Suzanne Schaffer

I know, it's a pretty gruesome picture. But it's probably more realistic than anything else. Life isn't what we think it should be. It's not a fairytale. No one has a perfect life. Everyone goes through hard times. The problem arises when we look at others and think they've got it better than we do. Let me let you in on a little secret.... That person you look at and wish you were more like? They don't have it all together.  No one does. We are all muddling through this journey called life. Everyone has insecurities. Everyone looks in the mirror and sighs. Everyone has secrets they don't dare tell anyone. Everyone is afraid of something. I have a few very close friends that I share my heart with and they do the same with me. The thing is though, if you were to look at our Facebook pages you would think the three of us have lives to be envied. But you don't know the stories behind the pictures. When I look at these ladies I see what you

It started innocently enough. I laughed from the front row of Amy's concert on November 5th as she finished a song and said, "Whew! Nothing like having a hot flash in the middle of a song." I laughed because I couldn't relate. At. All. But in a few weeks hot flashes and I would be in an abusive relationship. Thanksgiving evening I thought I was dying. I was seriously ready to tell my husband to take me to the ER because I was hot and my heart was racing. I'd been going outside to stand on the porch to cool off all day and was pretty sure I was coming down with something that would incapacitate me. Then the strange night stuff started.  I'd be asleep and then toss off the sheets as I lay there with a fire burning inside me and sweat pouring off of me. This started at about 8:00 at night and continued hourly (and sometimes even more often) until about 9:00 the next morning. I was not sleeping well.  Still convinced I was dying, I mentioned all o