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The hardest part of achieving a goal is starting. Being sendy means making courageous decisions to try something before you have all of the answers. This podcast will remind you of the remarkable life you are living and will give you new ideas to make your life more meaningful and exciting and give you courage to accomplish your goals by stopping the negative voices in your head and just sending it!
Becky Brouwer (00:00)
I had to have this time of figuring out who I was again. And so during that time, we made some friends and
I connected with Christ like I've never done in my life before because I had nowhere else to turn.
Welcome to the Sendy Mom podcast. I am so excited to be here with my sister-in-law, Karissa Dodds. And I am so lucky to not only have five other sisters, but I have some five other sisters-in-law who are like sisters to me. And we have gotten really close over the years. Karissa is married to my brother who is the 10th of... Nine. Ninth.
Sorry, ninth of the 12 of us. I know I can lose track sometimes. So, and I think he's 12 years younger than I am, maybe or 10 years. 10 years younger than I am. yeah. Anyway, so it's been fun and they recently moved. Well, I guess it's been a couple of years now to St. George and we're gonna hear all about Karissa and her journey and her story. She's a super Sendy mom.
She has had to move several times. They've gone in and out of work situations that have been really hard. And yeah, it's going to be fun to kind of unpack some of the lessons that she's learned and becoming more courageous. Awesome. Glad to have you here. Thanks. I'm excited to be here. I don't know if I'm really a Sendy mom, but I see your podcast and what you've done and
how you talk to people and I just think I'm really not a Sendy mom, but I'm glad you think I am. You are. Okay, well what do you think a Sendy mom is? I don't know. I look at you and I think Becky is the ultimate Sendy mom. Hiking Kilimanjaro, biking through Europe, all of these cool adventures and you're always up for like something fun and something hard and let's go climbing and let's go biking and like that feels really Sendy to me and. Yeah.
But Sendy doesn't necessarily mean doing these kinds of things. It also means getting up and going to the gym at 5.30 in the morning. And it means testing your muscles to see if they'll grow. It means deciding to take on a career when you had sworn not to go back to teaching. And all of those things are Sendy, too. And it's about continuing to show up.
and to carry on when things don't go exactly how you planned them to go. Yeah, I guess that's true. That makes you Sendy. Well, thank you. guess I'm a Sendy mom then, because all of those things have happened. So yeah, so yeah, let's kind of unpack some of it. So just tell us a little bit about yourself, maybe where you grew up and the kind of family that you lived in and things that you learned there about being resilient or not about being resilient. Okay, cool.
⁓ yeah, so I'm the second of five kids and there's four girls and one boy in my family and my brother's the youngest. So he's kind of has some like more poodle tendencies. We say we'd lovingly joke about that. He picked up from sisters about looking nice and dressing nice, but, yeah, we were all homeschooled by my mom growing up and.
I was homeschooled until I was 16 and then I went to the junior college and I call that my high school experience. Okay, so let's go back and let's talk about that for a minute because I haven't had a homeschooled person on my podcast before. tell me what that looked like for you. Yeah, it was good. There was a lot of things I liked about it. I remember
my mom making us lunch and sitting around the table and reading books to us. And that was like one of my favorite parts of being homeschooled was just having mom read while we ate tater tots with ketchup and ranch. And it was like the best lunchtime. And ⁓ as I got older, I don't remember a lot when I was in the younger stages of homeschool, but as I got older, it became more independent work. so here's your assignments, here's where you're at in the textbook.
kind of read it yourself. It was more of a self-teaching, schooling, and that worked great for me with creative writing. I love to write. I loved anything with literacy and grammar and anything in that realm. I really liked science, especially anything having to do with the weather. I'm kind of a weather nerd. I didn't know that. You didn't? No. How funny. Yeah, I'm totally a weather nerd.
So you'll find me checking the weather, looking at the radar, looking at the temperature. index. Totally. The clouds coming in, the storms and tracking all of that. So yeah, I love the weather. I wanted to be a meteorologist when I was younger. Really? I didn't even know that. Yeah. It's interesting. So yeah. Well, okay. So a lot of the stigma about homeschooling is that they're not very well adjusted individuals.
you were extremely well adjusted. So how did your parents manage that to keep you well adjusted while keeping you isolated at home being taught? That's a great question. think it was really helpful because I think my mom was pretty social and my parents were pretty involved in the community and in church and things like that. ⁓ But we all, me and my sisters all did dance. And so we spent a lot of time at the dance studio. And in my teenage years,
It was upwards of 20 hours a week at the dance studio. And so we were at the dance studio and then I had babysitting jobs. I worked in fast food industry at Culver's and other food places. And so I was always around people and we were also involved in church and going to our youth group and you know, activities with that. And so we just were around people. We also had some homeschool groups that we got together with.
a few times and kind of socialized with those friends and did some field trips like in the community in the city and, you know, checking out different historical sites and museums and things like that. ⁓ So, really, I mean, it sounds like your parents were really proactive about keeping you involved with other people. So you would have the social connections that you needed to to develop properly and normally and everything. So that's that's kind of important.
