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Dear Santa, I've been a very good boy this year...

A little bit about me...

I'm an N.California farm girl that moved to Tennessee in 2004. I love dogs, horses, gardening, country music, rodeo, reading, and hammocks. I also like to explore new places - which is how I ended up on VT.

I grew up in a small N.California farming community on a couple hundred acres with a whole bunch of cousins to keep me company. We had chickens, cows, pigs, horses, rabbits, sheep, dogs, and too many cats to count. Summers were spent outdoors working on the farm, swimming in the river, riding bicycles through the biggest mud puddles we could find, driving rusty old pick-up trucks, riding ATV's, hiding in Grandma's basement so we could read instead of work, lying in the tall grass watching the clouds float by, and sliding down hills on cardboard. I went to kindergarten in the same one room schoolhouse my great grandmother attended. The nearest grocery store & movie theatre were a 45 minute drive away, the nearest shopping mall and hour & a half, and the nearest major airport a three hour drive. Life was good!

Summers were also time for family vacations. Everyone went somewhere and everyone drove to their various destinations. We spent a lot of time camping, bicycle riding, and fishing in and around CA, OR, and WA. Some of our other frequent destinations included So. Lake Tahoe and So.Cal. I couldn't begin to count the number of times I've been to Disneyland. We aso drove to Canada and Mexico - two incredibly different destinations! Usually our trips included stopping to see family along the way (I think I've got some form of relations EVERYWHERE!). Our most memorable family trip was when my parents got the insane idea to drive around the western half of the USA in a motorhome. So now, my first thoughts when planning a vacation include, "How long of a drive is it?". It usually takes me a while to think of checking out airfare.

Now that I'm an adult my vacation style has evolved a bit. I still drive to a lot of places, but the last two years I flew more miles than I drove. My idea of roughing it is a campground with hot showers and flush toilets. I still like hanging out in a boat on the lake with a fishing pole, but I don't bother to bait the hook and can be found using the life jackets as pillows while I escape into a book. Haven't caught anything yet ;-) I travel with my sister a lot and we can frequently be found behind the bucking chutes at various rodeos admiring all of those Wranglers. One of our most interesting trips involved taking our mother to Rome, Italy for Mother's Day 2005 and was a lot of fun.

For over 13 years my best travel companion was Rocco, my dog. He went with me whenever he could and got all sorts of happy when he saw his travel bag being put in the car. I usually caved after a block of his barking in my ear and rolled the windows down so that he could ride with his head out the window, ears flapping in the wind. He barked at red lights & slow cars because he was always in a hurry to get to our destination - even when he hadn't a clue what it was. So if you've ever had a black PT Cruiser behind you on your laid-back Sunday drive and there was a large dog barking out the window at you, that was Rocco yelling at you to get out of our way.

My passport pic... this is my niece, Sara. She is a 9 year old Chow / Keishound mix and my sister's pride & joy. "The princess" was in the middle of shaking her head in this photo. That's Rocco in front of the Christmas tree.