About Me

The ultimate goal of this blog...or any blog, I suppose is to have readers. I'm not sure who will end up reading this (hopefully someone). In case there are folks who don't know me "in real life," I figure I should tell you a little bit about me.

I am a very proud, born and raised Minneapolis girl. I was raised in the northern suburbs of the city with my mom and dad, and my big sister Beth.

My childhood was pretty iconic, except for one very large exception. Late in 1991, my sister was diagnosed with a very rare form of pediatric lymphoma. After an 11 month battle, she lost her life, six days shy of her 12th birthday. It was, and continues to be, the absolute worst experience of my life. Grief is a funny journey in that it comes in waves. The pain of her loss, in many ways, is so familiar. I'm used to it, and it stops hurting every day (there was a time that I couldn't say that). But in most recent years, there's been a new layer to the grief as I've gotten married and had my first child...just so much she's missed out on. So much she should be here for....

Uff. Anyways...

After high school I got my Bachelors of Arts degree in Elementary Education from Luther College in Decorah, IA. Being at Luther was seriously the best four years of my life. I don't have enough words to say all that I love about my dear alma mater. It certainly doesn't hurt that while at Luther I met and fell in love with my amazing husband Jeromy. We met as freshmen, when he was dating one of my floormates. We became friends that year. The following year he was single and we became closer friends. We spent a good amount of time in denial that anything was going on, even though it was completely obvious. Seriously. We'd sit and watch movies while holding hands and playing with each others' hair. But "nothing was going on." :-) After a couple months of this, we couldn't deny it any longer and we started dating. He was my first boyfriend. I think I did pretty well on the first shot!

After college, Jeromy and I started our professional lives. The teaching market was incredibly difficult then - during the economic decline - so my career journey took a different path. After living separately for a while, we got engaged in 2006, married and bought our first house in 2007.

We've had our good times and bad - most notably our back to back unemployment. Ugh. I don't wish unemployment on anyone. And the very best time was the birth of our daughter Linnea in August 2011.

Motherhood has been, without a doubt, the most joyful and challenging experience of my life. It has been more profound than I ever could have imagine. For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a mom. Being Linnea's mom literally fulfills a life long dream.

I work currently as an Academic Coach for an online university. Jeromy works as a Business Analyst. Our days and weeks are busy with all that comes along with working full time, parenting, being home owners, all while having to have some sort of social life.

I hope this blog helps to capture the days and weeks, to remember the happy little moments that shine through the busy-ness of life.