Shara Barrett:  

Dec. 30, 2008 HELLO Everyone! Seasons Greetings and a very HAPPY New Year to all for 2009!!! It was good to see those that were at the reunion what, seven years ago already??? Uugghh, 17 years since graduation! I'm feeling so OLD now!!! LOL. I am married (in May '09 it will be 12 years) and we have a wonderful almost three year old daughter. She's truly a delight (95% of the time of course - for all of you that have toddlers and know what I'm referring to!) After I graduated from EHS, I went up to Tally and then graduated four years later from Florida State University. Just prior to my Senior year, I visited my dad who was working in Germany. There, I unexpectedly met my husband-to-be, who was stationed there with the Army. We started a long-distance romance which took us through three years (of me finishing college, then moving out to California to make it big in the ad world, and then marrying in '97.) Since he was in the military full-time, we've lived in a few states. I kept my pursuit of the advertising/marketing field everywhere we went, and eventually decided to just work for myself when we were at our last duty station. I was the youngest entrepreneur my town there had ever seen, but they warmly accepted me into the business world and from a professional standpoint, those were the best years I had. Once my DH completed a successful command, he decided he wanted to pursue his automotive engineering degree, and so...we landed in Motown. Not literally, but in the suburbs. I ran my advertising and promotions agency long-distance, flying back and forth and running up my Fed Ex bill constantly, until I received an offer from another agency owner 2 hours away there that wanted to expand their territory, and ... the rest is history. That was an emotional letting-go process for me, as it was kind of like watching your child leave home once they are grown, and go off to their new life -- not that any of us know that feeling YET, but it IS coming, and then we'll all know how our parents felt when we left home. So, I know it's crazy for a Florida native to be living up in COLD country, but...it's been working out. Just wish we had a "snowbird" home in Florida to get away to (like so many people here do -- not sure WHERE they come up with all that money particularly in today's economy), when it's almost ZERO degrees, snowing, and icy on the streets! We've been living in Michigan for 8 years now. Although we came here for my DH to pursue a civilian career, he did not get out of the military completely. His blood runs green, according to him, and he just could not cut the cord to his de...Expand for more