I grew up in a very small town in Northern California, 15 miles south of the Oregon border. My dad and his dad before him were government trappers (coyotes, badgers, etc) working to protect the livestock owned by local ranchers. With this background I was standing up and voicing my outrage at the teacher's lack of accurate knowledge on the subject of wildlife back in high school.

I worked in the same small community where I grew up, on my brother-in-law's ranch for 9 years before meeting my husband, Michael E. Smith, and moving on with my life. We lived in Tacoma, WA for 3 years during which I was working in Auto Body as a paint technician. We moved back to California and started our family. Mike worked out of town quite a bit logging and my evenings were spent watching shows like 60 minutes that made my blood boil. I started writing letters to my Senators, my governor and my President. During this time I was calling DC and writing letters to the editor.

Our son was just starting 2 grade and our daughter 1st when we pulled them out of school and I home schooled them until high school. They're now in their early 20's and stand up for what they believe. The four of us attended our first political rally in Nov. 2000 as a direct response to the hanging chad debacle. Mike and I joined our local Tea Party almost 3 years ago. Mike has been writing and recording conservative music for a few years and I produce the videos.

I've now been working in Special Ed. for 8 1/2 years as a 1 on 1 aide. We mostly have autistic children, but kids with behavior problems are placed with us as the general ed teachers won't put up with them.