Made in Richmond

Oh, hi!

My name is Valerie, but nobody calls me that. Well, except for my husband, but mostly he calls me Babe. I have no problem being referred to as Babe, as long as he is the one who says it. If you call me Babe, I might cut you.

That was a round about way of telling you that you can call me Val.

I was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. Some might say I was made here. I love it *almost* as much as my husband does.

Speaking of my husband, we met in high school. We dated for 15 months and then he dumped my ass. We got back together in October of our first year in college and dated long distance for the remainder of college. It sucked, and I’m glad it’s over.

We were married in June 2003. He was 22; I was 21. We are growing up nicely together.

We have two dogs: Shooter (the boy) and Zapp (the girl). They drive me batshit crazy. Except when they snore. I love it when they snore.

Shortly after marrying my husband, I started my career as a teacher. I taught 5th grade for 4 years and I was awesome at it. I worked constantly and burnt out at 25.

I left teaching to work as a copywriter for a local online media company. At first things were really good. Then they were really bad. So, I decided after just over a year to leave.

From there I went on to work as editor of RVANews, a local news website that is awesome at being awesome. My husband is the publisher. I totally got the job because I was sleeping with the boss.

On November 17, 2008 we welcomed our little boy JR (short for Jackson Ross) into our crazy house. You can read about his birth here. He is chubby and DELICIOUS. Here, I will prove it:

After working at RVANews for a little over 2 years, I decided that (while I loved the job with my heart) my son’s toddler years were better spent with a mother who was physically and emotionally present — not one who was up to her elbows in WordPress all day and constantly on the verge of tears because there was always so. much. to. do.

That brings us to the present day. I am currently a mostly Stay-At-Home-Mother, although I do work outside of the house a few hours a week as an administrator for our church. I also continue to contribute to the RVANews parenting column (Raising Richmond) where I publicly fret about mothering and wholeheartedly ignore the rule that you should never begin sentences with “But” or “And.” When I’m off doing those things, JR is at school busy kissing the little girls, showing off his tower building skills, and refusing to finger paint.

I despise rudeness, fear open spaces, and love early 80s movies featuring Chevy Chase.

You can contact me at madeinrichmond [at] gmail [dot] com with questions, concerns, and/or flattering praise.

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