Karmyn Tyler

Maggie’s death has changed me…is changing me. My true friends know that, by nature, I’m a very quiet person…a thinker…a people watcher. I’m so much like my father, and I’m proud of that.  I have pageants to thank for allowing my inside voice – out. At first my mom told me I was a little too blunt. (a lot actually…) But my dad got it! Later, I learned the art of tell what needs to be said and letting others figure things out for themselves. Probably why I like teaching. I see potential when someone else does not… Right now, I’m finding comfort in my…true nature. I was forced to watch myself fall apart and that wasn’t…isn’t fun. Those brief moments of sadness…I don’t want to go away. I want to keep her real…because she was…and is real.  I was also forced to see the man I love so desperately want to heal me…and it hurt that I hurt in a way he…no one could help. It’s paralyzing. I still hurt.  When I was in Texarkana, my sister and I tried to get out and do something that Maggi

Micah 7:8 This is all I can get out right now… Every time I find a receipt, boarding pass, letter, look back through my calendar….anything with a date listed before 3:10pm CST, September 19th 2013, I say to myself, “Maggie was still alive then.” I can’t begin, nor should I try, to tell you how my world collapsed that day. These first two sentences have already started the water works. But maybe it’s therapy for me. “It’s just not fair.” That’s what my husband said to me. “It shouldn’t happen like this.” All true. I was relaxing with friends. We had just come back from a Mets/Giants game. Chris with his infinite luck (yet again) snagged some amazing seats for us. We had come back to an apartment that our friend’s parents had rented for the week. We just had gourmet pizza and laziness was setting in…for me. Someone had just mentioned the difference between the married couples and the single couples. The men were around the table spinning yarns about “man stuffs” and t

Brief Background… Back in 2005, I decided to give blogging a serious go. Not knowing where to turn, I found  BlogHarbor   (now  PressHarbor ) and began public journaling. At the same time, I had completed my first (and only -yes, I know) vocal solo album and (having recorded independently) needed a way to market…for free. My mom found  The Podcast Music Network  (now  Music Alley from Mevio ). We put my cover tune of Gershwin’s Summertime on the PMN and it was picked up by  Adam Curry ‘s Daily Source Code. Realizing that we couldn’t put cover tunes up, (duh! and oops!) I quickly wrote a tune called  Drifting  and recorded it with my then music collaborator C. Meeks. (That song has been my most played and liked of all my originals.) Podcasters and new fans started reading my blog and encouraged me to start a podcast. I did. At first it was audio only (the most fun for me) and then, as listeners demanded, video came after. I never had expensive equipment I couldn’t afford it. I e

…AND without making a mess! It’s Sea Salt! I’m all for “easy” on a day-to-day basis. My schedule doesn’t allow me to spend 10 to 15 minutes with a mixing bowl making a facial scrub each day…then clean it up afterward.) So here’s what I do: 1) I grab my cleanser. (Since I have acne prone/sensitive skin, I use  Avon’s Clearskin Blackhead Eliminating Daily Cleanser  that I’ve put in a pump. It didn’t come in a pump. I got one at the beauty store.) 2) I grab my bottle of Sea Salt. (I use  Morton’s Coarse Kosher Sea Salt  - NOT table salt – that I’ve put in a travel bottle for easy access.) 3) I wet my face a little. 4) I pump out my cleanser, in one hand, shake a good amount of Sea Salt on it and rub my hands together. 5) I massage the mix all over my face and neck for about 60 seconds. 6) Then I rinse. My skin does get a little red, because the sea salt is course enough to slough off dead skin, cleanse and detoxify the skin. So, I follow up with my favorite oil,  Kukui N

Hawaii. Up until this year I was the only person in my family and circle of friends who had not visited this USA land of paradise. Our family stayed on the Big Island, Kona side. Breath taking really is the only way to describe it. It was also the first time in years that I stayed in the sun longer than walking to my car or subway station. We hiked, beached, walked, hiked some more and I ended up with a nasty sunburn. While visiting the Hilton mini outdoor shopping strip I found an oil that I had not heard of called Kukui Oil. On the bottle it read “Natural Relief for Dry Skin, Sunburn, Eczema and Psoriasis.” (Hmmm…I’m suffering from one of these and the Aloe Vera is making it worse.) Being an “I love oils” girl, I poured some out of the tester and rubbed it on my shoulders. It was oily but not greasy. It immediately absorbed into my skin…not just onto my skin. It felt good. Hours later it still felt good and my skin was not as red, so I decided to Google it! It’s been used i

If you keep up with me on my social network feeds, you’ll know that yesterday my husband gave me the BEST one year anniversary present I could have asked for! A day at the US Open to see my favorite player Rafael Nadal! And what a day it was! He snagged court side seats right where the players emerge to play with a perfect angle to view the match. My husband, Chris, always laughs and says that one reason all us women go crazy for Nadal is that he reminds us of Atreyu from The Neverending Story . And as much as I hate to admit it…he’s probably right. So there we are with these FANTASTIC court side tickets where the players were practically touchable. Instead of rooting for Rafa, like me, Chris decides he’s going to root for the underdog, Philipp Kohlschreiber. He figures Rafa has plenty of support anyway, so why not. I said, “Whatever honey!!” (With a snicker!) Anyone who knows my husband knows his laugh! He has an AWESOME, hardy…telling laugh. It’s the first set and Nadal at