About Deep South Moms Blog & Our Contributors

Welcome to the Deep South Moms Blog, a collaborative group of women from the southern U.S., where the tea is sweet and the top-shelf margaritas are flowing strong; where moms mix old southern roots with new southern charm, never wear white after Labor Day, and know what "Bless her heart" really means. Y'all come back now, ya hear!

• Contact Us by email:  info(at)svmoms(dot)com
• Copyright & Permissions
• Our Legal Guru/Lawyer:  Linsey Krolik
• Our OH-SO-FABULOUS Graphic Designer (banner and buttons):  Kris Loew
• Our URLs:   http://www.deepsouthmoms.com and http://svmomblog.typepad.com/deep_south_moms/

Deep South Moms Blog is a member of the Silicon Valley Moms Group. Other blogs in the group include Silicon Valley Moms Blog, DC Metro Moms Blog , New York City Moms Blog,  Chicago Moms Blog, New Jersey Moms Blog, LA Moms Blog, St Louis Moms Blog and 50 Something Moms Blog. Soon to launch: MidWest Moms Blog, Pacific North West Moms Blog, Philadelphia Moms Blog and Rocky Mountain Moms Blog.

Come and meet our fabulous contributors:

Angie B. has lived all of her 41 years in South Carolina and can’t imagine living anywhere else.  She’s married to a genuine (that's pronounced "gin-you-wine") Southern gentleman who is her other half. Which is to say, anything she likes he tends to like the opposite but still, they go together pretty nicely.  They have four children spaced rather conveniently (or inconveniently, depending on her perspective that day) so that she will never have to experience empty nest syndrome.  She has two boys in high school, one girl in kindergarten and an 18 month old girl at home so that she never gets lonely (there again, perspective is key).
Angie is a stay-at-home mom and new to blogging, but has always loved to write and is excited to be a part of something so “young”.  (Youth has been somewhat of an obsession since that day last year when the obstetrician insisted on labeling her as being of “advanced maternal age”, but she’s trying to let it go.) Besides the Deep South Moms blog, she can also occasionally be found blogging at shewearsmanyhats.com where her friend Amy has graciously invited her to share random thoughts when there‘s an empty spot to be filled.

Amy@UWM uses this pen name to distinguish herself from the other 268,942 Amys born in the 1970's, but also because she blogs at her personal blog, Up With Moms. Amy and her very handsome and supportive Hubby are parents to two beautiful little (uh, big...I mean, BIG) girls, a crazy cat, a very old but still-spunky dog and two beta fish. A hopeless do-gooder, first-born overachiever and cancer survivor, Amy works to rid the world of cancer in her professional job by day and sends emails to her lawmakers and waxes philosophically on her blog about work-life balance issues at night.  Having spent her childhood growing up in suburban New York, Amy is a recovering JAP (Jewish American Princess) who now likes to pretend she's a southern belle at her home in Atlanta.

Amy Campbell Smith is the mother of three children; a 19 year old daughter and sons ages 6 and 1. As if dealing with toddlers and teens simultaneously isn't enough, she works as a full-time executive at a Nashville, TN publishing company. To learn about the phonenoma of blogging, she started one and named it after two of her favorite things: Milk Breath and Margaritas. She not only learned how blogging works, she became hooked on it as cheap therapy and a fun way to meet endless numbers of talented and funny women all over the country. Raised in Ohio, she moved to Tennessee when she married her husband, a Nashville-based financial advisor, in 1995. She now happily claims the South as home and even says "y'all" on occasion. Amy likes reading, fashion, hiking, and traveling. She does some free lance writing and can also be found at the Mommy Track'd web site for working moms.   

At Milk Breath and Margaritas she blogs about aging angst, parenting, and working motherhood. And shoes.

