About Sarah....

Where to start?

I grew up in Glidden, Iowa. I lived in the same house from 1980 (the year I was born) until I moved out to go to college. I have one younger brother, Thomas (Tom), who currently lives in Fort Dodge, Iowa. He has two children, Mitchell and Matthew.

Tom and I are only 17 months apart. How my parents didn't pull all of their hair out is beyond me.

I was born to Michael and Sharon Bolton. Yes, Michael Bolton. I've heard all of the jokes, he's heard all of the jokes and I own the movie "Office Space" as well as an Initech mug that sits on my desk...just to curb all jokes. And yes, Michael Bolton sings. Haha. We get it.

Mike (yes, he goes by Mike) grew up on a farm, has been and will always be a farm boy. As you can tell by his Myspace page. He works at Pella Corp in Carroll but his passion lies in farming. And International Harvesters. He's currently taking classes at DMACC to get his degree. And I think that it totally awesome. It's never too late to get an education. My dad always told me that his mother said, "Get an education. It's the one thing they can't take from you."

Sherry works as a Respiratory Therapist and LPN at a hospital. She likes spending time with her three grandsons and friends. She enjoys playing the nickel machines at Prairie Meadows, playing practical jokes on her friends and Boy George. What? Yeah. Okay, more like Culture Club. She's an AWESOME cook. She cans her own salsas, veggies, juices. I hope she and I can do that again this summer. In one phrase, my mom is the coolest mom anyone could have.

My parents are very religious folks. Mom was the President of the Ladies Guild at the church and Dad is in the choir (remember, Michael Bolton sings). When I was a kid, we basically had to be dying, in the hospital or declared clinically dead by a member of the clergy to miss mass. Every Sunday. Even while on vacation. I hope to instill the good foundation in the Church in my children that my parents gave to me.

You might be wondering why I went into the background on my parents. Well, you can't really get the full effect of who a person is until you understand more about where they came from. That's what I believe anyway.

So there's me. The first born and the only girl. I'll admit it. I was a daddy's girl. But that's okay. My brother was a mamma's boy. Each parent had their kid. =)

I was an okay student A's, B's a few C's. I started swimming in our local swim team at the age of seven. I was a fish. It was easy for me because we lived across the street from the pool. I'd always heard about how rich kids in California had pools in their backyard...well, I had one in my front yard. =) I played softball...one year. I was in right field. I was pretty good at making designs in the grass with my shoes.

I swam for...well, 11 years. I took 7 years of dance (ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical) and still manage to trip on my own feet. But I can do the splits. It's too bad I can't add that to my resume. I was a cheerleader, ran track for a few years, dance team and choir. I looked like the "All-American" chick. I was the "nice girl" who finally grew into her looks (and grew boobs) her junior year of high school.

When I graduated high school, I attended Iowa State University and was a Psych major. I was going to be a family therapist. Funny how things work out. Let's just say I learned A LOT about myself my first two years at Iowa State. I moved back home, worked at Pella Corp that summer, went to DMACC in the fall and was involved in Community Theatre. I played Sister Mary Paul in "Nuncrackers". I graduated from DMACC (with honors) with an Associate Degree in Liberal Arts. I was inducted into Phi Theta Kappa. I worked as a waitress (server) my last semester there. I worked at American Home Shield the next summer before heading back to Iowa State. I had decided to change my major to English after taking a creative writing course at DMACC. I had always loved to write, and I had a prof who told me I wasn't allowed to preface any of my readings with "this isn't very good, but..". She gave me a lot of encouragement, so to thank her, after being inducted to PTK, I nominated her for the "Who's who best teacher" award.

At Iowa State, I learned a lot about buckling down and studying hard. I had a good time too, don't get me wrong, but I really enjoyed my last two years at Iowa State. I had above a 3.0 each semester as well. I even took 12 credits over the summer! I worked for the Iowa State Daily as an opinion columnist. I got paid to piss people off and tell them what I thought. It was a great job. I also worked for the Republican Party of Iowa that fall. I finally graduated in December of 2002.

Let me also state that I wasn't always a Republican. In fact, I was a registered Democrat when I applied for the RPI job in the fall of 2002. Everyone back home was a Democrat. And Kennedy was a Democrat, and he's Catholic...so I should be too, right? Wrong. After 9/11, I really got to thinking. I was really a Republican at heart and I let it show in my opinion column. That was a lot of fun.

After graduation I went to work for Chuck Gipp, who was the Iowa House Majority Leader at the time. It's funny how rumors spread back to Glidden. I went back for the weekend and was out at a club. Someone had come up to me and asked me how long I was going to be home for. I told him I just came home for the weekend. He couldn't believe that...the flights must be so expensive for me!! I didn't know what he was talking about, and later found out that people were saying I'd gone to work in D.C. Um..no. D.C. is not Des Moines.

I learned a lot about the legislative process (and even more about politics) while working there. I had a job lined up working for Chuck Grassley's re-election campaign. I worked on the Campaign from May of 2003-November 2004. I was sad when it ended but I had made a lot of great friends, met many cool people and learned a lot.

I also met David in January of 2004. Little did I know he was going to be my husband!!

David and I moved in together (oh no!) in March of 2004 (quick, I know). We hit it off right away and figured, eh, why not?

I went to work with Citigroup in January after doing some temp work in December. We found out we were expecting in March of 2005 and our son William (Liam) was born in November of 2005.

David proposed during labor (he's always got interesting timing for things) but offically proposed on Christmas night 2005. We were married on October 7, 2006.

I now work for the Agribusiness Association of Iowa and I volunteer as Co-Chair for the Polk County Republicans.

That pretty much brings you up to speed on where I am right now. Now if I could get David to write something about himself. =)