I am fluent in American Sign Language, but that would take way too long, so I decided to just type this. During my time in the Army, I was the only female mechanic in a platoon of 50 burping, spitting, farting guys and loved every minute of it! My favorite memory is “sling-loading” a Humvee onto the belly of a Chinook with a 30 lb. hook while it hovered dangerously overhead—all five feet of me on tiptoes in combat boots! Nowadays, though, the used mini-van parked in my driveway seems to be overshadowing my inner badass. In my free time, I work on my family tree that stretches back to the 1600s; I’m addicted to ancestry.com and not ashamed to admit it. I’ve been a lot of places and done a lot of things in my life, but I still believe in simple truths: that eating dinner at the table with the kids is important, and when a pet joins the family, it’s home for life. All of this to say— that when a role calls for a feisty, take-charge gal who can hang with the big boys, a do-it-all Mom who occasionally falls completely to pieces, or that girl who calls it like she sees it when nobody else in the room has the guts to—that’s me.