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Carmen is Mom to a loud, crazy, precocious and incredibly entertaining brood of six individuals, each with a distinct and stubborn personality.  Born and raised in the South, and married to a Yankee, she finds joy in her out of home job - working in a school cafeteria - and her in home job - trying to stay on top of the laundry.  She's never been successful in this endeavor.  A  weight loss of 80 pounds resulted in a new found love of running, weight training and martial arts, and she has been known to skip sleep to participate in any of the above.  In her spare time, she enjoys reading, both novels and blogs, and writing, both novels and blogs.  Above just about all else, she loves coffee and napping - although not at the same time.  She's guilty of MAJOR  overuse of the caps lock button. She can be found frantically scribbling at Mom To The Screaming Masses, where she writes about the chaos of daily life with six kids, autism, food allergies, and teenage angst.  She also considers it therapy to write at The Elff Diet, a site devoted to exercise, weight loss and healthy living.  Carmen is also a blogger for Zwaggle, a site dedicated to sharing with the community.

Born and raised in Alabama, Cassie is a southern girl at heart. After she completed her Master's degree in Elementary Education at Auburn University (WAR EAGLE!), she married her high school sweetheart. Her husband joined the Navy and they are now stationed in Georgia. Cassie had her first son in June 2008. She blogs about motherhood and her struggles as a military wife over on her personal blog Southern Domestic Goddess.

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Christina Y, is a freelance writer and an over-achieving, uber-organized mother of three weirdly intelligent children all under the age of five. She is lucky enough to be married to the last perfect man on Earth, or at least the man that is perfect for her. She spends her time reading, cooking, blogging, and attempting to keep control over a daily life that is full of more chaos than she ever imagined. She does her best to stay hopeful and optimistic as she faces the numerous, and sometimes hilarious, challenges and phases of kids and marriage. ChristinaY lives with her family in a small suburb of Atlanta, Georgia and, though she was not born in the South, she considers herself more than just a transplant. She documents all her experiences with motherhood on her personal blog at www.hooeycritic.com.

As a lifelong resident of the deep south, Heather M. AKA "Queen of the Mayhem" has much experience dealing with the culture of the area.  She rules the kingdom of Mayhem with her king Mr. Mayhem, her daughter The Princess, and her son Junior Mayhem.  Being a neurotic, borderline OCD person causes many of her life experiences to make for great blog fodder.  When she is not shining up her "Mother of the Year" trophy, she is chasing behind one of her kids, her husband, or two pets that torture her on a daily basis.  Heather began blogging in 2006. She was looking for a creative outlet to share her ideas and experiences with the world.  Heather works in education, but enjoys writing in a more relaxed atmosphere.  Her writing is a lot like her life, fast-paced, silly, sometimes disjointed, and always full of nonsense!  Check out the craziness on her personal blog, Queen Of The Mayhem.

Ilina is a doting mom to two boys, ages 5 and 3, wife to one. She's constantly wiping a nose, reminding someone about manners, zipping up coats, soothing boo boos, and kissing belly buttons. She runs her own marketing consulting firm, volunteers way too much, and manages to scrape together dinner every night. She abhors a mess and is admittedly anal and difficult to live with. Ilina appreciates a shaken dirty martini, creme brulee, shoe shopping (and buying!), and red painted toes barefoot on the beach. She has horrible taste in music and is a sucker for tear jerker films. Ilina grew up in Charlottesville, Virginia, which she still considers God's Country. After freezing her patootie off in the midwest for 10 years, she's back in the south, settled into a newly renovated 1923 home with good bones...and fourh bathrooms.

Jamie is a 40-year-old Nashville mom who grew up in the country where monster trucks, Hank Williams Jr., and field parties were all the rage. She's been writing about poop and pinot noir at BlondeMomBlog since October 2005. She chronicles her not-so-deep thoughts about her two daughters, her tech entrepreneur/former beach bartender husband, their two spoiled dogs, and whatever else tickles her fancy, from shopping to pop culture. Although she works as a special projects editor for a publishing company, her day job provides little opportunity to write humorously about poop or guilt as a working mom or her obsession with Target and Britney Spears. Jamie is a featured parenting partner at DivineCaroline.

