Just the Facts

Fact: Born in Torrance, California. I am convinced all native California's possess a "sun" soul. I've told my husband for years that I'd easily be a size 2 if we only lived along the coastline of a state with near constant sunshine and ocean.

Fact: Adopted at age four and raised in Brunswick, Missouri, the Pecan Capitol of Missouri. If you're ever traveling on Hwy 24 West in Missouri be sure to stop by and photograph yourself next to our original one-ton concrete pecan that rests (quite solidly) just outside of town at James Pecan Farm.

Frivolous Fact: Never won the title of Miss Pecan Queen. Ah, nuts!

Fatal (nearly) Fact: While vacationing at the Grand Canyon as a seven-year old, I came "this" close to pushing a man off the edge of the, um, well, Grand Canyon. It inadvertently occurred as a result of my running like a crazy child, tripping, and then attempting to break my fall by running into the sad little tourist quietly minding his own business next to a dangerously poorly fenced look-out point.

Fascinating Fact: Traveled to Greece, Germany, Austria, and Italy, the summer of 1981. Under the auspices of the incredible People-to-People Student Ambassador Program, I tasted my first gyro and sunned myself on an Aegean Sea beach with Lamar (who is now Managing Editor of Parade Magazine). I nested beneath scads of downy comforters in the bedroom of my German homestay family (the Wagner's), snapped photos of the Tower of Pisa leaning toward me (thereby rendering it completely straight in all photos) and pigged out on Austrian pastries with my favorite PTP travel companion, Stephanie Kussman.

Fact: Graduated from Hannibal-LaGrange College, 1987. Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education and Junior High English and Social Studies.

Resume' Fact: Taught fourth-grade at Palmyra, MO. LOVED it! It's a wonderful age when they still think you're cool and are able to think a bit more abstractly than their academic counterparts in the Pre-school classes. (Shudder.)

Brush with Fame Fact: While walking along The Magnificent Mile in downtown Chicago, I literally ran into Billy Joel, who was barreling out of FAO Schwartz. (He's not nearly as tall as I thought he would be.)

Make-up Brush with Fame Fact: Jim Belushi once sat next to me having his make-up done for Dick Clark's daytime talk show, The Other Half.

Family Fact(s): Mother to three. Kristen, Ricky-Neal, and Patrick Michael are my sometimes annoying, always amusing, challenging, stubborn, funny and argumentative children. I’m also the wife to one (who would want more than that anyway?) sometimes annoying...oops, um, the wife to one man who has co-owned my dream of speaking and writing since the year we first met. This man thinks I can do anything. Okay, anything but mend clothes. I refuse to mend shirts etc. If you lose a button, buy a new shirt. Got a hole in your sock? Go buy a twelve pack of Hanes or something.

Zip Code Fact: Rick, the three dependents, and I live in a small village located in Western Illinois. Here people use riding lawn mowers as all-terrain vehicles. I about jumped out of my new neighbor skin when a John Deere and Snapper sputtered to the post office door! The village population is 496 including ceramic yard dwarfs. Entertainment is limited to pulling up a lawn chair and watching your neighbor trim their 25-foot elm tree with a hand saw and rickety ladder.

Frustrating Fact: I'm unable to roll my R's. Okay, I know some of you are thinking, "how stupid," but trust me, this is very annoying. Here I am a woman of ethnic descent and I can't do that cool Eartha Kitt, Catwoman, "Rrrrrr" thing.