I’m Naomi Star Krush, 30 years old, and I was born and raised in northern Illinois. It’s hard to know where to begin but I can start with my family.
I met my husband online, on a dating site, in 2015. Mark needed a date to his brother’s wedding and I was looking for a husband. On our first date, we bonded over our love for dogs, and we began talking about moving West. We got married one year later in Estes Park, CO with just Mark’s parents, brother, and sister-in-law as our guests. Nine months after that, we joyously welcomed our son, Michael, into the world.
In April 2019, we relocated to Idaho. We planned and researched for years about where to move, but ultimately, we looked at a map and picked a town. We thought we would end up in Colorado but after a lot of research between Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and Idaho, we chose eastern Idaho. My husband drove from IL to ID two times to scope things out and choose a town.
As far as my career goes… I worked in retail from 2008-2019. I grew in my career with retail and after a few promotions, I was making a salary that most don’t even make after obtaining a college degree. But the retail environment wore heavily on me. I am most definitely an introvert and, while I can be social at times, being around a lot of people drains me. I worked as a retail manager until I couldn’t bare it any longer. Since deciding to leave retail in 2018, I have struggled to find decent work. My husband is permanently disabled and is the stay at home parent in our home, so his income is fixed.
I recently started a little craft business on Etsy called Pine and Party Co to help with my anxiety and bring in side income, so I spend the great majority of my free time designing and creating paper decorations. It is a really fun and creative outlet for me to create pretty things and have something I can do that makes me proud of myself. My best seller is this Chugga Chugga Two Two Cake Topper that I designed for Michael’s 2nd birthday.
One important, and maybe unexpected, thing about me is my westie dog, Gatsby. Gatsby helped me through some deeply hard times, but shortly after he turned one years old, he started to show aggression. The aggression quickly intensified and is still a daily struggle. Both my husband and I have been bitten by Gatsby numerous times. Gatsby is separated in our house and Michael is obviously not allowed near him. In the last three years I have talked to trainers, a board-certified animal behaviorist, multiple vets, westie owners, and the overall advice has been to put him down. He was likely inbred at a kennel in Kentucky and even the medication he is on doesn’t help much. Gatsby has a huge chunk of my heart and my husband and I feel dedicated to trying our hardest to give Gatsby the best life he’s able to have for as long as we can handle it.
I have always enjoyed writing. I have written a few short stories and poems, but my favorite project was a book called Displaced. My best friend, Kathy, and I wrote it together and I still desperately want to see it get published. It is about a group of Greek Gods and Goddesses who are displaced into human bodies. The book tells the story of some of the displaced as they discover their true identities and fight for or against history repeating itself. Other than writing, I love being outdoors, exploring, animal watching, camping, crafting, and trying new recipes. I also spend an unfavorable amount of time watching shows on Netflix.
I also try to engage in a fitness community called Tone It Up (TIU) which is all about female empowerment and being healthy. I like the TIU community because the trainers, Karena and Katrina, are so fun and relatable. I have been following them since 2013 and completed at least one challenge that got me in the best shape of my life. There were a lot of TIU girls in Illinois, but I haven’t come across many in Idaho. I have become very overweight in the last year and a half, after going through a phase of being unemployed and getting depressed. I am very eager to get back in shape and start feeling confident again.
