We are thrilled to be introducing you to some brand new voices on our team!  Today and tomorrow, you will meet the brand new members of the ICMB contributor team, and starting this week, you will hear from them as they begin sharing their first blog posts, too!

::Angelica::

Hi, I’m Angelica. I was raised in West Liberty just a hop, skip, and a jump away from the Iowa City. After graduation I moved away from Iowa thinking I would never return. After getting married to my high school sweetheart and living in the D.C. metro area we decided it was not where we wanted to raise a family. My husband and I moved back five years ago to West Liberty and nine months later we welcomed our daughter with only three hours to prepare. My pregnancy was not normal as I went the whole 40 weeks without knowing I was pregnant! (Yes, you read that correctly.) With a blink of an eye I now have a four-year old girl who is going to preschool this year!

Aside from being a mommy, I work full-time while going to school full-time. To help keep me sane I run early in the morning five days a week. Last year I got the courage and ran the Quad Cities Marathon! It was the second hardest thing I have ever done, next to giving birth. In addition to running, I like to read, cook, garden, fish, camp, and spend time with my family. I’m a Pinterest and bargain shopping addict! Overall I love being a wife and a mom with the adventures that it brings me.

I’m excited to be joining the writing team on the Iowa City Moms Blog and share my take on this journey of motherhood.

::Brigette::

Brigette lives in North Liberty with her husband Brian, energetic daughter Kate (October 2014) and their two cats, Penny and Olive. Originally from the Chicago suburbs, Brigette came to Iowa City to attend the journalism school at the University of Iowa, fell in love with the area, and decided she couldn’t leave. After meeting Brian while working at the same Iowa City restaurant in college, they got married in August 2015 in the heart of downtown. She works full time in project management and as an employee of the Core Fitness Kids Club while finishing her MBA at Upper Iowa University. In her free time, she drags Kate out garage sale-ing, tries to keep up with her reading list and runs, lives for Hawkeye football season, enjoys a good meal on a patio, runs her Bachelor/Bachelorette bracket with her family and friends, and of course, chases her daughter around the pool and the park.

::Caroline::

Caroline is an Arizona native who moved to Iowa in 2007 ‘for love’ and never looked back.  She and her husband currently live in Coralville with their 5-year-old daughter, Lucy, who, much to her momma’s sorrow, will be starting kindergarten this year.  Caroline currently works full-time in the Office of the Registrar at the University of Iowa.  She earned her bachelor’s degree in business and justice studies at Arizona State University and will earn her master’s degree in Higher Education and Student Affairs Administration at the University of Iowa in May 2017. 

When she has spare time, Caroline loves to read, do small projects around her house, pretend to be a baseball fan (go Cards!), and make pretty things (though she dislikes the term “crafter”).  She has a decent amount of ability when it comes to crocheting and making invitations, but her true talent is sewing.  She loves making clothes for her daughter and is counting down the days until Lucy is old enough for her own sewing machine.  Caroline is also slightly obsessed with coffee, and doesn’t know who she would be without it.

::Dawn::

Hey! Hey! Patricia Dawn Clark here. Actually, just Dawn. I know, the name can be confusing, but while I go by my middle name, I prefer to see all three in print. I feel like a Broadway star that way. Speaking of Broadway, I always thought I would go on to pursue a life on the stage. However, after my first year in college, I recognized my lifelong dream of being a wife and mother was stronger than my love of performing. I do have a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and a certificate of Performing Arts Entrepreneurship from the University of Iowa, but I’m much more of a business woman than a thespian. My husband of 13.5 years, Bryan, and I did meet in a theatre class in college. We both chose to do the performance choice for credit and acted in “Picasso at the Lapin Agile,” a comedy by Steve Martin. Our roles were bit parts in the second act, so we had a lot of time back stage to chat and get to know one another. One year after meeting, we married on Lover’s Lane in St. Joseph, MO. Our first was born, and we moved to Houston, TX to live with my parents and save money on living expenses. After 10 months, we moved to Nashville, TN to strike out on our own. Our second was born, and I worked in a few different jobs as Early Childhood Education teacher and Executive Suite receptionist and secretarial support. Our last year in Nashville was spent in community with five other adults. It was amazing to share our lives and family with those people. We decided we missed the Midwest, and I wanted to finish my degree in theatre and business, so we moved to Iowa in 2007. Two more kiddos, a degree, an in-home child care business and Jamberry Nails consultant team, and here we are. I often feel like the best and worst mom, all at the same time, because I have so much experience and training in the birth-5 year category, but I also fill my calendar with everything I love-play, singing, theatre, business, family. My “play” tends to be meetings to make a theatre non-profit that much better, as Treasurer on the Dreamwell Theatre Board of Directors.

Now that my children are older (13, 10, 8, and 4.5,) and I closed my in-home child care business after five years, I am looking forward to exploring motherhood and Iowa City more fully and sharing my discoveries and memories with all of you (even though I’ve never blogged before!) I have a strong belief in respect for all, beginning at birth, and I have been on a journey to learn and advocate for that. Bryan does all the cooking, but I balance the checkbook, so I figure it all comes out in the wash. I love coffee with cream, a good wheat beer, seeing someone discover something for the first time, and Young Adult fantasy fiction. We love our full life!

::Sara::

Sara is a northwest Iowa native who moved across the state to become a Hawkeye!  She enjoyed her time at the U of I and then left to go to optometry school and complete her residency.  During that time she lived in Texas, Colorado, Virginia, and Oklahoma.  After all that, she knew she wanted to be back in Iowa and came home to start her “adult” life in Coralville.  She practiced optometry at the U of I Hospitals and Clinics and the VA Hospital for about 5 years before trying her hand at the research side of eye care, working in clinical trials in the pharmaceutical industry.

A bit of a late bloomer, Sara got married to her husband, Tim, when she was 36, got pregnant at 37, and expected to welcome a new little bundle of joy when she was 38.  Their son, Jacob, had a different plan and was born at 25 weeks, so they’ve been on quite a journey with him…4 ½ month NICU stay, 2 years on home oxygen, feeding tube since 7 months old, casts on both legs, and doctor visits and therapy appointments too numerous to count!  He starts Kindergarten this fall, and he’s doing great!  In addition to Jacob, Sara is step-mom to four – two boys 18 and 16, and two girls 14 and 12.

Because of Jacob’s NICU stay, Sara is passionate about all things related to the NICU, premature babies, and, especially, parent support in the NICU.  She loves connecting with fellow NICU moms both online in a NICU Families Facebook group and in person volunteering at UIHC.  When she’s not chasing an active 5-year-old or new puppy around, Sara enjoys spending time with friends and extended family, reading, scrapbooking, organizing, knitting, travel, keeping up with tech trends, finding new wines to enjoy, honing her photography skills, and serving on the Family Advisory Council for UI Children’s Hospital.

Sara currently works from home consulting for pharmaceutical/biotech companies on clinical trials and other projects.  She’s also a consultant for Jamberry Nails which lets her dabble in her creative side.

Stay tuned tomorrow to meet the rest of our newbies! So excited to have them all on the team!