aarped's profile

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Relationship

Married

Hometown

Akron, Ohio

Places I've been

I lived in DC as a very young child, then moved and grew up in Akron, Ohio. I also lived in the tiny town of Hillsville, VA for a year during my childhood. I've traveled around the U.S. to places like Ft. Lauderdale for Spring Break before my dinosaur died. Ventured to Chicago with a friend for a weekend once. Moved to Columbus and Phoenix from there. I've visited Washington, Fargo, ND, Lake Tahoe, Vegas, and various points in California. My favorite place is actually a small Northern AZ town where we go to escape our computers and cell phones, oh yeah and the heat! I taught for ten years and was the personal assistant to a best-selling author. I now have my own business and love being my boss. I'm a great boss, I'm here to tell ya! Demanding but fair I'd say!

Work

• SELF EMPLOYED, Lifestyle Management Consultant & Concierge - 2008 to 2008
• Best-selling author, Executive Personal Assistant - 2005 to 2008

More about me

I'm basically a happy person and require very little to be content. I enjoy my early morning coffee with a crime novel, outside in the cool air ripe with the scent of damp grass. I am easily entertained by the birds in my yard, my dog Kodi, my husband, children, grandchildren, my books, good music, a  few select televison programs, and my camera.

I was married for 23 years and divorced almost ten years ago. I have five children from that marriage. I remarried three years ago and finally found the love of my life. It is the first time, other than with my children that I have truly 'felt' loved, and still do to this day, eight years after meeting him. He is a man of honor, good intentions, and old-fashioned family values.I love this man!

My daughters hold a special spot in my heart, perhaps because I had no relationship to speak of, with my mother until just a few years ago! My relationship with my girls is a precious gift! They make me laugh when I don't want to even smile. They've grown into beautiful women who are my friends and I choose their company over that of most other people. We can be open and honest with each other knowing that there are only good intentions in what we say to each other. I can't imagine a day without hearing their voices.

I have three sons. Sons are very different and require more patience on my part. I love them to pieces; I just don't 'get' them. They make me laugh, but don't know when enough is enough. I don't feel I can share with them the same way that I can with the girls. It is getting easier now that two of them are fathers, which has put a new spin on our relationship that I really enjoy. My other son is showing signs of becoming a real adult even without fatherhood to push him along. He's a very talented muscian and while I'm not crazy about the music, I love to watch and hear him. My children are 22, 23, 26, 32, and 33.

I'm writing my biography for them, and of course, including their stories as well. It's a labor of love and I will self-publish only ten copies. I've been working on it for over a year and not close to being finished. I’m not skilled at writing, which makes it more of a challenge. I want to make sure that the stories told by my grandparents and parents are not forgotten, and that my children have a strong sense of who they are and from where they came.

I would love to take piano lessons again. I was nine when I took lessons and didn't fare very well. I had an old-fashioned teacher who was strict and very unfriendly, I felt so uncomfortable  with her that my mind was closed to learning. When my mother was in assisted living a few years ago, I would take her to the chapel and play our favorite hymns on the organ. That sparked my desire to learn again, this time with a real passion. I do see a piano in my future especially since my oldest daughter wants me to teach her to play, too.

I could sit for hours with my camera taking sunset shots, or tree shots, or hubby and dog shots. I like to go north in the fall to photograph the changing colors. Living in the desert, I don't see much color. Okay, maybe varying shades of brown. I want to spend a year on the road in an RV with my husband and dog traveling the country and photographing EVERYTHING!  I especially love lighthouses! I could plan a whole year around lighthouse photography.

