My Heart of the Story

In this deeply personal episode of My Heart of the Story, I sit down with my best friend Sarah Bartow, who has known me since freshman year of high school.

We talk about how we met, the wildness of our teenage years, the friendship that carried us through, and the pain we didn’t yet have words for.

We get honest about growing up too fast, addiction, feeling alone, being parentified, losing dear friends, and the ways our younger selves learned to survive.

We also talk about motherhood, healing, aging, breaking generational patterns, and what it looks like to finally start taking the armor off.

This conversation is raw, funny, tender, and full of truth.

It’s about the girls we were, the women we’ve become, and the power of being witnessed by someone who has known your story almost from the beginning.

If you’ve ever felt alone in your pain, shaped by your past, or grateful for the friend who held pieces of you when you couldn’t hold them yourself, this one’s for you.

P.S. This episode begins a new series with my best friend Sara called The Stories That Raised Us. It’s a space where we revisit the moments that shaped the women we are today. As My Heart of the Story grows, you’ll hear more conversations like this one.

In this episode of My Heart of the Story, Bryan and I continue peeling back the layers, and this time we start where everything really begins: becoming parents.

We go back to the birth of our son in 2000, the chaos, the speed, the “you’re not getting an epidural, you’re having a baby” moment, and the surreal reality of being handed a tiny human and realizing… oh. We’re doing this now.

From there, we step into the early days of building a young family in San Diego, moving into our home, and living inside that season of community that still feels unreal looking back. The Papasan chair naps. The thousand “uncles.” A house full of people who loved our kid like he was theirs.

And then the world shifts.

Just 12 days before Bryan’s first birthday, September 11th happens, and Bryan is deployed. What was supposed to be a standard MEU turns into the beginning of Afghanistan. He shares what it was like to find out overseas, how fast everything changed, and what it meant to go from “presence” to real war.

We talk Camp Rhino. Kandahar. Freezing desert cold. Improvised survival. Ancient gear. Flight line chaos. The kind of moments that don’t make the highlight reels but live in the nervous system forever. We also talk about the brutal part people forget, the lack of communication, the waiting, the not knowing, and what that does to a young marriage and a new mom holding it down at home.

And still, somehow, woven into all of it: the human stuff.

We talk SERE school.
We talk door art and Metallica!!!!
We talk “combat Barbie.”
We talk our son as a toddler, riding his Power Wheels until he literally falls asleep mid-lap.

Because life is like that. War and baby giggles. Dust and birthdays. Trauma and tenderness living in the same timeline.

This episode isn’t about glorifying war.

It’s about remembering what it cost, what it built, and what we carried home.

If you’ve ever lived through a season that changed you before you were ready…
If you’ve ever looked back and realized you were just kids doing your best…
If you’ve ever needed to revisit the past to understand who you are now…

This one will meet you right there.

2003 is next.
And it deserves its own space.

Big love. Deep roots. Soft shoulders. Brave f*cking heart.
Let’s keep going.

In this episode of My Heart of the Story, I’m kicking off the new year by telling the truth about where I’m actually at.

I talk about my deep love for this podcast, the joy of storytelling, and the very real hilarity and frustration that comes with learning new technology as I go. The mic issues. The disappearing files. The moments I wondered if the learning curve was a sign to stop or an invitation to keep going.

This isn’t a polished episode. It’s a present one.

It’s a reflection on choosing progress over perfection, presence over performance, and having the courage to show up imperfectly while learning out loud. If you’re starting something new, navigating the awkward middle, or reminding yourself why you said yes in the first place, this episode is for you.

Thank you for being here.
Let’s press record and trust.

Welcome to My Heart of the Story,

Today I’m joined by my husband Dillon (the GOAT) and our oldest son Bryan, who finally listened to the podcast… after months. And decided it may be cool to come on the pod.

We catch up on Bryan’s life in Huntington Beach, the weird magic of coming home as an adult, and how family somehow becomes the coolest place to land.

Then we time-travel through the early years: the Dobbins house, the Brownsville chaos, moving trucks packed with kids and dogs and questionable decisions, co-parenting that actually worked, and the kind of parenting you do when you’re young, unhealed, trying your best, and still learning how to be a human.

This episode is funny, raw, and wildly familiar if you’ve ever loved your family and also wanted to pawn them off. Stick around.

We talk brother-sister dynamics, forgiveness, growing up, and the moment you realize your parents were also just… 25-year-old kids raising kids.

Come for the laughter.

Stay for the honesty.

And yes, we’re still figuring out the volume knob.