Jen Slipakoff, a self-proclaimed "southern yankee", was born and raised just outside of Boston but has spent the last 14 years living in the Deep South.  She shares her suburban Atlanta home with three boys that keep her on her toes: her adorable husband, Adam and her two sweet sons, Ethan (born in 2004) and Eli (born in 2008).

A former corporate ladder climber, Jen is now a stay-at-home mom (though can never be found at home). When she's not running late, running around, driving someone somewhere, or being driven crazy, she enjoys reading and knitting and fantasizes about how nice it would be to take yoga.  She recently relinquished her local MOMS Club chapter presidency in order to have some down time.  After enjoying about 4.6 minutes of down time, she accepted a seat on her synagogue's board and is now enrolled at her local state university pursuing a nursing degree and is attempting to launch the writing career she wishes she had launched eight years ago.  Jen's husband, a very kind and understanding man, does not complain about having a part-time wife.  Jen has also spent several years mastering the fine art of existing without sleep. 

When she should be sleeping, but isn't, she writes on her blog, Tales of a Southern Yankee.

Lisa G is the mom to a little girl and twin boys born 19 months apart.  Besides being a mom, she enjoys writing, taking photos, cooking, reading, movies and travelling.  In a prior life, she spent 13 years in media planning.  She is married to Barton, a wonderful man she met in her San Francisco apartment because the mailman accidentally delivered her future husband’s magazine to her.  Her goal is to start a photography business when the twins enter kindergarten.  In the meantime, her three monkeys provide constant fodder for Facebook and her personal blog, The Curious Georges.  She is currently “keeping it weird” in Austin.

After short stints in Southern California and Texas as a child, Lisa Schaffer is proof solid that not much can sever the strong roots of West Tennessee.

Lisa is a stay-at-home mom to five kids who range in age from preschool to high school, and beyond. A long time homeschooler, she now incorporates homeschool, public school and special needs preschool into her family's daily life as she conquers loads of laundry, piles of dirty dishes, and finds yet another missing shoe. She manages a crazy schedule of doctor appointments and therapy sessions due to Congenital Heart Disease and Autism Spectrum Disorders, and tries very hard to always be thankful! 

Lisa blogs about her crazy happy life at All That and a Box of Rocks.

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Liza Barry-Kessler never imagined that she would be qualified to write for anything with "Deep South" in the title -- and is grateful that the SV Moms didn't boot her off the site when she moved North. She and her partner have two children, a preschool son and toddler daughter. By day, Liza helps companies and organizations protect their reputations, data, and people in her law practice, Privacy Counsel LLC, a law firm focused on privacy and social media issues. She is also the Founder of LesbianFamily.org, a directory of blogs by lesbian parents and aspiring parents, and regularly writes about her own 2-mom family at LizaWasHere.com.

Maria has been screwing around on the Internet since 1996.  Since graduating from the University of Florida in 2002, she’s been lucky enough to channel that “hobby” (see also: obsession) into a series of positions in Internet marketing, web design, and copywriting.  In April of 2008 she left a full time agency job to work from home, and started “mommy blogging” to stay in touch with people who don’t pee their pants regularly.

Raising two boys (ages six months and three years) has taught her to choose laughter when faced with sleepless nights and raging tantrums.  Her personal blog, Mommy Melee, combines humor with heartfelt musings on the crazy-love that is motherhood.  She also talks about stuff she likes at Your Mama Reviews, helps businesses build a better web presence at Big Sea Design, and makes personal blogs prettier at Sweet Blog Design.  Maria likes Don Bluth cartoons from the 80’s, cold slices of prosciutto ham, margaritas on the rocks with salt, and quiet mornings in bed with her fat, cuddly baby.

Mary Anne is not a professional writer, though she someday hopes to be.   A lifelong resident of Dallas, she now calls a quiet suburb north of the bustling city home.  An advertising veteran of twenty years, she spent the last twelve in the online space where she rode the bubble to the very top, and then sat amazed as it burst and she was left picking the icky bits off her face while re-building her career.   Her previous writing experience has been limited to writing proposals to sell things to the American public that they never knew they wanted and probably don’t need.

