Welcome to our little village called Austin! Are you wondering who the awesome people are at LiveMom? We are a local bunch of mamas who have come together, mostly sane, to bring you many resources that will build a better village. Meet the faces behind the voices of LiveMom.com.
Catherine Prystup
Founder
Catherine Prystup has lived in Austin for fourteen years. In her downtime, she enjoys reading, hanging out at coffee shops, people watching, eating dessert, cooking, planning and going on long vacations, and singing really loudly (and badly) to 80′s tunes while driving around aimlessly in her car. She’s also a big fan of red wine and has been known to rant about how it’s a great form of therapy. She has a background in advertising sales and management. She’s mom to two human kids: a twelve year old boy and four year old girl, and to four furry animal kids: two dogs and two cats.
Shannon Oelrich
Food Editor
Shannon Oelrich is a freelance writer/editor and a stay-at-home mom. Originally from San Antonio, she moved to Austin in 1998 to pursue her master’s degree in English. She was the food editor for Texas Co-op Power magazine for five years, and while there, compiled and edited two archival cookbooks.
Nicole Basham
Contributing Writer
Nicole is a native Austinite (yes, you read that right!) who lived in Virginia for 8 years but was drawn back home by the allure of Kerbey queso, real barbeque and endless summers. A recovering workaholic, Nicole worked at an international conservation organization and returned to Austin to manage a peer mentoring program for teen girls. Now she is a stay-at-home mama to a hilarious, high-energy preschooler with an active imagination. Although some days are admittedly tough, Nicole feels lucky to have the chance to revisit her favorite childhood hangouts with her son in tow. In addition to that full-time position, she also enjoys playing soccer, listening to live music, volunteering, eating, cooking, dancing, singing in the car and learning new things.
Christine Sinatra
Mommy Mob Contributing Writer
Christine Sinatra first came to Austin from her hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, for college. Like a lot of University of Texas graduates, she got advice to go try living somewhere else for a while and tried that, but it didn’t take. She came back, this time with a husband from the Bay Area of California, who has been a good sport about the Texas heat. In the four years since her daughter’s birth, Christine has tried out full-time motherhood as its own gig, as well as paired with other things, such as full-time graduate school, part-time consulting, full-time out-of-home work, and very occasional novel-writing. She has yet to find a formula that makes it possible to get everything on her to-do list done, but feels a camaraderie with mothers everywhere who try. Christine is the communications director for Texans Care for Children.Her past experience includes working as a reporter for the Austin American-Statesman and the Oakland Tribune company. She is a former Peace Corps volunteer, who taught English to high school girls for two years in Malawi, Central Africa, and she is a graduate of UT’s LBJ School of Public Affairs. Her favorite pastimes include reading about geeky policy and politics stuff, cooking, and engaging in two-person dance parties with her daughter.
Jennifer Ford
Contributing Writer
Jennifer Ford is a native southern Californian, who moved to Austin at the start of Summer ’09. She would still like to know why no one ever mentioned the humidity to her before she showed up. Jennifer has been married for seven years and has two sons, Aiden age 5 and James age 4. Jennifer’s professional background is clinical research/drug development, but she recently ran kicking and screaming from the corporate world to stay at home with her boys, though she still holds a small part-time job at Emerson Child Development Academy in Round Rock. Her favorite things to do are discover new parks and places to splash around, and go on adventures with her boys. In her spare time, Jennifer likes to run triathlons (except can someone please tell her how to train in the Texas heat?), go on road trips, laugh and learn new things. If anyone ever has questions about cloth diapering or babywearing, you should definitely ask Jennifer, as she cloth diapered her sons until potty training age and is a zone director for No Mother Left Behind, an organization that gives slings to mamas who are not otherwise able to afford them.
Christy Moffet
Contributing Writer
Christy has lived a little bit of everywhere, but finally settled down in Austin with her husband eight years ago. She works full time outside of the home and is mom to a funny and loving almost 6 year old daughter. Christy is a Licensed Master Social Worker and has worked in the areas of poverty, basic needs, HIV/AIDS, substance abuse intervention/prevention, affordable housing and community development. An avid football fan, she also loves good music, food, and wine, being out in the sunshine near the pool or lake, and laughing whenever possible.
Lori Anderson
Contributing Writer/ Tech Helper
Lori Anderson is a SAHM to a five-year-old girl and a two-year-old boy. Originally from the San Antonio area, Lori moved to Austin in 1999 and lived in the Austin area until early this year when she and her family relocated to Hong Kong to pursue a job opportunity for her husband, Josh. Currently, Lori is getting acquainted with her new locale and missing her friends and family back home. Lori will be contributing regular features about learning to navigate her new surroundings while also quelling some homesickness for family, friends, and Tex-Mex cuisine.
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Need to get in touch with us? Email Catherine[at]LiveMom[dot]com for all questions, advice, expressions of adoration and more.