I grew up in Kemah, Texas which is now a tourist attraction.  People would say "where is kemah?" and I would say "it's an indian tribe".  I grew up in a normal household, 2 parents, one sister with whom I fought all the time.  My dad would give me this look and I would do exactly what he told me to do or never do what he told me never to do - basically with my tail between my legs.  On the other hand, my mother was a different story!  She could yell and scream and throw things and I would just yell back.  I am definitely a daddy's girl.  I did everything with my dad.  Slot car racing, remote control car racing, sail boat racing, shooting at the range, boating, water skiing - we did everything together.  But he'll add quickly "until she found boys!" My sister and I fought like sisters do but she has always had such a good heart and I have learned a lot from her.

Health problems since age 1 1/2.  I'll get into that later.  But I had a unbreakable spirit.  I was born with one diseased kidney and my uretur was not connected to my bladder, so I had 2 surgeries to fix it.  I also have been hard of hearing since they figured it out at age 3 1/2.  I had a little bit of a speech impediment but as I got older I started practicing sentences into one of those old recorders with the red button until I didn't sound like that anymore.  Once I was in elementary school the speech therapist and other officials suggested I be put in a school for the deaf.  My father was not going to have that, so they mainstreamed me with the other kids.  I did have speech therapy while in elementary school which helped too.  But kids were mean, so mean about my hearing aid.  But thank God for my family's and my sense of humor - that is what got me through the day and still does.  My dad still says "what are ya, deef"!  It is still funny!  I call it my own peacefull world because I can just turn them off if I don't want to hear something or someone (my mom for instance). 

I have always loved music and I have been dancing since I was little.  I would make up dances to show my mom and dad and one of them was to Madonna's "Like a virgin"!  I didn't know what a virgin was and I just remember my parents faces when they heard the words but they didn't want to hurt my feelings until later when I found out what a virgin was! I still laugh about that.  I love the guitar, my dad has always played guitar, the banjo and bass.  Even til this day I beg him to play "You are my sunshine" and I listen as if it were the first time I heard it!

I have always been an energetic and animated person.  The center of attention (when my sister wasn't around) and would always want to show dances I was working on at that time.  I always needed the music so loud because I couldn't hear it.  We had this big furniture looking thing with speakers on the side and a record player inside.  On the speakers there were indentions from where I would press my ears into them so I could hear the music better.  My mom thinks it's sad but I think it's cute.

There is more but my computer shuts off at any flicker of lightening and there is a storm at the moment!

My past really started to become a past just recently.  I have always been a hospital patient since I can remember.  At least once a year I was in the hospital.  But I was the one pushing around my I.V. pole or rolling in my wheel chair going to other patient's rooms to "cheer" them up and make them laugh or to just listen to them talk.  I think a person with no health problems should really take time to listen to someone who has had health problems because it really puts things in perspective.

I had stomach problems since I can remember, missed a lot of school because of it.  When I started my menstral cycle, it was very painful for many years.  The doctors diagnosed it as endometriosis which is where the lining of your uterus gets out of the uterus somehow and attaches itself to your other organs and the abdominal area.  So, at 21 I had to have a hysterectomy because of it.