Meet the Fam

Hi, I’m Ray!

I was born and raised in Northern California and I currently live in Utah with my little family. I came here for college and never left, even though I never expected to end up here. The gorgeous mountains and marrying a cute Utah boy will do that to ya. I have a BS in Applied Statistics from BYU and worked for a few years as a data analyst. Now, I get to be with our cute boys full-time! We have T (age 3), E (age 1), and Mose (the 70-pound pup). I love thrift shopping and working on home improvement projects. We’re a pretty wild family – we tend to go on walks or trips to Costco for fun, but I love the times we get out to be in the mountains or travel together. I served an 18-month proselytizing mission in Louisiana/Mississippi, where I solidified my already deep-rooted love for Jesus and cornbread.

Our Purpose

We are absolutely NOT here to “influence” you or anyone else, mostly because we don’t know what we’re doing most of the time. In the last few years, I have also come to realize that the less media I consume, the happier I am. I think that’s because the overabundance of voices and images keeps me in a toxic cycle of comparison, cravings for worldly things, and mindless numbing. When I step back from all that mental commotion, I have time to reflect on how I really want to spend my precious time and what really matters to me. I still have a lot of room for growth in this area, but I want my approach to this site to reflect that principle.

We want KISS to be helpful to you, whether you need ideas or just need to know you’re not alone. If you are on our site, we hope it is because you find it is uplifting and adds value to your life. What we don’t want to do is tell you how to live, teach, or parent. As we share our personal experiences with these things, you won’t find picture-perfect images, spotless houses, or conformity with the latest trends. You WILL see us doing a lot of trying. Trying to be patient, wise, and fun. Trying to be disciples of Jesus. As you see what home education looks like for us, you’ll witness our failures, too. We hope that KISS can become a place of community, mutual learning, and even commiseration (because we all need it sometimes). Welcome to the fun! We’re so glad you’re here.

Meet Christopher

We met during a BYU Study Abroad program in Jerusalem (my favorite place ever). He is self-employed doing digital marketing and works from home – hallelujah! He’s an incredible pianist and loves to read and play games (Risk + Minecraft are some favorites). Refuses to play Scrabble with me except on my birthday.

Our Boys

We have two little boys, T (3), and E (1). They are an absolute delight (except when they’re not)! They both love vehicles and are total momma’s boys. You’ll hear a lot about them in K.I.S.S., but in the interest of protecting their privacy, we don’t use their full names and avoid posting full-face photos of them. You will, however, see pictures of our third (and oldest) boy, Mose, whenever I can come up with an excuse to share them!

Subscribe