What I have been doing for the past forty years can be pretty much summed up in the active verb "moving." I moved three times before completing college and, since then, my husband and I have moved eleven times, lived in ten different cities in eight different states. The most recent move brought us to Hawaii, the island of Oahu, in 2001. The next move back to the mainland at retirement, will hopefully be our last. One of the skills I have honed is that I can throw one heck of a yard sale at the drop of a hat. Along the way, I have accumulated a wonderful, supportive family; some amazing friends; a coast to coast knowledge of our expansive United States; and traveled to some pretty exotic places (climbing an unexcavated pyramid in the Belize jungle was amazing).

As to that wonderful family, I met my husband, Gary Jutz, while I was in graduate school at Washington State University, Pullman, Washington. I was a teaching assistant in the Speech department and he had just returned from the Viet Nam war to finish his degree in Hotel and Restaurant Administration in the fall of 1970. Yeah, okay, he was my student and, yes, he got an A in the class, but cross my heart we didn't have our first date until the following March. We eloped in December over Christmas break and will have been married 35 years this December.

The hotel industry has been very good to Gary; it brought many advancements and challenges. But, each promotion also meant a move which wasn't always easy. I was six months pregnant with our first child, Deborah, when we moved to El Paso, Texas in 1974 and to this day she considers herself a Texan, although we left there before she turn one. Our second child, Jason, was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1979, and he is a loyal Falcons, Braves, Bulldog fan and is the only one in the family who eats grits.

Deborah is a photographer and has lived in New York City since finishing her BFA at Savannah College of Art and Design. Her work grows in beauty and stature with each passing year. Jason lives with us in Hawaii. A renaissance man, he started at a music conservatory in Virginia studying saxophone, came to Hawaii to attend the Culinary Institute of the Pacific (graduated last year) and is now a Political Science major at the University of Hawaii. He hopes to attend law school next fall. Neither have married, but I have a great Grand Puppy and a sinister Grand Kitty to dote on for now.

I was one of those who bolted from Holdrege upon graduation. I had dreams of the big stage, but despite much success on the college level, lacked the courage or conviction to strike out for the Big Apple. I have no regrets. I have reinvented myself with every move and have a list of job skills that when lumped together make me a jack of many trades and a master of several. Some of my most rewarding work was my twelve years with non-profits in Washington, D.C.

Through it all, I have never stopped writing and am now working on a novel set in, of all places, Nebraska from 1943-1960. Will let you know if it ever gets published, but it has been wonderful to work on. I have learned more about the state I call home in the past two years of research than the accumulative knowledge I had acquired along the way. Thank you to all of you who have continued to make it a great place to live.