with a lot of emotion. I didn't have time to look into anything because I was going right into my therapy appointment. Usually, those appointments go by so fast, but that day it felt like it took forever. To my therapist

So we are going to do this one a little early because next week I have a very exciting blog coming your way! March went by so fast compared to how slow January and February felt. This month was a lot. Rhiannon was gone to a conference for a week. When she got home we had a family tragedy happen down state. My anxiety has not gotten better, if anything I think it has gotten worse this month. I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was getting massages to work on my SA trauma. Thing

Last Sunday was the Oscars. The Oscars are our friend Justin's biggest day of the year. We have a party every year, a black tie affair. This year we received swag bags with items that represented some of the biggest movies of the year and we had to guess what movie each item represented. We had bubbles, chicken noodle soup, garlic, a penny, ramen, a Modelo, and a ping pong ball. We also received our ballots in the bag. It is always such a great time trying to fill out these b

Picture it! Saginaw. 71 degrees. In March. Not a cloud in the sky. It was a perfect day! After work, Rhiannon and I decided that it was the perfect day to walk the path by the river behind our house. This is the path that Rhiannon has walked every year with our friend Dani (and her dog, Artemis). I have never been on this path, again, I never walked unless I had to. The route that Rhiannon and Dani take is a little over 3 miles, virtually a 5k. We all know I am not there yet.

February was not what I had wanted it to be when it comes to this journey. I walked on the treadmill a couple of times, but my health anxiety really took a toll on me in February. I started the month off sick with some kind of respiratory infection that took me out for the first two weeks. After I got better, I was terrified to start walking again. I think I walked on the treadmill twice after that. I did, however, start walking outside of the house a little more. As I mentio

Mariska Hargitay Victoria Will https://time.com/collections/women-of-the-year/7377898/mariska-hargitay-interview/ So, I was going to talk about how great it is that the sun is out and it is 50* in Michigan. I was going to talk about going on a walk outside with my wife for the first time since starting this journey. But then we got the news that Mariska Hargitay made TIME's Women of the Year list for 2026 and that shifted everything. I have debated writing about this because

Credit: https://www.instagram.com/p/COSprFNDGAJ/ Well, this day snuck up on me. It is a day I have thought about for the last 4 months, but now that it is here, I have a lot of feelings. As I mentioned, 4 months ago, my mother decided that she was done being my mom. Over the course of 34 years, she has been in and out of my life more times than I can count. I finally reached my breaking point and have decided that no matter what happens, I will not and cannot let her back in.

Trigger Warning: This post will have mentions of sexual assault/abuse. I was sexually assaulted as a child by one of my stepfathers. I have recently (about a month ago) began to unpack this and start to heal this decades old trauma. Yesterday, I had a massage that's sole purpose was to help me start releasing the trauma of that assault. The massage itself was helpful, but the real impact came when talking with my friend/massage therapist afterwards. I shared with her that whe

Every New Year's Eve, Rhiannon's best friend comes over and we celebrate together. Every year we make bingo cards full of goals for the next year. This year, I had two goals surrounding sports on my card. The first was "learn how to watch basketball" and the second was "attend more live games". Hockey, Baseball, and Football are all sports that I know very well. I grew up in a hardcore SEC football household. Football was my mother's religion (except on Easter). Although, I d

This has been a ROUGH week. I walked on Monday and was feeling good. That night I had the worst tooth pain and didn't sleep the entire night. All day Tuesday, I nursed my tooth and by Wednesday, I had a fever. I talked to my doctor and was given some antibiotics. The rest of the week was spent getting over the infection. I finally felt good enough to get off my couch on Saturday and was able to walk again. I felt guilty all week for not walking 3 days, but I realized that not

I have had this question asked several times since I have announced this journey. The answer is easy...I believe in the work they are doing. The Joyful Heart Foundation was started in 2004 by Mariska Hargitay, who is known for playing Olivia Benson on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. After learning the statistics of sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse in the United States, she began receiving fan letters of people telling her their stories of survival, some f

Whew! We made it through the first week. This week was a lot for me, mentally. As I mentioned before, I have HORRIBLE health OCD, so the idea of starting to work out terrified me. I was so afraid that I would have a heart attack just because I was so out of shape. This week I was so full of anxiety, not just around walking, but just in general. I've talked to a lot of people this week who have also said that it was a very anxiety ridden week. I have no idea what is going on b

I have mentioned a few times that I am hoping to find myself on this journey. You may be wondering how I lost myself....well let me tell ya! Last year started out strong. My wife and I decided early on that we were going to move to Orlando, FL. We wanted to be closer to my family in Georgia and Florida. We wanted to be near Disney and Universal (we love theme parks). We wanted to have a winter without snow and ice. We planned to move in November, the weekend after Thanksgivin