Hi! I’m Erica –
My passion is storytelling.
What makes a compelling story, in my opinion? The unexpected.
I never expected to move to Louisville horse country after a decade in San Diego doing my dream job anchoring the news. We did it for family reasons and now Kentucky is home.
My husband an I have two girls and two boys ages 10, 7, 5 and 3. They light up our world and have literally colored on our walls. We also have a rambunctios Golden Retriever puppy.
When I left Southern California, I lost my major creative outlet. In many ways, I felt a little lost and I was grieving what I had left behind. I felt like my own story was on pause. I was so used to piecing together creative segments for television, and I didn’t have that anymore. I’m an artistic person, and it’s deflating not having the proper place to express that.
I’ve wanted to blog now for YEARS to have a place to pour my passions. I just haven’t made the time to do it. I’m changing that. When I started looking into this, I only had two children. Now I have four! This is such a great opportunity for a creative outlet and I’m excited about it. I’m eager to share my life as a mom, travel adventures and home life discoveries with you.
How it started
I started my 20 year plus career in TV News in Jackson, TN, where I hustled as what was then called a “one-man band.” Today it is known as a multi-media journalist. You shoot your video, report, and edit it all yourself. The cameras were much bigger/heavier then, and the video recorded on actual tapes.
I then spent several years covering crime, hurricanes, and Mardi Gras festivities in Mobile, Alabama. Any good Alabamian will tell you Mardi Gras actually originated in Mobile, not New Orleans.
The Gulf Coast is where I fell for my pilot husband who was there training. We moved to San Diego, California, where he joined a fighter jet squadron. Thus, fulfilling a dream in the EXACT location he’d had since he was 3 years old. I reported for several years and spent time in a TV news helicopter relaying traffic delays and breaking news from the sky. I’m directionally challenged and terrified of heights, but it was an on-air job in competitive Southern California TV news, so I took it.
I later joined the Fox station in town. There I anchored part of the lively morning show and 1 p.m. news. One of my more memorable stories (for me) includes tracking down, staking out, and confronting a man who regularly secretly doused the cars parked in front of his home with salsa. He was dubbed the “salsa bandit,” and it was so odd I just had to know why?
I moved with my family to Kentucky in 2017, and I joined the CBS in town where I now work part-time.
I graduated from Furman University in Greenville, SC with a degree in Communications Studies. “FU all the time! is the motto and I’m not even kidding. I’m one of four siblings who graduated from FU so my folks, who’ve been married for 60 years, jokingly say they probably paid enough to own a campus building.
My Dad served in the Air Force so I moved around growing up. In 7th grade, I had been to 7 different schools. At age 13, I had moved 13 times. Making friends quickly and asking adolescent strangers if I could sit with them in the school cafeteria was the norm for me in elementary school.
I’ve been named Associated Press Alabama Reporter of the Year, received a Regional Edward R. Murrow, have 5 Emmy Awards and was most recently named “Best Mom Ever” by my kids complete with a paper crown. That’s the accolade for which I am most proud and the part of me I’m eager to share here with you.