Yes. However, like, OK, so tell me what your parents goals were. Why did they decide that they needed to homeschool you? Yeah, that's a good question. When my older sister was at the age of starting to go into school, I think she went into preschool for a minute. It was either that or kindergarten. And right in that time of making that decision to send her to school, my mom just really felt strongly that she needed to homeschool.
And so she spent a lot of time praying and studying and researching about it and figuring out, hey, if I'm supposed to do this, what curriculum do I follow and how do I do it? And she really had no idea where to start. And so just a lot of time spent in prayer and study and talking to people and researching. And, you know, back then we didn't have YouTube and we didn't have like Google search. And so it was really just like organic searching. really supportive. ⁓
Yeah. I think it was more of like, if this is what you feel like you need to do, then go for it. But I don't really want to be involved. I'm going to be working. So he was not really involved. OK. So it was pretty much your mom that taught you and did all of the classes. How did you get along with your siblings? ⁓ I think typical.
family relationships, sometimes we were best friends and sometimes we hated each other's guts. So it just... Yeah, normal. It didn't change because you were homeschooled necessarily or anything. yeah, no, and I think that, ⁓ you know, just the proactive way of always involving you in something probably was really helpful.
helping you to feel well adjusted. do you feel like you were, because you did eventually go on to BYU, right? Yes, I did. And so did you feel deficient in any of the areas of study? Was it hard to get into BYU because you'd been homeschooled? So that's a great question. And you're going to, I don't know if you know this piece of information about me. this is kind of a fun fact about me. First of all, math was my greatest struggle. I hated math. I put it off. I skipped it.
I just hated it and I didn't want to do it. And so that was my greatest deficiency. And when I went to the junior college to get in, I had to take a placement test to figure out what classes to take. math was the lowest and I had to start like the lowest math class, think college algebra, like 100 level class, whatever it was. And, or no, might've even been lower than that actually. was a lower level math class and I felt kind of,
about that because my sister's really good at math and so she like skipped some math classes but anyway I got in there and and started working really hard and found some friends and study buddies that really helped me through math and I remember one guy in particular and we weren't really that close of friends but he was at this school and I remember sitting in the hallway and studying for what felt like
hours so that I could pass this test and I was so grateful to him to sit there and help me through it. To get to BYU, I had really bad test anxiety growing up and I hated doing any of the tests in homeschool. I was really nervous about placement tests, hated doing tests in the junior college ⁓ and I thought you have to take the ACT and SAT to get into BYU.
I would rather do almost anything than take those tests. I was so terrified of it. And so I was trying to find a workaround and we found one. I have never taken the ACT or SAT. Oh, is that right? Yeah. Okay. So I took enough college credits at the junior college that I was able to apply to BYU as a transfer student without taking those tests.
That worked. yeah, you were really successful at BYU.
What was your degree in? Early childhood education. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because that's what you do. Yep. That's what I I am. okay, walk us through the becoming a teacher and you know, where where you taught and what it was like. Yeah. So one of the benefits from being homeschooled is that I had a very open schedule.
And when I was 14 years old, I had a friend that we had met through homeschooling group and she volunteered in a kindergarten class once a week or so with this teacher. And she was like, hey, come check it out, see if you like it. And so I did and I fell in love. And this kindergarten teacher, she still teaches. And I got an email from her last year, actually I reached out to her. She still teaches and she remembers me, which is amazing.
But she was just phenomenal teacher. mean, cream of the crop, perfect kindergarten teacher. And I loved being in there. And so I would spend once a week, the whole school day in her kindergarten class, helping out. Okay, tell me when this was then. I was 14. 14. Okay. Wow. Yeah. So I'd go every Friday and help out in her class and cut lamb in it out or
set up centers or work with the kids or staple or whatever. And I just watched and learned. What a great idea because a lot of times our kids do not know what they want to be when they grow up. so having an opportunity to shadow somebody is really valuable. And because you were homeschooled and you had that open schedule per se, then you were able to go and actually explore one of these careers that you thought might be interesting to you.
And I didn't really know I wanted to do that until I was in the classroom. And it was like this instant click. was kind of crazy. And then I did that for two years. I spent time in her classroom and just kind of became an integral part of her classroom. Well, then of course she remembers you. I mean, I guess, yeah, right? But then once I started the junior college, I didn't have time anymore. And I got too busy with dance.
school and so I stopped going but I never stopped wanting to teach and that was my dream was to be a kindergarten teacher. So went to school, went to BYU, graduated in December in early childhood education and ⁓ there was an opening at a school to start in January two weeks after graduation.
And so I applied for it and a couple other girls in my cohort and graduating class applied for it. I have never really had a job that I applied for and didn't get a job offer. Wow. Well, and part of that might have to do with the fact that you started doing this when you were 14 years old.
