Hey, thanks for stopping by. I would like to welcome you to my home on the World Wide Web. My page has a large number of links to it but hey, that is what makes it fun.

I was born and reared in Cumberland, Harlan County, Kentucky. I attended Cumberland High School and Southeast Community College. I have lived in Big Stone Gap, Virginia; Knoxville, Tennessee and Sneedville, Tennessee, but for some strange reason always feel the need to return to my home town of Cumberland, where I presently reside.

Cumberland is one of three small towns that make up the Tri-City area. It is the shopping district for the three towns, the other towns, Benham and Lynch are mainly coal mining towns and at one time were company owned. Visit a friend's home page to learn more about the area. I am a Medical Technologist, but no longer practice. I have worked at the SouthWest Virginia Healthcare Clinic, in Big Stone Gap, VA; Harlan Appalachian Regional Hospital in Harlan, KY; East Tennessee Baptist Hospital in Knoxville, TN, and Hancock Co. Hospital in Sneedville, TN.

I have several interests, one of which is my family, which consists of my Dad, sisters, Connie and Becky, and my wonderful and intelligent nephew, Jay. My Mother passed away on April 27, 2005, and I miss her dearly. I have one cat named Ice-Cream and had a puppy named Sugar, and she was a sugar for sure, but she is now missing and has been since Dec. 27. I miss her with my whole heart, she was my first dog ever in my life and meant so much to me.

I collect Barbies, but only the newer ones. I do have the ones that I had as a child. Since I played with them I know they are not what most would consider in good shape but I love them just the same. Mother and I use to collect paper dolls, she always liked them better than the Barbies, because they do not take up as much room. I use to collect Pez but after Jay came along I gave them all to him. I do still buy them for him when I see a new one out. I am also an advid collector of cookbooks.

I use to dabble in Genealogy, the following are the surnames I was most interested in:

Coldiron, Melton, Hogg, Stiner, Lewis, and Green

The following links will take you to the information on the Coldiron and Melton surname. You might also want to check out the Surnames that are in our tree.

Another hobby of mine is collecting recipes. Please check out my page of recipes, that I have collected from friends on the net, and while you're at it I would love for you to share your favorite recipes with me. Click here to send me your recipes. If you noticed, I did not say that I cooked just that I collected recipes. Since my mother had been sick for several years I had become the main cook in the family, and since her death it has been really hard on me trying to get meals on the table because she always sat in the kitchen while I cooked and she also told me what to cook and if I needed help she was there to help me. You will find my personal recipes here. Since Mother's death, Dad has had a hard time adjusting to my cooking, he prefers the good ole' country cookin' that my mother did. I like to fix fancy things and he is more into eatin' beans, potatoes, corn, and of course, corn bread. Believe you me, I am learning to cook his way now.

The most important and best decision I have ever made is accepting Jesus Christ.

I am very active in our church. I am currently the Lay Leader and Church Administrative Council Chairperson; I also serve on the Finance Committee, Lay Leadership Committee and PPR these committees I serve on due to my postion as Lay Leader and Ad Council Chair. I served as the administrative council chairman for four and half years and took off one year due to my mother being so sick and you actually are only suppose to serve 3 years straight; but I had taken over someone else' postion which allowed me to carry out the four and half years. I then had ad council chair for a year and took off another year, was co-chair during that year. Once again I am the chairperson of the committee and the chair from last year is my co-chair. In the past I have also been church historian and I am the webservant for our church. In Feb. of 2000 I completed the beginner lay speaker's course and in Feb. of 2001 I completed the advanced lay speaker's course. I attended Layspeaker's school again in Feb. 2003 in order to keep my certification current. The beginner, or what is actually called the "Basic", course qualified me to speak in our local church and the advanced course qualified me to speak, not only in our local church but other United Methodist churches within our conference. My certifcation was up this year and I was unable to attend the school, but they allowed me to do the work at home and dicuss it with my pastor. This year I was also one of six chosen as outstanding Lay Speaker of the Corbin District. I found this to be quite an honor, especially, since I was the only female chosen and also the only one chosen that did not have a full time church. There are over 100 lay speakers in our district so this was quite an honor. In June of 2000 I started clowning for Christ and have started a clown ministry in our church. This ministry is actually now on hold due to my fall a couple of years ago, I still am a clown at heart though. My clown name is Buckles and you may visit me here.

I have fibromyalgia and am disabled because of it. I would like for more folks to become aware of this illness. Most people do not think there is anything wrong with us that suffer from fibromyalgia. We look normal, so folks think we are just lazy. If you are interested in fibromyalgia, please read my FM story and visit my link page to learn more about this illness.

December of 2002 I was diagnosed with Obstructive Sleep Apnea aka OSA and started on CPAP on Dec. 31,2002. Wow what a difference this has made in me. In 2003 I was put on oxygen to feed into my cpap, I quit smoking and was able to go off the oxygen. This year, 2008, I had to go back on the oxygen, only we think it is because of my weight. When I have more time I will write more about my experiences with it and post links to pages that I think are helpful for other folks.

Due to this problem and the fact I have several other problems I am now considering gastric banding, would love to hear from anyone that has had this surgery.

In Feb. of 2004 I learned that I had become a diabetic. I knew I was border line for years but had been successful in not crossing that line, but oops, it happened. m I took pills for over a year and couldn't control it so I went on a new insulin called Lantus and next thing I know I was bottoming out. Lantus eventually started working for me again, but it also quit doing as well as it had so I know take Januvia, a new pill on the market, with the Lantus. I do have a links page for diabetics and you will find it here. By the way, you can find me most evenings in a chat room on Undernet called #Diabetic Talk. It is a wonderful chat and although we do not always discuss diabetes if some one comes on and has a question we quit the other stuff and try to help them. If it had not been for this group of people I would have been lost as to what to do when I was first dx'ed.

On March the 19, 2006 I found a lovely group of people at Recipe*Zaar ®. I am already enjoying them so much that I can't get off line for reading different recipes. I told you I loved recipes. I have also fallen in love with the Food Network.
This is my certificate for Lay Speaking school, I am very proud of this, you may click on it for better view.