What a great thread to get to know the people here.....this is a great idea. I enjoy reading & meeting everyone that is posting here....you all are great.

As for me, I am 53 years old. I graduated from Highschool in 1970. I got my AA degree in music where I majored in my flute playing. I played my flute from the time I was in junior high. I enjoyed playing in the marching band & in the school orchestra along with playing in the local youth orchestra. When I transferred to the 4 year university, I decided that I didn't want to be a music teacher & wanted a career that could earn more money than that. I changed to computer science & graduated with my BS in 1978. I met my husband in one of our computer classes.....so we defined that class as our computer dating class. We were married in 1975 & are still married (even though it has been a rough 31 years). He got a job soon after graduation as a computer engineer & was sent to Roma Italy. I took a semester off school & tagged along.....I got to see Italy with expenses paid by the company he worked for. We have one daughter that is now grown & working on what she is going to be when she grows up. She was born 10 months before I graduated from college which was quite a challenge for me. Luckily she was born just before spring break so I didn't have to take much time off of school. I had my computer engineering job all lined up when I graduated & just went from going to school to working with only Christmas break between. I worked in an all guys career.....& the guys were great to work with. I spent most of my lunch breaks playing racquettball with them. That was a great way to keep myself in good condition....much more fun than just working out. Of course, racquettball was rough on my knees. I tore the anterior curciate ligament in one & the menuscus in the other. I had to have one knee reconstructed & the other was a simple fix. We spent our vacations in our time share condo in Jackson Hole Wyo, skiing. We taught our daughter to skii when she was 2 1/2 & she was the star skiier in Jackson. She even got her photo on the ski school flyer. She was doing the advanced slopes when I only had guts enough to do the intermediate ones. We enjoyed traveling on our vacations & a few times traded our condo for other locations. We did alot of fun things while we both had our careers. Besides the downhill skiing, we did dog sledding, ski mobiling into Yellowstone, cross country skiing, snow shoeing, & hot air ballooning. Besides that, we enjoyed backpacking into the Sierra's. I attempted to get to the top of Mt Whitney several times, but altitude sickness got the best of me every time. Our daughter went along on the backpacks too. The first time was when she was just 5 months old. I had a pack for her that I could use on the front to balance out my backpack on my back. We did some of our backpacking with the church group. We also did some camping with the girl scout group my daughter was involved in when my husband became the co-leader of the group. For my crafty side, I started a huge tapestry (I still haven't finished), & several latch hooks (haven't finished them either).

About 12 1/2 years ago, things went bad with my career. I hated where I ended up & when I tried to transfer back into a technical position, the director refused to let me transfer. I ended up out of work on medical leave of absense. I had no idea what was happening to me at the time. My medical insurance forced me to go to a psychiatrist & psychologist. They couldn't figure out a Dx either but it turned out to be horrible anxiety attacks which after a year went into depression (when I realized that I no longer could go back to my career). I attempted a workman's comp case against them, but lost that too. Looking back, the best part of the whole situation was that they told me to get involved with something I always loved to do. I was keeping up my flute playing & was already involved in a local flute orchestra.....that was when I realized that I had always wanted a horse & had enjoyed my english dressage riding classes I took as a college PE class. I found a dressage riding trainer that was close to where I live. As I got involved with that, she found a horse for me to buy. I started doing the dressage & when I bought my first horse, I started showing dressage. Not only was she a horse trainer, but she also had american eskimo dogs & had a new litter of puppies that I fell in love with. Not only had I never owned a horse....I never had a dog either. I fell in love with one of the puppies & my husband (who has asthma, tried holding the little guy & no asthma problems). He became my first american eskimo dog. She was also into showing her dogs. She worked with me on training him & also how to show him. That was when horses & dogs became a huge part of my life. I did quite a bit of conformation showing & then got into obedience. I actually got his champion title & also his obedience title. During that time, I was also in & out of the psych hospital but was going to dog shows & horse shows every weekend I was home. During that time, I also ended up with some anorexia problems which was a reaction to several of the meds. Every bad reaction to a med that was possible, I ended up with, so was in the hospital everytime they wanted to change a med. I ended up getting another female eskie for my birthday & started breeding them. It was great having puppies of our own but trying to find good homes was a challenge. I also purchased a mare & tried to start breeding my horse. All my life, I had never had a headache.....then after the AD's that caused migraines, I ended up with continuous migraines. I was in & out of the ER for demoral shots every 3 days & got to the point where I couldn't even get out of bed. They found that I needed a neck fusion from a horse accident I had back in college. That didn't help at all. I finally found a pain specialist that is willing to treat me with the only med that has helped & I have been on that treatment for the last 3 1/2 years (no migraines since then). At that point, I could finally start living again & got back into my dressage training & breeding my mare (I now have the most awsome filly I could have ever dreamed of). I was feeling so much better that I decided to go back to college & take courses in interior design. I enjoy that kind of work & thought that it might be something I could do for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, during that time, my Mother was Dx'ed with cancer & that situation ended up causing a horrible trauma I lived through. I was so exhausted that I ended up in the medical hospital because I couldn't eat food without getting sick. It was at that point when my Mother died. Every Dr insisted that I be treated for anorexia until I was able to explain what symptoms I was experiencing. That was when they realized it was the trauma that was the cause.

Good things do come from bad.....I am selling her home & purchasing a farm in Kentucky where my 12 dogs, my 3 + horses, & my husband will retire to. I am so looking forward to having my horses right at my own home & having all the time I have been wanting to spend working with a trainer on my dressage riding. I will finally be able to do all the things I have been wanting to do & once I am away from where everything happened, I will be able to sit back & enjoy my life. It is wonderful being able to look forward to a future I have always dreamed of.....doing the things I love to do & having time to spend enjoying & playing with my eskies.

Sorry for a boring account of my 3D.....but this is me,
Debbie