Reintroducing Myself as Emily

I have been blogging over three years now and I’ve never really been comfortable getting too personal, not because I don’t want my information out there for the world to see, but because… well… I don’t think my life would be too exciting to read about.  I’ve decided to take the chance of boring you to death to reintroduce myself as Emily instead of Busy Mommy.

My name is Emily. I was born and raised in Iowa by a stay-at-home mom and hardworking dad as the oldest of 5 kids. I am Catholic. I went to a Catholic grade school, high school and college. High school is where I met my husband TJ, so I guess you could consider us “high school sweethearts.”

High School Dance

Long story short, I graduated and went to an in-town college as TJ finished up his senior year of high school. He ended up receiving a

scholarship to play baseball at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska about 2 hours from our hometown… and I followed him there. I enrolled in an all girls Catholic school about ten minutes from his college. Another long story short, I ended up getting pregnant sometime in November, only a few months after we moved to Omaha. I wasn’t really considered a “teen pregnancy,” but I was still at that age where I was considered too young to have a baby. Telling our parents was a nightmare, but they both responded unusually well, although I still remember the dreaded, awkward day when both sets of our parents sat down to “discuss” our future with us.

TJ and I ended up getting legally married four months after we found out about the pregnancy and while both of us  still lived in our own campus dorm rooms. You can sure bet I was the only pregnant, married girl living on campus.

As far as our plan for when the baby arrived, I already had my mind made up, I wanted to move back to Des Moines where our families were, the logical choice. TJ  wanted to continue to play baseball and it seemed like I had no other option but to follow him once again, but this time I was pissed. Having a baby at that time was not my ideal situation, but raising a baby away from our families was even further from ideal.

In August, a few weeks after I turned 20 years old, Colton was born after nearly two hours of pushing and finally, a c-section. One week after his birth I developed an infection and still only a few days after that we packed our belongings, a two-week old baby and we moved into the married student housing dorms at Creighton University.

When Colton was two months old, TJ and I had our church wedding, which is what we consider our “real” wedding and when we celebrate our anniversary. (We have been married 3 1/2 years now).

That first year was beyond hard. I was 20 years old with a newborn baby living away from my family on a college campus and going to school part time. On top of that, my husband was a Division 1 athlete, which required daily practices almost year round and when the season started, he was across the country for days at a time. I still don’t know how I did it and to this day I don’t think I was given the credit I deserve from certain people who I sacrificed a lot for.

That hard time was when I fell into the online world of blogging. Being home alone all day with a young baby, I needed an outlet and I happened to stumble upon all of the other moms who were feeling the exact same way.

As Colton got older, things started getting a little easier. Our parents graciously would take Colton one weekend a month so TJ and I could have a little alone time and hang out with friends and try to experience what little college life we could.

College went by quickly and Colton is almost 4 years old now and he looks exactly like his daddy. He is going to start Preschool in the fall and I have a feeling he will be considered the class clown. (He gets his personality from his mama )

TJ has a good job managing a construction company and I guess I am considered a stay-at-home mom, but I am searching for a part time job both to make a little money and get out of the house. We purchased our first home right after Christmas and it feels good to be finally living that “normal” life……… all we need now is a dog and a white picket fence.