I was born in Duncan BC in 1978. Later my family moved to Kaslo BC where I lived until I graduated from high school. I am the second oldest in my family. I have an older sister, a younger sister, and a little brother. I lived on a large fresh water lake and enjoyed spending summers on the local beach, camping and hiking in the sourounding mountains. It's a really beautiful place that I didn't appreciate as a young teen but I miss sometimes now. My father taught Art, Math and Computers so I had him for a teacher several times as I was growing up. I spent a lot of my time in the school art room creating various pieces. There was a black and white photography lab, a wood working shop, and a kiln. I felt like I could make anything that my mind could imagine and I miss having access to all these tools and resources. I have been designing, creating and making things for as long as I can remember.
I also played on the basket ball team (bench warmer really), played the French Horn in concert band from grade 4 to 12, was Student Council President, figure skated at the local rink, gardened with my Grandmother , and worked at the local bakery and grocery store since I was 14. I loved Art, Music and Biology and I was a good student (made the honour roll ever year). My weaknesses then and even now are, Math, grammar and spelling.
I met my husband in grade 11 and I followed him around with my camera at the local basket ball games. I just adored him, I thought he was the most handsome and romantic boy I had ever met.
At age 19 I moved to Calgary Alberta and attended the University, where I took the first year of a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. I really enjoyed being in a place with cement floors that where covered in paint splotches, where you were free to make as big of a mess as you wanted in the name of creativity. I loved my time at the university but my scholarships where running out and the practical side of me wanted to learn something that would give me a job right away. I job that would pay off my soon to occur student loans. I always knew I wanted to do something with computers and Art. I had played with very early versions of photoShop in high school. That's when I found SAIT.
SAIT had a Multimedia program. It was only the second year the program had been running. They interviewed us and only accepted 16 students into the program that year. It was a fast pasted one year program, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I knew what I was learning was practical and it fit me just right.
I married my husband at age 19 on September 27th 1997, and we moved into our first little basement suite where we would stay for the next 4 years. It was so small and old, but I loved it because it was our place.
After graduating with a Multimedia Diploma I got my first career job working for SAIT, building computer based training. I worked for SAIT for 7 years and enjoyed my time there working in the e-learning field. While I was there I got to do some pairs programming with a Java program as we explored the boundaries of Flash together. This is where I first started to enjoy programming. Later I took a C course to try and apply my new programming knowledge to other languages.
Every year after that I would take a few courses to try and increase my skills. Some included, 3D Studio Max, Industrial Design, Color Theory, CSS, Advanced Action Script and PHP. I really believe in being a life long learner, especially in this field it is a necessity. 2001 we built and bought our first house in Calgary. It was so wonderful to move into a new house where the breakers didn't blow every few minutes. I kept all the windows open and never wanted to close the drapes. After being in a basement suite for 4 years the sunlight was so wonderful.
On October 8th, 2003, age 25, I had my first baby girl Mia. It was a wonderful experience. I went back to work until 2006 when I had my second daughter Jade. After Jade I wanted to be a stay at home mom so we sold our home and moved out to Didsbury, a small town 45 minutes north of Calgary.
About 2 months after moving out to Didsbury, my husband realised that he was really unhappy at his current job. He tried to make a career change that didn't really work out, so back to work I went.
My pervious manager was gracious enough to give me a job at Enform, the company he now worked at. It was a wonderful job where I worked in the office one day a week and then was able to work from home for the rest of the week. Here I built online safety training for the Oil and Gas industry. I stayed at Enform for 3 years until the birth of my son Maximus, on Aprill 22nd 2010. Currently I am on maternity leave until April 2011. I am enjoying my time at home with my children but I am also taking a php course and recreating this website. Just another Sandy project =)