Esther's autobiography

My parents and I lived on a farm outside of Grand Rapids Michigan across the street from my dad's parents. One of my fondest memories was taking Shep to the swamp and laying on a tree that had fallen across the creek, watching the life in the water. Maybe that is what put a permanent love in my heart for ponds and running water.

Between having three babies, I worked for a bank and retired from there 5 years ago. My oldest son Kevin is 41. He is married with three kids. Kelly 30, is single and he works at a gas station. My little girl died at 6 months, having been born with Spina Bifida. I was married to the father of my children 20 years.

Pete, the plumber, and I both are in a second marriage of 25 years. He has a son who is married and his wife has three kids, two girls and one boy. Pete's second son has a 4 year old daughter. Cindi is Pete's daughter who is married to a nice guy with an 20 year old son. Fortunately this blended family gets along pretty well together.

We live at the same house my X and I purchased 39 years ago. There has always been a pool in the back yard so I have coped with water quality and leaves for a long time.

After collecting articles and books about water features, I finally purchased a preform from a catalog in 2001. We sank it in the ground and within 2 weeks realized it was too small. Pete dug a bigger one and SIL the roofer lined it. That lasted about a summer and a half. In the meantime I had purchased some Koi not realizing how quickly they grow. So the next thing I knew Pete brought home a mini digger and began to make me a new pond. It is right in front of the house, up against the front porch and walk. It is about 10 X 13' X 30" deep with a Skippy bio filter on one end and a DIY skimmer that houses a 3200 Tsurumi pump on the other end. I have about 3-4 Koi and a few stray goldfish. Just across the front walk is a small pond that looks like it is attached to the big pond but it isn't. It was built for mini lilies.

We have one dog, a silver miniature 5 year old poodle named Smokey. The cat Mittens is gray and white and the same age as Smokey.

I have an embroidery machine and spend most of my time off season (winter) sewing, embroidering, and on the computer.

We are committed Christians and attend the same Baptist church my parents joined when I was 6.

I didn't know you were in Michigan at one time!!! We had friends who were the youth leaders in our church and then went to Pontiac. Must have been around 68-69 maybe. How on earth did you end up in Washington?

Allowance??? What is that? I was allowed to eat the meals that were put on the table. I always had home made clothes on my back,  nothing patched or with holes, shoes on my feet, boots for work or mud, sometimes they were hand me downs, bed to sleep in, warm home, an education, friends, grandparents and uncles across the street, parents who lived a good example, took care of me and took me to church. My main complaint is that they didn't give me any siblings. Guess it wasn't their fault. LOL No, money was not handed out AT ALL. I had to practically beg to get the money to pay for my senior pictures that they had ordered. Tight as the bark on a tree. But I learned to conserve and DIY to my advantage. There's not much we won't tackle if we're in the mood.

Yup, thanks for the reminder.