Kathleen Cahill:  

Life I have kids, cats, the house in the suburbs, the whole nine yards, woo-ha. I live in Washington, (suburban Seattle, not D.C.) I've had two husbands, The first died of leukemia after 14 years of marriage, the second I've been married to for 14 years now, and the old coot better not croak! After high school, I worked on a farm in North Dakota learning to operate heavy equipment (every summer for six years!) Saved my summer money to fund my college tuition. I graduated from A.S.U. (took 6 and a half years to do it!) (hey I had to work my way through, mommy and daddy weren't forking out any cash, the cheapskates), Got married, taught middle-school kids in Bowie AZ science, math, and reading for awhile, moved to Florida, did the whole beach thing for a while, (that was fun, I loved the Keys and the Islands) Travelled around a bit, partied, had fun. Moved back to AZ because husband #1 had been diagnosed w/cancer by then and the doctor said dry climates were healthier than humid ones. We already owned 40 acres of land in AZ that we were speculating on, decided to move there and build. I got to design my own house (I'd taken a little drafting in college, so I felt up to the challenge) While I was building my house, (yes, I built it myself with the help of two guys, my brother-in-law who is a licenced contractor, and made sure everything was built to code, and a local man I hired as a laborer). It took one whole year. My bro-in-law had to leave every so often to take on REAL jobs, while I stayed behind with my worker and hung drywall or ran wiring or whatever else needed to be done. I lived in a tent until it snowed (we were at 4000 feet) so I bought an 8X10 shed and lived in it, while I worked on the house. When the shell of the house was complete, we moved in and three weeks later my husband died. That was a bad time. 38 years old, no husband, no cabinets, no appliances, no air conditioning, no flooring, no furniture, no feelings, no nothing! I got over it. Eventually I remarried, and just before my 40th birthday, I had a kid. That was a big surprise, since my tubes were tied! (I was in denial for the first three months, convinced it was the flu)(Hey, I couldn't possibly be pregnant, my tubes were tied right? Pl...Expand for more