Mary Anne’s blog is the result of her lifelong love of writing and her need to understand the nuances of social media for work.   The Stiletto Mom is a humorous look into her hectic life as she navigates her way through a demanding advertising career in very high heels, all the while trying to balance her role as a wife and mother to two adorable, and sometimes hilarious, children.  Oh, and by the way….she’s met some really amazing women along the way.

Marty, aka Canape, has lived in the deep South her entire life, although if you ask her parents, she moved "up north" from Mississippi to North Carolina about 10 years ago. Her son Christopher was born in January, 2008, and is busy teaching his mom how to gracefully go back on all the parenting promises she previously made. She and her husband, Kevin, eloped in 2006, leaving her unworn wedding dress to take up valuable closet space in the guest bedroom. Marty is also a step-mom to 12 year old "Lovely." They share their home with three dogs who are blissfully unaware of the fact that they are not actually human. A musician by trade and by hobby, Marty teaches private piano and composition lessons and performs with new age recording artist, Bill Leslie. When she isn't busy making music, she's usually making a cake or a mess. She began blogging in 2006 as a way to try and sort out the changes in her family's life and her parent's health. The daughter of a Parkinson's and Alzheimer's patient and a breast cancer survivor and ovarian cancer patient, she struggles to work through the ongoing issues of her parents' health. Marty's personal blog is Don't Take the Repeats, and you can also find her at Props and Pans.

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Mary Margaret Hansen calls Houston, TX home. It’s the place where she raised three daughters, all of whom migrated to the Pacific Northwest. What this means is that four grandchildren in various stages of preschool live in the Pacific Northwest too, necessitating frequent commutes.

In July 2007, MMH made a huge life change. She left a demanding job – some say she ‘retired’ – to become a full time artist and writer because “I don’t want big regrets when I’m 80.”

After pursing parallel careers as a visual artist and leader of community organizations involved in renewal and economic development, MMH now finds herself in the middle of creating (and raising funds) for ‘Second Seating.’ She’s imagining and building an art installation of fantasy dinner tables and chandeliers made with recycled and found objects. The exhibition opens mid-2009 and she hopes that viewers will take a metaphorical seat at these tables and find value and beauty in ‘reuse’. MMH is loving her new work and earlier this year, made her garage into a studio as part of her own ‘renewal.’

In 2005, MMH discovered blogs. It was love at first write. Rockbridge Times reflects on life, family, art and politics. Second Seating narrates the making of an exhibition and Crochet Works: Extravagant Adornment keeps track of her compulsion to crochet, wear and sell elaborate freeform neckwear.

She’s a busy mom and grandmom. And she’s sure that Houston is close enough to East Texas to quality as Deep South.

Michelle Lamar is an online marketing consultant and geek. She is married to Saint Timothy, a producer-director who travels a great deal for work…and some say for his sanity.  They have two daughters, ages 11 and 15. When she's not nagging her clients or yelling at her kids, Michelle writes for Deep South Moms, WhiteTrashMom, Laptop Road Trip, Huffington Post.

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Rebecca was born in Texas, but quickly moved to and grew up in Oklahoma. After marrying and having two boys 13 months apart she moved to Georgia and was awed by the tall trees and winding roads. Life in Georgia was great and included the birth of another baby boy. Just about the time she quit getting lost navigating the Atlanta streets, she moved to sunny Florida when 34 weeks pregnant with boy #4. Rebecca spends her days refereeing arguments, and chasing runaway toddlers. Her nights are spent trying to catch some sleep in between kids waking up and making sure no one is roaming the house at 4 in the morning. She blogs about the madness and joy that goes along with raising four boys 6 and under at Life With Boys.

