The Woman Behind “In Your Mouth LLC”
If my life were a recipe, I can promise you one thing: it’s been one hell of a recipe! Some ingredients I never would have chosen, others have been difficult, and a few became more beautiful than I imagined.
Through it all, one thing has remained constant: my love for the kitchen. I’ve been drawn to cooking and baking for as long as I can remember. I took home economics in middle school, and by 14, I could use the kitchen unsupervised. But one memory changed how I looked at food.
One summer at my aunt’s house, I made pumpkin pie completely from scratch for the first time, starting with a real pumpkin. We boiled it, peeled it, and used an old family recipe. I was fascinated by how the individual spices came together. My aunt gave me something even better than instructions: the freedom to experiment and trust my instincts.
That Thanksgiving, when people tasted my pie, I watched their faces. Not just their smiles or compliments, but those tiny micro-expressions people don’t realize they’re making. The pause after a bite. The way someone closes their eyes to savor a flavor. That happiness was real. You couldn’t fake it. I was hooked. That’s when I realized food could create an emotional memory.
Beautiful food can taste terrible, while something imperfect can touch your soul. To me, baking is soul-deep. I want to create something that makes people feel. I still make that pumpkin pie, only now I grind and bloom six spices instead of the original four.
That 14-year-old is still experimenting; she’s just pickier about ingredients! For more than 15 years, baking was my love language before it became my livelihood. Sometimes I accepted tips, but mostly I gave my creations away.
Once, I was about six dollars short at the grocery store and started putting items back. The cashier quietly covered the difference. I went home, made her favorite flavor mini cupcakes, and brought them back to thank her.
If I appreciated a local business or its people, I’d show up with something homemade. It was my way of saying, “I see you. I appreciate you.”
People encouraged me for years to start a business. Apparently, I don’t take hints very well! I could imagine a recipe, trust my instincts, and make it happen. Believing I could build something bigger from that talent was harder. After years in a relationship where my business dreams weren’t always encouraged, learning to trust my own vision took time. My former husband and I are friends now, but that journey wasn’t easy. But one person never stopped believing in me: my son, Jace.
If you knew Jace, you knew he followed his mama around like a lost puppy when he wanted to talk. One day, he trailed me around the kitchen while we tossed around business names. I wanted something memorable, fun, and a little cheeky.
Then I said, “In Your Mouth.”
“YES! YES, MOM! THAT’S THE ONE!” he said. “Because that’s where all the food goes! It’ll catch people’s attention and make them smile!”
He insisted peanut butter cookies go on my first menu because they were his favorites.
My daughter painted the logo from the picture I described, and her artwork was later digitally enhanced. My children helped me build it.
Jace told me there wasn’t anything in this world I couldn’t do. I used to tell him, “I wish I could see myself through your eyes, because I seem like a pretty fucking amazing person through them.”
Having my son believe in me like that felt like winning the lottery. So I finally bet on myself. After securing my LLC, licenses, insurance, and commercial kitchen, I held my first pop-up March 2, 2022, off Union Avenue in Grants Pass. My youngest son, Ellis, was there with me. I SOLD OUT my first day!
A friend’s mother invited me to set up regularly at Herbs, where I sold out almost every weekend.
From there came community events, including Cycle Breakers, an event about breaking generational patterns of abuse.
As someone who grew up in foster care and attended 36 schools, its mission hit close to home. That’s where Carrie from Diamond Cannabis found me and said, “I need you in front of my store!”
I’ve been joining Diamond’s First Fridays and other events ever since. What makes my baking different?
My motto is “Low sugar, high expectations.” I choose high-quality ingredients, avoid artificial additives and shelf stabilizers, and make most components from scratch.
Sometimes a recipe makes an ingredient for another recipe!
I’ve always experienced smell and taste intensely, often identifying flavors well enough to recreate something I’ve tried. For years I measured by instinct; starting a business taught me to write those measurements down for consistency and costing.
I still imagine flavors together before I mix them. And when a recipe flops? I don’t call it failure. I call it information. Each attempt teaches me an ingredient’s limits. The kitchen is one of the few places where the outside world gets quiet. And I’m still chasing that Thanksgiving feeling.
I’ve had customers cry over my peanut butter cookies because they reminded them of cookies their grandmothers made.
Imagine that: a cookie bringing someone back to a person they love. That’s more meaningful to me than a perfect-looking dessert.
Building In Your Mouth LLC hasn’t been easy. I’m a disabled baker, and sometimes my body won’t cooperate with my plans. I’ve had to adapt and accept help.
Jace showed up at pop-ups and helped prepare orders on difficult days, sometimes alongside his best friend Kew. Sometimes he came simply to be with me. I was also learning the financial side of business and enrolled in school to improve my skills.
Then, on December 5, 2025, my world changed forever. Jace died at 24. My finals were scheduled for the following week. I never made it to them. I lost my son, my biggest cheerleader, and one of my closest companions. I miss his opinions. I miss his reactions when he tasted something new. I miss him following me around the kitchen.
Somehow, I keep finding my way back there. Not because baking fixes grief. It doesn’t. But making something that brings another person happiness still fills a part of my heart. I’m also pursuing Justice for Jace and connecting with other families seeking answers and accountability.
During the summer of 2026, I met Jerry of Stoner Magazine at Diamond Cannabis during a visit from Sisters of the Valley.
I didn’t even realize he owned the magazine! He gave me some Stoner Magazine goodies; I handed him a bag of treats.
He heard about Jace, his birthday surfer send-off, and my advocacy. That conversation led to an invitation to share my story.
At the Out-n-About Treehouse Treesort in Takilma, they invited me to bake for an event.
Recently, I traveled to Salem to film my first cooking show, making infused crème brûlée bites.
Me, on camera, doing what I love! I’m developing a strain-specific infused edible line alongside my non-infused treats. Cannabis should never drown out a dessert; flavor, texture, and intention still matter.
My original dream was one brick-and-mortar kitchen where I could employ and mentor young people from foster care, teaching baking, customer service, cash handling, and skills for life.
Since losing Jace, my mission has grown to include justice and support for families. I’m still figuring out how those dreams fit together and how to build a sustainable business around my recipes and knowledge, not just what my body can produce.
I don’t have it all figured out. Not even close! But I’m learning to thrive, not just survive. I still struggle to see myself the way Jace saw me.
Yet every time somebody tastes something I made and smiles, or tells me it brought back a cherished memory, I remember why I started. And if you’re wondering about the name In Your Mouth, Jace said it best: “That’s where all the food goes, Mom!”
What I hope stays with you after the last bite is the feeling. Because that’s what I’ve been baking for all along.
