Wearing my Great-Grandmother's 1903 silk wedding dress.

Hi, I'm Laura. Come on in, sit a while, and enjoy my country hospitality. The scones are fresh baked, the kettle's on. We'll have a cup of tea.

After high school I attended the University of Montana. It was great to get out of the house where I often felt overwhelmed with my two younger sisters in our small house. I lived in the dorm and had a room-mate. It was great fun to fix up our room.

During my year there, my sisters would sometimes come to visit me and I'd take them to the dining hall where it was like a giant all-you-can-eat buffet. They really got a kick out of seeing all the UM football and basketball stars right there walking around where they were getting their food and eating. They got a big kick out of getting their drinks at the soda machine and mixing all the different ones together into one glass.

All in all, college didn't suit me, and so that lasted only one year.

Oregon, Kansas, Illinois

After my year at college, I was able to moved to Oregon where I had wanted to live since I was sixteen years old. Though Portland seems a big city compared to where I grew up in Montana, I always felt comfortable there because of the many visits made there when I was growing up, and also to the other big city in my life, Chicago, Illinois, to visit my grandparents.

The Oregon State Flag

In Portland I spent several years working for one of the major hospitals. I love Portland; it's such a cosmopolitan city with so much to see and do. Yet so close, all around the city, are gorgeous mountain scenery, lush forests, the Columbia River Gorge, skiing at Mt. Hood, and the Pacific Ocean only an hour away.

In 1997 a job change brought about a move to Kansas where I lived in Newton, about a half hour's drive from Wichita. What a change from Portland! Yet I was comfortable there as well, for my paternal roots are in Kansas and I had visited my grandmother there every year or two my whole life.

The Kansas State Flag

Another job change brought me to St. Louis, Missouri. I actually lived in Alton, Illinois, just across the Mississippi River. The Alton-St. Louis area is certainly different from Portland or Kansas, even Chicago just a few hours to the North.

The Illinois State Flag

In January of 2001 I began working for TWA in their St. Louis reservations office. I was just finishing up my training for the transition to the American Airlines side when the tragedy of September 11 disrupted the nation, and the airlines.

The next year was a difficult one to be in the airline industry, but it did provide for some back-and-forth visits between St. Louis and Jacksonville, Florida, the home of my then-fiancé.

Between January and April of 2002, all plans for the wedding were completed, including my mother making three visits to make my wedding dress. And on April 19th, I was married to my husband, Adam, from Jacksonville, Florida.

To visit my wedding page, click on the wedding wreath.

My Home in Jacksonville

We bought a house together just before our marriage. For me, it was sight unseen, except for some pictures. The drive from Illinois to Florida was one of hope and promise.

The Florida State Flag

The house was, to a degree, liveable; but for my taste, needed lots of fixing up. Something I love to do. We lived in the house from April of 2002 until December of 2008, about 6-1/2 years.

Just about every room was completely redecorated. The guest room in a country theme. My crafts room is Mary Engelbrite. The bedroom plush elegant. The most dramatic change, as in just about everyone's home, is the kitchen and family room remodel.

We gutted the kitchen and put in all new ceramic tile flooring, marble countertops, repositioned some of the existing cabinetry, moved the fridge and oven. It made for a much larger, very nice, kitchen. We cut an arched pass-through to the family room. The family room prior to the remodel had been a catch-all side room, with a cement floor. We used it for boots, wet umbrellas, storing boxes of things to give away, old magazines, not-quite-ready-to-be-discarded furniture. You get the picture. There was no sheet rock on the walls, only the studs and exterior siding. We added a window, changed out a new door, sheet-rocked and finished the walls, put ceramic tile down. All this work made the room stunning, and my favorite place to sit and read a book or work on my computer.

A Big Move

In November of 2008, Adam got a new job with the Kansas State department of bridges. A somewhat similar job description -- involving bridge inspection for the state -- but actually he's in charge of quality control for bridge inspection, for half the state of Kansas. For a guy who said he could never leave the warm climate of the south to accept a job in Kansas, it was just about a miracle that he considered it. He was, though, ready for a change, and the way he got the job was a miracle in itself.

Mom flew down to JAX in November to help with a giant rummage sale to lighten the load. Even though we rented 17 tables, it took two days just to get all the box loads of stuff out on the tables. There wasn't enough room on them for everything at once. It was a fun two-days though with lots of help; lots of laughs.

Dad and Mom came down in December to help us with the move. It took two days to pack the truck and trailer, and then three days to get the stuff to Kansas. The truck could only go 50-55 MPH. We drove more-or-less together and stayed at hotels two nights. All in all, a fun trip.

The farther north we drove, the colder it got. We were a little worried about how Adam was going to take the winter climate in Kansas, which can be bitter cold. And as it turned out, the day we arrived it was 11 degrees! But everyone was positive and exited for our move to Wichita.

When we finally pulled into Wichita in late afternoon on December 3rd, my church-home folks were gathered up and all pitched in to empty the truck and trailer into two storage units we had already rented. It took all of 45 minutes with about 16 of us. As dusk quickly turned to night, the last half-hour of unloading was done with the assistance of headlights from one of the cars.

Adam started his new job in December and really likes it. He has his own office in Wichita and reports to the capital now and then. Travels somewhere in Kansas every week.

We really have some good friends in Wichita, and one young couple gave us a room in their home to use until we could get our house in Jacksonville sold, and get a new one in Wichita. It took five months for our house to sell. Some time in March, someone broke into the house and ripped out the gas stove from the kitchen, stealing it and the brand-new vacuum cleaner I had left behind. These were the only two things left in the house that could be removed. With 9 or 10 foreclosures in our close neighborhood, we were really fortunate that our house finally sold in April, although we had to make some pretty big concessions for the sale to go through. But better to dump it than to have it linger on, when we're at such a distance.

The Jacksonville sale was completed by fax, and we began to look for a house right away. The first week of May, we were able to buy a house just two minutes from my church; 12-15 minutes from Adam's work, and about 25 minutes from my new job, which I start soon.

In between the robbery in March, and the new job and new house in May, I was able to make two very important visits to Salt Lake City. One was to help out with the older kids while their brother, Colten James, was being born in Denver, in early March. The second visit was two-weeks in April for the birth of another nephew, Henry Joseph, born in Salt Lake City.

Interests

My life is centered around God's people and my church. I also find time to pursue other interests and hobbies such as gardening which has become my second avocation. Indoors, I love to cross-stitch and have a pretty good-sized collection of tea pots and country snow people. Anything feminine and country.

I especially love travelling, seeing new places, and learning the history. One of my memorable trips was a week at Williamsburg, Virginia in 1997. In September of 1998, I was able to travel to England and France with my mother and a friend.

In December of both 1998 and 2000, Mom and I made two trips to Louisiana, where we especially enjoyed New Orleans.

Stampin' Up

About seven or eight years ago, I became a representative for Stampin' Up. Headquartered in Utah, representatives sell Stampin' Up's exclusive line of decorative rubber stamp sets and accessories for handmade cards, scrapbooking, craft projects, and home decor. Reps are also experts in stamping techniques, and most are very creative. The company holds a huge convention in Salt Lake City every summer which is attended by several hundred representatives, including myself.

I started out making greeting cards for all occasions and that's all I did for several years. Then I found scrapbooking, which has been my main focus since. In Jacksonville, I worked at two scrapbook stores to support my habit. I've taught many classes and special workshops. This work has not been part of my Stampin' Up business.

If you are interested in quality stamping products, feel free to contact me at any time. Click here for my personal Stampin' Up page.