Hi. I’m Nic and this is my blog.

I am a 30 year old writer, blogger, and mom. Married to my polar opposite, Paul, who patiently tolerates my insanity and occasionally tells me he loves me all the more for it.

Together, we made our son, Jackson Ray, more commonly referred to as “the magoo.”

We currently reside in Jacksonville, Florida with our 85 lb labrador retriever, Red, who has a slight obsession with licking his ass.

We are anticipating the arrival of our first little girl, due in April… right around Jackson’s 4th birthday… because clearly my husband and I procreate according to our calendar.

I am a passionate writer, and a tattooed liberal who enjoys a glass of good wine.

In my former life I was an English teacher. My undergrad is in English Literature and I have a Masters in Education. Currently I use neither of these degrees to my advantage, unless you count Jeopardy knowledge (and even then it needs to be about 17th century British authors or 80′s rock ballads.)

When I wasn’t teaching, I worked for a nonprofit center as a rape victim advocate.

I am a rape survivor.

As a result, I battle PTSD, along with a lifelong history of severe anxiety and chronic depression.

Continuing to work with survivors, in victim advocacy, is a deep-rooted passion of mine.

I am a fan of tattoos and the stories behind them. Each piece of art that has been etched in to my skin with an ink-filled needle represents a different portion of my healing, and celebrates my once violated body.

I am unashamed.

You can find my story here, published at Violence Unsilenced.

Somewhat new to the blogosphere and social media in general, I started this blog with my family as my only audience, writing about my pregnancy with the magoo in 2007. At that time, Paul was given orders by the Navy that our family would be moving to Japan. I started a blog as a way to begin communicating with our family that would soon be on the other side of the world from us. Feel free to dig through the “wine cellar,” the archives of my uneventfully awesome pregnancy.

Having a fantastic pregnancy led to absolute chaos during my first 6 months of motherhood. Jackson was born allergic to my breast milk. After subjecting myself to every possible elimination diet I could in order to nurse my son, then putting him through numerous tests, eventually hospitalizing him twice, Paul and I spent 8 weeks feeding Jackson through an NG tube with the possibility of a G tube surgery taking place.

It was at that point in time when I went public with my blog and turned into what it is today.

My bottle was up… both literally and figuratively speaking. Our son refused his bottle to the point of severe weight loss and dehydration. My wine bottle was up many a night as I cried and researched online, joined discussion forums, contacted pediatric specialists looking for an answer. And figuratively speaking, our bottle was up in terms of time and patience. Paul and I were at our wits end for months while trying to feed our son.

My blog became my lifeline as I connected with and corresponded with other parents of children with severe food allergies and disorders. I researched clinics online that specialized in pediatric feeding disorders, which is what ultimately led the Navy to show us mercy and change Paul’s orders from sending us to Japan to Maryland. Jackson was treated at Johns Hopkins, Kennedy Krieger feeding program.

He now eats like a champ. Somedays…

With the exception of this “about” page, I prefer to write using all lowercase letters. I enjoy watching my husband tickle the magoo til the both of them are covered in slobber, dabbling in photography, traveling on airplanes that have WiFi, drinking wine, and getting my husband’s expert opinion about beer. I am also a Top Chef fanatic and in my next life I would like to be reborn as a food critic… that way when my bottle is up, it’ll be an expensive bottle that I won’t have to pay for.