I tend to get wordy, but will try to keep it brief.
I got married within a year after graduating. Had two children and then divorced after10 years. Lived in Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island at the time. Husband was in the Navy stationed at the air base there. I kept our home and stayed there to raise the kids and let them finish school there. After working at several jobs...including waitressing, bartending, etc. I put myself through a community college and got an ATA degree. Was fun raising two kids, going to school and working part time!!
After graduating from college, I went to work in social services for several years. Mostly worked with the Big Brother/Big Sister program, but was also the program director for the Armed Services YMCA for a few years as well.
Liked being single, so when I met my current husband it scared me to think about giving up my freedom. But it was meant to be... we are definitely soul mates or knew each other in another life or ? I did keep my maiden name (which I had gone back to upon the divorce) when Jim and I got married.
After awhile we moved to Anacortes on Fidalgo Island and lived there for 5 years before moving across the state to Colville. I worked at the Arts Foundation Director and then as a real estate agent in Anacortes... also became a "quilter" about that time as well.
After we moved to Colville, I taught quilting in local area quilt shop/fabric stores for a few years, but then had to get a "real job". I am the Executive Officer for the local Association of REALTORS®. Having been in the real estate business was a plus. I am still very much involved in quilting and fabric art... my studio is larger than the cabin we live in. But I don't teach as often anymore
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We bought almost 6 acres in the woods and built a "temporary" cabin and a huge shop with my studio above the shop on one end. My windows look out over the Little Pend Oreille River...which is more like a creek than a river. After building the shop, we ran out of money and we are still living in the temporary cabin (which by the way is really nice, but small) 12 years later.
My kids, Michelle (Shelly) and John (JP) are now 36 & 35. They both live in the Puyallup area near Tacoma in a suberb named Sumner. Shelly and her husband have a daughter -- Monique. She is 16 already. I just spent a night with them after a conference in Tacoma. We all went out to dinner and Monique drove me to dinner in her little red car. I lived through it and managed to stay calm and act like I was pleased with here driving.!!@##@@ Actually she is a great kid and it was not all that bad. She spends a week with us every summer and we really enjoy her. Going to do the grandkid thing FIRST next time... to heck with having the kids... just go straight to having grandkids. Speaking of straight to grandkids. That is exactly what our son did. He married a lady a little older than himself and she has a grown daughter with two little ones. So JP is a granddad at age 35. JP has Addisons Disease and cannot have children so this was perfect for him. He loves being a grandpa. And... NO that does not make me a "great grandma"... well sorta I guess. I did make them each a quilt.
My husband, Jim, is a classic car nut and is currently doing body work and such for a living. He has done many things in his life though and seems to be great at whatever he does.... he is an artist (Sculptures) and it shows in whatever he does. But... neither of us has a retirement so will have to work until the day we drop dead.
Anyway.... we have a really cool fastback Mustang that he completely redid. And...several other automobiles in different stages of being redone... or not -- some are just sitting. The biggest problem with getting them done is we have a new addiction that takes up most of our good weather free time.
That is we both have Harley motorcycles. Jim used to ride years ago and we decided a couple years ago that if we were going to ride, we had better do it while we are still fairly healthy. Jim is 10 years older than me (calls himself "The Old Fart"). So he got his bike. I really did not like riding on the back and one day when we went to the HOG shop to get him a new rear wheel for his bike we walked out having bought me a bike. He never did get that wheel. So then I had to practice a lot and get my license. This will be my second summer of riding. We hope to venture a little further away from home this year.
Anyway... thats the basics of my life.
Hope to hear from other cousins.
Bunny
Look what I found! This is Grandpa Frank, Grandma Pansy, Clair and me (Carol). You can click on the image to enlarge it some.
