hi there,
sure glad you stopped by to visit. my name is sharon and i live in central illinois, near peoria. i was previously living and working in the calico rock and mountain home areas of arkansas, living near the beautiful lake norfork. i also worked for several years at a fishing lodge just below bull shoals dam on the white river in north central arkansas. these days i work 3rd shift at a local wal mart super center, transferring here from the mtn. home, arkansas store. i am a huge nascar fan. i used to race dirt track when i was younger. i am also a dr pepper addict, friends of mine around here even call me dr pepper! i love cobalt blue stuff, the kitchen accessories, dishes, bakeware, nic nacs, you guessed it, all cobalt blue. i even have a few antique cobalt blue bottles and such.
i have 3 children, 1 grandson and 1 granddaughter. my oldest son, patrick, is 29 (wow that makes me feel old), lives in mtn. home, arkansas and works for eaton corp. he used to work nights at wal mart part time as well. he is married to a wonderful lady named priscilla, she also used to work at wal mart, in the pharmacy. priscilla was going to college to get her teaching degree, and now is a teacher for the mountain home, ar. school district. they are both racing fans. patrick drives at their local dirt track, when he can afford to keep a race car together.
patrick has 1 boy by a previous marriage.
my grandson, rashan, is such a delight, a very intelligent youngster (i'm not biased!). he used to live with his mother and stepfather in the northeastern part of arkansas, and for a while in omaha, nebraska. now he is living with my son and daughter in law and going to school in mtn. home ar. he plays basketball, baseball, and football. patrick and priscilla also have a sweet little girl, born sept. 1st. she weighed only 4 lbs 3 ozs and was in the neonatal intensive care unit at Cox South Hospital in springfield, mo. until she was a month old. her name is alyssa. my grandsons' mother came here from bosnia.
my middle son, chris, is 27 now, and has moved back to arkansas. he used to work at wal mart too. i keep hoping he will move back to illinois, so that all his friends and co-workers will quit asking me when he is coming back!. he has bunches of coca-cola stuff, listens to rap music and loves to party with his friends. he is working at a cafe these days.
my youngest is jeremy, 17 years old and going on 40, he is in arkansas right now staying with my mother to help her out, although i think he is probably much more a hindrance than a help!! he is in the 11th grade and works there at his school in the afternoons. he has such an innocent smile, but when he flashes it, you wonder, uh oh, what has he done now!! he is also always managing to get into some kind of trouble, i guess he smiles too often! he is driving now and just bought a blazer from my oldest son.(look out!)
i stay with an elderly gentleman, he is 83, handicapped. i cook, wash dishes, do laundry, run errands, drive him around, and occaisionaly manage to clean the house for him. butch has family here in peoria, il. and also lots of relatives in minnesota, mostly around thefinlayson, sandstone, isle (which is on mille lac lake) and minneapolis areas. he was born in prior lake, mn. i love going to minnesota to visit his family there, the great northwoods are beautiful!
i dabble at genealogy and am trying to put together the background of my ex husbands family tree (benge). i plan to very soon get together with one of my uncles and compare some notes on my dads family (campbell and murphy). i would also love to find out more about my mothers family background (walker), we have also learned a lot about butchs' family name and i may add that information soon also.
when i lived in arkansas i took a very active role in collecting toys for children at christmas time. i rode on many toy runs with the motorcycle club my ex and i belonged to, as well as runs with friends clubs. i oversaw the christmas gifts for kids program for a few years that was co-sponsored by the norfork community care program and mcdonalds restuarant of mtn. home, ar. while i was employed and did volunteer work for the foodbank of northcentral arkansas.
my mother lives in norfork, ar. a very small city on the north fork of the white river. she is a retired librarian, she worked in libraries for as long as i can remember. she volunteers at an after school youth program at her church, they send backpacks full of food home with kids during the summer when they don't have breakfast and lunch through the school. she also did volunteer work in the past at the norfork community care program, the north central arkansas food bank, the calico rock community care program and the norfork branch of the baxter county library. she was also a great help to me when i was head of a christmas gifts for kids campaign.
my dad, who is no longer living, retired from the postal service. i miss him terribly. he was a wonderful friend to me as well as the best dad in the world!

currently one of my hobbies is mailing out a newsletter. it contains information on obtaining free samples, websites that let you click to donate to charities for free, etc. the information for this is on one of my other webpages... the free sample binge page
or you can join below...

Join the free sample binge mailing list Enter your name and email address: Name: Email:   Subscribe      Unsubscribe

i also enjoy some other sports besides auto racing. love watching ice skating (probably bust my butt if i ever tried it though), and gymnastics. i am also a fan of the st. louis rams, the st. louis cardinals, the new orleans saints i really enjoy going to games, i have gotten to watch the rams, saints and the cardinals. my favorite college basketball team is probably the university of missouri bears, i have seen them play here in peoria, illinois against the bradley braves.
of course I am always a fan of my kids school teams!!

i have been thinking about returning to school...yet again...to finish my degree in early childhood or elementary education or in library services. i have taken college classes off and on through the years as i have had time and money enough! i started my library of sciences classes way back in california in the 80's a year or so after high school. yep california, thats where i was born! lived there for 21 years in the monterey and carmel valley areas mostly. attended highland, noche buena and del rey woods elementary schools in seaside, ca. then we moved to the mountains above carmel in the cachagua area of the los padres national forest. during those years i went to school at carmel middle school and carmel high school. i worked part time at a motel in the carmel valley village, and also carrying newspapers for the monterey peninsula herald. after i obtained my drivers license i took on more newspaper routes for the monterey peninsula herald and also worked for my parents delivery business, delivering newspapers for them as well as delivering products to people from town to the remote cachagua and big sur areas. i took college classes during that time at monterey peninsula college and hartnell college. several years after moving to arkansas i again took college classes through the arkansas state university mountain home campus and the north arkansas community college in harrison arkansas.
i love holidays, getting together with family and friends, sharing meals and visiting. one thing my family likes to do (and we do it pretty well) is to eat!
i am thinking about starting some pages with holiday gifs on them.