Grandma Rosie's page I can do anything ... I've been a mom!

Back then, I was studying Home Economics in college and Dennis was studying Accounting. He became an accountant and I became "just a housewife". But we all know that being a mother and wife entails more than any other career, just not as much money in the bank.

Dennis has been with the same company for over 30 years, and we've been together for one year more. I sewed a lot of clothes during the years when our children were growing, for the family as well as costumes and clothes for others.

After our children were all in school, I began working outside the home. First as an upholsterer when I had my own shop, then for a chain of fabric stores where I got to put my sewing skills and knowledge to good use. I became a store manager, but they instituted rules requiring managers to be in the store on Sunday. I took a pay cut and transferred to another store as crafts manager and bookkeeper.

I left the fabric store and went to work for a small accounting firm. My what a big step, from a comfortable world of fabrics and crafts to the real business world. Numbers and books came easy to me and then we had two accountants in the house.

I am now the accounting manager for an office furniture retailer. Dennis has drifted in and out of systems work several times over the past years and my career has somewhat paralleled his. I find myself in the position of being the most knowledgeable computer person in our company. As such, I am the IT department, trying to keep an aging fleet of PCs and a Novell server running.

Irregardless, family has always come before career in my life (don't pay any attention to those laughing in the background). We now have four sons-in-law, each of whom we try to treat as equals with our own children. When our daughter-in-law, Becky, died suddenly in 1998, the hurt was as much as if we had raised her. Perhaps it hurt even more because we never went through the rebel stage with her. I can truthfully say that Becky was more than a daughter-in-law, she was one of my very best friends.

Excuse me while I wipe a few tears away.

There, I'm better now. I have a few pictures of my family and my husband has LOTS more on his page.

But I do have a couple of pictures of his birthday party held on August 5, 2000 and the family birthday party on September 2, 2000

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