I was born in Honolulu, HI, and raised in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach, VA, area.  I am married and have two children--a boy and a girl--and two grandsons.  My son lives in Indianapolis and my daughter, her family, my husband and I live in Blue Anchor, NJ.  My husband and I have an apartment attached to my daughter's house.  My oldest grandson (19) is a sophomore at Drexel University and my youngest grandson (soon to be 17) is a junior in high school.  My son will be marrying over Labor Day weekend, 2009, and I hope to eventually get some more grandchildren from this union.  I hope one will be girl.  I also hope I will be able to move back to Indianapolis to be near this new crop of grandchildren since my two grandsons always lived so far away I was fortunate to see them 2 or 3 times a year.

I moved to Blue Anchor, NJ, three years ago from Indianapolis.  I have a husband in progressive stage of MS.  I had to put him in a nursing home for 30 days when I had major surgery in Feb 2003.  However, his MS had progressed to the point I could not bring him home afterward.  He was no longer able to transfer from bed to his wheelchair and was having trouble sitting in his wheelchair.  My daughter suggested we build a house together in NJ where she lived.  It wasn't something I really wanted to do but I felt it would be the right thing to do for my husband since it would allow me to bring him home and have help caring for him.  My daughter made the suggestion in the fall of 2003 and we moved into our new house in Oct 2005. 

When I made the decision, I thought I would be able to advantage of an early retirement offer.  One never came.  As the home came closer to completion, I requested an individual offer of early retirement from my organization.  I worked for the Defense Finance and Accounting Service in Indianapolis.  I had worked there since Nov 1992.  Instead I was offered telework.  I teleworked from Nov 2005 to July 3, 2008, when I retired because I became eligible for normal retirement at the age of 60 with 28 years of service.

Indianapolis was the place I have lived the longest.  My husband retired from the US Army so we moved around a lot.  Luckily for us, he was in the service when he was diagnosed with MS and is now 100% service connected which means the Veterans Administration takes care of all his health needs.  The Philadelphia VA where he is seen primarily has a spinal cord injured unit.  The Indianapolis VA did not.  I feel that he gets better care from Philadelphia VA because of the SCI unit and that moving here has prolonged his life.  However, I miss my friends very much.  Because I am the primary caretaker for my husband and teleworked for 2 1/2 years, I have not had a forum for meeting new friends here.  Now that I am retired, I hope to change that by volunteering and taking craft classes, especially quilting classes.

My best friend in Indy got me into quilting.  She is an avid quilter.  One day I said I wanted to take a beginning quilting class if she would take one with me.  She learned from her grandmom rather than from any classes.  She agreed and our friendship grew stronger.  Even though I took several classes after that and have started several quilts, I have not finished any projects but I have collected a lot of fabric and quilt books.  Quilting is the one venue where I feel I can be creative and I want to finish the quilts I've started and create more quilts in my retirement.  I actually thought about opening my own quilt shop although I am in no way experienced to teach quilting.  I decided that owning a shop would be quite a lot of work and not really something I want to devote so much time to at this stage of my life.  If I still lived in Indy, I would probably try to get a job at one of the four local quilt shops.  There is only one very small quilt shop where I live now.

I also hope to travel.  I would have to travel by myself or try to get friends or family to travel with me.  My husband is not able to travel and I hesitate to travel when he can't.  Some of the quilting magazines to which I subscribe offer quilt cruises to wonderful places like Australia and New Zealand, Quatamala, and China.  I would like to sign up for at least one of these tours every year or every other year.  They sound like a lot of fun.

I also like to go to home shows, garden shows, and arts and crafts shows.  I have another friend in Indy and going to different shows like these is what we did together besides dinner and movies.  I really miss my friends.

I don't know if I have a sense of style.  I usually wear a pair of slacks in black, brown or navy blue and a colorful tee shirt type with 3/4 sleeves.  I am retired now so I don't wear skirts anymore.  If I am cool, I will put a sweat jacket over my shirt, preferably one without a hoodie.  My hair is completely white and grows quickly.  Therefore, I go to the salon to have my roots touched up every other week.  I also have my nails done every two years.  I am a nail biter unless I keep the acrylic on my nails. 

I started putting on weight after I put my husband in the nursing home.  I have gone from a size 8/10 to a size 18 or 1X.  I had gastric bypass surgery in Feb 2000 and lost 120 pounds.  I know I have gained weight because I am not controlling what I eat and not because the surgery itself has failed.  I have become very sedentary since moving to NJ between caring for my husband and teleworking.  I recently joined Curves.  My hopes is that getting up and moving at Curves will lead to an increase in energy and a disinterest in continuing my current eating habits--kind of like a domino effect.