I grew up in a small town in Alaska. I moved to Minnesota in 1996 to attend Gustavus Adolphus College where I met my husband. I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in K-8 Elementary Education with a concentration on Media and Literature Arts in May of 2000. Bryan and I were married after 4 days after graduation on June 1, 2000 and have two boys who are 14 months apart. We are a Christian family and God is a very important part of our daily life. We belong to River Hills United Methodist Church, where I am an active member of our children's ministry program and choir.
I always wanted to be a teacher from the time I started thinking about college. While still in high school, I taught swimming lessons and even took time to volunteer in my siblings elementary classrooms when I had a day off. When I left for Gustavus, I initially chose a degree in Music Education, but decided after a semester that I enjoyed performing, but didn't really enjoy the study of music theory and changed my major to Elementary Education. After 4 years of hard work, I graduated with a teaching degree and MN teaching license, but I chose to take a break and check out a different career path. I spent two and a half years working as a technical consultant in job placements ranging from helpdesk to project coordination. Motherhood, however, sent me back to the education field and I left the computer industry to work in the child care center where my son was enrolled. I worked as the lead teacher in the toddler classroom until we became pregnant with our second child and my current salary would not afford tuition even with my employee discount. I chose to leave the role of a full-time working mom and took on a part-time evening and weekend job, so I could enjoy being home with my children during the day. I didn't enjoy giving up my evenings and weekends with my family, and missed out on the evening routine with my children. Starting a family child care business seemed like such a daunting task, but then a friend asked me to watch her children during the day because she needed to go back to work.
It was then that I decided to pursue being a family child care provider. With my degree in education and experiences working in child care centers, I knew this was something I could do. I have been a family child care provider since January of 2006, and a licensed provider since March of the same year. I love providing a service to other parents and enjoy watching all the children interact and learn from each other. I saw a t-shirt that summed up my feelings: "I love my job for all the little reasons."