We live integrated lives, and outside of my career, I have a variety of other endeavors where I contribute my creativity and expertise.
Ranch Wife & Mom
My husband, Bart, and I celebrated our silver anniversary in 2025 (yes, we survived a Y2K wedding)! The website cover photo was in celebration of that milestone (snuck in at our daughter’s senior session in the spring). We have three treasured children who fill our lives. They are heavily involved in rodeo and riding and training horses for competing in that sport. Bart (and my brother) run Markway Ranch – raising horses, cattle and sheep – and I seek to support him in various aspects of that, including website creation for the ranch. I also have an Etsy shop because of the ranch. Several years ago, we wondered what we could do with all the old ropes, horseshoes and Wrangler jeans accumulating! My Etsy shop, MM Ranch Mercantile, began in 2017. I have more than 1,600 sales and maintain a 5-star average review. I enjoy that my customers – many repeat – use our ranch worn and used items to make beautiful crafts or just bring a piece of this lifestyle into their homes.
Sacred Heart Catholic Parish
I have served as a Parish School of Religion teacher, instructing various ages across the years, second grade through Confirmation preparation. I am a lector, cantor and Chairperson of the Children’s Games at our Annual Parish Picnic. For several years, up until 2023, I volunteered to manage the parish website and Facebook page. During that time, I led their branding efforts to update their logo and migrate their website to a Diocesan-wide content management system using Blackbaud and WordPress. I also assisted in the creation of the last two parish portrait directories, both in design and overall project management. I have served twice on the Pastoral Council: During the years of 2018-2020, and in May 2024, I began a second term of service.
Classical Conversations
Our youngest daughter has been part of this classical, Christian homeschool community for four years. In 2024-25, I served as a Tutor for our community. Tutors model learning the grammar of the core academic subjects while encouraging students and parents in their educational journey. They accomplish this by facilitating all aspects of the weekly, community class time. For 24 weeks, I prepared each week to teach the prescribed lessons, managed the instruction and behavior of the 4- to 6-year-olds in my classroom, communicate with parents and collaborated with my director and other tutors to carry out the goals of the community.
Missouri High School Rodeo
Our two oldest children have been members of MHSR. For the past five years, I have assisted with various communication and marketing efforts, including but not limited to, the building and management of a Squarespace website, social media content creation, e-newsletter creation and distribution, and apparel design and sales. I have also solicited and gained corporate sponsorship and served for many years to lead the Association’s scholarship interview and selection process.