About Me

Well, simply put, I'm a 40-year-old, married, mother of three kids with one on the way and five cats. I'm a self-taught layout artist, which means I can put together a pretty cool newsletter, magazine or book. I quit my fairly comfortable job in June of 2018 to spend more time with my family and start a freelance design career. Along the way, I thought, what about writing a blog?

So, here I am. And since I am surrounded by kids and cats and they teach me something pretty much every day, that's what we'll talk about.  Along with some random home/marriage/life items thrown in for good measure.

Our Family.

I married my husband, Ron on August 8, 2008.  Yup, 08-08-08. :)  At 8:08 PM.  We knew of each other in high school and then about seven years later, reconnected, started dating and were married within a year.

When he married me, he also got two cats that I had adopted as kittens in June of 2006. Litter-mates, George was an all black medium-hair and Mio was a black short-hair with a little white spot on his chest about the size of a dime.

We spent our first five years together ballroom dancing around Ohio. Just for fun. We would dance pretty much every weekend at least once and usually go salsa dancing during the week. A highlight of ours was traveling to Cincinnati three times a year to attend a ball at the Cincinnati Music Hall. The weekend almost always included a trip to IKEA. (We now have one of those in central Ohio, so we don't have to go so far for the minimalistic build-it-yourself furniture).

And then came the babies. We had our first baby boy, "Batman" in March 2013. Baby boy number two, "Robin" arrived in April of 2015. Our little surprise showed up in October of 2016, "Batgirl."

We adopted two kittens, Pepper and Petoskey, in November of 2018. These little ladies are also litter-mates.  Pepper is a "chocolate tortie" which means she is mostly black and Petoskey is a typical tortoise.

After George died (August 2021), Ron found two grey tiger kittens who needed a home through a co-worker. And Spencer and Guster joined the family in October 2021. Mio passed away in January of 2023 and that put us back to 4 cats.

And then. . . another surprise! Baby boy number three arrived in April of 2023. And we're still working on a blog name for him. :(

Backing up a step, when Batman arrived, we decided to trade in the traditional 8-5 workdays for an opposite shift schedule so we didn't have to put him in daycare. So, I was able to arrange my hours to be home in time for Ron to work 4pm-midnight at his new job. We spent almost 8 years on opposite shifts, but then, in the midst of the pandemic, he moved into a new department at work that is first-shift only.  So, we switched things up again and for the first time with kids, we are back on the same sleep/work schedule.  And that presents even more interesting challenges.

Between Kids and Cats...

There are so many ways to finish that sentence.

• "...we're all crazy."
• "...I choose kids/cats/both."
• "...we just can't have nice things."
• "...we don't get any sleep."

I like to say, "...it's always an adventure." And I'm glad you're along for the ride.

-Bern