After graduating from Buffalo State, I went on to Penn State, where I earned an M.Ed. My first teaching job was in Kenmore, N.Y., where I stayed for two years. I then moved to Rochester where I met my husband and, after a long courtship, we married in 1975. Four years later, our first son, Matthew arrived, followed two years later by Brian, and 6 years later by our daughter Katie.

Along the way, we lived in the Philadelphia area, the Pittsburg area, and finally came to Gainesville, Fla. (Go Gators!) We have lived in Gainesville for 20 years and love the small college town and the warm weather. I was very fortunate to be a stay-at-home mom for ten years. But the birth of our third child put a strain on the budget and I returned to teaching when she was 2 years old. Since then, I have worked at a center school for severely emotionally disturbed children in grades K-12. I am currently the media specialist, librarian, and tech person.

My oldest son is 26 and works for Transwestern Publishing, using a little of his graphic arts training, but is now a sales manager. My second son Brian is 24 and, after a few years off, he has returned to study Internet security and programming. Katie is 18 and will graduate from high school in just two months. She will be attending the University of North Florida next year. My husband of 30 years is a financial planner. We moved around as he worked his way up in the health insurance business, but after we lived in Gainesville for a few years we decided we did not want to move anymore. He gave up health insurance and now works for Met Life Resources.