I’m not so great at writing introductions about myself, although I’m great at answering questions. So I’m going to lead into my Q&A with a song lyric that captures my mission in life…
“Love the life you live. Live the life you love.” – Bob Marley
– Family: Been with my husband Jake for 21 years, married 17, we have two boys, Zane age 9 and Van age 4
– Job: I’ve worked in marketing and communications for nearly 20 years and currently I oversee all marketing and communications for a line of health benefits products at a health and wellness benefits company, Aetna, and work from home full time in that capacity. I also serve on Aetna’s internal women’s employee resource board of directors and co-chair the communications committee. And finally, although not a paid position, I’m on the board of directors for local charter school, Flagstaff Arts and Leadership Academy.
– What brought you to Flagstaff: I met Jake in Phoenix when I was attending ASU, and he grew up here in Flag, and so we visited his family here often. We had decided before we had kids that we wanted to raise our family here. We had career opportunities that allowed us to move to Flagstaff about 8 years ago and never looked back.
– Early Bird or Night Owl: Early bird, I’m typically in bed by 10pm if not earlier, except on a night out seeing a live band, something I do fairly often.
– Hobbies: I split my time nearly 50/50 between the arts in general and the outdoors. I am obsessed with seeing live music, and equally love art, film, reading, photography and writing. But I have to be outside, enjoying hiking, kayaking, biking, camping, and fishing.
– Favorite thing to do with your Family: Camping and fishing trips or watching my oldest play in a soccer tournament
– Kids Age Difference: 4 years and 9 months to be exact!
– Coffee or Tea: Coffee is life
– Favorite/Least Favorite Household chore: It’s a close tie between doing the dishes and putting away laundry.
– Going back in time, one thing you would tell yourself right before you became a mother: Be prepared for a serious lack of sleep. That said, it’s amazing what a mother can accomplish on a serious lack of sleep, so you’re about to gain serious rock star status also.
– Something you are looking forward to: More traveling
– Favorite Thing to do in Flagstaff with/without kids: Live music!
– Best Mom Hack: I’m totally hackless. I really need to get better at this.
– The greatest challenge you’ve faced: Losing everything in the great recession of 2007-09 and through hard work and commitment, we pulled ourselves out of that deep dark hole and made it out intact and probably smarter and more equipped than we were before. That saying “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is quite true in our case. We definitely learned from this experience and those are lessons we will take through with us the rest of our lives.
– Something you love about yourself: My ability to communicate, it’s a natural gift.
– Favorite thing about being a Mom: I love helping people, it’s just in my character or nature, and being a mom means I get to help two boys all the time. I just get a lot of fulfillment from that. Maybe I just like feeling needed.
