Meet your Teacher!

I've been a teacher since 2001.  In the spring of 1998 I graduated from Waldorf College with an AA degree in communications.  From there I transferred to Central College and graduated in December of 2000 with a BA degree in elementary education.  I then taught 3rd grade for 4 years at Russell Community School district in Russell, Iowa.  In 2005, I got a job teaching 2nd grade at Dallas Center Grimes. In 2018, I taught 4th grade and then in 2019 moved to 3rd.  In 2021 I moved back to 4th grade!  In the fall of 2008, I graduated from Viterbo University with a Masters Degree in elementary education with a focus on reading instruction.   

 I am married to Gabe and we have 2 kids.  Trey is 27 and works for Power Lift.  He married his high school sweetheart in 2021, Tatum,  who is also from DCG and she works as a post-op nurse at Mercy Hospital downtown.  They gave us our first grand baby (Jaden)  in Sept of 2024 and our second (Carter) this past May!   Being a grandma is the best!  Akeelah is 16 and will be starting 11th grade this year.  She is a cheerleader and she shows horses.  We have 3 dogs.  Our Chiweenie, Minnie, is 5.  She's super sweet little puppy.  5 years ago we inherited Bex from our son and his roommates.  They discovered owning a dog as college football players is quite difficult! lol!  Bex is a mastiff/boxer mix and just about the sweetest dog on the planet!  We just love him!  Our newest addition is Moose.  We adopted him this past spring and he's such a great guy! My daughter also has 2 horses, Jinx and Eclipse.  We spend much of our spring, summer and fall at some type of horse show! 

I come from a family of teachers.  Both my parents were educators.  My mom was a high school math teacher and my dad started as an industrial arts teacher and later moved on to be a high school guidance counselor and coach.  My brother is a strength and conditioning coach as well as their head football coach at North Scott High School over in eastern Iowa.  He has a wife and 3 beautiful kids, all of whom I adore!  

Some of my favorite things are books, chocolate and pepsi!  I love sports too!  Basketball and football are my two favorites to watch!  My favorite vacation we went on, was when I took my son to Mexico for his senior trip! We also took our first cruise in the winter of 2018 and it was AMAZING!