In this episode:

• coming home as a grown kid and choosing family differently

• stepdad + son origin story (sticky hands and a bear claw necklace)

• the “we moved HOW many times?” childhood timeline

• siblings, jealousy, repair, and growing into real friendship

• hunting stories, coon-hunt chaos, and “we were lucky to be alive” parenting

• a drunk phone call, two pickup attempts, and the legendary bush-hiding moment

After a four-month pause, we’re back—catching up on a season that’s been full in every way. We share the stories that have shaped us lately: Lincoln bagging his first solo deer with a bow, Dillon bringing home an elk on the very last day, and our 20th wedding anniversary trip to Crane Hot Springs, where rest met a few unexpected surprises.

From the chaos of raising kids and farm animals to the hilarity of moonshine-fueled gatherings, this episode is woven with the everyday beauty, challenge, and humor of a life lived close to the land—and close to each other.

It’s a return to presence, to partnership, and to the stories at the heart of it all.

This is My Heart of the Story.

In this episode of My Heart of the Story, I sit down with someone who has known me through just about every version of myself — my ex-husband, Marine Corps veteran, and longtime friend, Bryan Cox.

This is the first of a multi-episode series where we peel back the layers of service, family, heartbreak, humor, old wounds, and the strange way life circles us back to the people who once shaped us.

We talk about the Marine Corps’ 250th birthday and what that milestone actually stirs in the heart of someone who lived it — the pride, the grit, the cost, the memories that still sit in the body. We share stories from our days as young Marines, the chaos we survived, and the ways those experiences still echo through our lives today.

This is not a polished military tribute.
This is two humans — two veterans — telling the truth.

You’ll hear the humor that kept us alive, the honesty that healed us, and the conversations most people never get to witness between ex-spouses who made it through hell and somehow found connection on the other side.

If you’ve ever carried a story you didn’t know how to tell…
If you’ve ever loved someone and had to let them go…
If you’ve ever rebuilt yourself from the wreckage…

…this episode will meet you right where you are.

Big love. Deep roots. Soft shoulders. Brave f*cking heart.
Let’s get into it.

In this powerful and deeply vulnerable conversation, Raelynn and her friend Emma explore how our bodies carry the stories we can’t yet speak, and the healing that unfolds when we finally let them be heard.

Together they reflect on friendship, authenticity, and discernment in a noisy world, weaving in lived wisdom around herbal medicine, emotional health, and spiritual awakening.

Emma courageously shares her journey of growing up in a restrictive religious cult, discovering natural healing, and facing body-held trauma that surfaced decades later.

This episode is about what it means to transmute pain into power, rewrite old narratives, and embrace the messy, miraculous process of being fully human.

This episode contains sensitive discussion of suicide and sexual abuse.

Please take care while listening and pause if you need to.

⚠️ Trigger Warning

Full disclosure: this episode sounds like trash. 🎧😂

We had to re-record after tech issues ate the first take, and it’s awkward as hell — but there was no way we were running it back again.

So… listen at your own risk, friends.

That said, you’ll still get plenty of our usual chaos:

• Hunting season highs and lows (Lincoln’s first bow buck ✅)

• Baby goats with way too much personality 🐐

• Meat bees taking down the Frenchie 🐝

• Truck upgrades and Tacoma cult vibes 🚙

• Stories from the Dobbins house, complete with rattlesnakes, rats, and mattresses by the wood stove 🪵

• Moonshine mishaps, near-death toddler moments, and a home birth that still make me wanna cry👶

It’s messy, it’s loud, it’s us.

Thanks for sticking with the terrible audio, because the stories are too good not to share.

Love, karaoke, and confessions — what could possibly go wrong?What started with one “romantic” proposal (and yes, the air quotes matter) turned into a whirlwind of wedding plans, a reception full of karaoke legends, and a first year of marriage where we actually waited to have babies — which left plenty of space for chaos, growth, and some unforgettable moments.Somewhere in the middle of it all, another love story began — Aunt Kathy and Uncle Jim’s origin story. And because I can’t help myself, I share a couple confessions. This episode is funny, unfiltered, and full of heart — the kind of chapter that proves love stories aren’t perfect, but they’re always worth telling.Hit play and laugh with us (or at us). Either way, welcome back to Truth Bombs and Belly Laughs.

Baby goats on the loose, hunting season in full swing, Teva decides to practice her Olympic swim skills in the duck pond, and the Dobbins house reveals its secret rat society. Oh, and just when we thought we had an hour of gold… technical gremlins pulled the plug. Welcome to farm life—raw, hilarious, and abruptly cut off, just like this episode.