A Reintroduction + “Who Are You?” (Year Three!)

For the first time in my adult life, I don’t have any major life events looming this year. No deployments, no moving to a new state, no buying or selling homes, no pregnancies, no new babies. One (or more) of these things has happened every year since 2009, but 2020 is looking much more quiet. HALLELUJAH!

With this year looking like a fresh, beautiful, clean slate, I’ve declared 2020 the year that I will finally prioritize my passion for writing and journalism. I shared last week about building my confidence as a part-time blogger and how I’m working on making some changes to our day-to-day life that allow me to create content just a bit more (while also shedding that pesky “mom guilt” that so many of us can relate to).

Since I hope/plan to spend more time creating here, I’d like to take a pause and reintroduce myself! I would also be tickled if you were able to spare a moment and tell me about you, too (in the comments below OR on Instagram or Facebook)! I promise to respond to you and make this a two-way conversation. 🙂 Learning about who is on the other side of the laptop/tablet/phone and reading this blog really helps me write TO YOU as an individual. 

(This is the third year I’ve done this, and I love meeting you!!)

So, about me!

My name is Erica. 🙂 I’ll be 32 next week and will also celebrate my 9th wedding anniversary next week too!

I am married to Jamie, whom I met when we were both 20 years old and sophomores in college. I was going to The University of Alabama (ROLL TIDE) and he was a cadet at West Point in New York. You can read about how we met on a whirlwind blind date weekend here. It’s my favorite story!

We have three girls who leave me speechless when it comes to describing them. I just love them so much. Hadley is six, in Kindergarten, and is definitely the leader of the bunch. Sadie is almost four and will be in Pre-K in August! She is our family comedian and slick as a lick. Jillian is our baby girl and was born in July 2019. She makes my heart feel complete and is the sweetest peanut. 

We live in Madison, Alabama and never, ever want to move. Ha! I grew up here, moved away for college, moved home in 2010 for a year to teach 8th grade English (during which I got married and sent Jamie overseas on his first deployment), and then moved away again to our first duty station in June 2011.

We ran around the country at various duty stations (Campbell, Huachuca, and Riley), and then found our way to sweet home Alabama.

Jamie served eight years as an active-duty Army officer, deploying many times, completing a zillion trainings, and accomplishing many great things. For a long list of reasons, he decided that his next chapter in life would be in the civilian world, and his job search ultimately led us home.

He is working a job he is truly fulfilled by while also continuing to serve as a Captain in the Army Reserve. Our city has the second largest number of West Point grads who have retired here, so we are surrounded by many who understand our lives as a former military family. This helped tremendously with the emotional, confusing experience of transitioning out.

Two years later, we are super settled, happy, and mostly importantly extremely passionate about helping others who desire to transition out of active duty and feel overwhelmed by the whole thing. So, if that’s you, shoot us an email. 😉

Before becoming a stay-at-home mom in 2013, I taught public and private school English to 7th, 8th, and 11th grade students. I also worked for a year with Rachel’s Challenge. I am passionate about writing, so after being home for a few months with my newborn Hadley, I kicked my blog up a notch, rebranded as Whimsical September, and here we are six full years later! 

A few of my favorite things:

• Jesus
• starting the day with a 5 a.m. workout at Orangetheory with friends (getting up is hard for about one minute, and then I’m good to go!)
• crawling into bed before 10 p.m.
• iced coffee
• pizza
• dry shampoo
• traveling to somewhere warm as a whole family (I always miss my husband, kiddos, etc. if I travel without them, but I do anyway but just prefer travel with all of my fam)
• eating meal outside, either at a restaurant, on a picnic, or out back at our home
• The Bachelor/ette (and reading every spoiler as soon as I can get my hands on it, haha!)
• family evening walks
• my L’ange curling wand
• our elderly “chug” dog, Teddy (my love bug!)
• sharing a glass of champagne with friends and family on a beautiful day on my back patio while our kids play
• being with my people as often as possible – my best friends, my family, my church family… just being with the people I love is nearly all I need in life!
• my air fryer
• Sweet potatoes in all forms!
• Lululemon align pants… amen. 
• Thursdays… because right now Thursday is our day to stay home, hang in pajamas, and catch up on all the things!
• turning our fireplace on when I’m cold
• Podcasts! Lots of podcasts!
• Listening to my girls sing worship songs

As a reintroduction of this blog itself, Whimsical September is a lifestyle blog through and through. I desire to document for my own family, share with you with hopes that my content inspires new ideas (or simply just makes you feel seen or understood), and write write write because that is quite simply what I love to do.

Topics that I share about include where we are traveling, what we are eating, what products are making our lives better, what we’re working on around the home, what some of our day-to-day routines look like, and generally what life looks like for an average early-30s mom like me who is a rock solid believer in “how you live your days is how you live your life.”

Nice to meet you. 🙂

Your turn? Heck yes! Let’s do it!

A few questions to get your started:

What’s your name?

Where do you live?

How did you find my blog and how long have you been a reader?

One or two things going on in your life right now that are bringing you stress, happiness, etc.