A few short years ago, I was waking up at 4am and it wasn’t to breastfeed. I hosted a morning show on Top 40 radio, and I had the time of my life doing it.
During this chapter, I met some of my greatest friends, musicians whose posters hung on my bedroom walls, and the love of my life.
Despite growing up in neighboring towns, Ed and I didn’t cross paths until after we were old enough to get tattooed.
A few interactions at the shop he worked at went unnoticed by one of us, but when the time was right, a dating app (no shame in our game!) brought us together.
With the help of a Hall & Oates cover band, Oreo cupcakes and an Atlantic City casino, we fell for each other fast and hard. This love has been an incredible ride and it took us from the Jersey Shore to Austin three years ago.
I swapped the mic for giggles and gluesticks and started a nannying gig as soon as we got here. Ed juggled 3 jobs while we adjusted, and after just six months in Austin, we found out our little family was growing.
We welcomed our sweet Simon in March of 2018 and our lives changed forever. Over the past two years there’s been many diapers, emotions, new jobs, flights to and from New Jersey, and a wedding.
While Texas brought us heaps of queso, heat, new friends, and our baby, I lost a little bit of myself in the process.
Maybe it was the shock of leaving a public career and planting myself in a place where I knew no one, being homesick and hormonal, or the withdrawals from the greatest pizza in the world, but I didn’t recognize myself or my purpose.
As a family, we’ve navigated depression, anxiety and toddlerhood as a unit.
The Tierneys are a crunchy family, with a lot of spice. We find we always choose the moments over the routine, and keep an open mind with whatever life throws at us. We embrace natural baby products, field trips to the tattoo shop, and the occasional ice cream sundae for dinner. There is no rule book, as long as we’re together.
Mama is making a comeback.
With unwavering encouragement from my husband, and friends and family near and far, I can finally feel myself starting to pull the layers back again.
I’m honoring all the time it took for me to feel like “me” again, addressing my need for a community, and still taking plenty of trips back and forth to NJ. I’m reconnecting with old passions, like writing and ballroom dancing. I get to watch love explode like confetti while working with an amazing team of women at One Eleven East in Hutto. I sneak in a boy band concert any chance I get. Every day I watch Simon grow up with the same kiddos I’ve been nannying since we got here, and come home to the most amazing man I’ve ever met. Home is wherever I am with my two boys.
I’ve been in magazines and fashion shows, danced on-stage with the Backstreet Boys and woke my son up to go see Aaron Carter play at Stubb’s.
My life—and my hairstyle—has had a lot of chapters, but it truly began when I stopped comparing myself to “who I thought I should be” and stepped into my and favorite roles as “Mama” and wife. This is the good stuff.
