Come Meet The Drivers of Silicon Valley Moms Group Summer Road Trip
SUMMER ROAD TRIP '09
BlogHer Road Trip '09 Devra and Sarah:
DEVRA from DC METRO MOMS BLOG:
Devra is a contributing writer at DC Metro Moms Blog
and she loves her some roadtripping. Devra travelled solo on the open
road in 1989 (but her mom thinks she was with a friend, but last minute
the friend couldn't make it. So shhhhh!) as she drove from Arizona to
Connecticut following her graduation from college. Her most memorable experience on that trip was getting to see what looked like a giant Tampon a missile being launched into the sky over the New Mexico desert. More recently her family hit the road together and that trip resulted in over 20,000 downloads on YouTube. When Devra isn't performing Karaoke dressed like a Louisiana crustacean, she is blogging over at Parentopia with fellow road warrior Aviva.
Devra is an author of the award winning book "Mommy Guilt" and her commentary has been featured in the New York Times, USA Today, Globe &Mail, BabyTalk, American Baby and other places where people, especially parents, hang out and read. Devra has been a guest on The Morning Show with Mike & Juliet and got to hang out with Katie Couric. Devra is a clinical social worker and serves as a consultant for Zero To Three. She is a featured expert on PBS Parents and, along with Aviva,co-founded Parentopia, LLC a consultation and training firm helping individuals, families and organizations who care for and about kids, families and parenting related stuff.
Devra's biggest challenge won't be leaving her children behind-both
kids are at summer camp until the end of July-it will be sticking to
her commitment to getting into shape... other than round. You can bet
your fat sweet ass she will be blogging about that over at Loser Moms Blog with Sarah.
*************************************************************************
SARAH from DC METRO MOMS BLOG: 
Sarah (Goon Squad Sarah) can be found all over the internet. Her blogs include (but are not limited to) DC Metro Moms Blog, her personal blog Sarah and the Goon Squad where she writes about anything and everything, Draft Day Suit where she writes about sports, Loser Moms a weight loss blog, Mama Pop (celebrities and pop culture), and Sarah Reviews Stuff Here. Sarah also writes about sports and fitness for BlogHer.com.
Sarah lives outside of Washington D.C. with her husband, their four
year old twins and two cats. They moved there about three years ago
from Tampa, Florida where Sarah grew up and became a raging Tampa Bay
Buccaneers fan. She spends most of her free time (as if a mother of
twins who writes for eight websites has any free time) obsessing about
fantasy football, food, beer, wine and Bravo Reality television.
She is very excited to be a part of the Mom Road Trip because she thinks it will be a wonderful bonding experience and a lot of fun. Sarah has never visited Utah or Nevada and is looking forward to seeing new places with new friends. Sarah is also very much looking forward to spending ten whole days where nobody wipes their nose on her shirt
*************************************************************************
Canada Moms Blog Road Trip '09: Catherine & Katie (and others along the way):
Catherine Conners and Katie York, from Canada Moms Blog.
Catherine Connors,aka Her Bad Mother, Their Bad Mother, internet layabout.
Catherine is a mother, writer and recovering acadic who traded the lecture hall for the playroom and discovered that university students and preschoolers have much the same attention span. She's the author of HerBadMother.com, the featured parenting blogger at Beliefnet, the moderator of Her Bad Mother’s Basement, the co-founder and co-editor of WeCovet, the Managing Editor of MamaPop, contributing editor at BlogHer, and most recently (deep breath) co-instigator of Canada Moms Blog. And in her spare time… oh, wait. She doesn’t have spare time. But she’s okay with that.
Her Bad Mother has been mentioned in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, the American Prospect, and sundry other publications, as well as on CNN, ABC, CBC and the BBC online. Catherine doesn't have a big head about that at all, because, seriously. Getting attention for being on the Internet? She might as well say that she's big in Japan. Which she's not. So far as she knows.
The kids: Emilia, Catherine's eldest child, is three and a half years old. She is what parenting experts sometimes euphemistically describe as "spirited." Catherine describes her as a rabid but nonetheless adorable badger. Jasper, Catherine's youngest, is one year old. He's a big boy (he weighs a mere four pounds less than his preschooler sister), and he is, at one year of age, more famous (he's been in the New York Times twice, on CBC TV once and on the Internet, like, every day) than you are. Also, he was almost born at the side of the Trans Canada Highway, so road trips are kind of his thing.
Katie York, aka motherbumper, internet vagrant.
Katie was born to drive, mostly because she's too lazy to walk, but also because she was raised and weaned on family drives and road trips. A child of the 70's recession, the only kind of vacations her family took involved the car -- if they couldn't drive there, it wasn't on the itinerary. These days Katie is an active member of a Toronto car co-op where she gets to try out different makes and models whenever the need to drive presents itself. She has driven the roads between Halifax and Toronto more times than she can count and can't wait to see what lies west of The Big Smoke.
