I’m learning new things every day, and I look forward to teaching, learning, and sharing in an even wider community.
About the Author
I was born and raised in the Flathead Valley area of Northwest Montana, and I grew up in a little cedar-sided house that my grandfather built in a small town.
My childhood was filled with raspberries, maple trees, building snowmen with my sister in the backyard, bike rides, and feeling lucky to have the sweetest mom in town.
As a child I was curious, loved to read and write, and showed early signs of having a passion for teaching and learning. When we played house, I was the mom. When we played school, I was the teacher. I liked to be in charge, but I was also quiet and shy in large groups, and my neighbors called me “noisy” because I was exactly the opposite when I came over to play.
I overcame my shyness a little bit by the time I reached high school. I tried out for volleyball in the spring of my freshman year and didn’t make the cut. I then tried out for cheerleading and made the JV squad. Cheering people on came naturally to me. I found my voice and cheered throughout high school and eventually became the captain of the varsity squad. In my senior yearbook, I was named “Most Spirited” in my class.
After graduating high school, I attended the University of Montana and majored in Elementary Education and had a part-time job working at a local day care center. I was one of those rare college students who knew exactly what and who she wanted to be when she grew up. I loved working with kids, and I knew that becoming a teacher was my calling.
I married my first husband the week after I graduated from college. We packed up what we had in a U-Haul and moved to Oregon. I didn’t have a teaching job at that time, but I started applying once we reached our new home. It was August of that year, and I still hadn’t found a job. I remember walking through the school supply aisle in Wal-Mart and bursting into tears because I was ready to teach, and I wanted my own classroom so badly. The next day I received a call for an interview in a small Oregon town 45 minutes from where I was living. They hired me, and I taught my first year in a third and fourth grade blended class with 32 students. I couldn’t have been happier.
My daughter Mallory was born four years after I got married. I love being a mom, and my daughter is my only child, and I always say I love her the most. I do. She is in college now, and I’m that mom who sends a care package every single month.
I lost my little sister when Mallory was only two months old. Mallory never got to meet her aunt Jen in person. They were set to meet at Christmastime that year when Jen was planning to be in Montana for a visit from her new town of Abilene, Texas, where she had taken her first post-college job as a TV news reporter. We were also planning to be in Montana at Christmastime, visiting from Oregon. That meeting never took place because my sister Jennifer Servo was found murdered in her apartment in September of 2002, just days before her 23rd birthday. Her murder is still unsolved even after being featured on multiple TV programs and news magazines including 48 Hours Mystery, America’s Most Wanted, Dr. Phil, Montel Williams, Maury Povich, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Primetime Crime, Still a Mystery on Investigation Discovery, and many more. I know someday her murder will be solved. The loss of my sister is one of those broken places in my heart that will never completely heal.
After living and teaching in Oregon for eight years, I found my way back to Montana. Here, my first marriage ended in divorce when Mallory was in second grade. Going through divorce with a child involved was the most difficult event of my lifetime thus far. My ex and I were cooperative and successfully co-parented through the rest of Mallory’s childhood, but it was not easy for us or for her.
My second husband Hank and I met through work. He is the band teacher at the school where I also teach. He is the love of my life and has been an incredible stepdad to Mallory, and we’ve been happily married for almost 12 years now. I’m fortunate to have him as a partner in life. He loves a lot of the same things I do: cooking, drinking fun cocktails and good beer and wine, old historic houses, music, binge- watching our favorite shows, traveling, our dog Malibu, Mallory, and we love each other – the most important thing.
I currently teach sixth grade language arts and am about to enter my 26th year of teaching. In the summers, I am a docent at a historic house museum in my town.
My passions of teaching, learning, photography, and writing are starting to collide as I get older. In 2020 I started posting daily updates to my Facebook page to keep myself accountable in sticking to my New Year’s resolutions. That daily posting turned into a detailed account of one unbelievable year that none of us saw coming. In 2021 I wrote my first book, A 2020 Story, based on my daily postings that year. Now I am working on getting that book published. That is where this website comes in. I’m told that I need to build my platform, and I’m pretty good at following directions, so that is what I am doing.
I’m learning new things every day, and I look forward to teaching, learning, and sharing in an even wider community.
