Meet Pittsburgh Moms Blog’s Newest Contributors

 

 

Deidre is currently a wife, mom, and works from home while juggling two little ones, housework, and the ever elusive “me time”. Some of her favorite activities include thrifting/yard sales, couponing, arts and crafts, cooking, and entertaining. She lived in the South Hills for 4 years before packing up and moving to Beaver County in search of a big yard and less traffic. Deidre and her family love to visit the libraries for their special kids events.

I’ve also experienced some significant lows. Having a miscarriage was one that I wasn’t sure I would be able to overcome. Thankfully, I did and here I am 7 years later with four beautiful babies to share my successes, failures and things my kids do that  no one would believe if it wasn’t written down. 

 

 

Jessica Y. is a first time mommy!  She is married to the love of her life, Jake, who was her first crush in 2nd grade.  They have a baby girl, Lexii, who is 4 months old and their fur daughter, Uzi, who is an adorable Shepard/Lab mix.  They currently reside in the Mars Area.

Jessica has a Master’s Degree in Special Education focusing in Autism.  However, that degree is sitting pretty collecting dust as her passion is now with Mary Kay Cosmetics.  Jessica is Pittsburgh’s Youngest Sales Director and 3x Free Car Achiever.  She loves meeting new women (especially mommies) and sharing the opportunity Mary Kay has to offer.  She is a stay-at-home/work-at-home mom and loves every minute of it.  She is so happy Lexii is being raised in an environment in which she is surrounded by strong, successful businesswomen daily instead of a daycare. She is also passionate about helping moms be able to be home with their kids and have a successful career at the same time.  Jessica calls Lexii her little assistant, as they frequently have coffee dates, teach skincare, make deliveries and have makeup consultations. Her motto is “I have products that will change your face and an opportunity that will  change your life.”

When Jessica needs a “mommy moment” she enjoys getting her nails done, sipping on Starbucks while strolling through the Target isles, extreme couponing and posting photos of her family on social media. You can follow Jessica’s family adventures on instagram @mrsyoungker14.

Jessica is excited to share her journey as a first time mom and momentrepreneur, plus being a great wife in the process. She hopes to inspire other mommas to be the best they can be and leave a legacy. Be sure to check out her Facebook page.

 

Jessie is a 30 year old mother of 3. Her and her husband were married in 2005, when she was just 18! Following their marriage they quickly filled their house with laughter in 2006 Alexander was born, then followed by Grace in 2008 and Mckenzie in 2010. In the early years of motherhood she decided her efforts were best spent at home. In 2016 , when McKenzie entered the public school system, Jessie returned to work as a full time nanny. While she finds both motherhood and being a nanny rewarding; she also enjoys the arts of cooking and photography.

Jessie was born in Pittsburgh, however she was raised mostly in coastal Virginia where her father was stationed in the Navy. They returned home to Pittsburgh when he retired in 1998.

 

A Pittsburgh native, Rachel has spent just enough time living in other places to know that her heart is in the Steel City. She is mom to three young kids, including a set of twins. Rounding out the Moody household is her husband and their senior dog (and first “baby”). 

Rachel works full time in corporate communications, balancing her career with a family life that includes Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, dance, swimming, riding lessons and, of course, soccer. She looks forward to one day finding time to read more, cook things that aren’t frozen and learn how to use her DSLR camera in manual mode.  Right now, though, she’ll settle for catching a non-kids’ TV show, take-out pizza and an IPA.

 

Rebecca left home in the Pacific Northwest at 12 years old and was in various group settings and homeless for the remainder of her youth.  At the age of 17 she became an advocate for homeless youth and served on her first Board of Directors which established Seattle’s first homeless youth shelter, shortly after that she came out as Queer. Despite having a 9^th grade education went on to attend University on scholarship, graduated, was accepted to Law School but chose not to attend.  After a 17 year career in policy, advocacy and social activist movements she married a Canadian and had a small litter of children in a short period of time.  After 9 years in Canada she fled with her children due to domestic violence arriving in Pittsburgh with three children and three suitcases.  She now raises her gender-variant children with a platonic partner and co-parent in Brookline.  

She changed careers and has become the COO of an extremely innovative company based in Pittsburgh.  Throughout all of these life experiences writing and performance was a constant lifeline for her, she has toured nationally performing her poetry and represented Pittsburgh in National Poetry Slam competition, co-written feature length plays and helped found a Queer Writing school in Seattle, WA. While in Pittsburgh she produced queer cabarets with a collective called Steel Queer N’at as well as produced K’vetch an open-mic for spoken work and is now exhilarated to merge all these parts into the team at Pittsburgh Mom’s Blog.