Being a mother is hard work. All consuming work. Which is okay by me, since I prefer to throw myself whole-heartedly into everything I do.

So before I knew it, I had 2 more children!

It is at this point that my husband and I decided that we would never be where we wanted to be unless we made a very gutsy move. It took us a full two years to finally make the decision, but make it we did!

We had decided to go back to school and get our Bachelor degrees. Both of us.

My husband was active duty Air Force, and his time in the military was almost up. But he loved to fly–so much so that he felt he could not give it up totally. He solved that problem by joining the Air Force Reserves.

We loaded up our three children (ages less than 1 – 5), sold our house, and moved across the country to be near the University of Washington.

We had researched various institutions of higher learning, and decided that the University of Washington had the reputation, classes, and opportunities we sought.

In all honesty, I’m glad we didn’t have a clue what we were setting ourselves up for.

I’ve always been a writer. I can remember that as a child I would write poetry for anyone who would be kind enough to read it. I particularly liked to make birthday cards, because then I knew I had an audience who would read and (I hoped) enjoy what I had to offer.

The plans of my childhood were to make writing my career, and I decided it was time to act on that plan shortly after my marriage 23 years ago.

That is, of course, until I was blessed with the birth of my first child. At that point, my world shifted and there was nothing, absolutely nothing, more important than my family. Writing could wait.