Valerie Gardiner:  

Life Is this where we pack 40 years into one paragraph? Grew up in beautiful San Juan, Puerto Rico, where I went to St. John's from kinder thru half of tenth grade with the greatest group of 25 (give or take one or two) kids on earth.... My parents dragged us, kicking and screaming, to the frigid north, New Canaan, CT, to be exact, to a school with hundreds of kids my age.... unbelievably overwhelming and a whole lot of fun... Needless to say, I excelled in Spanish (much to Mr. Newell's annoyance) and had a whirlwind time there ending at a brand new high school with terrific memories... Headed to more cold weather (what was I thinking?!) and graduated from Colgate in '76 and moved to DC -- worked in publishing for about 10 years. Married John in '86 in Annapolis and moved to this area a year later. Have been here (Severna Park) ever since. Daughter Laura attends Northwood U. in West Palm Beach and son John in 9th at Archbishop Spalding where he's on JV baseball team. They both laugh at the idea that I played volleyball at St John's, NCHS and Colgate and laugh even harder that I am playing golf again after a 30 year gap... I'm lucky to live near both brothers (Rob & Gregg) & their families and have both of my parents who live about 20 minutes away, too. I do lots of volunteer work in our community and at the kid's schools and was a part-time Spanish teacher and substitute teacher until recently... it was fun to take jobs now and then but now that the kids are older, I am finding other fun things to keep me busy.... I have stayed in touch with only a few...Expand for more