Comments:
30 Years in brief:
1980 graduated from high school, went to Nebraska Wesleyan as a business/accounting/political science/speech pre-law major.
1981, married Russ, my high school sweetheart.
1982, quit college--not enough dough.
1983, Russ graduated from Wesleyan, accepted into Medical School in Omaha, got a Navy Scholarship to pay for it. I returned to UNO as a German/Social Studies Education major.
1984-87, got an hourly job at Burger King to supplement our meager income, ended up as an assistant manager in about 3 months, and eventually became a store manager. Quit college again.
1987-90, managed Pizza Huts, had a baby (1989), Russ graduated med school and did his family practice residency.
1990-95: Navy payback...3 years in Memphis, where I finished my Bachelors and got a Masters in Political Science, the 2 years in North Carolina, where I occasionally taught, was a room mother for Jennifer's Kindergarten class.
1995: Navy done, we move to Crete (from which we can never leave, or we become ex-Cretians), Russ is in practice with the local clinic, I start a PhD program at UNL. We get involved with our church, I'm a Girl Scout leader--both ongoing throughout this time.
1999: Still piddling around on that PhD, still teaching occasionally, and 7 month old Tasha falls into our laps (we had been looking at adopting). A great year.
1999-2003: Still piddling around on the PhD (Political Science), time is running out for me to write the dissertation, and...SURPRISE, I'm pregnant and Isaac comes along in 2003. A very nice surprise, by the way. Oh, and I got elected to the Crete School Board in 2002.
2003-2005, Isaac in diapers, Tasha in Kindergarten, Jennifer in high school. I finally finished writing the dissertation the last semester that I could without getting special permission to extend. PhD, Political Science, 2005, UNL.
2006, my Dad decides to run for the legislature (unsuccessfully, thanks in part to his campaign manager--me), but the real life political fires start burning again. I get re-elected to the school board, and start a political blog.
2007, my political blog leads me into coverage of the Ron Paul Presidential Campaign, and then into volunteering, and by 2008, into being the state organizer for the campaign. I become Saline County GOP Vice Chair, and State Chair of the Republican Liberty Caucus.
2008-Current: Ron Paul Campaign becomes the Campaign for Liberty--I end up as the State Coordinator. On August 28th, 2009, the Nebraska Campaign for Liberty (licensed by the national organization) becomes a separate corporation, and I end up its Board President.
January, 2010: Formed a political consulting firm along with some friends (and family). We haven't made any money to speak of (but have spent some); have one client, but another couple are looking at us. Focusing on local and state races.
The bottom line: I'm overeducated, very busy, rarely get paid for anything I do, but am having a good time doing it (most of the time). And of course, I'm the chief taxi driver for the younger kids--our oldest is a junior at Doane, majoring in Music Education.
