I don’t know about you, but I’m always a little awkward when I have to write about myself; I just don’t really know where to start. Of course, if you asked me where to start, I’d give you the Sound of Music advice: “start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.” Easier said than done.

I won’t ask you to read a long almost 30 year old bio but the very beginning looks something like this. I was born in Pasa-get-down-dena next to Gilley’s to a Boston native mom and Texan dad. I grew up in Houston with a kid brother and was all in on the girlie extracurriculars.

I had a serious case of “get the hell outta dodge” when I graduated high school and ended up at school in Boston. I lived in the city, took the subway to class and had an awesomely tight-knit group of sorority sister girlfriends. I spent a semester in Sydney but ultimately decided Texas was the only home for me.

I moved to Austin for the usually reason: it rocks. My parents were nearby, I had some friends here and the nightlife was good. With a lot of bills but not a real job, I became an Austinite. Thankfully it worked out. I got a job, made friends and met a cute boy online. Not too long after that we were living together, raising a puppy and planning a wedding.

In October 2009, Ross and I got married and bought our first house. We spent the next few years making career moves (him to firefighting, me to the tech industry) and being jetset. I may not have been itching to live far away anymore but that didn’t mean I wanted to stay put!

Because getting married and buying a house in the same month taught us that doing all your major life changes at once is the best way, we embarked on another round in 2012. My company got acquired, we took a dream trip to Europe, built a house and, you guessed it – GOT PREGNANT!

Our little bundle of baby joy, Cade Daniel, was born on March 13, 2013 after four and a half long, long hours of pushing (that’s right pushing). He was (and is) perfectly perfect. Healthy, happy, adorable and obviously, a child prodigy in every way.

I’ll be the first to tell you that we’re winging it as rookie parents. We’re not hardcore committed to one lifestyle or another; we mostly just want it to work. For example…

I about went off the deep-end when breastfeeding wasn’t working but then embraced pumping and formula supplement. We tried letting Cade set his own schedule but quickly threw that out the window for a parent-led schedule that saved our sanity. We’ve done maternity and paternity leave, grandparent care, baby-sitter care and now full-time Montessori school. We saved his eternal soul with baptism but don’t really go to church. I buy organic milk but also buy highly processed toddler hotdog things. It’s a lot less black and white and a lot more gray.

I love being a mom and I love my little toddler tornado. I also really love my husband, my girlfriends, my career, and adventuring. I’m pretty unlikely to share craft ideas or recipes (hubs does the cooking). But you can probably count on me for working mom tips, WilCo recommendations and travel wins/fails. My mom-mobile SUV and I are go, go, go; usually with the kiddo in tow…but sometimes, just sometimes, it’s adults-only.