More About Me

Created 8-6-99

More About Me

Background

Family

Pets

Background
I was born and raised a Southern girl in New Orleans, Louisiana. Part of a big Cajun family I spent every Sunday afternoon eating gumbo, and talking over and around grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. A lot of fun if you've never tried it. I moved to Allentown, PA for high school. Just a bit of a culture shock there. However, I still have good friends there. I attended Southern Lehigh High School. I was one of those fairly motivated h.s. types. Good grades, all that. Worked on the school newspaper and yearbook. Absolutely loved the choir and musicals. Then my dad was transferred yet again, this time to St. Louis, MO. So, I applied to colleges like Tulane (back in New Orleans) and Washington University (in St. Louis). I knew I wanted to stay near family. I eventually chose Washington University (or Wash. U. as it's more commonly called in St. Louis) because I fell in love with the campus. I had a blast as an undergraduate. Met a lot of people that are still my core group of friends today. While at Wash U. I was earning spending money working at Central Institute for the Deaf (CID). This is a school for the hearing impaired in St. Louis that teaches deaf children how to talk. I loved it. I worked as a dorm aide, teacher's aide, student teacher, and as a house parent at various times during the two and a half to three years I worked there. So, even following the B.A. in Psychology and M.A.Ed in Elementary and Early Childhood Education I got from Wash. U. I applied to graduate school for Speech Language Pathology. That's how I ended up back in Louisiana for three years. I attended Louisiana State University from 1996 to 1999 and just graduated with a M.A. in Speech Language Pathology. As much as I loved being back South (Did I mention, I hate the cold/snow?), I missed both my parents and friends in St. Louis, so I decided to relocate back there for my job search. And so, starting in the fall of 1999, I began teaching for the St. Louis Public Schools. I'm teaching a self-contained classroom for children with speech and language impairments in a middle school. And now you're caught up.

Background

I was born and raised a Southern girl in New Orleans, Louisiana. Part of a big Cajun family I spent every Sunday afternoon eating gumbo, and talking over and around grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. A lot of fun if you've never tried it.

I moved to Allentown, PA for high school. Just a bit of a culture shock there. However, I still have good friends there. I attended Southern Lehigh High School. I was one of those fairly motivated h.s. types. Good grades, all that. Worked on the school newspaper and yearbook. Absolutely loved the choir and musicals.

Then my dad was transferred yet again, this time to St. Louis, MO. So, I applied to colleges like Tulane (back in New Orleans) and Washington University (in St. Louis). I knew I wanted to stay near family. I eventually chose Washington University (or Wash. U. as it's more commonly called in St. Louis) because I fell in love with the campus. I had a blast as an undergraduate. Met a lot of people that are still my core group of friends today.

While at Wash U. I was earning spending money working at Central Institute for the Deaf (CID). This is a school for the hearing impaired in St. Louis that teaches deaf children how to talk. I loved it. I worked as a dorm aide, teacher's aide, student teacher, and as a house parent at various times during the two and a half to three years I worked there. So, even following the B.A. in Psychology and M.A.Ed in Elementary and Early Childhood Education I got from Wash. U. I applied to graduate school for Speech Language Pathology.

That's how I ended up back in Louisiana for three years. I attended Louisiana State University from 1996 to 1999 and just graduated with a M.A. in Speech Language Pathology. As much as I loved being back South (Did I mention, I hate the cold/snow?), I missed both my parents and friends in St. Louis, so I decided to relocate back there for my job search.

And so, starting in the fall of 1999, I began teaching for the St. Louis Public Schools. I'm teaching a self-contained classroom for children with speech and language impairments in a middle school.

And now you're caught up.

Family
My parents met in New Orleans, LA. My dad was my mom's paperboy. I always thought that was a cute story. I'm an only child. Probably at least partially because our slightly more extended family is so large, and close. There are two branches of my family (just like everyone else's). My mom was the oldest of five siblings and the majority of that branch of the family is centered in Louisiana. I'm the oldest of eight cousins on that side of my family. We're all very close having spent our formative years together every Sunday, and weeks together during the summers. I won't even go into the extended family. Much too complicated. I have an uncle who is working on a geneology project though, and as soon as he manages to get it on the web (as he intends), I'll include a link. (Hint, hint, Uncle Lou.) This Christmas the entire family came together and we took some pictures. My dad is the oldest of six siblings and the majority of that branch of the family is centered in Arkansas. I'm the third of fifteen cousins on that side of the family. I think my love of music is founded in this side of the family. Both my grandfather and my dad play multiple instruments (fiddle, banjo, mandolin, harmonica, piano, accordian, hammered dulcimer, etc). It's a gift I think. They can pick up just about any instrument and pick out a tune. They play a bit more and work out harmony. I practice at least several weeks to make something sound that nice on the piano -- and that is with the music. My grandmother and aunt play the piano and sing. Holidays always involved lots of people playing lots of instruments together. Great fun. I suppose that if I had to summarize this rambling monologue I'd simply say that my family is very close, and extremely important to me.

