About Me

Okay here goes, I am an okay looking person ie not supermodel material but hey most of that is airbrushing anyway...grin. I am five feet seven inches and generally weigh between 135 to 145 pounds. I am trim aka skinny.

My hair color, at present is a dark red, though I am about to alter that to bright red. My natural hair color is dark brown aka brunette. My hair is naturally curly (yup ya got that from me, sorry) and it tends to curl even more when left to dry on its own.

I am fair skinned and seldom go out in the sun. I usually burn before I tan. My eyes are hazel, although they sometimes appear green.

I was born on September 30th 1965, in Bellevue Ohio. I will be 35 this year though I look like I am in my 20's.

I was born in Bellevue Ohio on September 30th 1965. I grew up in Bellevue, we lived there in various places for the first 15 years of my life. The House I remember most growing up in was on Sheffield St. when we first moved in the house was spooky with old shingle siding in graytiles, old huge granite block front porch, and a huge yard in back. The house initially scared the neighborhood kids so that they avoided it, especially at Halloween. The back yard was large enough to hold neighborhood football games in. When we moved in though the backyard contained a garden actually more of a jungle is was so overgrown, tons of trees cherry, apple, pear, black walnut, etc., thistles, weeds, and a chicken coop and hen house. Mom and dad decided to get rid of most of the stuff and we wound up with a semi trailer sized pile in the backyard of debri. Dad decided a bonfire and neighborhood cookout was a good idea, the fire department disagreed and came by midway into the backyard bbq to put out the fire while my dad offered them hotdogs.

Eventually the house changed color, becoming avacado green, not necessarily because it was supposed to but because dad got the wrong color of siding...grin. He denies he is color blind and mom still ribs him about it. Needless to say no more spooky house.

My grandma (my Dad's mom) and Papa (my dad'ds dad) moved in next door a couple of years later, building a house on part of the property we had. My grandmother (my mom's mom) and my granddaddy (my mom's dad...see the pattern?...grin) lived a couple of blocks down the street and one street over.

School was 5 blocks away and we usually walked or rode to school. In the winter we would have 3 feet of snow and still walk to school, a snowball fight usually ensuing.

I was pretty much one of those that read, a LOT, and kept pretty much to myself. I drew and read and played with those friends I did have. We invented games like hide and go seek on bycicles ranging over a 10 by 6 block area. Of course that was back in the late seventies and early eighties and the neighborhood we were in was safe and tame compared to todays neighborhoods.

In the summer when it rained real hard the area at the end of the street would flood and on occassion hundreds of little frogs were everywhere. Me and my brothers tried to save some of them. Did'nt work out at all like we figured.

We would have huge water battles in the summer. A group of us would get a water bucket each filled with water and water balloons, each of us also equipped with squirt bottles (ivory soap, shampoo bottles etc cleaned out real well) and two small squirt guns each. By the time we were done everyone was soaking wet and I had acquired the enviable position of king of the water hose, that is, enviable till my dad came home, grin.

Wintertime the area that would flood would ice over and the street would become a sheet of ice. We would ice skate to the end of the street and skate till we turned blue then go back inside to hot chocolate. Snowball fights were the norm and on occassion the weather would be such that you would have 3 to 4 layers of and ice and you could dig tunnels through it.

We had a snowmobile and would drive it around the backyard. The old lady behind us took to calling dad snowmobile king and would call the cops on us regularly. They finally stoped coming as we were'nt doing anything wrong. Dad also used the snowmobile to rescue an old lady, she was 100 years old, bundled her up in a sleeping bag and put her on the snowmobile and took her to where there was heat and such as hers had gone down. found out later that the snow he rode over had fallen on the downed wires and he and her were very lucky. Turns out she wanted another ride, she got it the next year during a parade as they used the snowmobile on a trailer with her riding it, she was 101 at the time.

