Hobbies and activities include dancing, archery, boating, camping, baking/cooking, drawing, fishing, going to garage sales/thrift shops, gardening/landscaping, horseback riding, interior decorating, ceramics/pottery, reading, poker/rummy, water play, writing, macrame, and boat/car/motorcycle/truck races and shows. Marksmanship, automobile driving, psychology, sociology, criminology, photography, astrology, and genealogy are among my intense personal interests. We (my children and I) love and respect animals and responsibly own one 3 1/2 foot reptile, three 1-year-old felines, one 2-year-old 145 pound male canine AKC German Shepherd.

As an actively involved full-time single parent, I regularly worked part-time volunteer hours with children at Pekin schools (classroom and media room/library), most recently during the 2006-07 year. I've also chaperoned field trips, most recently during the 2009-10 school year (October 7th). I am a trained DV victims' rights advocate accepted (March 2005) by a Pekin shelter for work within it, and performed volunteer work for them at Night Out Against Crime (August 2005, Mineral Springs Park, Pekin). I received a March 2005 invitation to work, also, at The Center for Prevention of Abuse at Pekin, Illinois.