Lisa's Biography

I graduated high school in 1984. Then a mere 4.5 years later (record time for those days), I graduated from The University of Iowa, with a BA in Interior Design. A year later, I had a job in my field, at an architectural firm in Iowa City. Then I worked for some furniture dealers that sold office furniture. You know, the cubicle workstations. In 1994, I moved to Des Moines with my then-fiancee. I ended up working for an insurance company in their facilities department. Now I am back at an office furniture dealer doing the cubicles again. My biggest project right now is coordinating the ordering and installing of 5000 new workstation at a new building for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage in West Des Moines. I have also had some fairly exciting projects such as a coffee shop, a car dealership, and a law office where I was able to do all the interior design. This includes space layout, carpet, paint, wallcoverings, as well as all the furniture. I am able to do a variety of projectsat my current job, which keeps it interesting and always challenging.

My personal life - I got married in 1998 to Matt Niebuhr, an architect that I met at my first job. (We obviously had a long engagement. I chickened out.) Then in 2000 we had our first baby, a boy named Miles Bruch Niebuhr. Got the middle name from Grandma's Mom's maiden name. Then in 2003 we had our second baby. Kate Marie Schettler. Yes, I kept my last name when we got married, and then we split up the kids' last names. Weird? Probably. Oh well. We don't really have a whole lot of extracurricular activities at this point with the two young kids. Miles loves to go hunting and fishing and play sports. We can't figure out where he got this, since neither of his parents are into any of those. Someone told us it is in the genes from caveman days! Either that or he gets it from his Grandpa (Marv). Kate loves to write, draw, and read books. This at least makes sense to me since I love those things also.

I am thrilled to have everyone participating in the blog! The older I get, the more I realize that friends may come and go, but your family is stuck with you! You might as well make the best of it!