November Member of the Month!

Hey everyone!

Most of you might already know me as I have been a part of Stroller Strong for over a year now- (since day one!) and I must say that it has become such a big part of my life!

What you might not know about me is that I am from Tucson, Arizona and never in a million years did I ever think I would end up here. I met my husband Chris when we were in high school then shortly after he graduated, he joined the Army. I graduated two years later while he was already serving his first combat tour in Iraq. I stayed in Arizona and continued to play soccer (which had been my life since I was 6) at Pima Community College, but when I was offered an athletic scholarship for my second year there, I turned it down and ran away to Ft. Bliss, Texas to marry my soldier!

A year later, he deployed again and we welcomed Evan into the world during his two week R&R. Five months later, daddy returned home and we began preparing for our move to Fort Benning. Since arriving here, we have fostered four dogs and I am just three classes shy of my Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education.

When I first heard about Stroller Strong Moms, I decided to give it a try, but honestly, I thought it would be pretty lame- just a bunch of moms walking around taking up space at the park- but my was I wrong! Now six months pregnant with our second baby, I got Evan and my jogger and gave it a go. After that first class, I remember thinking it was like one of those conditioning practices we sometimes had without the soccer ball… So I ended up sticking around until about two weeks before our Norah was born and made a vow to myself to come back as hard as ever!

In March of this year, before Norah was three months old, I ran my first ever 5k. It was such a fun, inspiring, and motivating experience running with a big group of my fellow SSMs. After that, I was hooked! I had never ever run just for the sake of running before and now I will running in my first half marathon next weekend!

Thanks Alexa, Kim, Rebecca, Jill, and Julie, and to everyone else alongside me every day SLAMmin’! I’m so proud to call myself a Stroller Strong Mom!