Fun topic MaryKay!
I've lived in Oregon all of my life, and have been in the same house now for almost 30 years. I was married for 14 years (to a nightmare) that I divorced in 1989, and we had 1 daughter (31) and 1 son (29) together. My daughter is married and has 2 children, my grandson is 6, and my granddaughter is almost 3. They are in the military so move around, and even though I don't get to see them as often as I'd like... I so love being a Granny!
I married my 2nd hubby in 1996... and still totally adore him after almost 13 years of marriage.
We have our dog "kids" together - a Jack Russell Terrier (Lucy) and a Rat Terrier (Holly) and we love spoiling them rotten! And, after both raising human children (he also has 1 son, 1 daughter) we can appreciate that our dogs won't need/ask for designer clothes, cars,
or have a need to go to college!
I've done a lot of different "jobs" in my life, but never really knew what I wanted to "be" when I grew up! After my divorce I worked for many years tracking newspaper advertising for TV & radio stations across the country. I really enjoyed my work, but my department/job was phased out in 1999. I then started a home business with Watkins products, plus turned a "hobby" of candle making into a candle "business" (my family room was my candle factory
) and sold candles online, gift shops, holiday shows & craft fairs, farmer's markets, etc. I also agreed to work for a friend in her CPA office for the 1999 tax season, and after tax season she asked me to stay on permanently to do payroll. Burning the candle at too many ends... I gave up my candle business in 2006, I
hated the payroll job (was never a math type person) but struggled along
trying to convince myself that I
could do this until I could retire. It didn't work.. and I decided I just had to do something else! I had wanted to do something "dog related" for a very long time.. so I finally decided to check into dog grooming. There was a school about an hour away from where I lived, so I went to dog grooming school and graduated in 2007. I opened my own grooming shop at home in May of 2008 after my sweet hubby remodeled our garage into my grooming salon.
I can finally say I LOVE what I do.. so have no plans to retire (ever) but may have to limit myself to 5 pound pups by the time I'm 99 years old!