that is great thread, and very interesting

born and grow in Israel,
been there until 17 years old.
finished high school, (biology)

moved to NY to live with my sister, didnt work out.

moved to italy (Rome) lived there for a year, was nice and of course interesting.

back to Israel did the army (it is a must, due to a security/politic problems).

then moved to Italy again but this time to Milanto do industrial design in university,


back to Israel, continiued university in industrial design, interior design, jeweler design - all is to design and DO the design as well.

since i finished the army i needed to save the money to go to university so i worked in a computer programs company, they find me as a good worker, they asked me to come back to check the programs before launch to market, (that was my work during university),
then they asked me to be ....international sales person - i thought it will be for short while, it appears to be all my working carrier.

moved to another computer program company - become international sales director.
was great, but i missed all the time the creative side of me.

met my x boy friend he is dutch, i moved to the netherlands.
we separated since.

i still live in the netherlands.

since 2006 my life changed completely as most of you know - diagnosed with breast cancer
couldnt and cant work any more, but then i had so much free time that
i decided to quilt - first time in my life
self thought.
and since i pass my days with quilting - when i can and visiting TQS.

Oh, Lorchen, you made me laugh so hard before going to bed. I'll explain tomorrow...
Or I'll explain partially now - the short story - if you ever got to see The Flintstones - an American animated TV series, Wilma and Betty used to communicate with Morse Code using their Venetian blinds - I was pretending to be Betty Rubble on movie day when I should have been simply shutting the blinds...
The longer story is a bit more complicated.

Once upon a time there was a beeeauuuutiful princess. Oh. Wait. Different person. Here's my story. In high school I took all the usual college prep classes but deciding on one career to go on to school for was just SO overwhelming. The telephone company (Ohio Bell) sent people out to recruit at my school at the end of our senior year. A bunch of my friends were going so it seemed like the thing to do. After grueling testing and interviews, I was hired as an information operator. This was precisely at the time that they changed to being called directory assistance so I soon was caught answering my home phone with a pleasant "directory assistance" after saying it a million times a day. I worked that job several years and then moved up to service representative in the business office. The phone company would pay for college courses so I took some here and there but still didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was never too clear on careers but even as a young person KNEW I wanted to raise kids to be kind people.
Fortunately, my husband and I both agreed that when we had kids we wanted one of us to stay home with them. Happily it was me. When my youngest daughter was in high school I started working in receiving for JoAnns unloading truckloads of all my favorite stuff! I should have had the trucks just backup into my driveway at home for as much fabric as was coming home with me. I quit that a few years ago when I realized the reason for my trouble keeping up at work was due to Parkinsons disease. Those were just jobs anyway. For me, my real career is being a mom and I don't plan to retire any time soon.

This has been fun - reading all about my TQS friends! My life has been rather dull, but I'm quite happy with that. I am a lowly optician. Stayed at home when my girls were young and now I'm just doing fill-in work. My other hobby is scrapbooking. And I enjoy reading fiction books - not the romance novel types though. I prefer a good mystery and an occasional historical romance. I am a born again Christian and have been blessed in this life, in spite of not becoming a "rocket scientist".. LOL But seriously, TQS has been one of the biggest blessings! I have so enjoyed having so many friends with whom I can share my love of quilting. I do sometimes think I am a "defective" quilter since I don't like cats and I don't garden. hehe

What a fabulous thread!! Margo, you are the best. I've spent my evening reading about your lives and it's better than my current novel!

I am a classic third culture kid; French-Canadian mother and Swedish father who met in Brazil where I was born and raised in an expat community speaking four languages! I attended a private British school until gr 8 (form 2) and then switched to an international American school also in Brazil. My university and graduate studies have been in Canada. Met DH my senior year undergraduate and went back to Brazil where I started teaching ESL. Moved back to Canada to get my B. Ed. and while DH was working on his M. Ec. Development returned to Brazil to teach at a private international American school in Brasilia (the capital). Finally married and made a definite move back to Canada in 1985. I have been teaching and quilting since I got my M.ed in Second Language Acquisition (1986). Before kids I also taught at the University of Ottawa and with our first daughter got posted to Washington DC. where I was able to take many workshops and courses from famous quilters (Jinny Beyer, Elli Sienkiewicz etc). We had our second daughter there and third back in Ottawa before moving to India and then South Africa as Canadian diplomats. We are now back and settled in rural Nova Scotia on an organic "hobby" farm. I teach core French and visual arts at a k-12 school 10 minutes down the road and have a 1000 square foot studio on the second floor of our modern barn. I belong to a small local quilt guild, enjoy gardening, and knitting and crochet. I may retire in a few years and the first thing I hope to be able to do is travel to quilt shows that take place during our school year including Paducah and Houston.

Cheers
Jeanine in minus 20 C NS (for those in the US that is somewhere way below 32F)

OMG Lorchen you are to funny. All those reasons for expulsion sound like you have had experience with others that have been expelled, because I know it is not through personal experience.

Yeah, Keith, what dreadful deads did you do to get expelled?? Cut a piece out of the headmaster's coat because it was just the right colour for your latest quilt project? Use the head of the skeleton from the science classroom for bowling practice in the maths corridor? Secretly did some hand sewing behind the bike shed? Turned up in school in one of those t-shirts, sporting the words 'My Fat Quarters Rock' on the back? Pushed a piece of raw fish in the ventilation tube of the French classroom where it wasn't found for 6 weeks? Decided that 'Dungeons ans Dragons' was for wimps and started a secret 'Warhammer' club in school?........

