Hi, I guess if you are here, you must have clicked on one of my links... especially since I don't advertise this page! LOL... so here we go.
I was born on Nov 10th, 1963, yes, that makes me 38 now (ouch). I think I am just realizing it since I got notice of my 20 year class reunion.
I am the mother of Colleen, a wickedly gorgeous little girl who turned 10 in Oct.and in 4th Grade now and participating in Project Challenge since she was soaring above her class in scores... (Not that I'm biased or anything) She has her own computer surfs like a pro and even chats with our friends and relatives on ICQ.
We live with my boyfriend of 7 years, Doug. He is
a senior computer configuration technician for a nationwide computer
rental/leasing company. We are living in what was originially
his grandparents house, then his father's in Overland, MO, it's
a suburb of St. Louis, MO. It was built in 1925 and they purchased
it in 1945.
On August 29th, 1999 we adopted a beautiful Greyhound named Pinky. And then the weekend of October 7, 2000 we drove to Solomon, Kansas... 7 miles west of Abilene, Kansas
The Greyhound Capitol of the world (getting the hint yet?) We
picked up our boy Drew. Get to know our canine kids
here.
My life has gone through a lot of changes over the past few years and
the biggest and hardest things to deal with throughout all of this has
been the diagnosed and undiagnosed disorders that I have.
Dec of '95 I had a major panic/anxiety attack. And subsequently was diagnosed
with Generalized Anxiety Disorder. I started seeing a therapist, but things
just didn't go right with her and I ended up stopping treatment. I acquired
another diagnosis in the spring of 1998, Bipolar Disorder.
Eventually I will start posting more information on all of this, my dr's
and I have many different types of drugs, at this point I am on several different
medications. Some of the ones I've been on in the past have had some pretty nasty side affects that I couldn't
deal with and so we moved on to a different one. All I know is that this
is very frustrating for my family and myself. Doug has been here, put
up with this nightmare roller coaster ride that we've been through...
In April of 2000 I was diagnosed with Fibromyaglia. There are many different descriptions of it, all I know is that there are extremely severe muscle aches, horrible sleeplessness, fatigue, stiffness, headaches... here's a link to learn more about it: Fibromyaglia Facts
I have rather eclectic interests... I've always called myself
a Jack of all Trades and a Mistress of none. When I was in HS
and College I was really into Music and Drama, I'm an Honor Thespian...
means I spent a lot of time behind and on the stage. I took vocal
lessons for many years, but my "stage fright" (aka anxiety
& panic attacks) finally took over and I stopped performing
when I was about 20.
When I couldn't afford to go to college anymore I went to Cosmetology School. I had been doing makeup and hair for the theatrical productions and enjoyed it so much I figured I could do it for a living. I worked as a makeup artist and hairstylist for many years.
I moved to Dallas in 1985, I really liked it a lot down there.... great place for a single girl.. LOL. Then I moved back to St. Louis in 1990. I met Colleen's biological father then. He was an over-the-road truck driver. I ended up going to Truck Driving School and drove with him as a team for about a year or so until I got pregnant with Colleen. The doctors told me that I had to quit driving when I was about 5 months pregnant, so there went my driving career.
After Colleen was born I tried my hand at designing costume jewelry and started my own business. I had done it for fun down in Dallas, but wanted to make it a full time thing up here after Colleen's bio-dad left us. I was lucky enough to get into a program for single mothers who wanted to start up a business and landed a grant. That's when I got my first computer! Boy, was I hooked!
My jewelry sold well. Well, when I could pull myself together enough to go out and sell it for myself. See this is when so much of the Anxiety and Bipolar (manic depression) really started showing up. I tried my hand at several things working from home, needless to say none of it has ever been a landfall due to my illness.
Doug and I met online if you can imagine. We were both members of a local BBS (bulletin board service). This was pre-WWW, the internet was all text-based and AOL was pretty much a new thing. I ended up helping to run one BBS on my own, then after Doug and I met we helped run another. We ended up owning it and that's where "thegrotto.com" came from in my email address.
Doug, Colleen and I lived with his mom for a while, until we started rehabbing the house. When we finished rehabbing the house in Feb of '98... well, kinda... I may never think it's "totally" finished!!!
It's a 1925 One Bedroom Bungalow. We all but gutted the kitchen
(all it had was a huge porcelain sink on the wall!), the hallway
and the living room (which consists of the old front porch and
dining room).
The original living room is now our master bedroom, and the original
bedroom is now the kidlet's room.
Click Here if you'd like to see some of
our Project!!! {{{beware, many images}}}
Here is a picture of me just for reference, and several pictures of all of us through the years.
guess who
Colleen's 4th grade class picture
the family in '97
Well, I'll be adding more and trying to make sense... have more pictures to scan and add, and more thoughts as well as links to put up!! See you soon!