Meet the Writers: Say Hello to Jennifer Mahan!
Coastal Bend
I was born and raised right here in the Coastal Bend. My mom and I moved from the south side of Corpus Christi to Ingleside in the summer before 3rd grade to be closer to her job at Oxy Chem. I attended the Ingleside public schools until my Sophomore year of High School, it became apparent that I needed a change in order to help my performance in school. At that time I started attending a VERY small private school in Aransas Pass. This is where I would ultimately graduate from, with one other girl in my class {Class of ’02}.
Once I graduated High School, I tried everything in my power to get away from the Coastal Bend, I moved to Stephenville, Tx, and stayed there until I was 20. Then once I was 21 I moved to Tuscan, AZ with Glamour Shots as a makeup artist/ wannabe model; a few short months later they moved me back to the Corpus Christi store because I was MISERABLE. I went on to meet my husband in 2011, and we were married in April of 2012. We have settled in Portland because we love the schools and the feel of small-town living but we are close enough to town to make a short trip over the bridge. And honestly, Portland has grown so much that I rarely find the need to go over the bridge anymore! Bring on the Target! We do love to travel and have been able to see different parts of Texas, Washington D.C., New York City, Arkansas, and Spokane, Washington together. We often talk of relocating to other places in the Country but ultimately have not felt like God has called us to leave our home here in Portland as of yet.
Mom
In May 2013 my son Connor was born at 39 weeks. It is hard to believe he is 9 years old and in the 4th grade! I remember before I knew what I was having praying for him to be a boy. I just knew I wanted to have a boy be my first, my oldest! I was definitely challenged right from the start in my mom journey with him, I had issues with my milk supply so I was unable to breastfeed. For the first 3 months of his life because he almost never slept anywhere other than his swing so we would take turns sleeping on a couch in order to be near him. Since then he has been diagnosed as Dyslexic and having Dysgraphia. It has been a long journey but I am happy to say we are finally seeing the fruits of our labor and his school performance has improved TREMENDOUSLY over the last few years.
Then we decided that we wanted to try one more time for our little girl, and by golly did we get her! Keeley {pronounced Key-Lee} came into the world at 37 weeks Aug 2015. From the very beginning, she has been a fierce little girl, with a strong will and is my total sour patch kid, sour then sweet in an instant. She and Connor have had the sweetest relationship and although they are often yelling at each other, they have lots of moments of hugs and you can always hear them yelling “I love you” across the house to each other. There was also a phase not so long ago when I could not keep Keeley out of Connors room at bedtime and would find her asleep in his bed. I pray as they grow older this relationship only deepens and they can be an encouragement to each other.
I feel so blessed that for the last five years I have been able to be home with them full-time. Even though there are times that I miss having a career, there is nothing better than being able to be at every party and having the flexibility to do both school drop-off and pick-up! And it has given me the opportunity at 38 to finally chase a long-time dream of earning a college degree. Since 2020 I have earned an Associate’s Degree in History and am currently 9 months away from my Bachelor’s Degree.
Collective
In late 2017 I was just a few short months into my stay-at-home mom journey, I was searching for an outlet for all the things I was feeling and experiencing. I felt so cut off and lonely. I started thinking about starting my own blog but wasn’t sure I had the knowledge or ability to support such an undertaking on my own, that is when a friend of mine shared a post about a contributor call for Coastal Bend Moms Collective {then known as Corpus Christi Moms Blog}. I couldn’t believe that I had not heard of the site before and how perfectly it matched all the things I was looking for. Finally, in February 2018 I was officially a contributor! Writing for CBMC has been literally a dream come true, there are so many times that I have thought I must be the only one to feel a certain way and then I find most if not all of the moms connected to our blog family feel the same way! In 2019 I was fortunate enough to be able to expand my role with the blog and joined the Executive team. For a long while, I filled the role of Community Engagement Coordinator. However, much like my friend and co-contributor Darcy I had to do some re-evaluation on things I was committed to over the 2022 summer and took a step back from that position. I am happy to be back for another season with Coastal Bend Mom!
