My name’s Jess. I’m a 30ish gal from Colorado. By day, I do computer things for a small contracting firm in my home city: programming, Crystal Reports, intranet development, a job that I absolutely love. For fun and (some) profit, I also run a web design/development and graphical design business in my spare (ha!) time.
I earned my programming stripes in Vanderbilt University’s School of Engineering, where I got my BS in Computer Science in 2002. VUSE is also where I met the charming fellow who is my husband. Matt and I were married in August, 2002 and I swear I love him a little more every day. He’s a wonderful husband and truly my best friend. He is also responsible for purchasing this domain for me while we were still dating (2000, maybe??).
After graduation and the wedding, we took two year stint in the land of cows and frigid temperatures, Wisconsin. While we made the best of our time there (we played loads of DDR, went to the farmer’s market, and day-tripped to Ikea), WI just wasn’t for us. We were lucky enough to be able to move back to Colorful Colorado in 2004. Where we bought our first house and have lived ever since.
In 2005, after the death of our longtime canine companion, May, we adopted a small, black and white ball of energy (who since then has grown into a somewhat larger black and white ball of energy) who we call Loki. As we got him from a shelter, we can only guess as to his age (probably around 1 when we got him) and breed (we think 2 parts black lab, 2 parts border collie and 1 part crack hound). Hyper as he is, he’s an incredibly sweet and gentle dog who nonetheless has quite the penchant for mischief. He is named after the norse god of mischief, so this is apropos. Of course maybe we sealed his fate when we named him.
In March 2007, we expanded our family again when Tabitha was born. Her little brother, Benjamin followed in April 2009. These two amazing kiddos are the light of our lives and it is such an incredible privilege to see them develop into such great little people. They keep us on our toes and busy just about every second of every day and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
When I’m not involved with work or family and friends, I enjoy a variety of “leisure” activities. It’s hard to pick a favorite, but currently I think running, cooking and photography rank near the top. I also enjoy being outdoors, making stuff, traveling, and programming (this can be a hobby, right??). I also occasionally find a free moment to read or play a video game.
I started this blog while we lived in Wisconsin as a way to keep in touch with out-of-town friends and family (everyone was out of town in those days!). That is still a definite perk of having the site, but now I also view it as a record of our lives and a way to record and remember the things that matter and some of the things that don’t. Making some wonderful bloggy friends is also a lovely side effect.
For years, I programmed, styled, and designed it all by myself (using PHP, mySQL, Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Photoshop) rather than using any blogging engine (such as blogger or wordpress or whatever). What can I say? I’m a control-freak. More recently though, I ported my database to WordPress and have been using their engine, though still styling things myself. I can still tinker with the code when I want, but I get more time for actually blogging instead of maintaining code. Win-win.
My name is Jess. I'm a 30ish wife and working mommy. I love spending time with my family and friends, crafting up weird and beautiful things, cooking delicious food and running lots of miles to work it off. I love chocolate, wine, Photoshop, my Nikon and sleeping in. I do freelance design work for fun and marginal profit at 
One Comment
Dear Jess,
I stumbled onto your blog this morning while looking for my cousin’s family site.
I am James Jesser. I grew up in Fort Collins, where most of my family still lives. I am just wondering about your possible connection to us. My great-grandparents, John and Margaret, were Germans from Russia that came to Colorado around 1900 and settled in Fort Collins. My grandfather, Frank H., came from a large family, 9 siblings. We have lost contact with most of that family. His oldest brother, John and wife Gertrude, settled in Wisconsin. If you or your husband are interested in family history, it would be nice to figure out the connection.
I teach in a 2 room public country school. In South Dakota we fight consoldation. I have 22 students in grades Kindergarten to grade 3.
I look forward to hearing from you.