The resolution to write a UVA children’s book differs greatly from actually writing it. Our little man was only a couple weeks old when I decided to pursue writing a book for him, but as it turns out, I had significantly less “me” time as a mom than when I was working 60 hours a week. As the months passed the resolution remained, meanwhile JJ began rolling, eating solids, and crawling.

Next came the big move. As time always seems to do when you are enjoying life, it flew, and our two years in New Orleans were over. We took one last look at Uptown, our shotgun house, and happy life there, packed up the dog, Grits, cat, Corn Muffin, three live oak trees, our son and piled into our Expedition for the 1,000 mile drive. Our trek led us to Richmond, VA and the first home we owned. My husband took a position to practice law at McGuireWoods. Oh it was good to be back in Virginia, but so sad to say goodbye to NOLA! But with my parents right up the street from us in Midlothian, VA, it was amazing how much more “me” time I now had.

After boxes were unpacked, walls painted, and rooms decorated, I used my “me” time to work on my overdue book. There was much to do! 

We were living in New Orleans, when our firstborn, Jonathan Junior was born. At the time I was the Director of Finance for a charter school, Success Preparatory Academy, and my husband, Jonathan, was clerking for a Judge on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. We had made a 2 year commitment to be in New Orleans, and during our tenure made incredible friends and had many exciting weekends at festivals, parades, music shows, not to mention Mardi Gras!

I am a “Double Hoo,” Commerce ’05 and Curry ’10.  Jonathan graduated from the Law School in 2010 too and adopted UVA as his rooting interest since his undergraduate alma mater, WashU, is Division III.  While in graduate school, and even before that when we lived in Washington, DC, Jonathan and I had gotten used to attending football and basketball games, and enjoying everything UVA has to offer.  While we were living in New Orleans, we dearly missed our involvement at UVA.

We wanted to share our love of UVA with our son but since the drive from New Orleans to Charlottesville was a bit more than we could pull off in a weekend, we turned to literary means. After searching online for a suitable UVA Children’s book, I was sad to leave Amazon with nothing in my cart. It was disappointing not to find a cute children’s book to show our boy around Grounds, introduce him to the term Wahoo, and get him excited about everything Orange and Blue. This is when I resolved to write a UVA kids book, since I could not buy one I liked. Our son would certainly have a UVA children’s book, but it would just take a little longer to arrive in the mailbox than I had imagined!