I mean, my oldest son, Ethan, he started learning programming languages when he was 13 years old. By the time he graduated from high school, he had like 18 languages under his belt, you know? And so it was not a stretch for him to be able to get a really good job when he graduated because it started doing that. And so it's so important to give our kids opportunities to learn these skills, shadowing people and...
understanding where their passion lies. So I think that's great. Okay. Absolutely. So never had to really interview for it or never have not gotten a job that you wanted. Yeah. Yeah. Until recently. Until recently, which actually worked out better, but it it always does. It does. It does. But yeah, so I got picked for that takeover position and did half a year of kindergarten at that school. And it was a very,
a challenging job, but again, I was placed with a phenomenal teacher that I worked with and I still kind of keep in touch with her here and there, you know, kind of see things on Facebook with her. I really want to go in and surprise her at some point because she still teaches. She still teaches here in Orem. so she was phenomenal and taught me so much. then
After that, the school year ended and I got pregnant. We were married and we moved from Utah over to St. Louis, Missouri for chiropractic school. Okay, yes. And I stopped teaching for a while. Yeah. What was that like moving ⁓ completely? I guess it was moving home. Yeah. Because your family was over there. So how was that? Was that like as a married person with the child and everything being close to family?
Yeah, we were still kind of far away. We were in St. Louis and I grew up in Kansas City on the Kansas side. And so my parents were still there when we moved. And so was a lot closer to them than we had been, which was great. So we saw them a little bit more, but it wasn't, you know, like down the street. Right. Family. ⁓ did feel like moving home. I love the Midwest. It's beautiful.
Rolling Hills, green, just a totally different type of beauty than Southern Utah. For sure. Yeah. But it was great. I loved living there. There's so many things about St. Louis that are great for families. Yeah, that's fantastic. it was a good place for us. having Scott going through chiropractic school and everything? that stressful for your family? Was that, you know? Yeah, it was hard. It was really hard. had to rely on prayer. ⁓
a lot. really in that time is when I gained a really great testimony of tithing, actually. ⁓ during that time, we had no money. We had government assistance for everything. And he had to take board exams every so often to pass during the years and the semesters. And I remember one particular instance, there was a board exam coming up. And
it cost probably somewhere around the range of like $1,700 and we just did not have it. We didn't have money and some students would delay the board exams because they couldn't pay for them, but it would push back their graduation later. And we didn't want to do that. So we just prayed and prayed and paid tithing on what little money we had and
It's funny because I ended up getting in the tiniest fender bender rear ended. got rear ended with Blake, my oldest at the time. He was probably a year and a half old and a car bumped me in the back at a stoplight and we pulled over and I had no idea how to file an insurance claim or what to do with an accident. ⁓
So we did end up filing one. My neck was a little sore. I went to a different chiropractor. And with insurance, when you file a medical claim, they have to pay you for pain and suffering, basically. OK. And and so they did. And that check that we got was almost the exact amount to pay for the board exams. It's incredible. So it was like, my gosh, this little teeny tiny
bump of an accident that made my neck a little sore but wasn't bad enough to cause any major injuries provided a way for us to pay for the board exams. Did you have three kids over there or two? We had two.
two kids over there to have two children, your stay at home mom and husband's going to chiropractic school. And so yeah, that's lot. But he was able to graduate, get his certifications and then you moved to Idaho. Yes, we did. Yeah. Moved across country, Missouri, back to Idaho and moved in with parents, with his parents and lived there for about
eight months, I think, as we tried to get a practice going up and going. And I'll tell you what, as a business owner, you fake it till you make it. Really? Like we had no idea what we were doing and just trying to figure it out the best that we could. And it, we ended up making it. So that was great.
Well, then, Idaho was a really good place for you. Like you, it took you a little while like living with mom and dad for like,
nine months or something like that. That's kind of a long time. How did you make it work? they, I mean, I know that you guys had a really good, I mean, still obviously have a really good relationship and everything. And they were so good to you. were. But I think you were really good to them too. You kind of divided up the responsibilities. It worked out well. At that time, mom was working in the office with dad for most of the day. And so it really was
me kind of being at home with the kids during the day. And then we kind of established this. I would cook dinner Monday through Thursday. I think it was. And then Friday or Saturday was like date night or you're on your own kind of thing. And then she would make Sunday dinner. And so but then they provided all of the groceries. And so it was great for me at the time. I loved cooking. It was fun to cook and
yeah,
let's talk about your point into your website, all your recipes and stuff that you yeah, at that time when we were in St. Louis, I had a good friend who was an amazing cook and that was like the time of bloggers were really popular. And so her and I kind of started to do this food blog together and taking pictures and making recipes and building up this blog and it was really fun. And then we moved.