Family

My parents met in New Orleans, LA. My dad was my mom's paperboy. I always thought that was a cute story. I'm an only child. Probably at least partially because our slightly more extended family is so large, and close.

There are two branches of my family (just like everyone else's). My mom was the oldest of five siblings and the majority of that branch of the family is centered in Louisiana. I'm the oldest of eight cousins on that side of my family. We're all very close having spent our formative years together every Sunday, and weeks together during the summers. I won't even go into the extended family. Much too complicated. I have an uncle who is working on a geneology project though, and as soon as he manages to get it on the web (as he intends), I'll include a link. (Hint, hint, Uncle Lou.) This Christmas the entire family came together and we took some pictures.

My dad is the oldest of six siblings and the majority of that branch of the family is centered in Arkansas. I'm the third of fifteen cousins on that side of the family. I think my love of music is founded in this side of the family. Both my grandfather and my dad play multiple instruments (fiddle, banjo, mandolin, harmonica, piano, accordian, hammered dulcimer, etc). It's a gift I think. They can pick up just about any instrument and pick out a tune. They play a bit more and work out harmony. I practice at least several weeks to make something sound that nice on the piano -- and that is with the music. My grandmother and aunt play the piano and sing. Holidays always involved lots of people playing lots of instruments together. Great fun.

I suppose that if I had to summarize this rambling monologue I'd simply say that my family is very close, and extremely important to me.

Pets
Last, but certainly not least are my pets. If you'd like to see some pictures of my pets, click here. Currently I have three cats. Smokey is the grand dame of my kitty family. She's an eighteen year old Siamese. She was a gift for Easter when I was seven. Smokey is one of those one person cats. She's with me all the time. When I'm in the house she's never more than five or six feet away. It's one of the things I love most about her. Edison was also a stray. I talked my parents into letting me keep him when I was a freshman in high school. That makes him about eleven years old now. He's a beautiful black and white long haired kitty. He tends to be the type to hide under the sofa or bed most of the time. However, whenever the house is quiet and I'm home alone he tends to appear for his fair share of attention. Last, but certainly not least is Sara. She's another stray. I took her in when I realized that she was hurt. Off to the vet we went. That's Sara's story actually. We spent a lot of time at the vet before we discovered that she's allergic to almost everything (including wool, feathers, fleas, and pollens to name just a few). She's about four years old now. She's a gorgeous short-haired, black cat with golden eyes. I'll just briefly mention Chloe. Chloe was another stray I adopted. She was a bit different than my other strays though. Chloe was a ferret. I had to scramble to do a bit of research when I got her in order to set up appropriate housing, food, etc. for her. I actually set up a ferret web page with tons of online ferret resources. Ferrets are wonderful pets. Endless entertainment. Chloe died last summer. I fully intend to get another ferret (or two). However, since my pet to space ratio is already a bit tight (not to mention the pet to budget ratio), now is not the time.

Pets

Last, but certainly not least are my pets. If you'd like to see some pictures of my pets, click here. Currently I have three cats. Smokey is the grand dame of my kitty family. She's an eighteen year old Siamese. She was a gift for Easter when I was seven. Smokey is one of those one person cats. She's with me all the time. When I'm in the house she's never more than five or six feet away. It's one of the things I love most about her.

Edison was also a stray. I talked my parents into letting me keep him when I was a freshman in high school. That makes him about eleven years old now. He's a beautiful black and white long haired kitty. He tends to be the type to hide under the sofa or bed most of the time. However, whenever the house is quiet and I'm home alone he tends to appear for his fair share of attention.

Last, but certainly not least is Sara. She's another stray. I took her in when I realized that she was hurt. Off to the vet we went. That's Sara's story actually. We spent a lot of time at the vet before we discovered that she's allergic to almost everything (including wool, feathers, fleas, and pollens to name just a few). She's about four years old now. She's a gorgeous short-haired, black cat with golden eyes.

I'll just briefly mention Chloe. Chloe was another stray I adopted. She was a bit different than my other strays though. Chloe was a ferret. I had to scramble to do a bit of research when I got her in order to set up appropriate housing, food, etc. for her. I actually set up a ferret web page with tons of online ferret resources. Ferrets are wonderful pets. Endless entertainment. Chloe died last summer. I fully intend to get another ferret (or two). However, since my pet to space ratio is already a bit tight (not to mention the pet to budget ratio), now is not the time.

Let me quickly mention two programs that I've discovered on the net that I really enjoy. The first is AllAdvantage, a program that allows you to earn money while you browse the web by running their advertising banner across the bottom of the monitor. You can also earn money for the time your friends spend browsing, and their friends, and their friends, etc. You won't make a living this way, but it can get you a little extra spending money. The second is My Points, a program in which you earn points in a variety of ways including answering surveys, visiting web sites, buying products, taking advantage of trial offers, etc. It is fairly easy to earn points and they actually have nice ways to spend them including gift certificates to bookstores, restaurants, clothing stores, calling cards, and frequent flier miles to name just a few.

Home Page     SLP Resources     Teaching Resources     Online Bookstores     Ferret Resources     Email Me

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

You are visitor # to this page.

This page is hosted by