1200 Characters is less than I realized:

(I tried to update my profile this evening...wrote all this and after trying to post it, found out that my estimate of 1200 characters was waaaaaay off! I thought it was worth posting anyway...for y'all to get to know me a bit better, so I'm cutting and pasting and sticking it here.)

I'm a wife and a mom. I've done a fairly decent job of taking care of my family for years...sometimes at my own expense. Right now, I'm learning how to take care of myself...sometimes at my family's expense. I'm HOPING to learn how to put everything together into one neat package. It's not an easy task.

I'm a cancer survivor but I don't think that defines my character...just an interesting tidbit of information.

I'm a retired scuba diving instructor. I had to stop teaching to save my hearing. Sometimes I wonder if I made the right decision. God, if you're listening, I'm only thinking in print..please don't get any funny ideas...and please, anyone that reads this that is actually hearing impaired (or whatever the politically correct term for deafness is nowadays), PLEASE don't take this personally or as any sort of devaluation of your disability. I do have some hearing loss and I do take it seriously. That's why I gave up a career I loved more than I can even explain. I just value peace and quiet greatly and live in a fairly noisy household. The idea of losing my vision horrifies me...but my hearing...sometimes I could take it or leave it.

I've lived my backwards. I got married young...had kids young...skipped going to college to get married and have kids and teach diving. Now that I'm older and my kids are getting ready to head off to college themselves, I'm seriously considering going back to school to study physical therapy. Had I gone to college straight out of high school, I would be a marine biologist right now...probably doing something exciting like counting sea urchins or worrying about the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. Funny how life changes your plans, isn't it?

I know from being a scuba instructor that I'm a good teacher. I've spent many hours working with physical therapists over the years (slipped discs, dislocated shoulder, dislocated elbow, blown out ankle, etc.)...I know the exercises. And now, I'm helping a dear friend who had a stroke a while back do her PT...and with every success she has, I love the process a little more.

So, now you know a little bit about me...and if you hadn't already guessed, I also LOVE to write. I'm sure that every person with one of these blogs loves to write...we're all a little voyeuristic, aren't we? At any rate, I love to write...hope to maybe put all my jibberish together into something resembling a book someday. In the meantime, I'll barf it up here...and hopefully, a few of you will find it worth reading.