GainesvilleMoms.com

We'd love to learn more about you!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Stacy Fournier,

I am so excited to be picked for MOTW!!!

I grew up in the Gainesville area and met my husband here. We both graduated from UF and moved away shortly after graduating. My degree is in Journalism and my husband has an undergraduate and graduate degree in accounting. We always wanted to move back to G'Ville one day and kept our eyes on that prize. It finally worked out that we could move back and we did in 2006! We bought an older house in the NW area of town with a big yard and have been slowly remodeling it. Interior design/architecture is my passion and what I would want to do full time, if I could! I am an HGTV junkie! We have two children (boy 4yrs 8 months/ girl 2 yrs. 3 months). I work from home full time (in Human Resources). My husband works for UF in accounting. Our children are our number one priority and we spend most of our time/energy and resources focused on ensuring they have a wonderful / enchanted childhood. My husband and I both come from close knit & loving families and I feel fortunate everyday for the life that we have! However, that is not to say that I am not a typical overworked, underpaid, stressed out, mentally and physically exhausted MOM who survives on coffee and adrenaline most days and eventually finds the end of her rope from time to time .

I can relate! My husband and I also come from very loving families, and we try to give our daughter everything we can. But on some days, parenthood is simply overwhelming! So do you hope to stay put in Gainesville for a while now?

Isn't it fun to become a junkie of fun TV stuff?? I am hooked on Food Network - TOTAL foodie and getting to be a pretty great cook in the process! Such a shame no one in the house will eat an actual meal but me...oh well, the neighbors are well fed (and the stray kitties outside too). Speaking of kitties, I never knew your name was Lila - I have a yellow kitty named Lila!! Good thing we don't have Skype for chats or you would think you were getting scolded from time to time as she can be quite a little snippy thing with the other kitties! LOL

How do you do HR from home? I always figured that would have to be an inter-office thing.

Great to know more about you Lila. I've enjoyed meeting you and your little ones -- they're adorable.

Lila, I, too, am an HGTV junkie. Did you buy an old Victorian house to remodel? I would love to live in one of those old, funky, unique houses. Well, I say I would, but if it had all the problems that old houses can sometimes have, maybe not. With a job, hubby and 3 kids, my patience can wear pretty thin these days, and I need things to work when they're supposed to work. But I do love those old houses with fireplaces in every room, big, huge kitchens, other huge rooms, and then tiny, little surprising "cubby rooms" (as I call them) tucked away in places that you would never expect.

Now that I've waxed on a little, you seem like a great mom with some terrific kids and a very good head on your shoulders!

Thank you for your interest in my bio!

Yes- we do plan to stay in Gainesville as long as we can. Of course, one never knows where jobs could lead us. However, while open to new opportunities, for now we are not actively searching them out as we love it here!

I also love the Food Network and like to cook. However, I mostly just watch the show, get hungry, go to the pantry for some crackers and peanut butter-make a grocery list recording the items I need to make the actual dish, only to forget the list when I go shopping, eventually lose it and end up never cooking it!

Our house it not a Victorian, although it is my dream to live in one some day! It is a 4 bedroom 1968 ranch. What we love the most about it is the back yard which possum creek runs through!

Great to have a cat named after me! My name is pronounced Lela. However, is spelled Lila-so many people know me as Lila (pronounced Lyla).

P.S regarding HR from home. I worked in an office in Tampa. After my first child was born, I requested to work from home as I had a 1 hr. commute each way (do not miss Tampa traffic). I work for a great company and they agreed! When we moved to G'Ville, they agreed to let me continue to WFH. When I am doing something which requires a face to face meeting, I travel to the necessary location (mostly in FL & NY). Many people on my team work from home now (I have been doing it for almost 5 years). We do a ton of conference calls and web meetings etc. Modern technology makes almost anything possible. The only down side is I tend to be a workaholic as I can work round the clock!

It's nice to have you as MOTW! I'm looking forward to your facts, questions, and photos!

Thats pretty cool for the WFH thing, I wish more employers would recognize the value of allowing this! I can 100% agree on the Tampa traffic, and I live about 45 mintues away! We have gone up for a couple of things and each time I am reminded why we don't live there.

When I was still in G'ville I lived at the property I managed so I pretty much did my work from home, largely because with all the paperwork, data entry and reports we were required to do, there was no way to get them done while the office was open! I loved being a one person office but it would have been much better to let me be "behind the scenes" and take care of all of that. They used to send me to other properties in Jax (talk about traffic!) and Ocala to get them caught up on all of that stuff.

So, this company....they hiring?

PS...sharing a name with one of my cats is much like sharing a name with one of my kids, only the cats are appreciated more as they don't talk back much.

Yay Lila!

I completely believe that WFH jobs are like winning the lotto. Anytime you try to look at the help wanted ads, it's all scams. I would love to find something for me to do to earn some money while I'm home with Max.

Where did you live when you were working in Tampa? I lived in the Land O Lakes area until I was eight.

Is your husband going to be starting the four 10 hour day work week? Sadly, DH's department doesn't have enough staff and will not be doing it.

Can't wait to see your facts and pictures.

Congrats Lila for being mom of the week! I hope that I get tomeet ya soon!

Elizabeth