Meet the Teacher
Professional Biography
I grew up in Tacoma, Washington, where I attended Whittier Elementary, Tacoma Baptist School, and Curtis High School (home of the Vikings). For college, I moved to Seattle, studied at Seattle Pacific University, and obtained my degree in Language Arts and Elementary Education. After graduating, I moved to San Diego with my husband (Jeff), where he attended law school at the University of San Diego while I taught first grade in Eastern San Diego. When Jeff graduated from law school, we moved back to Tacoma and started our family. Our first baby was Lexy (now 31 with her first job as a real doctor at the UW hospital). Next came Jeremy (presently a 29-year-old Seattle Pacific University graduate doing graphic design for Bethany Community Church in Seattle), and last but not least, we had Jessica (a 27-year-old graduate from Western, working in Australia at a media networking company). While my kids were little, I taught piano lessons and finished my Master's in Education.
We are a soccer family. All of our kids played soccer from Kindergarten until forever. My family loves to waterski, snow ski, snowboard, visit Jeff's family in Hawaii, and fish for bass. In my spare time (after grading papers), I read, play the piano, read, shop, read, play with my Aussie Poo (Ollie), read, garden, read, and I also really love to read. My favorite books are all of the Harry Potter books (the seventh was my favorite), Lord of the Rings (including The Hobbit), The Hunger Games, and anything by Roald Dahl. This year, I read all of the Ranger's Apprentice series (kids love this book--very action-packed), re-read my favorite Harry Potter books, and I'm planning on re-reading all of the Georgia Nicolson books (a laugh-out-loud diary of a teenage British girl). I love to write; I even wrote a book but never had the courage to send it out anywhere--yet. This is my 15th year teaching at Bush Middle School, where I have the best job in the world!