Hello, hello! I’m jessica!
Welcome to my little corner of the internet. I'm wife to Jason, mommy to my sweet girl, Brighten Storie, and my little man, Grady Shores. I’m also dog mom to our 7 lb. Maltese-Yorkie mix, (Ron) Swanson as well as our Mini Goldendoodle, Rory (Gilmore). Jason and I are both Florida-raised (I’m from Destin and he’s from Daytona Beach), but we have made our home just outside of Birmingham, AL, right in the heart of the south. We’ve been fortunate enough to watch Birmingham come alive with tons of new things, and we love living on the outskirts of this beautiful city.
My Brighten girl was born in September 2016 on our fourth wedding anniversary. We adopted her on the day she was born in Houston, TX.
Becoming a mom was one of the most beautiful and terrifying days of my life! About 18 months later, I was shocked to find out I was pregnant with our second child. Surprise!! Grady-man was born on December 21, 2018, and he is the best addition to our family that we never knew we needed. I could never have imagined this would be my family, but I’m thankful each day that God’s plans are so much bigger and better than mine.
extraordinarily ordinary stories
“...the most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children...”
I am a storyteller at heart. For over half my life I have cultivated a love for communicating — from taking up photography as a hobby, to receiving my degree in journalism, to blogging, and even starting a podcast in the middle of a pandemic — I love words and visuals and anything that communicates or elicits emotion, feelings, and stories. Professionally, I’ve focused everything to reflect this passion. In fact,I own a business called The Storie Co. (Storie is Brighten’s middle name, and it was my great-grandfather’s first name), which centers around helping small businesses and nonprofits tell their stories through digital media.
Welcome!
I can think of nothing better than inviting you into my home, pouring a nice hot cup of coffee, and on my back porch swapping stories. That’s my aim with this little ole website, and I hope it is encouraging, real, and fun for all who enter. So, welcome to my (digital) home, friend. I hope you leave feeling loved, seen, and most of all, I hope you enjoy seeing the beauty of the ordinary things of life.