and I tried to kind of go off on my own and do my own thing and it worked out pretty well. I had a lot of fun with it until I got pregnant again and ⁓ then I got all of the morning sickness and the nausea and the idea of thinking about food, making the food, taking pictures, food just made me sick and so I stopped doing it but I took
the recipes that I had created and made put them into a Google document into my own little family cookbook. And see, that's the thing is like, you know, sometimes we get these ideas, right? These ideas come to us and we're like, okay, I'm going to make this this food blog and I'm going to have all the and you get these, you know, grandiose ideas that you're going to be this big influencer, right? You know, you know, rock the world with all of the things that you're going to give. But actually, what it really does is it builds you.
as a person, right? And in the end, you have all these wonderful recipes. Yeah. And that ain't bad. No, it's great. wrong with that. It's great. And you know what? That recipe book, I printed it off for my siblings, my parents, a couple other people, and all of them come back and say, this is the cookbook I use the most. The very most. Because it's all the recipes Why don't I have it? I'll have to get you one. I got to get you one. I I your cookbook. No, I love that.
And you know, sometimes things come back around in your life too. So you're not getting pregnant anymore. So you can always go back to vlogging. She's actually a really good like cookie cook. Like her cookies rival any of like the...
whatever crumble school swig. Yeah, donut, whatever they have, you know, they're really good. So yeah, so that you know, but I think and you've done a little bit of that before, too. And cinnamon rolls sold some of those kinds of things. So you're not doing that now, though. No, yeah. No, I'm not. Yeah. But you know, you but you do for us. Yeah, I'll make them for family. I'll make them for ourselves. I'll make them for events. And see, that's all about that. That's that's the whole point of our life here is like,
let's go after this passion, this thing that makes us so excited for a little bit. But you know what? You can put it away too. You get morning sickness and you can't look at food anymore, then let's put this away and let's go on to a different passion. And so I know for a while, the passion was Scott's business. You were very involved in making sure the office looked right and ran correctly and everything. Was that all up in, that was mostly in Idaho?
Both Idaho and St. George actually. Yeah, I've been involved so which is great I it's been fun to do that and help get him up and going and you know work on the aesthetics of the office and help with some of the organization and details and things like that ⁓ so I did that in Idaho and then ⁓ he got up and running and did great and I've done it in St. George as well
There were a lot of really good things about it. We had our first home there. ⁓ We had all of our kids at that point. ⁓ I taught in a really great school, had some really incredible teaching experiences.
So it was great for our family. was a great place to be. And then we felt like we had to go somewhere else. Yeah.
Becky Brouwer (24:33)
At SendyMom, we love speaking with brave women in all areas of their lives. My conversation with Karissa has been amazing. She is truly a SendyMom that knows how to reach out and serve those around her. I am so grateful to get to know her better. I would love to meet more of you. Our next episode will feature a new friend, Marcy Morrison. You will love hearing her perspective about raising a severely autistic child and other children with special needs.
Her dedication to her family is truly inspiring. Please let me know if you know a Cindy Mom that would like to be featured on the show. Thank you to all of you who have shared, liked, and reviewed the Cindy Mom podcast on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, and wherever you listen to the podcast. It really helps us to be seen by people who need to hear this message. If you have found the podcast useful, please consider leaving a review to help other courageous people find us.
And now back to my conversation with Karissa
Becky Brouwer (25:36)
So where did you go? Okay. Well, that's an adventure. ⁓ We felt really strongly that we needed to go to Arizona and warm weather, sunshine, very inviting. We went and visited during the winters in Idaho. So of course we think this is the perfect place for us.
but we moved there in June. June is Arizona. And you can like fry an egg on the sidewalk. That's what my mom used to say all the time. Yes, yes. I did not realize what 115 degrees felt like until we moved to Arizona. it was an experience. I remember pulling up and to our rental house there.
and we dropped off the moving truck and went to go get dinner before we got keys and were ready to move in and getting out of the car and seeing that it was 115 degrees outside. And I thought, what are we doing? What are we doing? Not to offend anyone who lives in Arizona, like Susan, who's my little sister and she loves it there. My mom grew up there, so nothing against Arizona, but it is dang hot. It is.
So hot. we were there. had gotten hired to teach first grade at a brand new school. We had a rental that was nearby. We were trying to find an office spot for Scott and we thought everything was working for us until we realized everything was working against us. And I tell people that it felt like I was living like in literal hell with the heat.
All of the critters and the bugs and the snakes and the poisonous toads that came out with the rains everything I felt like was trying to kill us and Yeah, and I just hated it anxiety during that time I did not know what it was like to move from a place that you loved and had been established and Leave your friends and leave your community and go somewhere else where nobody knew you even existed and what that
grieving and loss process was like. Interesting. it was so Yeah, really is a grieving and loss process. Oh yeah. You really have to go through the grief process with that. Yeah. So what did that look like for you? A lot of tears. Yeah. A lot of tears, a lot of anxiety. I ended teaching in Idaho shortly before we moved. We moved, I had maybe a month long summer before I started into. Yeah, because they start earlier in Arizona. Yeah.
