Steph In 10,000,000 Words or Less

I was born in Chicago my kids were born here too my mom and dad were born right before world war 2. I grew up on the radio…. Wait a second that’s the WGN song.

I was born in a log cabin …. Wait a second that’s Abe Lincoln’s story.

Okay I was born on the northwest side of Chicago on July 7, 1968. I came into the world with 2 parents, an older brother and we lived in the oldest house on the north side.

When I was 3 we moved to Park Ridge when my parents bought a house and then divorced 2 years later.

My Dad remarried and had 2 sons, Stephen and Peter. He and my stepmother also raised her nephew, Mike who I consider my brother as well.

My mom remarried and had a son, Scott. My stepfather also had 2 daughters, Janis and Barbara and a son Bennett from his first marriage.

I had a pretty routine growing up in a pretty routine suburb of Chicago.

After I finished high school playing softball all 4 years (losing the state championship game my junior and senior years), choir and marching band all 4 years, and helping to start the Rowdies, I went a little up north the Lake Michigan shoreline to attend Northwestern University in Evanston where graduated with a bachelors in music education and played softball and was in the band.

In my 4 years I probably witnessed more bad football than one person should take. Northwestern isn’t exactly a world beater now but if you look at their records in the late 80s well they weren’t very good.

After college I had a pretty routine after college life until I met the man of my dreams Jon Newmann. We had a rather interesting courtship leading to our marriage in 1999 followed by the births of our 3 children, Christopher, Allie and Allen. They run me ragged and when Jon is not feeling well I have temporarily 4 children but I wouldn’t trade the happy life I have now for anything in the world. Not even the Cubs winning the world series.

Another interesting family fact is my parents remarried in December of 1999 after they were divorced and widowed from their second spouses.

I founded Trixie as Bobby would say when my stepfather went to buy me a Nancy Drew when I had strep throat. They were out of Nancys so he remembered how much my stepsisters loved Trixie when they were younger so he bought me #29 and I was hooked.

I’m not really a fan of Jim or Dan. I really think Trixie belongs with Mr. Lytell. That young girl and the wizened old shopkeeper gets my nerves tingling. I hope you realize that I’m kidding.

My other interests include I’m sort of a Cubs fan. You may say that. I also enjoy the Bears, Northwestern football and basketball, Illinois basketball, the Bulls and the Blackhawks. Other than sports I like reading, TV, writing and all sorts of music.

I am very involved in JDRF. Participate in everything involved in the Chicago area. Wearing my Ron Santo JDRF bracelet as I type this.

My husband Jon, our 3 kiddlie tots and I reside in the house in Park Ridge where my parents moved when I was 3 which we bought in 2000. Park Ridge is a nice place to raise kids hey look at how I turned out. Wait a second maybe we should move.

I work data entry at home for a company that I once worked for in the office. It brings in decent extra money every week and allows me to be at home with the kids as it can be done anytime 24 hours a day.

My husband and brothers are in the process of taking over my dads company as he is retiring to travel the world with my mom.

We have a large extended family who right now are all living in the north or northwest suburbs of Chicago. I think this is cool as when I grew up my cousins lived by my dad and they were like 2 more brothers and my sister. I hope my kids have the same experience growing up with their cousins.

The biggest influence in my life was my maternal grandparents who helped my mom a lot before she married my stepfather and we basically all but lived with them for 2 years as my mom worked a lot.

Let’s see now that I’ve let you know everything there is to know about me except my SAT score, my IQ and my shoe eize (okay 1440 if I remember correctly, 137 and 9) I can also tell you I’m going to be writing a lot more soon.