Okay, let’s do this.

ONE DAY
AT A TIME

I’m not polished or perfect or pretending to be anything I’m not. I’ve been on a fourteen year crawl out of hell. Sobriety. Choosing my kids. Breaking generational poison. Surviving the kind of shit people whisper about. Neglect. Being shot while holding my baby. Domestic abuse. Trafficking. Teen pregnancy. All of it.

I didn’t get here by being lucky. I got here by refusing to stay broken.

I’ve burned my life down more times than I can count and rebuilt it with whatever I had left. I’ve lived the lifetime of twenty women and I’m still evolving. Staying the same feels like death to me. Growth is the only way out.

Hospitals. Jail. Courtrooms. Rehab.
Grief. Violence. Addiction. Motherhood.

Life handed me chaos on repeat, usually with a cup of shitty coffee in my hand. That’s a running theme for me. Every trauma scene comes with bad coffee. Hospital waiting rooms. Jail visits. Court dates. Recovery meetings. Always the same cup of something bitter that you drink because you have no other choice.

If you made it to my corner of the internet, chances are you’ve had your own cup too.

And I’m sorry. Truly. But you’re not alone anymore.

This site is my whole journey laid bare. Old writings. New chapters. Recovery tools. Podcasts. The real stuff. The messy stuff. The stuff I survived.

If you’re starting over, breaking cycles, grieving, healing, falling apart, rebuilding, or figuring out what the hell comes next, pull up a chair.

You’re safe here.

Listen. Read. Feel seen. Take what helps and leave what doesn’t.

I’m doing everything I can to break the cycle for my family.
If you’re trying to do the same, welcome home.

my
bio

bio page

just stephanie

My life used to be a storm I couldn’t outrun. Trauma. Addiction. Violence. Poverty. Years of hurting the people I loved while trying to survive my own chaos. I can’t change where I came from, but I can change everything that comes next.

This chapter is about reparations.
To my kids.
To my family.
To anyone still living the life I barely crawled out of.

I build now instead of break.
Art with my children.
A podcast with my oldest daughter.
A recovery community in San Marcos where I make living amends by helping people rebuild their lives with dignity.

Writing is just the newest layer. The real story is what we’re creating together. A family rebuilt. A community rising. A future that looks nothing like the past we survived.

my
now

future generations

I stay involved in a lot of different things because my neurodivergent brain likes to stay busy, even if half the time I forget what I was doing in the first place. These projects with my family and friends keep me sober and grounded. I am not some superhero. I am still flawed, still learning, still messing up, and still growing. But building a legacy with my adult kids and trying to leave the world a little better than we found it feels like a pretty good way to spend my time these days.

wild tigerlily studio

Wild Tigerlily Studio was born from a simple truth: healing takes more than time. It takes conversation.
My oldest daughter and I created a space to talk through where we came from, what we survived, and how we’re learning to show up for each other in new ways.

This is us listening, learning, crying, laughing, and repairing the places our family was broken.
If you’re trying to break your own cycles or understand your story differently, you’re welcome to sit with us. No topic is to deep or off the table. We will talk about it all.

check out our podcast

ramirez & co

Ramirez & Co started because I wanted my adult kids to have a place where their ADHD and neurodivergence weren’t weaknesses someone could take advantage of. I wanted them to have control over their work, their income, their pace, and their creativity.

Art healed us long before we ever had words for what we survived.
We have been painting together for decades, building walls and homes and murals and memories. It is how we process life, how we connect, how we stay grounded, and how we keep choosing each other.

As a family, we build. We paint. We create. We flow.
And somehow, in all that color and chaos, we found a way to turn our healing into a business that supports us and brings beauty into the world.

If you want to see what we do, or how art became one of the tools that saved us, you can visit our Art page.

check out ramirez & co.

the vibe recovery co-op

The Vibe started because my family lived through a tragedy that showed us something we couldn’t ignore. There are not enough places where people can recover in safety, in peace, and without shame. Too many folks are left to rebuild their lives alone, or in environments that break them all over again.

We wanted something different.
Something human.
Something real.

We patched walls, hauled furniture, planted gardens, cleaned up messes, and created the kind of community we wish we had when our lives fell apart.

The Vibe is our way of making amends, repairing harm, and giving people a place to breathe and start fresh.
It is a home.
It is a second chance.

the vibe recovery co-op

shitty coffee diary

This is where I put the messy parts of my life, the honest parts, the things I am still healing, and the things I am finally ready to say out loud. It is a mix of late night thoughts, recovery wins, old wounds, new lessons, and all the emotional whiplash that comes with trying to grow after a lifetime of chaos.

If you have ever had to swallow the bitter taste of shitty coffee, the kind that comes with pain, loss, survival, grief, or starting over, you are in the right place. Read what I write. Listen to what I share. Maybe you will see a piece of your story somewhere in mine.

No filter. No pretending. Just real life, one messy cup at a time.

shitty coffee diary