Sara is a Mom who has moved throughout "The South" since 2002. Born and raised on the Gulf Coast of Texas, she married within 6 months of being engaged, and couldn't wait to see what Mothering was all about. Six years later, there is a rambunctious house of three screaming children, all wondering why Momma takes her laptop into the bathroom for long periods of time. Her Texas accent quickly turned into a Tennessee Twang even through the process of moving to North Carolina and back.

Memphis, TN is her home front, where the Blues come alive on Beale Street, "The King" roams the lawn of Graceland, and the Bar-B-Que is the soul of the city. She started writing as a simple prayer journal at, My Sippy Cup Runneth Over. It quickly turned into the forefront of her life as a Mother who has healed from marital affairs, coped with an anxiety prone child with OCD, and seemed to keep her Faith alive through the ups and downs of Motherhood. She has learned her way through marketing by creating and writing Momma Findings where you'll find her take on everything from Toilet Paper to Toys. It's a writing journey that named her a Label Daddy Mommy where she contributes to a company blog. In her spare time she likes to throw on her running shoes and vows to complete a Half Marathon before she turns 30. It's a journey of the unknown and that is what keeps her writing.

 Shanna is a 30-something mother of 3.   She married at 20, and then experienced the monthly ups and downs of unexplained infertility for 8 years.  After having a miscarriage, she knew she wanted to be a mother, and didn’t care how the children came.  She adopted a daughter, and then 15 months later they found another opportunity and added twin boys to the family.  She adopted all of her children as infants, and enjoys an open relationship with their birth families.  Going from zero to 3 in 15 months was quite the adventure, and most of those early years are a blur of diapers, bottles, baby kisses, and sleepless nights.  Her children are now 5, 4, and 4, and she is beginning to rediscover her love of reading, quilting, and travel. 

Shanna moved to the Atlanta suburbs when she was in high school.  She went to college in Alabama (War Eagle!), where she met and married her husband.  After graduation, they moved back to Atlanta when she hopes to stay for a very long time.  She is involved with community adoption education and advocacy.  She is a former and future nurse, and current grocery buyer, craft project coordinator, referee, holiday planner, finder of shoes, and maker of meals, 3 per day.  She blogs about family life and whatever else pops into her head at 3cutekids.

In her day job, Shari works in the trenches of Education, making sure that those with Special Needs are advocated for properly and that everyone in the lunchroom has a spork, a napkin and a straw. In her life job, she is a tireless advocate for her own sons, ages 14 and 7, one of which is High-Functioning Autistic and mainstreamed in the local public high school. (Let's just say that many people working in the county knew her BEFORE she began working there, and leave it at that.) She is married to an amazing Yankee man whom she convinced to move to the South. He is eternally grateful.

When she's not working just 5 minutes away from her home, she can be found talking about her life, her obsessions and her family at Diary of a Crazed Mommy; telling you what you should (and should not) buy at The Crazed Mommy Reviews; discussing Autism Advocacy at 5 Minutes for Special Needs; trying to perfect 140 character witticisims on Twitter; and riding rollercoasters and visiting attractions at Uptake.com. It's a tough job, people, but someone has to do it!

Shari spends an awful lot of time reminding people that Florida is in the South.

Stephanie D. calls herself a true Texan, despite spending her first few years of life in North Carolina. She grew up in a rural North Texas town of about 3,000 people. After a college stint in windy West Texas, she made a strange and wonderful circuit of the three largest cities in Texas before finally settling down and living in the ‘burbs outside of Houston, Texas. Contrary to what her hometown friends and family might think, she has not “gone all city” on them. She can channel her inner-redneck at will, and isn’t afraid to proudly show her roots when necessary.

 

A career writer who has dabbled in everything from broadcast news, to technical and freelance writing, magazine editing, and public relations/events planning, Stephanie feels most at home when sitting with a big ole’ glass of iced tea and her bare feet up on the coffee table, pecking at her laptop. That pecking could or could not include obsessively posting statuses on social media outlets, happily blogging, frenetically playing online games or emailing unsuspecting friends in the wee hours of the morning. 

