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I was born in Michigan, but when my parents divorced my mother brought my sister and I to Canada where she was originally from. I consider this my home even though I have lived back in Michigan for about 20 years now. I still have many family members and friends there and since I drive fast I can get to Canada in under 2 hours and I always drive with my passport because you never know when a drive to Canada is needed.

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Audrey is 13 and Abby will be 12.  Abby hates to shower and Audrey is a crazy showerer!  Abby wants to be a dentist which I told her might be hard since she doesn't even brush her own teeth and Audrey wants to be a pharmacist! Crazy girls.

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I enjoy quilting when I have the time.

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Drove to Missouri for him :)  He is 3.

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Drove to Wisconsin to get my baby Pippa.

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This is my boyfriend of 4 years Andrew.  He teaches at the same school as me.  We were at our school prom having fun dancing with the kids!

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As an oldest of 2 my sister is only 15 months younger than I. We have had a love hate relationship. When we were younger we always fought. We never got along. When I was in college she took a different rout. She chose to have 3 children and I chose to get a college degree. During the summer I had to come home and watch her children while she worked. I hated that. I had to give up a job so she could work. I was always watching her children. When I got married and had children my mom couldn't come help me because she was always helping my sister. To this day my mom doesn't come to things my kids do, but she goes to events of my sister's kids. I will say that I did move about a bit over 1 hour away, but come on you could at least try and drive over to see me once in awhile. She may come 1 time a year, but I have to drive to see her if I ever want to see her or have my daughters see her. I think things between my sister and I have gotten a bit better, but honestly I don't have a close relationship with her.

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For my mother adaptability was her name. As a young mother trying to take care of 2 children while my father was drunk on the couch everyday she learned to be very adaptable. She worked as a nurse working double shifts on the weekends so she could stay home with my sister and I during the week. We went to a sitter on the weekends because my father was in no shape to look after us. When she finally divorced him she moved us to Canada and she supported my sister and I and still worked full time as a nurse in Detroit. She did everything she could for us and that included getting us into counseling and trying to help us anyway she could. Then she married my stepfather. Things went down hill from there. He was another alcoholic person who hit us and to this day I still hate and wish he would die. Terrible to say, but I have never had a real relationship with my mother because of him.  I see myself as being adaptable in situations due to growing up in several dysfunctional families. I will say though I too married an alcoholic and when I left him it was the hardest thing I ever had to do and I had to move out and support myself and my daughters. Times were hard, but I did the best I could for my daughters. The text states that "adaptability can be viewed on a continuum."  My step father is very unwilling to change for any reason.  It is his way or no way and he will yell at you until you just give in.  I learned to stop talking with him about anything and agree with everything he says just to manage a visit with my mom.  Never having a father around and not having a good relationship with my step father I have learned to live without, but it has been very hard not having that person in my life.  This is a photo of my mom and daughter Audrey.

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I am very proud to say that I have managed to graduate 3 times from SVSU in Michigan. I went to school to become a teacher and then went back for a special education endorsement. I then returned to SVSU for my masters in special education and then did my EDS in administration. I love to learn. I am taking the ASD endorsement to widen my knowledge base. I will never get out of teaching special education in my district, which made me mad at first, but maybe I am just meant to work with special education students. I also am adding the ASD endorsement to hopefully one day get a job in England when my boyfriend retires and we move there. He is from there originally.  I also teach my students that the more education you get the better off you will be. My own daughters already know how important education is and know that if they want nice things they will have to work for it.

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This is one area I am terrible at. I never seek help from anyone with anything. I do everything on my own no matter what and that doesn't work well all the time. I am trying to do more reframing for the positive, but I am such a pessimistic person that it is very hard for me to do. I have used professional support in the past and found that helpful, but the cost was just too much and that had to be cut. If I do ask anyone for help it may be a friend, but that rarely happens. The silly thing is I wont ask for help, but I will go out of my way to help someone else. Ugh.

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I love to travel any where I can.  I was able to send 1 month in S. Korea a few years back and loved it.  I am heading to Costa Rica this summer and Nova Scotia as well.  I will take a road trip anywhere at anytime.  I love learning about new cultures and people.  I thought this picture taken at the DMZ in S. Korea was fitting with all the news lately!