Ashley Carey, Zag's new property manager, is originally from York, Nebraska, and she found Omaha the way a lot of people do—romance. “A man, my ex-husband. You know, I never wanted to actually move here. I thought I wanted the small town life till I got here. I've been here about 22 years now, and I don't plan on going anywhere.” Somehow she managed to find many of the things she loved about small town life right in Omaha.

When they first moved here, they lived in Florence, one of Omaha's best-kept secrets. “I loved it because it was like a little town in a big town.” When they were ready to start a family, they bought a house in Bellevue. “Again, it's a small town in a big city. I like that I still have everything I need nearby and it still feels like home. It's very convenient and not everybody knows everybody.”

Ashley has a 15-year-old son named Paxton and a baby girl Bernadoodle named Miss Penny Mae. “She’s about a year and 4 months . She was kind of the black sheep of the family. She looks a lot like a Labradoodle but her brothers and sisters all look like Bernadoodles. She is pretty adorable.” 

 like most outdoorsy people, her spare time activities are weather related. Paxton is a competitive fisherman (and has been since he was 5 years old), so they go to a lot of tournaments, camping along the way. “And I just got a camper this winter for the first time so I'm excited to learn how to take that out. But in the winter I really am a homebody.” She enjoys taking a break and cooking along to music or watching a little TV as she cooks. “And I have been known to go ice fishing, because he doesn't stop, even if  it’s -10.” Now that it's summer, she drops Paxton off at a lake or creek with his friends and they stay all day until she gets off work. Growing up on a farm, she didn't have video games and wasn't really into TV. “I was outside, in reality.” And she has instilled the value of living “outside in reality” into her son. “I think it's important that he gets to do the things that make him into the person that he's going to be someday.”

One thing Ashley definitely loved about farm life is her horses. She showed horses from the age of 3 to 18 and misses it every day. She's still in touch with old friends and will, on rare and wonderful occasions, get to go ride. But definitely not as much as she would like.

Ashley is currently studying for her life and health insurance license. She plans to work with a family friend whose business deals solely with supplemental care for veterans. “I figured since I'm in Bellevue, I know so many veterans and people in the military that it's something I can do on weekends for some extra money. And then I can help and guide some of these older gentleman that are getting ready to retire and who don't know exactly everything about Medicare and the other supplemental things they’re going to need.”

We will end now with some fighting words from Ashley regarding football. She is a big Detroit Lions fan. “And now that our team is actually winning it becomes quite a competition with me during football season. We were in the gutter for so long. We have been number one or two on the bottom of the NFL for for like 35, 40 years. We were the worst. The last three years, after we got new coaches and new directors and a new team, we almost went to the Super Bowl. We are the underdog that came out of nowhere and it's blown everyone away. My favorite t-shirt says “I can now wear Lion's gear at any time.” Does she think they might win the next Super Bowl? “As long as we beat Green Bay, it doesn't matter.”