A List of What is here:
1) My Picture
2) Something Important to Read First
3) Where I was born
4) My many homes
5) My Youth
6) My Teens
7) The men in my life (you want to know, right?) *S*
8) My Children
9) My jobs and my new career
10) My Interests (Before CFS)
11) My New Interests and Hobbies
12) Why This Site is So Important to Me **PLEASE READ**

This is a picture of me taken two years ago. I usually don't take pictures of me because I'm usually the one behind the camera taking the pictures, but I had a great opportunity to have a professional photo shoot and the end result was this picture.

I don't look like this everyday....who could? But I now have a better understanding of why models and actresses look so good in pictures and movies...they have professionals doing them up every day. *S*

Something Important to Read First

The first thing I want to clarify is that there is two of me (No, I don't have a dual personality - I have CFS) so there is the me before CFS and the me after CFS.
What you'll be reading here is mostly before CFS. If you want to know the other me *S* - visit my CFS story.

So here goes about me before CFS

Where I was born

I was born in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and have lived here most of my life. I did most of my youth growing up here.

My Many Homes

I've also lived in Montreal (and various other parts of Quebec - while growing up), and Vancouver, B.C. for about a year and a half. They have a saying in BC due to the large amount of rain..."You don't have to showel the rain". This is true.
I also lived in Moncton, New Brunswick for a few years.

I've travelled to Florida (many times while my father lived there) and to California.
I have four children and a great fiancee (who has two children). I worked many years for the Government of Canada (both Federal and Provincial) and returned to college to pursue my interest in social work.

I'm a terrible romantic and that's why I love VALENTINE'S
DAY so much, but I also love all the other holidays as well (that's why my home page continually changes). If you have anything you want to add or would like to see just contact me.

My Youth

Growing up was fun. As a young girl (before 11 years old) I lived in a duplex which my grandmother owned. We lived upstairs and my aunt, uncle and two cousins lived downstairs. That sure made having friends really easy! :)

Well, I started dating young and so by 11 years old I thought I was in love. My mother being a wise women never took my weekly "I'm in love with so and so" very seriously although at the time I thought it was serious. Well, my mother got ill and I was sent to an all girl's school in Chatham, Ontario (Ursaline College - run by the Ursaline order of nuns). They sent my sister Janille (Janet at the time) with me to keep me company. I didn't last long with so many rules - but I sure discovered many ways to break them!! :) I soon convinced my father (the logical one - which just means I could manipulate him better than my mother) to take us home before something bad happened. He gave in and came and got us. The absence of boys sure made school difficult but once they were re-introduced into my life - my grades fell. I went from an honor student to an average one. Boys will do that to you!! :)

My Teens

Next came my teens. I sure loved those times. I loved to dance and did lots of it. I loved to date and did lots of that as well. No one could say I was a "homebody" - I was always out. I had girlfriends and we went to movies, dances and just hung around. We were popular so it was always easy to get dates to take you places. High school was a social event for me. Sure I passed - but barely. I was so busy dating and dancing that school work didn't seem that important. My parents constantly heard at every PTA (Parents and Teachers Association meetings) the same thing"She can do so much better if only she would apply herself". I know I could have gotten better grades but only certain subjects really interested me. While living in Quebec, I attended the first school that was designed so that you could pass a credit instead of a grade - it's now common everywhere. This school's speciality was gymnastics and I was a natural. I was on the team and we performed against many schools for local and provincial titles. My specialty was the horse and the uneven parallel bars.

We moved from Quebec back to Ottawa and I attended "Immaculata High School" for girls. Then we moved to Quebec again and from there we moved to New Brunswick where I finished high school. I sure wish the school boards would realize the influence that some teachers can have - not only on a student but also on the subject they teach. I excelled in many classes - math and algebra (was doing college trigonometry in high school), english (which I had graduated out of in grade 9), latin (would have won a scholarship if I hadn't left the private school) and many other subjects. My worst subjects were history and geography.

The men in My Life

I can't remember all the boyfriends I had, but there was lots of them.
My first real love came at 15. We had moved to Greenfield Park, just outside of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. There I met Bernard. He had a twin which made dating a little strange as they loved to play tricks on their girlfriends. We dated for almost 3 years.
We were engagd when I was 17 years old and then my parents moved to New Brunswick. That ended that romance but although I never forgot him (who ever forgets their first love), I moved on and met Bob (who was to become husband number one). I had finished high school and was working when my parents moved back to Ottawa and I stayed in New Brunswick. I broke off the engagement shortly after that and moved back to Ottawa as well. Bob followed me and eventually we got back together and got married. We had two children, Jason and Derek, and then we divorced.

I should have taken "time out" but didn't - so next was husband number two - Mickey. We also had two children - Jennifer and Ryan and then we divorced. I did learn to take time out this time and spent one year away from men getting my life in order and getting to know me. This time was required in order to stop the pattern of marrying the wrong guys. I took this time to figure out what I wanted and didn't want from a man and then started dating again. Boy, was that difficult. I hadn't dated in many years and it was hard to start over. I had already decided that I would never settle for anything less than I wanted so finding Mr. Right (there is no Mr. Perfect) was a long and hard journey but it paid off. I finally met Doug, my fiancee, and I can honestly say that the wait was well worth it. We have our problems (who doesn't) but he's a man of the '90s who believes in open communication and sharing his feelings. What a difference that makes.

My Children

I have 4 children and two step children.

