It all started ten years ago, I had to make a decision after the company I had worked at for almost 10 years had made some questionable hiring decisions and ultimately was shutdown. Do I stay or…. where do I go. One may think, you’re in NYC, as an apparel buyer, of course you stay, you’re exactly where you need to be. That was not my logic. I had toyed with the idea of “leaving home” and went on interviews and Massachusetts and Florida, but never actually made a full commitment to any of it. I was born in the Hudson Valley, 2 hours north of the city, ALL of my family and friends were in NY, I didn’t know anything else. But this was an end of an era and that meant something to me. As a senior in high school I believed in the quote by John Lennon, “Life is what happens while you’re making other plans”. It felt like life had a plan and I needed to go for the ride. I called a recruiter and made the statement, “I don’t know where I can go, but I know it’s not here”.

A few weeks later I received a call back with an opportunity to be a merchant at Vera Bradley in Indiana. My first reaction was, “I’ll need to find a map”, if you’re from the east coast you’ll understand, I never failed geography class, but Indiana is a fly over state somewhere in the middle. I said sure, the next week I was flying to Indiana for an interview and three weeks after that I started my almost 10-year tenure. But once again some questionable hiring decisions took place, only this time I was that one that left.

Life was much different now, after serial dating in NY for years, I met my husband a month after arriving in IN. We were engaged 10 months later and married 10 months after that. I had a partner, a support system, someone to tell me they had my back and believed in me. I also had a 5 year old that is my reason for life and I wanted to be her mommy. Her and I spent everday this summer together, until her first day of Kindergarten. I was able to drop her off and pick her up. I get spend afternoons with just her and I until her daddy gets home. I’m a PTA mom, I go on classroom field trips; this is job that I always wanted and now I am so blessed to be able to actually do it.

The reason I am starting yet another “mom blog” is because when I was pregnant, I read a book called “It’s Really 10 Months: Delivering the Truth About the Glow of Pregnancy and Other Blatant Lies“. It’s a book with honest stories of pregnancy, the good and the really bad. It was great because as my body was growing and I was not feeling most glamourous self. It reminded me that I don’t need be glowing and feel fantastic every day like some books will tell you. Pregnancy is real and can be real “ugly” sometimes, and that is okay! I want to be able to do that for my readers, I am not going to give you my favorite banana bread recipe or most natural way to wash your baby’s cloth diapers. I am going to give you my real life story of motherhood in all its gory😉 .