Mikelle and I feel compelled to write about life with a disability, not just the challenges but the opportunities, the friendships, the innovations, and the brilliance of our communities in action as we share our everyday life living with a disability. With a little more information, motivation, we hope to share how our life is shining beautiful and maybe help you to shine beautiful, too.

Josh Winkler–The Man to Go To for a Quick Fix

Sometimes the simplest of things can cause the biggest problems.  Imagine yourself  four wheeling it, casually cruising along the sidewalks of Denver.  Okay, maybe if you count the tiny back wheels, it would be six wheeling it and your steering mechanism fails you. You  crash.  Look down and there is

Part 2, The Sweetest Thing. Using Indiegogo to help a Veteran.

Posted by Adriana Carlson After my brother Colton, lost his legs in Afghanistan, I desperately wanted to help any way I could. My mom flew out to Maryland to be his caregiver as he healed, and my little sister went with her.  My two remaining siblings, my dad, and I

Broncos and Boys, Celebrating Friendship Part 2

Well, the Part 2 didn’t go as planned. The Denver Broncos changed the time of training camp from afternoon to morning practice due to the threat of thunderous storms tumbling over the Rocky Mountains.  Bummer. Disappointed by not deterred. Mikelle, Ian, Jerome and I were set to go. Her boys

Bronco’s and Boys, Part 1

It is set.  Next week we are heading off to Bronco Training Camp.  Ian, Mikelle and me.  Last year it was Tim Tebow, this year it is Payton Manning.  Just for grins, this is the story of how it went last year.  We will see what happens this year.  Go

Community in Action and Celebration

In a bone-dry park in the middle of Denver, Colorado—friends gathered for a celebration.   Cool people came on this hot, record breaking summer day.  The temperature raced to the top of the thermometer, breaking open a 105 degree record. As the smell of parched grass filled the air the wind

A Safe Harbor in the Stormy World of Special Needs

Posted by Katherine Carol In rural Alabama, along the quiet shores of Lake Martin between the fresh paved two-lane highway and the naked hillside, not long ago a tornado uprooted over a thousand trees as it danced and skipped where children play is a safe port. Tucked in the woods

The Most Beautiful Thing..Being a Parent

Posted by Adriana Carlson Pogar Note: Adriana has been a big part of creating our new book, Shining Beautiful. Additionally, Adriana She is a former roommate of Mikelle’s and is featured in this edition of our series. The most beautiful thing for me  is holding my daughter as she sleeps

Recipe for the Perfect Cherry Pie

By Katherine Carol Take two twenty “somethings” dressed like early summer, one gliding gracefully, looking like a modern Renaissance painting, long, lightly seasoned red hair, luminous blue eyes with a smile that softly creeps up her porcelain face. The other shorter, dark, exotically Asian, slender limbs seated elegantly in her

Mile High Drop In—Mile High Magic Mikelle Style

I love a good surprise. Not of the “psycho rips through the shower curtain with a knife” variety. No, no, that’s not my style. My favorite surprises hinge on unanticipated happiness. Catching someone at just the right moment and seeing their face transformed with the excitement of experiencing something unexpected