What fun this is ..to learn a little more about the "family" ! I'm just a country girl at heart...that said ...
after some college I became a Licensed Practical Nurse and worked in a variety of hospital dept.s ending as a "float"
filling in where needed. In 1977, divorced, I moved to a small rural 10-bed hospital and stayed 'till 1984 when I married
DH and he "retired" me to be a homemaker ! 17 yrs in hospital shift work was enough, but in 1986 we opened a fishing tackle
business which I operated. DH had the day job..he's a heavy equipment operator...worked for a logging
company until they closed and now maintains roads. He has "art-y" tendencies but that's another story. The
shop closed in 2000 and I really started to quilt and stash. I don't remember not sewing...did all the regular
things..4-H, Home Ec and the first quilt was a string-pieced-on-paper baby quilt in about 1973. There aren't
many things in the Arts/Crafts I haven't tried but I always come back to fiber. Oh, DH wants me to tell you that
when we had the shop I tied flies for my customers...self-taught. And out of necessity, taught myself to repair
and build fishing rods. I custom built to order and specialized in the fancy wrapping that few do these days.
That led to being selected as an Idaho Folk Artist and having my work exhibited and published. Tho' few in
number my rods sold far and wide and still catch lots of fish in style ! I don't do them now...I'd rather quilt !

Rita, check out the poem "When I am an old woman" [url]http://labyrinth_3.tripod.com/page59.html[/url]

Keith, is purple really your color?? Hugs....

Keith wrote:
Is this an expression in the USA? I have never heard of it before. Can anyone explain it to me? And Keith, my mind is spinning with the possibilities of the kind of dancing you now only do at home.

It's been fascinating learning a little more about all of you. Thanks for sharing.

"...and got expelled from 8th grade."

Whoa there, Keith, you seem to have buried the lead. Elaborate, please?

In elementary school - I learned German like a good Lutheran and I raised guinea pigs and showed them at the county fair.
In junior high - I played football and squared danced with my parents' club and sewed my own tee shirts and got expelled from 8th grade.
In high school - I bowled (a LOT), played Dungeons and Dragons and rode motorcycles in the desert.
In college - I took a semester of New Testament Greek and tried to be a pastor. Unsuccessfully. I wore a mohawk.
Shortly after college - I got my CPA license and audited governments by day and danced in the clubs by night.
Now - I'm a little boring. I still audit (25 years and counting) and I bowl semi-professionally. I still dance - though much differently now, and almost always at home.
Very soon - I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves.
And I don't even know what summer gloves are.

Going back in time, my first job was picking strawberries on our family produce farm in Idaho along with some of my 8 siblings. We actually got paid, but the money was put in a jar to buy our school clothes for the next year. I remember the trips to Boise to shop and the pretty new store bought dresses. I did make most of my clothes when I was older though and even had a few jobs sewing for others including a couple teachers, but never considered that I could do that for a living. After graduating from high school I moved to Oklahoma to stay with an aunt. The only job I could find there was working at a dry cleaners doing ironing and mending. The following year I moved back home and got a job at a printing company where my sister worked. After tiring of that I moved to Texas where my aunt now lived and worked in the contributions department of a children's hospital. Then I met my husband, quit my job, got married, and had 3 children who have blessed me with 10 grandchildren. My older son, the father of 4, is a professional engineer and has been working on a very interesting coffee table style book that I hope he will finish soon. My daughter has a masters degree in linguistics and spent quite a few years in college. Her husband is a pastor working for Chi Alpha on the college campus. She's a lifesaver for me, helping with the bookkeeping, and enjoys doing the payroll part the best, but mostly she takes care of her 3 children and loves to bargain shop. She's been a big help with the shopping for my new home. My younger son grew up to be a great dad of 3 wonderful children. He's what you might call a jack of all trades, and supervises the construction jobs. He's the animal lover in the family and they recently brought home some blue ribbons from the stock show for a rabbit. His older daughter wins multiple ribbons riding horses and his younger daughter wins multiple ribbons in gymnastics. That is one busy family!

Ladies, thank you for sharing your stories...they are all fascinating!

I am a recently retired obstetrician/gynecologist, after 35 years practicing medicine. My husband also retired from his job as an emergency room physician last year, and we leave next week for our first post-retirement adventure...a 3 week trip to Florida to see birds and wildlife in the Everglades and the Keys. Our family motto is "Never travel light!"' So we will be taking 2 bikes, 2 kayaks, a whole bunch of cameras and electronic toys, and (of course) a sewing machine with us. Anyone know of any must-see fabric stores in south Florida? .

We have 2 grown daughters, one SIL, no grandchildren (yet!).

I have sewn since childhood, when my Aunt Sophie helped me with my first sewing project, a turquoise wrap skirt. My parents encouraged my interest with the purchase of an $88 Sears Kenmore sewing machine (which I sewed on for the next 20 years...I have a "few" more machines now!). Sewing was on hold during medical school and residency, but started back in a big way when my girls were born. After they outgrew smocked dresses and dance costumes I became a quilter, starting many projects, but finishing few. Now with retirement, I'm hoping to put a big dent in my pile of UFOs!

I love quilting because it allows my right brain and my left brain to play happily together! I also love flower arranging and bird watching. My husband and I have a "bluebird trail" with 17 nest boxes that have hatched dozens of bluebirds in the last 2 years. Life is good!