I was born and raised in Minnesota and left at the age of 18 to go to a small Lutheran Bible college in Washington state. I never returned to the frozen tundra, I just couldn’t handle the idea of leaving the glorious mountains. I met my husband within five minutes of walking into the college. Of course, I had no idea he would be my husband. Not only was he two years ahead of me in college but I was in no way looking to date, and we didn’t date until January of my last year in school. I could tell you many stories about my college experiences, and how I started dating my husband- but I will save those stories for a day when my kids are quiet and I have nothing to blog about.

We were married in 2002, had our first son in 2003, our second son in 2006, and our daughter in 2009. I have worked in a church as a youth director, in a school as a preschool teacher and kindergarten teacher, in a college admissions office, and I own my own business. None of these jobs will ever compare to the job of being a mom to three kids. Nothing could have prepared me for this. The tears, the laughter, the stress, the laughter, the eye rolls, the pain, the laughter, the bodily fluids, the conversations, the laughter, the same movie over and over and over…..  if you are a parent you know exactly what I am talking about. If you are about to be a parent for the first time, I am not making any of these stories up. I couldn’t if I tried. No one..ever…thinks to themselves, “I hope my kid throws up corn dogs off the edge of his bunk bed in hopes of helping his mom to not have to wash his sheets.”

I had a blog before my daughter was born. I loved it. Life happened and I lost my joy of writing for awhile. In the past four years I have had a crazy amount of people tell me I need to write a book about all the little stories I post on facebook or tell people about my kids. I always laugh it off and say I will one day. Then last week, as we were getting ready to go swimming my four year old daughter noticed how crazy my bellybutton looked (people, I have had three kids- one of them weighed 9lbs. 7oz). She wanted to know why my bellybutton was wrinkled, sucked in, and ….angry looking. I posted the story on facebook, and it seems it may have been the story that made me realize how much I missed writing. Again- people started telling me it was time to write a book. My friend told me I should title it, “Tales From an Angry Belly” and I laughed. I don’t know how to write a book but I do know I have enough material with the three of them to keep my friends entertained for hours. So here it begins. Trust that I will be pretty transparent to how hard and funny parenting is. Trust that I am not a superbloggingpinterestmommmy- you won’t find any cuteness to pin- sorry. Trust that I am just a mom with three kids, a wife, a liberal Christian, and business owner who wants other moms to know they are not alone. We are in this together.