I earned my BA in French Language and Culture from Penn State University and later picked up a Master’s in Education from SUNY Albany. I spent nearly a decade in education, first teaching high school and later helping other teachers bring technology into their classrooms. Then life did what life does—it got busier, louder, and a lot more mobile—and I eventually traded lesson plans for new adventures.

And there have been plenty of those. My husband, Blaine, and I have spent more than two decades raising our two sons, Caleb and Grayson, while moving across the U.S. and around the world. We’ve lived everywhere from New York, Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Texas to international stops in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Warsaw, Poland. These days, I split my time between Houston, Texas, and my happy place on Lake Hadlock in Upstate New York.