I’m Annie, a Midwesterner to the core.  I love the idea of finding my people and loving them hard – and I live by that.  I’m the oldest of 4 girls with a fierce love of family and friends.  I enjoy being in nature, finding fun ways to be active, being surrounded by my gigantic extended family, yoga, good coffee and have recently discovered a love for dogs. (My husband credits himself with my relatively new affinity for coffee, dogs and bacon – one might wonder how I even lived before him, ha!).

I am married to a barbecue-enthusiast educator with a passion for anything football.  When he’s not teaching or helping student athletes figure out their path forward, he can be found fearlessly experimenting with new seasonings, sauces or brines in preparation for his next “big cook.”  This guy is happiest when he’s feeding the masses.

In the midst of learning about and navigating sensory processing disorder along with my family, I have spent the last few years trying to rediscover and redefine who I am.  At the end of 2018, I left a my full-time job of 15 years to be able to spend more time with our boys – having little idea of what was on the horizon.  I absolutely loved my co-workers – many of whom became some of my closest friends, and I enjoyed my work.  I had been in my position long enough that work made sense to me.  It gave me an opportunity to be creative and innovative, harness my leadership skills and collaborate with colleagues on some really fun projects.  I had a quiet office that I traveled to each day after dropping the boys off at school or daycare and no matter how challenging the mornings had been, I found great comfort in the structure and stability that work provided.  I didn’t realize how much I relied on my dear colleagues for support during the beginning of our most difficult season as a family so struggled with my transition to being home despite still working a few part-time roles.

Pre-pandemic, my husband and I loved finding fun new local places to eat, spending time with family and friends and attending sporting events.  Now, we’re finding out that we do really love being home and have worked to make the best of the challenges the pandemic has presented.  We live within a few miles of both sets of our parents and most of our siblings and are grateful for the support that provides for us and our children – we know we’re very lucky in that regard.

I’m over here loving joggers and cozy sweatshirts, embracing our  unpredictable life while trying to make sense of the many seasons of sensory processing disorder.