About Me

I was born in Orlando, Florida and have lived in the area my entire life. I attended the local elementary school from Kindergarten through 5th grade, but was homeschooled after that...right up until college. (Usually when I tell people that, they're response is, "Homeschooled? But you're so...normal!" which points to the fact that they don't know me that well.)

During my junior/senior years of high school, I dual-enrolled at Seminole Community College (now Seminole State College), and eventually graduated with an AA degree. Fun fact: Because I have an AA degree, my mom never bothered to submit my high school records to the county so I never technically graduated from high school. 

After that, I attended the University of Florida and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in English, which was essentially worthless, because I wasn't able to find any editing jobs out of college. I temped around for a while, worked in a few libraries, and had one long-term office job that brought me zero happiness. 

I now work as a Project Manager/Copywriter for Clarity Creative Group and it's much more suited to my talents. 

My husband and I met on Valentine's Day (blach, blech! I know! Too romantic! But it was actually a "Single and Trying Not to Care" party) of 2006 and married in October of 2007. I knew he was The One because I just breathed easier around him.

In 2012, we found out we were pregnant with our first child. We found out we were having a girl and were so excited to start this next stage of our lives, but that September, everything changed.

The doctors had discovered a birth defect called Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia, or CDH. Basically, there was hardly any diaphragm, so our daughter's intestines and other organs were developing in the chest cavity and crowding out her lungs.

About 8 weeks later, I was admitted to the hospital for monitoring and bed rest, as a pocket of fluid had developed around her lung. After 4 tense days in the hospital, an ultrasound showed zero movement and a dangerously dropping heart rate. The doctors decided to perform an emergency c-section at 32 weeks, and on November 4, 2012 at 9:48am, Ava Sylvia was born. 

She weighed 2 lbs. 3 oz. and was, to this day, the most wonderful thing I've ever seen. Rather than waiting the typical week or so to fix the hernia, doctors performed surgery on Ava the very next day. Things improved for her for a while, but not for long. 

Let me tell you, hearing a doctor say, "There's nothing more we can do" is the #1 WORST thing you will ever hear in your life. We spent about 36 hours knowing that our girl was going to die and after 4 days of life (almost to the minute) she passed away.

I carry this sadness with me always, and you will almost always hear me reference it in my blog posts. People are nervous to bring her up around me, but there really is no reason to. I always tell them, "You're not reminding me of my hurt, because it never left. I haven't forgotten that she died. In fact, it's so refreshing to hear you talk about her, because it shows you haven't forgotten her either."

After she passed away, I was stuck at home. Unable to drive (I'd had a C-section), unable to work ('cuz I couldn't drive), and unable to concentrate on anything for very long (grief does that to you), I distracted myself with the only things that would work: Pinterest, Netflix shows (mostly Doctor Who), keeping up the house, and pouring my heart out through poetry.

I dove into this blog as a way of putting all of these things (as well as my own internal monologue) out into the world. This works for me as a way to get used to my grief (because, as I always say: you don't get over it, you just get used to it.). Maybe they'll work for you, too. Or maybe you just you're just here for the "Pinspired" category! 

At any rate, thanks for visiting my corner of the blogosphere, and I hope you come back often. Let's do this thing called "life" together.