Who am I?
When I figure that out, I'll let you know. Nevertheless, here's is what I have come up with so far...
I will be 29 this summer (July 25) and Jason and I will celebrate our fourth wedding anniversary on August 12. We became the parents of a beautiful baby boy, Patrick Louis Ramaker, on Sept. 17, 2009.
A few years ago, I graduated from Grand Valley State University with a bachelor's degree in writing with professional emphasis. I began my first "big girl job" as a staff writer and assistant copy editor at Kaechele Publications in Allegan a month later and have been there ever since.
To relieve the stress of a long day staring at a computer screen or editing unruly press releases, Jason and I have Patrick, one furry pet and an aquarium.
Patrick is indescribable. Being a parent is wonderful, exhausting and totally worth every minute I wished I was pregnant , every minute of morning sickness (I had it for 33 weeks of my 39 week pregnancy), every contraction, every 2 a.m. feeding (luckily he's slept through the night regularly since 5 weeks old) and and every dirty diaper. He's ours and we are lucky to finally have him!
Gracey is a rescue dog (named for Chad Gracey for the band +Live+). After a year of trial and error, this nearly 11-year-old border collie, spaniel mix who is, for all intensive purposes, deaf has finally accepted us, our home and lifestyle as her own. It was touch-and-go for a while there though. A novel is in the works, believe me. Marley has nothing on this dog!
We also have a 75-gallon saltwater fish tank. It is home to five fish (David Spade, Chris Farley, Big Al, Stan and Chester) and a variety of unnamed and indistinguishable hermit crabs, turbo snails and starfish. Lucky for me, I am allergic to the bristol worms that live inside the coral, so most of the cleaning duties fall on Jason's already overloaded shoulders.
We own seven acres on Lake Allegan and are hoping to build a new home there in the next few years. Until then, we have followed in the footsteps of each of our parents and found ourselves living in a trailer for our first home as a young family. For as much as protested prior to moving in, it is actually not that bad. On the bright side, there are quite a few instances of what I refer to as "Allegan trailer park drama" which have proven to be excellent sources of writing material and interesting stories to tell around the massive bonfires that Jason erects at our future homesite.
Hey, that's me...
This is a photo of me and my first published piece, Acts of Vodka.
Okay, so it was "published" in the Grand Valley Lanthorn, but I was still excited about it, as you can see.
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