My parents blessedly passed by the popular names of the day and chose to call me, Crystal. Despite my unique name I had a rather typical small town upbringing in the middle of the state of Maine. During my preteen years I joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This choice altered the course of my life.

Following graduation I moved around between Utah, Tennessee, and Maine as I tried to figure out what God wanted for me. During this time I worked at various jobs and took religious and sign language courses off and on. After a few years I "met" my husband on an LDS online match site. Following the unmistakable spiritual prompting to marry this man, we arranged to meet one another and our families in person and soon married in the Washington D.C. temple for time and all eternity. Within weeks we found out we were expecting our first child and that is what inspired me to start this website, Crystal Voice, back in 1998.

Our family moved from Tennessee, where we spent our first 10 years of marriage, to Utah in 2008. We purchased our first home (which was a short sale) the tail end of 2009. For the first several years we spent a lot of our time making improvements and managing a large garden, beehives, and chickens. As our children grow up and out of our home, we have scaled down our "urban farm" ambitions. Our dream is to one day build a home tailor made just for us.

My husband, Gene, and I have been blessed with five children, all of which have had various "special needs" that have required many hours of meetings, therapy, and extra effort in the day-to-day tasks we all face. I've become familiar with the life of those dealing with autism, Asperger Syndrome, ODD (oppositional defiant disorder), SPD (sensory processing disorder), speech delays, and fine/gross motor skill delays. I've blamed this all on "Gene"tics (sorry dear, love you anyway). Despite it all, my children are worth every moment of frustration, and they inspire me to do better and to be better.

Beyond being a wife and mother I try and find ways to feed my desire to create and improve. I serve in my church regularly and have several connections online that I maintain. As my family grows and the dynamics change I continue to try and figure out what God wants from me. I'll share this journey with you throughout CRYSTAL VOICE.