About me

This is about who I am in general. This is my picture.

It is intentionally low quality because I like to be as incognito as possible.

My name is Ioana (I may add my last name at another time, but for now until this endeavor starts to make sense, we are on first-name basis.) It is pronounced like iguana but without the "g". Sometimes I go my Joana to make it easier for others. Starbucks knows me as Anna because I don't have time to spell it out in exchange for coffee.

I am Romanian. My parents and I immigrated to the USA when I was a one year old. (I will not share my age. If you are really desperate, google me. May the force be with you. [spock hand gesture])

I am aware that Star Wars and Star Trek are separate, please spare me the details.

I grew up in Minnesota. I loved my childhood. It was spent outdoors with my neighborhood friends on our bikes all summer and fall long. I have a sibling (who's sex shall not be shared until I have said sibling's permission.) There is almost a decade between us. The sibling is musical and smart.

My parents raised us as any other Romanian parents, and I daresay, any immigrant parents would; work hard, speak both languages, and beware of the slipper. IYKYK. My parents are great people, and really sacrificed so much for us. They raised us in the Orthodox Church and instilled in us a great love for God and His Church. This love for the Lord inside me is strong at times, and at times it struggles to remain strong.

I was homeschool, contrary to popular practice and even more so, contrary to popular immigrant practice. Not fully, partially. From sixth grade on. I regret nothing. It was the most liberating season of my life. I was free from school drama, from alarm clocks, from schedules (we had a routine, but it was pretty...shall we say, r e l a x e d.) I was schooled in maths mostly, because that is what my mom is very, very good at. I did reading and writing on my own mostly, and it goes to show given the lack of vocab and linguistic creativity you are currently losing energy on reading.

But I made it to college where I was transformed into the person I am today. Well, at least the part of me that makes decisions based on technical charts and risk vs. benefit analyses. I did study Chemical Engineering as an undergrad at U of MN because I loved math and chemistry, and in my freshman gullibility I thought that the marriage of the two was my calling. Well, lemme tell ya. That marriage needed a divorce, and yesterday!

Survived. Was planning to go to medical school until my mentor changed my mind and encouraged me to go to graduate school instead. I am very grateful to my mentor, to this day. Because of my mentor and the internship I had working for his research group I reached the place I am today (company shall remain un-named because should it ever go under, it was not my fault, ok?!)

"And where it this place you're at?"

Ahh. I live in the mitten state now. Yes, Michigan. I moved to Michigan for my graduate studies at the other U of M. This is another transformative season in my life. Up to this point, I perceive my growth in every shape and form, to have been vertical. In Michigan, I grew horizontally (figuratively, of course.) I started to actually begin growing as an adult. Sometimes, I joke that I may be young but my life is not young. And other times, I cry that I may be young but my life is not young. Sums it up pretty well, yeah?

Anyway, obviously I still am in Michigan, and I am a mother now. So, how did that come about?

I met a man seven days after I moved from Minnesota to Michigan, and we got married a year later. His name shall remain unmentioned because he wants to stay out of this. Smart move. Husbands, take note.

I finished my Masters and started working at a local medical device company.

Then we had a baby in 2018. She is the most baby thing ever, and you'd want to eat her, too. She shall be un-named, too (I'm sensing a trend here.) But because we are, God willing, going to have more kids, I'll call her A. As in, "exhibit A".

If you are offended on behalf of my child, thank you. Now, please find another blog to read because I am too sarcastic for your taste.

I don't work outside the house anymore. I have known since I was a teenager that this is was what would happen once I started a family. And even though I have been, what seem, eternally prepared for this role, I still struggle with being perceived as a loser.

In my endeavor to make you laugh, I have come to the meat of the sandwich. What is it about me that matters to this blog? Why am I the Chemically Engineered Homemaker?

This is the most I've ever put myself out there in the public's eye. I am not chemically manufactured in any artificial way, I don't articulate myself as a mother that will drop any truth bombs about the chemical engineering profession. Yet, I still feel that my education/work background is a strong part of me and I cannot simply forget what I used to do. It will become less of who I am with time, I think. I still think like an engineer and I probably will not lose that feature for at least two more kids. I like to tinker, to design, to build.

And in my home I tinker with many things, I design many things, and with God and my husband we are building our life. I remind myself how life is not meant to be great and fantastic because we will all die and then is when we are meant to really live. But I shall try my best in this moment, where I am, to share of myself in hopes of finding joy in my blogging.