We’re welcoming another wonderful mom to This Mommy Gig! Sherry has a very unique perspective on this whole parenting thing due to her experiences and we’re really looking forward to having her write with us!

Sherry Carr Deer is the overly-caffeinated mom to three-year-old Nicholas, has worked in non-profit public relations for 10 years, went from reading several books a month to several books a year when her son was born, and spends way too much time daydreaming about sleeping. Sherry would do pretty much anything for her family as long as it’s legal, worries that she doesn’t spend enough time with her son, and wishes she had more time to scrapbook. And sleep…she misses sleep.

Sherry began dating her first husband at the ripe old age of 16, married at 20, graduated college at 22, started trying to get pregnant at 28, had Nicholas at 30 and became a widow the same year. Mark, Sherry’s husband and Nicholas’ dad, died suddenly of an unexplained medical condition when Nicholas was 5 months old. That was in November 2005 (one month shy of their 10th wedding anniversary).

In the 2.5 years since then, Sherry: grieved; began figuring out how to raise Nicholas as a single mom; left a wonderful job with a non-profit that she loved to move home and closer to family; got fired from a job she was never really right for in the first place; began working at an incredibly rewarding job with a non-profit that she loves; began scrapbooking; started dating again; grieved some more; and has now found herself engaged to William, an awesome man who loves her, challenges her, makes her laugh, and loves Nicholas.

She is constantly amazed and thankful for Nicholas who is wonderful, brilliant, sweet, and all boy. Sherry isn’t quite sure how it happened with her as a mother, but Nicholas is completely consumed by cars. During an effort to organize their living room recently, Sherry counted all the cars Nicholas has and stopped at 85. That’s not counting any of the assorted cars he’s got stashed at grandparents’ houses.

While trying to spend as much time as possible with William and Nicholas, be the best PR professional she can be, plan a wedding, and sleep some more, Sherry blogs for the San Antonio chapter of PRSA. She also kept a community journal about her life as a new mom and new widow for a couple of years on BabyCenter. If you’d like to connect with Sherry, you can find her on Facebook and Twitter at @prCarrD.

Wow, the amazing ladies just keep coming! Welcome Kymberli to our ranks……………

Kymberli Mulford

Kymberli Mulford has been an educator for over thirty years, but happily admits that her best teachers are her sons. Andrew and Alex don’t let a day go by without teaching her something – about wonder, about humor, about dreams, about friendships, and mostly about love. (And patience. And hard work. And determination.)

Her two boys, she says, are as different as night and day. Her youngest, Andrew, is boisterous, gregarious and outdoorsy. Alex is pensive and quiet, already an accomplished artist, author and composer as a young teen. She sees a little of herself in each of them, and a little of her wonderful husband — of almost 20 years! — in each of them, too. Since most of the bloggers on This Mommy Gig are mothers of younger children, Kymberli hopes to share the perspective of moms of ‘tweens and teens. Also, as the stepmom of her husband’s now-grown son, she’s been down the road of being the “other mother” and is now even (gasp!) a mother-in-law and (gasp!) a grandmother four times over. (By the way, she LOVES people who tell her that she’s not old enough for that… hint, hint.) At any rate, these children have all brought new joys and challenges into her life, and this has made her life fuller and her perspective broader.

As a teacher, an administrator, and a parent advocate for children with special needs, Kymberli has been in many different school settings and situations, but she’s happiest when she’s wearing her “Ed Tech” hat in a classroom, surrounded by students exploring a new way to use technology to learn and share knowledge. She presents workshops on all things related to technology in the classroom, and is a self-professed Ed Tech conference junkie.

You can find Kymberli on Twitter or follow her ed tech musings on Onionskin.