I have two beautiful daughters, one living in Minneapolis who is a graphic designer and one in Arcata, California who works with austic children.

After graduating from ISU I played in the DSM Orchestra and did free lance work at the Civic Center as well as teaching music in Ames for 23 years.

Since leaving Ames in 2000 I have taught in Taipei, Taiwan, Lausanne, Switzerland, Istanbul, Turkey, Bonn, Germany, Doha, Qatar and Washington D.C. I met second husband, Steve, in Bonn Germany while we we were both teaching at the International School. He's English and is a sport, science and maths teacher. He is also a great cricket batsman. We moved to Berlin, Germany, in 2007 where we are teachers at a German bilingual school.

I write a successful blog about embroidery (believe it or not!) that has in excess of 10,000 readers and is now profitable taking advertisements. I am currently working on my Certificate of Technical Hand Embroidery at the Royal School of Needlework, Hampton Court, London.

We've travelled all over the world and are looking forward to a peaceful retirement in a few years in the UK!