10 Years Today!

October 13, 1997 was a Monday - and it was the day that I started work with the Cooperative Extension Service in Pike County, AR (Murfreesboro). I wore a black & white houndstooth dress with heels, had my picture made for the local paper, the Murfreesboro Diamond, and generally wondered what in the world I was doing. I was supposed to be an Intern working with another agent. But after about 3 weeks, the agent I was working with (Jean) moved to the neighboring county. But she was only aboutg 15 minutes away, was on my speed dial, and was still very helpful to me. I became an actual agent October 1, 1998 I think. I was promoted to an Agent II in 2002. One of the reasons I'm going to work on my masters is that I can't promote again until I do - not to mention that we get a nice payraise when we get our masters!

For the first three weeks or so, I lived in Nashville in a one-room apartment. It did have cable though. The dorm-size refrigerator was by the bathroom, and the microwave was in the bathroom. I lived on slim-fast for breakfast, and frozen dinners for dinner. Then, I rented a cute little house in Murfreesboro and lived there about 6 months. It didn't have any furniture except for a little table in the kitchen and maybe a chair. I slept on the floor for a while - because I didn't have any furniture! My parents were bringing me some furniture, but Dad's cancer spread to his eye and they were unable to haul any furniture. So, my grandmother and uncle & aunt took pity on me. They loaded up furniture from their houses and brought to me! I had a chair for the living room and table with a lamp, a twin bed (Laura's old daybed), a nightstand, and maybe another table. Not much but enough! In March 1998, I moved again. The next apartment was a basement apartment - it was furnished, all the utilities even cable (except for the phone) were paid, it had a carport, and I guess I felt more comfortable knowing that there was someone else in the house. Really, I think I was so used to living in a dorm, hearing people above me, that living in a basement was very nice! I lived in that house until I moved here to Searcy in April 2002.

I've enjoyed my time with Extension. Wanda, Mike, & Avonne were great coworkers in Pike County. I still miss them. But Roberta, Anita, Brian, Sherri, Keith, Jamie, Amy are great. I've also worked with Dustin, Amber, Melanie, Rose Ann, and Tammy in White County. I've enjoyed getting to know the EH ladies, the 4-H kids, the people in the county, the county judges. I really do like my job - it's fun, I get to know neat people, and it's always different.

So, here's to another 10 years (I guess)!