I am enjoying my life now more than ever before. I loved raising my children and I love having them grown and on their own. I am a sucker for any child. I taught for ten years and have crates of resources for crafts and holidays and a 200-book children’s library. When I am around children, I am the very best me. I get to make chalk drawings on the sidewalk, blow bubbles, color, search for treasure with a metal detector, and legally watch cartoons!  I have a seve-year-old, step-grandson whom I adore! We play with magnets, marbles, read books together, discuss life as he sees it, and he bestows upon me artwork for display on my fridge. I gift him with home-made pumpkin cookies, his favorite! I also have a three-year-old grandson in another state. I have a four-year-old grand daughter with the energy of the EverReady Bunny, and the attitude of the Tazmanian Devil; a voice that can break glass and then my heart, when she says,"I love you Gramma". My youngest grandchild is  little Andrew born just three short months ago. After a visit from the kids and the little ones, I enjoy quiet, peaceful, evenings in the company of my husband, by the fire, with some popcorn and a  Diet Coke. Who could ask for anything more?

    

Favorite Movies

My 'comfort' movies are: Sleepless In Seattle, You've Got Mail, Dante's Peak, Apollo 13, Shawshank Redemption, Grease, Apollo 13, Remember The Titans, Frequency, The American President, While You Were Sleeping, Uncle Buck, The Wedding Date, and Thirteen Days. We have most of the Disney Pixar animated films. I also like a lot of the old black and white films. I record every made- for-television Christmas movie every year and start watching them in mid-November!

Favorite TV Shows

NUMB3RS, Vegas, House, American Idol, anything on Discovery or the History Channel. I've also been known to watch C-Span to hear authors speak about their books.

Activities

I have just started walking everyday and have discovered that I really enjoy it. I love the zoo and I'm fascinated with cemeteries. I grew up across the street from one, it was where we played hide and seek, and there was a special place there that I would go when I was angry with my mom. Only my friends knew where to find me. I love the history behind the headstones and the artistry that goes into creating the more ornate ones. I'm a voracious reader and also love to cook and bake. Photography is a hobby but I would not be able to discuss it intelligently. To me it's poetry when the shot turns out just the way I saw it in my head. Anything my husband and I do together is fun from hiking, to road trips to board games or working together on some project that one of us has going.

Favorite Music

I love the music from the 60's - Motown, to the BeeGees, to the Beatles to country and smooth jazz and contemporary Christian.

Favorite Books

I like James Patterson, Debbie MacComber, Sandra Brown, Iris Johansen, John Grisham, John Sanford, among many authors. One of my favorite books is, 'Feathers Brush My Heart' by Sinclair Browning. My non-fiction favorites are Howard Cutler, Barry Schwartz, Daniel Goleman. Favorite Christian books are; The Cross and The Switchblade, This Present Darkness, The Edge of Darkness, the entire Left Behind series. I love The Message/Remix Bible for children!

Favorite Quotes

“When you have come to the edge of all light that you know, and are about to step off into the darkness of the unknown; faith is knowing that one of two things will happen: There will be something solid to stand on or you will be taught to fly”

Favorite People

In my personal life, they are my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, my husband, my children, my mother, my brother, my grandchildren, and my childhood friends. I respect and admire in no particular order, Oprah Winfrey, His Holiness The Dalai Lama, our service men and women, Randy Pausch, every homeless child who is missing a warm bed tonight, and countless people I read about, or see on television documentaries who inspire us through their personal triumphs and tragedies.

Favorite Places

I've never had the opportunity to travel outside of the United States but would love to. I like Lake Tahoe in the Fall, and Northern Arizona in the Summer and Winter and long for a cabin to call my own there. I like the climate of San Diego but would not want to live there. I loved sitting on the seawall in Florida but would not want to live there either. Fargo, N.D. is quaint and so is Omaha, Nebraska. I loved the outskirts of Seattle just across the Sound and would love to have a second home in that area.

Favorite Animals

Our dog Kodi, is a seven-year-old Black Lab/Chow mix. She's my husbands baby girl really. I think she puts up with me because she has to share her living space with me..but I sure love her! My boss gave me his rat to care for while he traveled. Then I fell in love with her personality and after a six month stay at my house I cried when I had to give her back, and she was gifted to me. It's amazing how much laughter and fun she brought into our lives, including Kodi's. When she became ill we hand fed her from a syringe for the last four months of her life every two hours and gave her three different meds a day. When we had to put her to sleep it broke our hearts. Her name was Karosta, we had her cremated and her ashes will be scattered with ours and Kodis togther one day!

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