I was born in Clinton, Iowa and lived with my mother until I was 16 then moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma to live with my father. I attended Central High School, and also attended high school in Plano, Texas while living with my sister there. Having acquired clerical and office machine skills from classes in high school, I thought they would carry me as far as I wanted to go. I thought noone ever really used or needed college degrees anyway. I was not informed about college at all. I had no idea what basic, valuable information I would learn while completing collegiate course work. I worked as a receptionist for several years and found myself actually quite bored, and then moved on to data entry. That made me feel somewhat more fulfilled, but I wanted to do more with my keyboarding and computer skills. Still never considering college. I also worked many many hard labor jobs in between, and counted on my ability to do hard labor often. After a motorcycle accident, in 1983, I found myself on Social Security Disability for quite a while. I worked as a part-time volunteer, once I was able, doing data entry again and realized how much I didn't know about PC's and that to get anywhere in a desired income level, I needed to take some classes. I decided an education was the only way that I would ever feel truly proud of myself. I also wanted my family to be proud of me. I knew I would never become my idea of successful without an education. I started attending Tulsa Community College to get a Liberal Arts Degree. A couple of computer courses (to catch up) and I was hooked! I decided to go for an Associate's Degree in Applied Science, with a Computer Programming option. I ended up with 3 Associate's degrees: Liberal Arts, Applied Science, and MIS (Management Information Systems). After transferring my MIS credits to Langston University-Tulsa, I'm a graduate! December, 2007 I received my BBA in MIS. Using the skills I have acquired to become a successful Information Technology Specialist with the goal to be a Web Architect is a wonderful feeling!

My only child is the reason for my bright outlook on the future. His abilities are very impressive and he has fantastic potential in so many areas. He is quiet, but funny (a great impressionist), and has a couple of really close friends, one of whom he has stayed friends with since they were in Head Start together. He is a student at Memorial High School where he enjoys every one of his classes and has discovered he has some very impressive skills in biology. Jake's favorite subjects are Biology, Algebra and Spanish, oh and of course Phys Ed. He likes to play XBox 360 and any other video game that is put in front of him. He enjoys watching the latest movies (especially ones involving sword dueling and comedies). He enjoys collecting knives, swords, and limited edition quarters and taking digital photos with his camera. He is a whiz at setting up a computer and putting together intricate models. He is a sketch artist and has created his own character! As a Yugioh fan, card collector and duelist, he's always looking for a challenging duel. Jake dreams of being a jet fighter pilot in the Air Force when he grows up. He hopes to be able to fly upside down one day.

My mother lives here in Tulsa, although we are originally from Clinton, IA (her more recently across the Mississippi River in Fulton, IL). She moved to Tulsa when my (now deceased) stepfather became ill so that we could both help him. Now she has found herself alone and very capable of making herself a very comfortable lifestyle. She enjoys art, audio books (she's heard over 300!) and likes to put landscapes on canvas with oils. She leads an arts and crafts workshop in her apartment building. She's a marvel.

I have one sister, Sue, who is 8 years older than I. She loves living in the mountains of Colorado. She is very active in her church and volunteers as the Secretary, "In the service of the Lord." She also volunteers as a Volunteer Coordinator for Project Cure. Sue and Steve have had 4 children, and 3 grandchildren with another one on the way! Her two son's are twins. Her husband, Steve (my mentor), is a Project Manager/Programmer for a company based in Austin, TX. He has been on assignment in Denver, Colorado for several years now and has found my sister a beautiful mountain home in the foothills of Golden. Steve is the reason why I've been fascinated with computers since I was 11 years old.

My one brother, Bob, lives in Irvine, CA. He is 10 years older than I and is successfully self-employed as a manufacturer's representative, selling spice packets to popular restaurants and packaged food manufacturers. Bob is a golfer, swimmer, 10-speed biker, and enjoys fishing in the ocean. He has a son and a daughter, and three grandchildren. He recently purchased some real estate on a plateau in Arizona and is having a great time planning his retirement.

Friends

I have a close friend who lives on a farm with many animals and I like to go out there to visit and relax with listening to all of the animal sounds. We like to talk about current and past events, the latest news, movies, and our pets.

One of my friends (now deceased) was given a gift (by an unknown giver) of a 6-week-old Shepherd-mix puppy. He raised her for a whole year and saw her through all of her puppy stages (thank you very much, Glenn). She had to share her new home with another dog (an alpha female) and they were constantly conspiring to get out of the yard. As a result she was unexpectedly expecting at a very young age and ended up having just a few puppies. Two of them were malformed and didn't survive, but the remaining one was big and healthy. As her puppy grew to be another potential alpha female, we could see that she wasn't happy being constantly reprimanded by the alpha dog and even her own puppy, so she was given to my son and I to love and pamper. She would make a good cattle or sheepherder. She herds us to the door when she wants to go out and makes sure my son eats his meals in a timely manner. She doesn't like to go fast in the car (she hides her eyes under my arm when I get on the freeway), so we only take her on short trips. She knows when it is time for her boy to get out of school and she enjoys going on walks around our neighborhood. Her name is Baby Girl (which I didn't like at all at first, but as I found out, it is a fitting name for her, since she is very dependent and skittish). She is a special friend and a welcome addition to our family.

Last Revised: 08/13/2004