Born in the early 60’s, to parents that were Mormon, LDS, belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. Which makes me a lifer- vs. a new convert. My father died when I was 5 and I was then raised by a mother who was in and out of church at various points of my impressionable years. I continued to go to church with siblings even when she didn’t. Lived in the mid-west most of my life and then started moving around after high school. Lived in Utah, to go to school at BYU. Didn’t finish, went to Cosmetology school in San Diego, finished… worked at a salon in LaJolla California. Got bored - looking for new adventure applied for short term nanny position in New York City, got it and moved to Great Neck Long Island. Spending my paycheck each week on my day off in the city - had a great time. This was my second nanny position, as I also did a summer with a family in Edina during High School.
After a cooking accident and resulting burn injury to my hand/arm, headed home the next day to recover in Minneapolis. Worked temp. jobs, make-up artist, hairdresser, and right before I left got a position as a buyer for a computer company. After a while there met hubby, got engaged and married soon after in Las Vegas.
We lived in Utah while hubby finished school, then moved to Newark California in the Bay Area. There I worked as a receptionist, student loan bill collector, Nordstrom salesperson, outside traveling sales rep, apartment manager twice, and my favorite job of all time, Realtor. We lived in Alameda and Hayward also - at 4 addresses total. We have moving down!
After son was born, the job, (Realtor) wasn’t working as well with mommydom, so I finished what I was working on and became full time mom. After the BIG earth quake we moved to Athens Georgia for a quick one year MBA program for hubby. Job hunting during the start of the Gulf War landed us in Memphis Tennessee, the land of humidity and moving earth (the bugs… make the grass appear to be moving) Another child was born in Georgia and final third in Tennessee. We made many great friends in Memphis - that was the only hard part of leaving there.
In Tennessee I had a restoring used copier business, sold Shaklee, did some child care, haircutting, floral design and worked for the same company that I had done outside sales in Californa. Funny story about that - the owner of the company calculated that my child must be older and wanted to hire me back, so he hired a search company to find me. After that effort I was flattered enough to take the job.. traveled to Real Estate conventions, selling realtors products at trade shows. It was good quick money and I only did one convention a months tops. We had flight benefits in Tennessee as hubby was with FEDEX and so we did a little bit of travel there.
After fleeing Tennessee for 4 summers straight and traveling with kids- dropping in on unsuspecting relatives, and hubby meeting up with us on weekend on FEDEX planes, I said - “no more. Get me to colder climate.” Hubby showed up in Minnesota in August with two job offers in the only two states I said I wanted to move to - Colorado and Oregon. We took the Oregon job and sold the house to first person I showed it to and closed and moved by first week of September. I’m a good realtor…..
And here we are - I have worked in travel industry for the last 6 years. Cruising is my specialty and I’ve taken my education seriously… cruised 25 times in the last 6 years (along with a ton of classes and conventions)
Kids are flying the coop. Last one will start high school next fall. TIME FLIES!
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Wow..you are a fascinating woman! I would love to meet you someday.
I love Oregon. I spent many weeks living there last year as my daugher recieved treatment at Emmanuel Children’s Hospital. I fell in love with the weather and the people and the eclectic energy, and the coastline, and the amazing ward members who adopted us in and wrapped their love around us like a comforting blanket until healing came. A part of our hearts will always be there.
I look forward to reading your blog