My Story

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My Story

I am your regular/average mom who does not do Pinterest worthy crafts or ideas, my house looks lived in, I don't cook, and I work full time.  What I am is a mom of an elementary age munchkin who tries her best to be a good mom, a good wife, a good friend and a good worker.

As a mom, I am learning as I go, I am a first-time mom at the age of 37.  We have been figuring out our parenting philosophy as we go and so far, we seem to be doing a good job.  Our daughter is a happy munchkin who is learning about life as she goes, she was diagnosed with ADHD a couple months before she turned 5.  This has come with challenges and learning how to best help her and help her succeed in school.  My husband and I joke that we wish we had like a quarter of her energy.

As a wife, we have been married for over 16 years now.  I met my husband in college, but we did not get together till many years later.  We dated for a few years before moving in together and getting married.  Along with our munchkin we have 2 cats in the house who keep us on our toes if she drops the ball ... lol.

As a friend, I have a few close friends including my best friend who I have known and been friends with since we were in 7th grade.  It has been nice because she had her first baby a year before me, so we have been able to go through learning to be parents together.  I am an introvert so while I do have friends very few are close because I have a hard time opening up and connecting with others.

As a worker, I spent over 20 years in retail and worked my way up into management.  When I left I decided to pick a different career path, I enjoy office work, so I looked for receptionist type positions and ended up getting hired at a behavioral health hospital for kids where I worked my way up to Hospital Administrative Manager.  When they did away with my position I left the hospital and moved over to our local school district to work as an Administrative Assistant for Special Schools (schools that are in behavioral health facilities).  I decided after I got pregnant that when I came back from maternity leave I would only work part time so that I could still spend considerable amount of time with my daughter.  3 months postpartum I joined Usborne Books & More to allow me to bring in extra money, to share my love of books and help kids get excited about reading.   I joined Tupperware to try and organize my kitchen somehow and this way it would be cheaper 🙂

TTFN ~ Ta Ta For Now

Monkey's in my Circus

These are my monkey's that I claim in my personal circus ... not all are human 🙂

However they are all mine and I love each of them with ALL my HEART 🙂

Husband after fishing charter
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Morai with munchkin
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Ben

Director of Cooking & My Sanity

This is my husband, obviously he enjoys fishing ... lol

My husband is a great cook and does 95% of the cooking in our house, he supports me in whatever I do and is a great father.  He has been very hands on with munchkin since she was born.  When I am having difficulties in life he will let me have down time and ask me what I need or how he can help.

Munchkin

Director of Fun & Chaos

This is my rainbow baby, she is currently 6 yrs. old and while she might be small for her age she has a big personality.

Munchkin was conceived after a year of fertility treatments and a miscarriage.  She loves to climb over anything she can get her hands on, right now she is really into Minecraft, Pokemon and Foxes.  Our days are never dull with her around.

Morai - RIP

Director of Spoiling the Munchkin

My mom (Morai - Celtic word for Grandma) has been a huge help, she watches munchkin for free while we work.  She gives advice when asked and respects our decisions about how we are choosing to raise our daughter while still doing the "grandma" thing ... you know sneaking her a sip of soda or allowing a treat before meals.  We are extremely lucky at how involved she is.

Reggie the Reading Fox

Director of Reading & Shenanigans 

Reggie is my daughter's favorite toy, it is the first one she ever wanted and asked for.

My daughter loved him so much I decided to include him in my business and turned him into Reggie the Reading Fox.  He makes book suggestions and likes shenanigans and is usually to blame for them.  Watch out because you never know where he will pop up and what he will do.

Kurious - RIP

VP of All Things Quiet

Kurious is our eldest 4-legged child.  She is over 13 years old, she is very quiet and lovable.  She came to us while my husband and I were dating.  He came over to my house one day and told me to come downstairs and see the friend he made.  We kept an eye out for anyone looking for her and nothing came up, so she stayed with me and my other cat Abby (who unfortunately is no longer with us).  She is now the grandma of the crew and has started to show her age.

Sekhmet

VP of Nightly Noise Making

Sekhmet is a strange little child.  We got her when she was only 4 weeks old so learning how to care for a kitten that small was a learning experience.  As you can see she likes to hang out on the tops of doors and loves to jump.  We will be cooking or cleaning in the kitchen and next thing you know there is a cat on our shoulder or back.  Luckily she has not jumped on us from the top of a door YET, and let me tell you this child loves to see how much noise she can make at night (lucky for us Ashlyn sleeps through it).

Misfit - RIP

VP of  Food Clean-up

Misfit is Sekhmet’s sister from the same litter, she claimed my husband as soon as she came to us at 6 weeks old.  This child loves to play vacuum, she has been happy having a baby and now toddler in the house since that means lots of dropped food and stuff to clean up.  She will be more than happy to hit and run with food from your plate or help empty a fast food bag of any french fries that are in there.  Lately we have had to lock her up during dinner time to allow us a chance to eat before she tries to clean up.

Diogi

VP of Lap Warming & Extreme Patience

Diogi is the only other male in the house other than my husband.  When we first got him the family before who was kind enough to let us keep him had named him D-O-G and I just could not do it, so we changed it to Diogi.  He is so tolerant of Ashlyn and he loves to just curl up in your lap.  He claimed me easily when he came to stay with us, I had always wanted a lap kitty and I got one.  I think when Ashlyn calms down a bit more around him I see them being good friends.