Yeah, before I started into meetings and other things at the school. ⁓ And so I didn't really have a time to decompress and really process what we had done. Yeah. And just went straight into this really high stress teaching job. Yeah. Brand new school. Everybody's trying to figure everything out. Yeah. And a lot of things went wrong. A lot of things went wrong. It nearly broke me. I'm not one to
quit or give up or leave something undone and I had to leave mid-year. And it was physically, mentally, emotionally draining in every sense of the way. I felt like I completely lost myself. I didn't know who I was. ⁓ I was overcome with anxiety and stress and depression and cycling through that constantly.
I felt like I was always in this really high stress, high cortisol state. ⁓ I didn't know how to regulate. I didn't know how to find balance. I didn't know how to find ⁓ peace and I just got lost. And how, so yeah, how, what, are some of the things that you learned from this? How were you able to pick the pieces back up?
get back to where you are now. Because at the time, couldn't find a place to start his practice either. So he was not earning any income. yeah. Yeah, he was out of work. And he was picking up my slack. He was doing meals. He was taking care of kids. He was pretty depressed, too. He was. Yeah, because he didn't feel like he had a purpose. He didn't know what to do. And he couldn't find a place. just didn't nothing was working. Nothing felt right.
⁓ it got to a point where I got so low that there was a several day cycle where I went from anxiety, panic attack, depression, anxiety, panic attack, depression for several days. I couldn't eat anything. I couldn't get out of bed. I couldn't function. I couldn't talk. I like, I was broken. I was completely.
broken in that state and I, I mean, I didn't know what to do. And Scott didn't know what to do. How did you get, cause you're not like that now. Yeah. that was the lowest I've ever been in my life. And, ⁓ I really had to lean on Scott in that time and he really had to carry me. ⁓ and I had to figure out
how to pray and how to listen. And there was a time, I actually, it's the coolest story, the librarian at the school that I worked with, kind of, we became really close. We became really close friends. And right before we were gonna move, we realized that her mother was best friends with my grandmother. And that they were,
really close. Their families are really close. They knew my mom, they knew her family, they knew my grandmother. My grandmother died when I was about 14 or so. And it was really hard on me because I was really close to her. And I always felt like I don't have a grandmother. my guardian angel. And so my friend,
her mother was older but had gone to naturopathic school.
And when I expressed the things that were going on to my friend, she said, let me have you talk to my mom. And so I talked to her mom and she said, my gosh, you need this and this and this and gave me this protocol of some supplements to help regulate my adrenals and regulate my cortisol and bring the stress levels down and help me, you know, feel more calm. And in that conversation and when we made that and I didn't know at that point that there was that connection. Yeah, I just was grateful for help. I just need.
help. And so I started doing what she said and she said, it's going to take a few weeks, but you need to do this. And so I did. And I started noticing a difference. And this was all about the same time that we were getting ready to move to St. George.
I was in the state and right before we were about to move, I ended up meeting my friend's mother after we made the connection with my grandmother and I realized that my grandmother had set that up.
and set up this connection to help me in that time of need and send this angel to me. Beautiful. Yeah. And so it was exactly what I needed. I think our ancestors watch over us. absolutely. Absolutely. She knew. And so like that was the most serendipitous part of the whole experience in Arizona was to have that connection. going... Sometimes we have to get ourselves so
low that we're we are humble enough to be able to receive that inspiration that's going to help us to propel us forward. And sometimes we look at this horrible time in our lives, like, why me? Why is this happening to me? But but if we can look if we can turn it around and look at it as, OK, there it's got to be a purpose for that and just start looking for that purpose. I think it helps us to to dig ourselves out of it. yeah. Yeah. So it was.
You know, that was a that was a turning point. That was a, you know, pivotal moment that started to help. And then ⁓ once we did move to St. George when we pulled up to the rental house that I had never seen. I Scott had seen it. I'd seen it on video. I didn't know the guy who is renting it. It just.
fell into place. Everything fell into place when we moved to St. George. So we knew it was right. We felt it was right. ⁓ When I got out of that moving truck, or I guess out of my car, Scott was driving the truck, and walked in the house and I saw the grass in the backyard with a playset and our dog, we have a black lab, her name's Stormy, she's so sweet. She got out of the car and went in the backyard in the grass and she ran back.
and forth and back and forth and just like bounding in the grass. Like she was so happy. And I just felt this weight lift off and I thought, we're home. This is where we're supposed to be and now the healing can begin. So how we got there, we came up in October with some friends from Arizona. Our friends from Idaho came down.
And we came up and we met in St. George. And it was a time where I was just struggling and I thought, I can't do one more thing. I can't take a trip. I'm too stressed. This is my break. We did it anyway and loved it. I had never been to St. George before. And we spent the weekend here. As we were driving back home to Arizona, I was in tears in the car saying, Scott, we're leaving our home to go to our house where we live.