Jason is my oldest boy - you can visit him at his site Jason's Lair

Derek is my second oldest boy - you can visit him at his site Derek's Place

Jennifer is my only daughter - you can visit her at Jennifer's Castle Of Dreams

And finally last but not least is Ryan. He is the youngest son, my baby. He sure doesn't like the fact that I still view him as the baby and has told me to cut the strings.

It's hard to do because he's the last one and I still view him as the baby (don't tell him I said that LOL) but I respect him enough to let him get his feet wet and grow and make decisions.:)

You can visit him at Ryan's Home On The Web

All my children have grown up and moved out and now I have acquired stepchildren, a step son named Kris - you can visit him at his site Kris's Playing Field and Jessica - you can visit her at Jessica's Little Pink Garden.

Kris lives with us full time. He thinks he has it rough because he can't pull the wool over my eyes. My children warned him not to try but he continually does and I continually catch him.

My jobs and a career

After I graduated from high school, I took a job working in New Brunswick as a bookkeeper. When I returned to Ottawa, I went to work for the Federal Government. At that time it was called "Manpower and Immigration" but now it's called "Employment and Immigration". I started off the slow way - as a secretary in the Secretarial Pool and then became a secretary to the Chief of Inventory Management. I moved out of the secretary field into the clerical one because without shorthand - I could only go to a SKY 1 (not much money and no way up). I started off as a clerk 2 and worked up to a supervisor in Inventory Records. I resigned just short of my ten years so I wouldn't loose my superannuation and besides I had just had my second child and wanted to stay home to raise both of my sons. After my divorce, I went back to work for Miss 500 - an employment agency that kept me employed as often and as long as I wanted. Because I was classified an executive secretary that meant I could only work for a Chief of a division in the government. I worked in many different departments until I got pregnant again. I was off work for a few years and then discovered that not being bilingual wouldn't get me back into the Federal Government, so I went to work for businesses.  I worked a few years for a private business and when he went bankrupt - I then went and worked for the Provincial Government.
I started off as an assistant to the Director and loved it until I caught CFS. Thus, my career ended.

After a few years of being ill, I wanted more for me and my life. I went back to college to study to become a social worker. I was told that I would never make it with CFS - but they were wrong.
I finished the course but then relapsed and collapsed and although I had a few jobs - I just couldn't handle full time employment, so I had to give that up as well. But what I learned will stay with me for life - so I'm grateful and thankful that I did it.

Somewhere in my story, I caught CFS (which you can read about on Carol's CFS Page) and the person that you have just read about still exists but barely. She is no longer a workaholic. She no longer does crafts, dances or has the energy to do too much. I've learned to pace myself and so most of me is still here.

Well, my interests before CFS were many. I loved to sew, knit, crochet and many other crafts. I also took many courses in various crafts like knitting and making ceramics.  I had lots until my relatives and friends kept commenting on them and asking for them - now I only have about three that I've made left.

I love writing and am writing several books - all which will be available soon. I'm writing the "FEMALE MANUAL"- humours stuff on men. I'm also writing "BLOWING THE WHISTLE"
- a book on the games that women play and why. Bet all you men will love this one.

My New Interests and Hobbies

I love to surf the net (could be considered a webaholic)and find all great sites that offer everything I need and want. I'm constantly downloading programs and clipart, animated gifs and collecting great web sites for links. I'll have a great list formed shortly that I'll post on my web page (that will be permanently always here) showing the sites I find the greatest for graphics, knowledge, and for all the fun stuff out there in Cyberspace. A lot of the sites I've found are for various holidays and therefore the links change on my holiday page constantly. But I'm stil out there in Cyberspace gathering information and more links. It's amazing how the world is now just a keyboard away.

I'm self taught in computers (which makes me dangerous to our computer) since I have no idea of how the thing works and what programs suit our computer. It's a Pentium 233, Windows '98 Platform, 8 megs memory (upgraded to 24 megs now), and has a 15" color monitor with sound and speakers. I love it!! I figure with as many times as I've screwed up the computer - I should be working for a computer company.  If they hire kids to test toys - why not hire me to test computers. I mess them up and then they can have troubleshooters to prepare programs a little better so that you can't mess them up. :) Guess it will be a while before I'm contacted for this job, so I'll stay busy surfing the world and gathering information, links, etc.

Why My Site is So Important to Me

My favorite thing to do - is just what you see here - creating a web site that not only offers a wealth of information, but also in return, I get back what I lost with CFS. This web site seems to be my only purpose. When I caught CFS, I lost my career, my goals, my dreams, my hopes, self esteem, self confidence and everything else. I suddenly questioned what was my purpose for being here if I couldn't be a useful member of society. Creating this web site gave me back all that I had lost. Seeing the signatures in my guestbook telling me what a great site I had, or receiving email asking questions about CFS - I suddenly realized - this was my purpose. This was my reason for being here and it also enabled me to continue to do what I love best - help others. Guess that's why I chose social work as a career. :)

So this site is important to me - the most important thing for my well being. Without it (I was tested when it crashed - I became depressed and again felt those old feelings of "What am I here for?". Computer is fixed and now my site offers more and more aspects of my life. CFS is just one part of it - so that's why this section is here, but if you visit the Transporter, you'll get a chance to meet all of me (the other me *S*), the family, and all the things we value and hold dear.
Take the trip it's worth it!!

If you are planning on leaving after this page, please sign my guestbook. Thanks!!