Besides being an avid driver, Katie was a developer/quality assurance person with one of those big IT companies before rebelling and joining the gang called parenthood. During the early days of marathon breast-feeding sessions, she discovered the bottomless world of blogs and quickly became addicted. Via the internet, she found reassurance that she wasn't going insane alone and of course, she had to start her own blog. So began a new phase in her IT career. Besides being co-founder and a contributor at Canada Moms Blog, Katie blogs at her personal website motherbumper, gossips about celebs at MamaPop, is the Toronto editor at Savvy Source, and graphics monkey at Sweet Blog. She figures she'll sleep when she's dead.
CLICK HERE TO GRAB BUTTONS FOR THE SUMMER ROAD TRIP '09
OUR DRIVERS FROM SUMMER ROAD TRIP '08
AVIVA from ROCKY MOUNTAIN MOMS BLOG:
Aviva will be hopping a ride to San Francisco from the middle of the United States; Loveland, Colorado is where Aviva, her husband and three children have called home for over a decade (Okay, two children, the third has only been on the scene for 7.5 years). Aviva is totally psyched to be driving halfway across the country on what promises to be a hilarious and outrageous adventure!
When Aviva isn’t blogging over at Rocky Mountain Moms Blog, she is singing and dancing as a member, script writer, choreographer and Stage Director with Loveland Choral Society . Aviva loves it when she can go to the Rialto Theatre and boss people around who actually listen to her and follow directions. Aviva also has a less bossy side. She is a certified parent educator and child development specialist who built and developed the Loveland/Berthoud Parents as Teachers (PAT) program, helped establish the Har Shalom Preschool, and has been known to make obscene phone calls help at her husband’s office when not schlepping children to a High School, a Middle School or an Elementary School.
Aviva is an author of the award winning book “Mommy Guilt: Learn To Worry Less, Focus on What Matters Most and Raise Happier Kids" and Spanish edition "Mama Culpable." Lately, Aviva spends all of her free time hammering at her keyboard attempting to start finish another book with Devra. Aviva and Devra travel the world together encouraging and empowering anyone and everyone to enjoy parenthood as much as possible. Aviva is a featured expert on PBSParents.Org. Aviva's commentary can be found in The Boston Globe, Parenting Magazine, and BabyCenter as well as many other impressive places which do not require she drive to get there. Aviva is excited to share her love of Taco Bell's drive-thru with the other moms on the trip... and of course all of you.
*************************************************************************
DEVRA from DC METRO MOMS BLOG:
Devra is a contributing writer at DC Metro Moms Blog and she loves her some roadtripping. Devra travelled solo on the open road in 1989 (but her mom thinks she was with a friend, but last minute the friend couldn't make it. So shhhhh!) as she drove from Arizona to Connecticut following her graduation from college. Her most memorable experience on that trip was getting to see what looked like a giant Tampon a missile being launched into the sky over the New Mexico desert. More recently her family hit the road together and that trip resulted in over 20,000 downloads on YouTube. When Devra isn't performing Karaoke dressed like a Louisiana crustacean, she is blogging over at Parentopia with fellow road warrior Aviva.
Devra is an author of the award winning book "Mommy Guilt" and her commentary has been featured in the New York Times, USA Today, Globe &Mail, BabyTalk, American Baby and other places where people, especially parents, hang out and read. Devra has been a guest on The Morning Show with Mike & Juliet and got to hang out with Katie Couric. Devra is a clinical social worker and serves as a consultant for Zero To Three. She is a featured expert on PBS Parents and, along with Aviva,co-founded Parentopia, LLC a consultation and training firm helping individuals, families and organizations who care for and about kids, families and parenting related stuff.
Devra's biggest challenge won't be leaving her children behind-both kids are at summer camp until the end of July-it will be sticking to her commitment to getting into shape... other than round. You can bet your fat sweet ass she will be blogging about that over at Loser Moms Blog with Sarah.
*************************************************************************
JILL ASHER from SILICON VALLEY MOMS BLOG
Jill Asher is the Co-Founder of Silicon Valley Moms Group. She only writes for Silicon Valley Moms Blog and promised her husband and family that she would not share too much of their personal lives on this site. Lord know she has failed that request, miserably.
Although she will only be driving in the Tahoe Hybrid for the last thirty miles of the trip (from Palo Alto to San Francisco), Jill will be handling "stuff" behind the scenes during the road trip: fending calls, directing media and road trip stops, responding to emails and requests... and praying that the road trip goes without a crash. Thank goodness Jill is only driving in the car for the last thirty miles - she knows that Devra would have left her road side somewhere in the mid west because by then, she would be complaining about having to sit in the back seat, getting car sick and being a complete pain-in-the ass. (Jill knows her limitations!) Thirty miles is doable.
