I identify first and foremost as a mother of three married to a father of three. We each have a child living abroad, so hope to do some traveling in the next few years.

I grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan (Canada) and attended a one-room school through grade four. I was already reading when I started school, so had lots of time in class to listen to what was going on with the older kids. I heard most of the story "Jean val Jean" (more commonly known these days as "les Miserables") read aloud four years in a row before I later studied it in grade eight. We had a fresh box of library books delivered to the school at regular intervals, and by grade four I was able to read most of them before they were replaced by a fresh box after a month or six weeks. For grades five through twelve, my siblings and I rode the school bus for an hour each way because our neighbor was the bus driver. This too was a good opportunity to read (when there weren't enough card players available for a game of kaiser), and I read everything in the school library by the end of grade twelve, including several novels that were being banned from other libraries at the time.

Right after high school I did a biology degree, married, worked for a year, and went back to university for another year, followed by Teachers' College. I taught in the K to 12 public school system in Saskatchewan for five years before starting a family, and then stayed home raising kids for twelve years. During this time I operated a nursery school in my home for a few years and spent six years as a public school trustee. I spent almost a decade as student counselor at our local regional college, escaping from the stress of counseling for several brief periods by taking on term positions as an instructor and a program coordinator. When the colleges in the province partnered to develop an electronic student information system, I offered to represent our college in that project and ended my time there as registrar.

I currently work with my (second) husband, doing property development and social/economic development with First Nations.

I enjoy gardening, interior decorating, sewing, and reading, and recently, writing. Teaching is still my passion, so I'm hoping that I can mentor some writers on Helium.

My passion is ...

teaching

I know too much about ...

disappointment/anger

My parents always told me ...

"Do it right the first time."

My childhood ambition ...

to be a teacher

My favorite memory ...

Make that plural: the joys of parenting.

Why I write ...

for pleasure (and ratings)

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

tv movies every evening (my husband's a homebody)

My first job ...

weeding the garden

My best moment ...

realizing that my son at age three had the most profoundly developed conscience of anyone I knew

My inspiration ...

my parents

Home & Garden > Home Interior Carpet vs. other flooring options

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Sunlight streams through the window as a gentle breeze wafts through gauzy drapes. You stretch, toss the covers back, and swing your feet onto the floor, wiggling your toes in the sensual softness of a deep plush carpet. Now run through that scene again and have your feet landing on the icy chill of glassy smooth marble tiles. Are you awake yet?

Selecting floor covering is an exercise involving all the senses. Whatever you choose has to not only look good but it has to be the appropriate product for the application.

Nowhere in the great castles of Europe will you find wall-to-wall ca...

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