And he felt the same way. And so we talked about it and we said, Arizona's not working. This is not going well. Should we look into St. George? And so we kind of looked around a little, we prayed about it. And then we looked at each other and said, okay, on the count of three, do we stay in Arizona or we go to St. George? We said one, two, three, and we both said St. George. Wow. And that's one way to make a decision. Right. everything fell into place. He found an office spot.
right away with like a reasonable amount for rent. We found the rental house that we're currently in still and it just all flowed. and it's continuing to grow as you're just now moving to a better location. That's another story, right? Yeah, I guess we like to move every three and half years. So when we left Arizona,
that teaching job that I had was so stressful and so, I was so broken from it. A lot of trauma from that. yes. That I sold everything and I said, I will never teach again. Yeah, I remember, I remember that, yeah. And I really thought I would never teach again and here I am teaching. Yeah.
So how did that happen? Like what you tried? You tried working at Scott's office for a while. I did. Yeah, I did. Well, yeah, it I was it went pretty well for a little while and then I got bored. So I had to have this time of healing in St. George and I had to have this time of figuring out who I was again. And so during that time, we made some friends and
I connected with Christ like I've never done in my life before because I had nowhere else to turn. And so I thought, I have to, I have to turn to Christ. And so I spent hours each day studying the scriptures, praying, writing in my journal, asking questions, and he healed me. mean, that's...
Like, how did I get to where I am now? I had to turn to Christ and I had to get healing through him. Yeah. Yeah. Because you were so much like, you know, sometimes you, you know, you're on this path, you're in Idaho and you're like, things are great. This is so awesome. I just kind of feel this itch that we need to move though. So we're going to move, go to Arizona. It's like, whoa, this is not the right place. And my gosh, this is like the worst I've ever felt in my entire life. And then all of a sudden it's like, we found St. George. Okay.
And then you're like even better than you were in Idaho. You have to like go through these dips in order to make progress sometimes and to learn about yourself and to learn who to rely on. And I think that that's really insightful. But you had to put forth the effort. You could have sat there and just felt sorry for yourself. Yeah, I could have. And a lot of people do. I could have. That would have been easier or turn to a medication or a...
you know, outside source and you know, I do use some supplements to help and in that time I was still using the supplements that the ⁓ my grandmother's friend had given me and that did help, but it wasn't enough. And I learned in that time that we have to descend to ascend. Yeah. And so there was this falling upward. Yeah. Have you ever read that book?
No, I haven't. Okay, I'm trying to remember. I'll put in the show notes but he that's it's written by pastor and I just cannot remember his name right now. Richard somebody or other. Yeah, but he talks a lot about how we have to descend before we can rise. Yeah.
Absolutely. So yeah, so it sounds like you really you kind of figured that out in your life. what what is something that is working really well in your life right now? there's a lot of things that are working really well right now. feel like life is good.
There's a lot of stress. I've learned how to handle stress a lot better. I've learned how to find the balance and how to find peace and how to be calm and ⁓
I've struggled with anxiety my whole life and I feel like the anxieties that I've had in the past have become much less. I think a lot of things that are working really well, I'm exercising consistently again. That makes a huge difference for me. I wasn't doing that in Arizona. Still, know, daily study in the scriptures and prayer works really well. ⁓ I'm teaching kindergarten.
Again, I'm going into my third year in St. George, which is amazing. I love it. And you've got a really great team. I do. I do. It's super important to surround yourself with people that are like wanting to work together. Yes. Right. Yes. My team is phenomenal. So we were a new team last year and we're working together again this year. And last year we had challenges and I realized early on in the beginning of the year that I had to change.
If I wanted something to change, I had to change and I had to be more humble and more gracious and accepting and recognize that if you can do what I can do and I can do what you can do, then we don't need each other. ⁓ I like that. So once I realized that that I have strengths and my team members have other strengths and that when we put them all together, we become stronger. Yeah. Then I mean, we just took off.
So what does that look like? Do you kind of just notice the strengths in your coworkers then? then, and you capitalize on and you say, that's a great idea. Let's go with that. Yeah. One of my team members, she is phenomenal at organization. She's incredible with doing spreadsheets and anything digital. And she is really good about staying on top of what we need to do and what we need to accomplish. And then I have another team member who is
So creative and so fun. And she's just always having so much fun with her class and has these great ideas of fun things to do. And so she just brings this element of fun and she's a connector. She is so good at connecting with people. so recognizing that they both have these incredible strengths to offer that they can bring to me and fill in my weaknesses. It makes us all better. It's so much better than being jealous of them because they have this.
