Family Bios

Katie-

I’m Katie, the oldest of the four daughters.  Growing up, if I wasn’t spending time with my sisters, I was most likely reading a book. Not much has changed in that regard. My family has gotten larger and now includes my husband, Josh, our daughter, Jamie, two dogs, a handful of goats and a whole lot of chickens.  Now, my bookshelf reflects a large variety of interests and several career changes. There is a mixture of history books (my college major), legal reference and mediation books (graduate school), business books (from my career in Human Resources),  books about farming/homesteading (my husband and I’s great adventure), and now that I am a stay at home mom, there are children’s books again (I am an Usborne Books & More consultant).  There are cookbooks, personal finance books, crafting books and romance novels (my favorite guilty pleasure).   This blog combines my two favorite things, books and family, and I am so excited to share both with you.

Jessie-

Hello! Jessie here! I’m the scatterbrain of the family. I’m the one who will mentally reply to your text message, but won’t actually send one. I’ll tell you I’ll call you back in five minutes, but I’ll forget. On occasion, I’ll even search for my phone, just to realize it’s in my hand. Que the eye-roll. Yup! That’s me.

In my defense, my life is Chaos, with a capital C. 

I have four totally awesome (and totally nuts) kids! Aurora, my teenager, is a lover of all things Hamilton and musical theater. She’s the best big sister, extremely creative, and has the eye-roll down pat. Bear is my 4 year old son with a sensitive soul. In the future we’re going to have to beat the ladies off with a stick! I have my sassy, sour patch daughter, Gracie. This little three year old bosses everyone around but looks so cute doing it, you just fall in line. And then, there’s little miss Scarlett, my one year old. She’s the perfect end cap to this motley crew with her calm, go-with-the-flow manner. My husband, Ricky, helps me coordinate the chaos. I like to call him Superman. He may be slightly obsessed with the man of steel, so this makes him feel good. We also have a bernedoodle, Charlie. He adds to the chaos, for sure. But he’s cute, cuddly and makes us all happy, so I allow it. 

I own a high end, luxury salon, ROAR Beauty Parlor. We’ve been open for five years. A lot of blood, sweat and many many tears have been shed for this place. It’s my home away from home and I’m blessed to have an amazing team who’ve become family to me. I dedicate myself to excellence and sharing my knowledge to better those around me. You may see a leadership or business book in my corner of the blog every once in a while.

During my free time….hahaha. Just kidding, there is no such thing as free time. Not in this moment of my life. I get up very early and I go to bed very late to accomplish all my daily tasks. Even then, I’m usually running behind. I’m going to try and use this blog as an excuse to slow things down and enjoy the read! I look forward to sharing with you all!

Jacqueline “Duckie“-

I’m the outsider of the family. At least, locationally speaking. While the rest of the family stayed true to their Nebraska roots, I heard the coast calling my name and now live in Sonoma County, California. I feel like the only region I haven’t lived in the US is the south…which I’m ok with. I went to college in Boston (Go BU!), spent a very small stint in Seattle, moved back to Omaha for a few years before moving out to the best coast. I moved to Sonoma to study wine and I fell in love – with wine and Sonoma itself. Although, I feel like I’ve been creeping further and further north in Sonoma, and Mendocino may be my true calling. (I’m coming for you, Boonville.) For now, I live with my husband and our sun dog, Zuri (Zurm, Zurmi, Zurminator, Turd Dog) in Cloverdale, CA. I do freelance wine communications and recently started my first cannabis writing job. You can usually find me by some form of water (ocean, river, lake or bath) or in my garden with my favorite pairing: popcorn and Champagne (and, of course, a good book). Please, call me Duckie. 

Kellie-

My name is Kellie. I’m sister #4. I’m the sister who asked if we could start the blog together and I’m so happy we are doing it! As the baby, I have always loved reading with my sisters. Our parents would read aloud Nancy Drew books when we were on vacation. Trips to the bookstore were always a family affair. I struggled while growing up because I have a learning disability, so I was far behind in my reading level. Books were always more fun when someone read them to me. Luckily for me, audiobooks were what we listened to on long car rides, so we had plenty in the house. My main enjoyment from books came when I got into the world of novels that had no reading level written on them. Kids can be cruel when you’re not “at the right level”, so I would not read in public. I also used to be secretive about starting books because I did not want people to know how slowly I read them. Now I don’t care! I’m a slow reader and everybody can know! 

I went to Creighton for college and then Le Cordon Bleu London for pastry school. I have not practiced professionally as a baker for 5 years now. But I do make a mean birthday cake! 

I have a roommate/ best friend who I love reading with. Her name is Franc and she is a teacher. The amount of books in our house is a beautiful thing! We often read the same books and talk about them. So her opinion might creep into my section every once and awhile. The things I love most in the world are: My family, my friends, books, coffee, wine/alcohol, traveling and movies/tv. 

Kath, The Mom

So, I’m the Mom.  Mother of four, yes, four beautiful, wonderful daughters, no sons!!  I feel very blessed!  I’m a product of the Midwest, having grown up in South Dakota, migrating to Nebraska for college, then Minnesota, Iowa and back to Nebraska for my husband’s jobs.  Speaking of husbands, I married my high school sweetheart and it’s been 41 years and counting!!  Doubly blessed!!  

As far as education, I graduated from a technical school in Fashion Merchandising and then worked at that same school helping people find jobs as the Placement Director.  I have done a lot of volunteering for different organizations and my children’s schools.

As far as reading goes, I’ve been reading since a young age.  The beauty of having four children is that you grow up reading to them, and then getting reading suggestions from them.  It’s given me a wide range of categories and classifications that I never would have found or explored on my own.  I also belong to two book clubs that have done the same.

“Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it.
Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window.”
— William Faulkner