Thanks, Mary Ellen (aka Higgin's Mom) for starting this thread - one of my favorite things in life is to learn about others! As Schatzie mom said - "EVERYONE has a story!"
& to FastEddie - thanks for providing such a fun place to come & meet so many great people with great stories & great information!!! I am amazed at the maturity level of many of the younger members here & love the sense of humor & wisdom of some of the more mature (vs older
) members.
A little about me - I'm turning 49 the end of this month & cannot believe I will be turning 50 next year. I think once I got out of college, I quit aging - until I look in the mirror or run into some of my old highschool buddies that I graduated with & see how they are aging!!!
Also, I think I still FEEL young because I am the youngest of eleven children & my mom still refers to me as "her baby!"
I was born & raised in Edmond, OK - a suburb just north of Oklahoma City. (So close to OKC, in fact, that our windows rattled when the bombing occured in 1995.) I married my highschool sweetheart, Phil, - we started dating our senior year (we were basketball queen & captain together
) & married after graduating college in 1978. Our first child, Isaac, was born ten months later (no sense in waiting, huh). We have three children - Isaac 26, Mandy 24, & Audra 20. I worked parttime until our third child was born & then became a stay-at-home mom. We worked hard to give our kids a good home & family life. I home-schooled all of our children thru 4th grade & they were all very competitive in gymnastics. We traveled all over the U.S. for meets & spent MANY MANY hours in the gym as well as MANY MANY $$$ (Phil worked two jobs for several years so that I could remain home with kids.) They all made it to the Elite level but at different times each grew tired & weary of the sport & the wear & tear on their bodies. Our youngest daughter was able to make the women's US team (6 gymnasts) & traveled to China for a US/China meet. (That was pretty exciting!) Our middle daughter went on to make the co-ed varsity cheerleading squad at University of Oklahoma. They all three are great kids & I hope to some day have many grandkids!!!!!!!!! In the meantime, however, since they are all out of the house, we have two new puppies.
Our love for Yorkies began back in 1988 when we purchased our first Yorkie Mocha for $350 - my family could not believe we would pay that much for a dog!! Mocha was with our family until May, 2004 & was a wonderful dog. We knew very little about the breed other than they were small & cute! I have learned more in the past four months on YT about Yorkies than I ever did having one in the house for 15 years!!! lol We laugh now how Mocha ate the same food, used same shampoo, no toys except socks & a few chew bones, etc. & lived a long, happy life! LOVE & attention goes a long way!! With Kodah (our 20 week Yorkie) & Stormy (our 15 week Yorkie/Maltese) we have researched food, shampoos
, chew toys, health issues, etc. - funny what you do when you have more time on your hands!!
Since all of my kids are out of the house, I STILL fill my time with my kids (our girls live in a condo three miles from the house & son is in Norman, OK) & with my extended family. My mother is now 87 years old & needs a little more help then in years past & I still have five sisters & three brothers who live in OKC area. I love photography - just spent last weekend taking TONS of pictures at my nieces rehearsal dinner & her wedding day. I do this a lot for my family. (& we have a HUGE extended family) (They think I know a whole lot more than I do
) The time-consuming part of digital photography is putting the pictures on the computer & running them thru photoshop!!! & then playing with the many different looks you can achieve. I enjoy it, though! I love this time in my life when no kids are NEEDING me to cook, clean or be somewhere!! I think I could get use to this - but I would like to do some volunteer work, once the puppies are potty trained & well adjusted. My husband is president of an insurance company that handles attorney malpractice insurance - loves his job & is good at what he does! I still run three miles, six days a week & enjoy mowing & working in our yard. I do feel truly blessed in life - not that we have not had many ups & downs but God is always faithful in seeing us through the hard times as well as giving us MANY good times!
Okay, enough!!!! I love to read about everyone & even though I don't post as much as many of you - I do think of all of you as family & laugh when you laugh & cry when you cry! I look forward to being here a long time. Here are a couple of pictures of my family taken a few months ago in Florida! (Did I mention I LOVE pictues - both taking them & seeing EVERYONE elses!!)