I am a retired teacher of 30 or so years.  For the first two years, I have been enjoying retirement with my husband (who is also a retired teacher) and training my Llewellyn setter, Ella.  She's the white chocolate freckle dog in all my pictures.  We are avid bird hunters, hunting grouse, woodcock, and quail.  In the spring, we are in the big open woods hunting turkeys. For the last few years, we have been involved in training Maggie and her sister Annie from a different litter, both Gorden Setters. In the summer of 23, we lost our oldest, Gordon Setter Darcy, to stomach cancer.  Darcy loved and was loved by all who knew her.  Her loss was very hard for us. 😢

For the past two summers, my husband has been working with a bird dog trainer at Toccoa River Setters.  He has both of Ella's sisters (Laural and Bell).  It just so happened that Bell's litter was about 8 weeks old when we lost Darcy and one of the puppies had just become available. 🤩 Ivy is the black freckle dog in the pictures below. 

We are currently attending Mountain View Church.  We help with the youth on Wednesday. On the 1st & 3rd Mondays, we open our house for a small group to share life.  On Tuesdays, we open our house for family ministry.  We have about five or so families and others who join us for a meal, conversations, fort building, critter finding, and rolly ball in the yard. 

We are a bird-dog family.  Check out our dogs below. We are all about Ella (Llewellin setter), Maggie (Gordon Setter), Annie  (another Gordon Setter), and now Ivy, who joined us in 2024. 

Check out what I did before retirement (click) if you want to check out my educational background (click).  

During my retirement, I haven't been sitting too idle.  For three years (2018-2021), I have tutored a Challenge 1 (9th grade) homeschool group in Franklin, NC.  Now, I am in my fourth year tutoring Challenge 2 (10th grade) for the Andrews and Murphy community. In addition, I am an occasional Field Supervisor for WCU, working with student-teacher interns.  In my community, I have become involved with our local Pregnancy and Parenting Center. I am also a Colson Fellow (2022).