So..... Think of Jill as "Charlie" from Charlie's Angels. Though she really hopes that some day, she too will be an Angel.
Silicon Valley Moms Group consists of nine sites: Silicon Valley Moms Blog, Chicago Moms Blog, DC Metro Moms Blog, NYC Moms Blog, New Jersey Moms Blog. 50-Something Moms Blog, Deep South Moms Blog, Rocky Mountain Moms Blog and Los Angeles Moms Blog. More sites to come in the near future! Jill handles PR, Marketing, Business Development and outreach for this collaborative community.
*************************************************************************
MEAGAN from CHICAGO MOMS BLOG:
For nearly a decade, Meagan has been blending writing with motherhood, squeezing in deadlines between diaper changes and day-camp drop-off. The author of two parenting books:Table For Eight: Raising a Large Family in a Small-Family World and The Everything Health Guide to Postpartum Care, Meagan also writes about family life, pregnancy & new motherhood, health & wellness, and travel and lifestyle for magazines like Good Housekeeping, Natural Health, and Parenting; and she spouts off about whatever's on her mind on her blog, Shine, Larger Families, and the Chicago Moms Blog, among others. Meagan's latest project happens to be a book about mothers and friendship--and she's guessing she'll get plenty of ideas from this trip!
As a travel writer who usually focuses on her own backyard—the Great Lakes states—Meagan hasn’t spent much time on the other side of the Mississippi, so she’s excited to experience the West up close and personal. And since she rarely gets a break that lasts longer than a few hours, she’s more than a little bit excited to be facing an entire week away from settling squabbles and rationing Popsicles.
As the sole female in her family of six, Meagan is somewhat worried that the sudden loss of testosterone exposure from being away from her men—not to mention estrogen overload from being around so many women—might mess with her hormone balance. She’ll try to be ladylike, but can’t guarantee she won’t throw out some bathroom humor when the going gets tough.
*************************************************************************
SARAH from DC METRO MOMS BLOG: 
Sarah (Goon Squad Sarah) can be found all over the internet. Her blogs include (but are not limited to) DC Metro Moms Blog, her personal blog Sarah and the Goon Squad where she writes about anything and everything, Draft Day Suit where she writes about sports, Loser Moms a weight loss blog, Mama Pop (celebrities and pop culture), and Sarah Reviews Stuff Here. Sarah also writes about sports and fitness for BlogHer.com.
Sarah lives outside of Washington D.C. with her husband, their four year old twins and two cats. They moved there about three years ago from Tampa, Florida where Sarah grew up and became a raging Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan. She spends most of her free time (as if a mother of twins who writes for eight websites has any free time) obsessing about fantasy football, food, beer, wine and Bravo Reality television.
She is very excited to be a part of the Mom Road Trip because she thinks it will be a wonderful bonding experience and a lot of fun. Sarah has never visited Utah or Nevada and is looking forward to seeing new places with new friends. Sarah is also very much looking forward to spending ten whole days where nobody wipes their nose on her shirt
*************************************************************************
BEHIND THE SCENE:
Beth Blecherman/TechMama is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Mom of the Silicon Valley Moms Group. She is the geek behind the scenes that built the Mom Road Trip site and will be the tech support for all technical issues, including where to load the not-to-miss road trip videos and trying to see if Wi-Fi or Broadband can be used in the car to capture every blogging inspiration. She will also develop/implement the social media strategy and blog about the technology being used on the Mom Road Trip.
Beth implements/manages technology and social media strategy for the Silicon Valley Moms Group sites. She is also part of the team that performs outreach and plans blog related events. She writes for the Silicon Valley Moms Blog, founded a blog called Techmamas and contributes to Momocrats and SFBayStyle.
Tekla Nee is co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Silicon Valley Moms Group. She's spending way too much time this summer driving her kids back and forth from summer camp (four round trips, two hundred miles each way, ouch), so, even though this road trip is going to be a lot more fun than a camp drop-off, she's relieved that she'll be experiencing it from behind the keyboard instead of the wheel.
About SIlicon Valley Moms Group
The Silicon Valley Moms Group LLC owns and operates regional mom blogs around the United States. Our sites showcase the ups, downs, outrages, struggles, victories, and everyday humor of motherhood. Our 350-plus writers are working moms, stay at home moms, city moms, suburban moms, and rural moms—but, most of all, they are opinionated moms. Check out our blogs by clicking on the buttons below.
Come meet our contributors by visiting the about us pages for the all of the Silicon Valley Moms Group sister sites:
Contact Us at info(at)svmoms(dot)com
Comments