I had to learn this myself because usually like if somebody has a strength that I don't have instead of doing that, it would be more like, okay, I'm just going to work harder so I can get better at that too, know, and feeling bad because, ⁓ gee, I just can't measure up. But it's a complete mindset change switch when you start looking at like, ⁓ they do that. ⁓ that's really awesome. They do that really well. I'm so happy that they do that really well. And you can't be jealous of somebody that you're
that you love. yeah, it's a different mindset and it helps you to love them so much more and to able to see them in such a better way. And then you can feel more secure in your own self too, because then you can recognize your strengths and the things that you're doing well too. That's absolutely what happened. Recognizing instead of being jealous or frustrated about the great things that she was doing and recognizing like,
hey, we can work together on this and I can appreciate what you have to offer and it makes us both better, man. That is what synergy is, right? Yeah. I love that. And that actually helped you, you won an award, right? We did. At the end of the school year, our principal gave us an award for the best team. And I can't remember what exactly he called it, but.
He printed out these plaques for all of us and said, this kindergarten team has moved mountains. And the scores from our classes and our students just blew us out of the water. I mean, we were floored at how well our students did. But I really think that when you have individuals that come together as a team for the collective good of everybody, we all rise together. I think that's really true and something that we need to remember in life.
all the time because it's so easy to compare ourselves to other people and think that we're lacking or that we have something more than somebody else does where it would be so much more beneficial for everyone if we would look at their strengths and be grateful that they have those strengths instead of comparing and saying, wish I had that. Right. And recognizing how can their strengths help me be a better person and how can I help them be a better person because
filling each other's holes and then you're all better. And just love each other because everybody's got good things about them. yeah. Yeah, I mean you really are not going to meet a single person that is all bad. No. You don't. Everybody's got good things about them. So just look for the good stuff and try to bring it out in people and absolutely people out. I love that. Absolutely. It's been great. Good.
I was going to ask you about like the interior decorating. That's something you're kind of passionate about and you're really good at. Well, I'm learning. I'm still learning. Yeah, we designed ⁓ Scott's office his when we first moved to St. George and we did a little bit of remodel before we moved in here and he picked those things out. ⁓ But then as far as decorating it and furnishing it, it was.
All me. Yeah. And it was fun to try and put things together. And now we're moving into a new building closer to home. Great location. We're so excited about it. ⁓ And we're building out a shell, a new building. We're building out a shell. And so I've we work together on a floor plan. ⁓ I would say that Scott had more to do with the floor plan than me. We just kind of work together on that. And then once we had that approved,
he kind of gave me the reins on decorating it and finishing out. Yeah, you've done a great job. I've seen the plants anyway and it looks beautiful. picking out. That's definitely a strength that you have that I do not have that I'm going to maybe tap into in the future. We'll see. We'll see how it all turns out. I think it's going to be beautiful. I feel really confident about everything that we've picked out. We've been working with a great contractor who's
been great at guiding things and recognizing the style that we want and then offering some suggestions on how to do that. Yes, and it's Red Cliffs Chiropractic in St. George. Scott is a great chiropractor. he's amazing. He is really amazing and he does some really innovative techniques and ⁓ muscle reactivation and it's really kind of magic. Yeah, it is. There you go. That and the soft wave.
stuff too that isn't huge down in St. George yet, but man, they do it a ton up here. I know we want it to grow down there. There's two. There's one other doctor who has a Softwave machine down there and so we're trying to grow it. Yeah, but it's awesome to understand it because it's incredible what it can do. So yeah, so
I've got a few rapid fire questions for you. Hey, all right. So here we go. What has brought you joy in the last 24 hours? ⁓ running, running. I've been doing this thing of
run a mile a day and today was day 15. It was something silly that we decided to do. and Scott, yep. And so I just, every morning, this morning I woke up and thought, I don't want to run. And I immediately said, yes, I do. I want to run. Let's go. It's just a mile. And went out. It was a beautiful morning, beautiful sunrise. It felt great. So. Well, and especially if you know that your husband's doing it too. Right. It's a little bit of competition there.
Okay, what about a good book that you've read recently? Okay, my favorite book lately is the unselected journals of Emma M. Lyon. Oh, yes. Okay. So fun. I can't remember her first name. Her last name is Brower is the author, maybe Ann Brower. Okay, but I'll look it up. So fun, lighthearted. It's set in the 1800s Regency era. Okay.
It's just clever, witty, so fun. I think somebody else might have recommended them too. I need to look them up. Yeah. Yeah. That's a fun series. It's nice to have lighthearted stuff every once in a while. I feel like I read a lot of deep things. Yes. It's a good airplane book for your trip coming up. There you go. That's what I'll do. What about a documentary or a TV show that you'd like to watch? Okay. This question is not really...
