Where to begin?? Let's see...
Home
My husband, three children and I live about 20 miles from Charlottesville. We moved from West Virginia six years ago when my husband was transferred by his employer. Our house was built right in the middle of 25 acres of planted pines. Its so quiet here at and the sky is beautiful at night.
Family
I guess what best defines me would be my children. I'm either Allison, Megan or Andrew's mom. They're pretty good kids for the most part. They get good grades in school and they do their chores most of the time. I know growing up is hard and I wish my kids would know that I understand that. I also wish I could make them understand that the choices they make today will impact them for the rest of their lives. I'm not talking about the simple choices like what TV show to watch, although, have you seen some of the shows out there? I can't believe the amount of cussing and implied sexual content there is in CARTOONS for heaven's sake. Anyway, here is a picture of my family:
Animals
We have two horses; Blaze, a 9 year old mare and Cherokee, a 5 year old gelding. They seem to get along ok. Blaze is clearly top dog (or horse) in the coral. We've had her since she was about a year old, so it was a bit of an adjustment for her when Cherokee came along. This is Blaze:
We also have 10 hens and a rooster that are free range - not kept in a coop. The advantage to having chickens is fresh eggs every morning and finding them is like an Easter egg hunt. The disadvantage is that the rooster likes to chase everyone around the yard.
Then there are the 13 ducks that are free range, too. We have two types; Peking (the white ducks) and Mallard ( the type the hunters like to shoot). They also provide fresh eggs. I don't like to eat the eggs as a meal, but for those of you who like to bake, there isn't anything like cranberry bread made with fresh duck eggs.
We have about 10 cats (spayed or neutered now). My daughter brought home the really cute cat one day and, against my better judgment, I let her keep it. Well, I'm sure you can figure out the rest of the story...of course...the cat was pregnant. I didn't ever think we would get them all fixed before another litter would come along. They're all unique and very affectionate. My most favorite is an all black male cat named George. I sometimes think he thinks he's a person. When he wants to go outside he puts his paws on the doorknob, but of course without thumbs, he doesn't get very far.
Oh...I almost forgot to mention our 5 dogs. We have three black labs, one white lab and a border collie. They love to play fetch and tug of war.
Hobbies
I have too many hobbies to list them all, but my most favorite hobbies are ceramics, tennis, and reading.
I began working with ceramics about 30 years ago. Just painting figures at first, then I started pouring my own pieces about 10 years ago. I have a kiln to fire the pieces and about 2500 different molds, but never enough time to really get my hands dirty. This is one of my pieces:
I watch and try to play tennis as often as I can. Agassi is my favorite tennis player. I think it's because he seems so nice on and off the court. When he retires I'll start cheering for Rodick. It's tough when they play each other, because I like them both, but Andre will probably always be my favorite.
I love to read and I always have a book going. I'll read just about anything but romance novels. I think I read most of Grisham's novels and all but the latest Patricia Cornwell. I like Ken Follett and his "Pillars of the Earth" was wonderful. I finished "The De Vinci Code" about a year ago and that was a real eye opener.
Work
I work at UVA. I started there about three years age. Before that, I worked as an office manager for a small business. I took some time off, (about eight years) to stay at home and raise my children. While I would never trade those years for anything, its nice to interact with other adults and be able to discuss other topics of interest as well as talk about our children.
I hope you enjoyed your visit to my web site. Thanks for stopping by.