Maureen

My name is Maureen & I'm a returning participant of the first year of
Envisage.

I'm 44 years old. I'm a wife, mom & stepmom. I've been married for 11 years, now, and often find myself pleasantly surprised at how happy I am, how much we are enjoying our lives together. Back when I was single, I never thought it would be like this at all. I know that I am endlessly lucky to have found such a good friend to love.

My stepdaughter will be 18 by the time this second year of Envisage starts. My son is 9. My daughter is 7. And, again, I find myself getting so much more from parenting than I ever thought I would, back when I was single & childfree. Parenting is endlessly challenging & fascinating to me.

I live in the far west Chicago suburbs. Although I have spent some time living in Colorado & Ireland.

I volunteer. A lot. Mostly for anything that the kids are involved in.

Right now, we've got two family dogs, 5 cats, a frog, a fish, an ant farm. We also foster puppies for a local rescue.

I work in programming at a call center, have been there for almost 20 years now. My husband works there, too, on the phones on third shift. We (mostly my husband) also deliver inflatables as a side job.

I'm the 9th of 10 children in my family. Most of my siblings still live in
the same area where we grew up. My sisters, nieces & I have a similar daily photo blog at dailyfarrell.blogspot.com/ .

This year, I hope to... I don't know, really. I'd like to have a plan, to
lose weight or to become a better photographer or to learn to prioritize or learn to say 'no' to all the volunteer opportunities... But, I pretty much take each day as it comes (or each week or each month), just trying to do the best I can in each day.