My family travelled a lot going to places like Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky (because there are a lot of relatives in Kentucky), Myrtle Beach SC, Gatlinburg TN and loads of other places. Mom swears I have been to Disney world but I can't remember and I told her that taking me as a baby does'nt really count...grin. In Corpus Christi Texas I saw my first shark, a baby hammerhead and my mom thought we were in the water waking us all as we had the camper camping on the beach. She thought the tide had come in. Turns out it was the wind blowing the sand around.

In 1981 we bought a campground in Gatlinburg Tn. I was kind of glad to move not having many friends. The ones I did have were hard earned. One of the best was Laurie Horsely. Laurie and I grew up near each other then I moved away, across town. Laurie liked to be a bullly and I did'nt like to fight back, perfect relationship I guess, just kidding. IN the 7th grade this reached a boiling point. Laurie would get my school jacket dirty, my mom would dry clean it, this went on for a while. Finally my mom had had enough and gave me an ultimatum I had to stand up to Laurie or was going to get punished. I knew I was doomed. You see Laurie was 6 feet tall at that time a foot taller than me and was built like China (the wrestler). So she dirties the jacket, again, and I was going to let it go and take the punishment until she hid my art project I had made for my grandparents, so I punched her. I wound up on my back on the art table with Lauries hands around my throat, our art teacher seperated her from me. Well next year Laurie was my best friend, seems my standing up to her impressed her, though this did not stop her from putting me in a locker and holding locking it till the bell rang, I barely made it to class. She stood up for me after that too. I still don't believe in violence but I do stand up for myself.

In Tennessee I decided I was going by Renee my middle name instad of Michele my first name. I made some new friends but still stayed pretty much alone.

I did great in school. On the Annual Staff two years in a row, our year book, on the newpaper staff, in chorus, and doing art with the Art Club.

I won my first art show getting Best of Show, First place, and Second Place on two of my peices. I later recieved an honorable mention on the same piece that won best of show at the state show.

At the age of 15 I acquired a job as a graphic artist helping to design childrens toys and games. The companies name was Funny Farm America Inc. My boss was a wonderful talented lady with great kids I used to pick on her son. (Hey he was cute and my age.) Him and his sister would have fun with me though as well talking about me in Japanese and Farsi. I wound up learning a little Japanese as their mom determined I needed to. I had the job for a year or so till they moved.

We moved several times from Gatlinburg to Sevierville. I wound up geting a scholarship to Berea College in Kentucky. I stayed for one semester. My first time away from home plus there are numerous other reasons the main being it was not what I had expected. I came home.

I wound up getting pregnant with my daughter at this time. I was not happy about giving her up, I would have loved to have kept her. My thoughts though were on how my life was, how it would be and would I be able to give her the things I wanted her to have. On thinking on it I realized I would not be able to provide for her in the way she needed, nor when in the future I would be able to do so. I loved her but I wanted her to have what I could not give her. So I gave her to two people who needed her as much as she needed them. I missed her, still do, but knew it was the right thing to do.

I went on after that to getting married. This turned out to be a mistake though I did not find this out till later. I loved him but the person I had fallen in love with had changed. I tried everything I knew to keep the marriage together and nothing worked. I did not want a divorce, not believing in them. After 3 years it was over as he told me to leave and I moved to Atlanta. I had given him an ultimatum the only one ever, if I moved and by the end of 3 months he had not changed his mind I was not coming back. It was over.

I went through numerous jobs, numerous places to stay, 4 cars, and finally just recently have gotten my life together.

I now do customer service at a bank in Georgia. I have a decent car thanks to my grandfather and am saving for a computer and a house. I still do artwork and have numerous projects I am working on including several commisions. I sometimes take my art to conventions to sell it but not like I used to. I would like to do this more.

Someday when she is ready I will get to see my daughter, but in the meantime I am hoping everything I have written helps to catch her up on who and what I am. Not all questions are answered I know and I know she will have many more but I will add to this page as much as possible with pictures of family and friends and some of my art.

Goodbyes

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