Happy Wednesday everyone! To me, today isn’t just any Wednesday, it’s my golden birthday! I am 27 and officially in my late twenties… for better or for worse (haha!). To celebrate, I’m letting you in on 10 things you probably didn’t know about me. Enjoy- and treat yourself to something special for me today, okay?!

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10.)  Starting off with my clutch Two-Truths-and-a-Lie truth: I was born with black hair! YES- BLACK. Yet I was still surprised when Anastasia came out with her own head of black hair haha! Mine naturally lightened up to the dirty blonde it is today, and that’s the same thing that is happening with Anastasia too. I wonder though if she will ever get to toe-head blonde like me though. I kind of like her dark hair with her blue eyes!

9.) You might know that I used to be a high school English teacher. But did you know that my first full time job post-college was being the Director of Operations for a nonprofit in Flint, MI? Check out their amazing work here!

8.) I am a pianist. I took lessons from Kindergarten through 10th grade and now play whenever I can find a piano (we don’t currently have one in our apartment!). I have competed in achievement testing for piano performance and sight reading, and consider playing one of the most effective forms of stress relief.

7.) I made my own cookbook! I love to cook/ bake, and decided it would be fun to have all of my favorite tried and true recipes in one place. I’m excited to give it to my sister when she gets her own apartment in August because she’s always asking for the recipe of what I make for her!

6.) I gave birth naturally (no epidural, no nothing!) and it wasn’t that bad. It was pretty much as I expected it to be. I also was pushing for about 15 minutes total, so had I been in a scenario where the pushing part of labor was lasting multiple hours, things might have turned out differently!

5.) For career day in 5th grade, I told people I wanted to be an architect/ interior designer. For years I would dream up floor plans and draw them out on grid paper, and then decorate the rooms by cutting out items from my parents’ Frontgate catalogue. I hope that one day I will get to either build a house of our own, or buy a fixer upper that (with the help of many other people that aren’t me) we can turn into a forever home.

4.) During my college years, I taught myself how to do calligraphy. I would practice every time I was taking notes in class and after much practice think I’ve gotten pretty good! I did the calligraphy for our own wedding invitations and on every envelope we sent to guests. My favorite pen to use is the Tombow Fudenosuke.

3.) In middle school I was an NBA buff. We had season tickets for the Detroit Pistons (they were good back then!) and I could name every player from the 2003-2005 Pistons, along with many other players from the competition. Richard Hamilton was always my favorite and I wore #32 in his honor when I played. I even met him at a basketball camp once!

2.) In the past year I have developed a VERY demanding sweet tooth. My favorite indulgence is a slice of  Oreo Extreme cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory which happens to be conveniently located kitty-corner from my apartment.

1.) I’ve moved four times since I graduated college in 2014, and move #5 is coming THIS MAY! In case you haven’t heard, we are officially staying in the Milwaukee area for Domenick’s doctoral internship year but don’t know exactly what city we will settle in yet!