 

Married to her college sweetheart, a technology consultant with unending patience, Stephanie also finds great writing fodder from her two children and one very stinky labrador retriever. You can catch more of Stephanie’s writing at her personal blog, Cattywampus Life, as a guest contributor at Diabetes Daily, or at her work gig as City Ambassador at HoustonMomsLikeMe.com.

Synolve Craft is the Editor-In-Chief & Publisher of The Infinite Field Magazine. The Infinite Field Magazine is a spiritual lifestyle magazine which focuses on the limitless and boundless possibilities of the Universe and the human spirit. We focus on individuals, like you, who live in the field of the infinite where “all things are possible.”

Synolve is responsible for the Feature/Cover Article of the magazine each month as well as overseeing the Editorial content and focus of the magazine which features articles on conscious parenting, healthy eating, relationships, spirituality and much more.

In addition to being guided by Spirit to create, manage, and expand the vision of The Infinite Field, Synolve is a wife and mother of 2 wonderful children. She's also an avid blogger, speaker and author. Synolve is most grateful for being surrounded by a loving husband, her two children, and her beautiful family of friends. She resides in North Carolina with her husband and two children. To learn more about Synolve visit her personal blog at http://synolve.com or http://theinfinitefieldmagazine.com. You can also connect with Synolve on Facebook and Twitter (@Synolve and @TIFMAG)! Feel free to RT! Namaste.

FOUNDING TEAM:

PARTNER - SILICON VALLEY MOMS GROUP & CO-FOUNDER: Jill Asher is the co-founder of Silicon Valley Moms Group.  The idea came to Jill over two years ago (March 2006) to start Silicon Valley Moms Blog, after she finished her one year "Presidency" of PAMP. After inviting friend after friend to join this "crazy idea" that moms would want to write about parenting experiences in their regional area, Jill has watched Silicon Valley Moms Group blossom into over nine collaborative blogging communities.

By far, her biggest challenge and greatest joy is motherhood. Jill and her husband are the proud parents of two elementary school aged daughters.  Jill admits that she is NOT A PERFECT PARENT and fears her daughter's teenage years. Her girls can be heard running around the house screaming, "Mommy is blogging again!" and she needs to bribe from time to time them with treats.  Is she allowed to admit that? On the bright side, Jill really digs living in Silicon Valley and tries her best to blend in, praying that no one will hear her "New Jersey accent". Unless, of course, she is royally upset. 

Jill handles PR, Marketing, Business Development and outreach for this collaborative community.

MANAGING MEMBER, SILICON VALLEY MOMS GROUP: Tekla S. Nee, a cofounder of the Silicon Valley Moms Group, serves as editor-in-chief and CFO for the network of blogs. She has been writing about parenting for more than 25 years for magazines like Parenting, BabyTalk, Working Woman, Special Reports: Family, and Better Health and Living. She blogged for five years before there was such a word, writing a weekly column about about her life with three kids for the Palo Alto Daily News. She's published three books, The Mommy Rescue Guide First Year; The Mommy Zone: Tales from the Trenches of Parenthood; and The Everything Baby's First Year Book (also published in Russian and Chinese). And that's just in her spare time, during the day, she masquerades as a mild-mannered technology journalist working for a major metropolitan magazine.

PARTNER - SILICON VALLEY MOMS GROUP & CHIEF TECHNOLOGY MOM: Beth Blecherman is a techie turned blogger mom who is in charge of blogging technology and development for the Silicon Valley Moms Group network. She also works on the outreach/development to obtain new bloggers and organizing events for the network (including proudly reaching out to Los Angeles Moms!). 

Beth started her career in application development, then system auditing and her last role was Senior Manager, Computer Process Integrity, for Deloitte.  Beth's personal blog is on tips, tricks, and discussions about parents use of technology for their families (Techmamas).  When not blogging, she can be found on Twitter, Facebook and tooling around other new online social networking sites...

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