Next Chapter!

Hello, from a new state!

I’m sorry it has been so long since I last wrote. There have been SO MANY changes in the few months and I just couldn’t keep up!

So, the big news: Shane and I are moving back to our home state of WISCONSIN! Remember back in January when I posted that the word of the year was “Possibilities?” One of my big goals behind choosing that word was to move back to Wisconsin by the end of 2017. Don’t get me wrong, Minnesota has been good to Shane and I.

Let’s flashback to 2011: two bright-eyed and cheese-loving 22-year-olds moved to Brainerd, Minnesota to follow Shane’s dream of becoming a sports broadcast journalist. Our goal was to live in Minnesota for 1, maybe 2 years tops.

The Original Lakeland Crew!

Playing D&D in Trevor & Christy’s basement (I’m the one in the cow hat, in case you couldn’t tell).

While in Brainerd, I worked at Caribou coffee–I knew I that teaching wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, but I was kind of lost as to what came next. So, I started writing. I started volunteering at the Brainerd Public Library and fell in love with being a Children’s Librarian. In 2012, I finished the first draft of my book and River Place Press told me they wanted to publish my first young adult novel! With help from my amazing friends at the library and a scholarship from Caribou, I started my grad classes in January of 2013. Between writing, working at the library, and working at the organic food co-op in town, I got to really live all my passions!

Brainerd, Minnesota…in APRIL!

$4,000 Scholarship from Caribou helped make my grad school dreams come true!

Three-and-a-half years later, Shane got a promotion and became the sports anchor for Lakeland Public Television in 2014. We moved 2 hours north where we made some lifelong friends, experienced what true cold is, and vacationed in Duluth for the very first time. I started this blog in January 2015, and Seven Stones was released on March 21st.

Living life right in Bemidji

Horse rides in Bemidji’s state parks with Kori!

Filming Common Ground with Scott!

Looking for a change, Shane got a job in Mankato at KEYC as a sports reporter/anchor. He quit one month later, deciding that journalism was just not his bag. Me? I was totally fine with that because I had been hired as the Children’s Curriculum Coordinator at the Waseca Public Library. My first professional library job! I was a Children’s Librarian, doing story times, Early Outs, and really making that community home. I loved it!

Meeting my cousin for the first time in Spring Grove!

Me and my Library SOUL MATE. I want to be Dianne when I grow up!

Living in Mankato also meant bike rides through the hills, trips to see the waterfalls and bison at Minneopa, and hanging out with my cousin and her family. *whispers* Don’t tell Brainerd or Bemidji, but Mankato was my favorite of all three. It was so gorgeous and had a TEA SHOP for crying out loud. But, it was still six hours away, and our nieces and nephews kept growing up without us. I got my MLIS in December of 2016, and it was finally time to come home…