A TV show. Okay, a TV show. love The Chosen. We watch that. But right now our family is really enjoying a YouTube series from Ryan Trahan. I think everybody knows him, Joyride. He's doing 50 states in 50 days in 50 different Airbnbs. And it's just become like our little family routine to watch this YouTube video and just... clips. ⁓ short clip. And it's fun to see the country.
and see all of these different states and areas and Airbnbs. And he actually runs a mile a day. And that kind of gave Scott and I the idea of like, we should run a mile a day. Yeah, so great. It's just been fun. Well, you know, it's nice to have some YouTubers who are promoting good, healthy habits and that are clean and that you trust. Absolutely. Absolutely. Clean, family friendly, fun. think all of us
are like, oh, can we take a trip and do 50 states in 50 days? would be exhausting. It would be very exhausting. But it would be fun. I wonder if they actually do it in 50 days. We'll have to see. I don't know. They're getting close.
Oh, what is a favorite vacation spot for you?
We have not done a lot of vacations just because we haven't had the means to do it yet. But Scott and I took our one anniversary vacation that we had after 10 or 11 years of marriage. We went to San Diego. And it was really fun to go to San Diego with Is there somewhere that you would like to go? I would love to go to Costa Rica.
We really want to take the family to Universal Studios and Harry Potter World in Florida. Okay. Is there anything in particular in Costa Rica that you want to have heard about or you've just seen pictures and you're like, yeah. Zip lining through the jungle. Okay. I think that would be fun. I've always dreamed of going to Italy and trying the food. I'm a foodie and so I've always wanted to go to Italy. Okay.
It can happen. It can happen one of these days. I'm sure it will.
Well, what do you think I should try next? A CrossFit class? I'll go with you. I'll go with you. can teach you. Okay, before she came up, she texted me and she's like, do you want to do this body? Whatever? The burn boot camp? Yes, the burn boot camp. And so I was like, not my jam. Thanks anyway.
So yeah, okay. Crossfit class. Come with me. Either burn boot camp or Crossfit. One of the two. Get you to lift some heavy weights. I went with you once when you guys lived in Idaho. Once or twice or something when you lived in Idaho. yeah, Yeah, no, they're great. They're really great. Okay, this is what I hate about working out like other places is I have to drive somewhere. Yeah. And then I'm there for an hour and then I have to drive back. It's like two hours.
of my day, you know? Or whatever. but Bermbo camp, you have one like seven minutes. All right. I did it here. It was an hour total. I like walking down my stairs and doing my job. There you go. You can do that too. But I'll with you. I think that's great. Well, and that's a great, great, you know, advice. You know, that is something that Sendy moms can do is, you know, join a club or join a
a class or something like that and just start somewhere. And sometimes you need that motivation for to start working out. Sometimes you just need, you know, this goal of like, I'm going to run a mile every day, but just find what works for you so that you can get your body moving because it improves not only your physical health, but your mental health too. absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I went through a time where I did an exercise and I
developed exercise anxiety that if I did exercise, my heart rate would get too high and I'd have a heart attack and that or something crazy. And so I didn't exercise. It took a long time for me to get into burn boot camp and start exercising again. And now I'm like, what was I doing? Why was I wasting my time? This helps so much. I know you seem a lot happier now. I think you are a little bit of a hypochondriac. Oh, I absolutely am. Yeah. 100%. I remember one time you told me,
You have this black thing on your eyelid or something and you're like, do you think that's cancer? And I was like, I think it's eyeliner, Karissa
You were so Oh my gosh. Oh, I will be the first to admit I am a hypochondriac. Absolutely have that. When I was about 10 or 11, we had a family reunion in Oklahoma and it was a lake trip and we were at a cabin and we were on boating all day, boating on the lake. And my cousins and I had the bright idea to not wear sunscreen all day. So you can imagine the sunburn that I had.
that night and I lay in bed with like my body red like horrible sunburn shivering because you're hot and cold and remember laying in that cabin and I was worried that I was going to get skin cancer from the sunburn the one time yeah yeah so yeah
Something I have to deal with every day. the time, but then you just have to remind yourself to breathe, right? And to get through it, you know? There are tools that we can use to help to calm ourselves when we start having those panic attacks. And I think those are some great tools that you've learned. Breathing for sure. have to, every morning I wake up and part of my prayer is I am thankful for a strong and healthy body. Yeah. that was my other question. What do you do every day?
⁓ one thing that you do every day. There go. I say a prayer and I express gratitude. I'm thankful for my strong and healthy body. ⁓ But I also read scriptures and trying to exercise as well. Move your body some way. Love it. Yeah. Good. Well, thank you for being on the Sunday mom podcast. Thank you. Where can people find you? In St. George.
Find me at Red Cliffs Chiropractic in St. George. What about on social media? Social media at Karissa Dodds. It's private. ⁓ But I have an Instagram page that is GRITFITNESSKARISSA. And I've been feeling some nudges about posting some content on there about God, resilience, integrity, and tenacity. that's just perfectly. Yeah.
Okay, grit. I'm grit fitness, Karissa. So, okay, we'll see. All right, check it out. I know new projects happening. Yes, new ideas all the time. this ADHD brain just keeps turning them out. totally. Totally. Well, good. Well, thanks for being with us today and hope you enjoy your Sendy day. Yes.