About the Owner

Greetings. I've listed my 4 main jobs above and now let me tell you a little about each.

First, I am the owner of Amber's Accessories. Since you probably came through my front page, you already know that I make jewelry.

The second job I listed is web designer. Besides Amber's Accessories, I also am responsible for Centennial Special Olympics' website, Molly's Pages, and Jeramey's stuff. There is another page I am doing. I will list it here as soon as I have done more with it.

I'll give more information about Centennial Special Olympics' website in a bit. Molly's Pages is my cousin's website. I am very pleased with the look of this site. Although the graphic content is a bit heavy, I think it does a good job expressing who she is. Go take a look and you'll see what I mean.

The next job I have down is mother. Well, now I'm a grandmother, too. Here's a picture of my granddaughter. We're waiting on the next one to decide to be born. I'm hoping that mom gives me picture of both of them VERY soon!

Okay, I said I would get back to Centennial Special Olympics'. One of the things in my life that of which I am the proudest, besides my kids, is being one of the coaches for CSO. I have been a Special Olympics coach for 10 years, most of that time with CSO. I am very proud of all of my athletes, who usually try their best.

I have seen shy, quiet athletes take on responsibility for other athletes. Occassionally we ask athletes to look out for others. Usually, they start doing it without being asked.

One of our athletes has some of the other girls help her. When we did volleyball, she did Individual Skills, as did several other athletes. Since the skills athletes practiced with the team, they all played. The other girls would help Erin stand in the correct place and help her when it was time to rotate. We coaches (including her dad) knew she knew where she was supposed to be. But she had the other girls place her. This is quite different from when Erin plays bocce. During bocce, Erin looks after her partner.

Like the most of the rest of our athletes, Erin has a great sense of humor. She is always betting her dad that neither Molly nor I will call her "turtlehead." Of course, we always do and she knows it. Dad's still waiting for his money!

Why am I self-employed? There are a lot of reasons why a person becomes self-employed, usually it is because s/he is unhappy with his/her present job, whether it is the money, the hours, the boss, the co-workers, or what s/he is doing in the job. The money is part of the reason why I am self-employed, the hours are another. However, I did not quit another job to becomes self-employed.

I became self-employed because of my health. I have spent the last 29 years of my life as a Type 1 Diabetic. For most of that time, I have taken two shots a day in an attempt to keep my blood sugar normal. Because I take insulin, I MUST eat at certain times after taking my insulin. Not doing so could cause me to wind up in the hospital very quickly. I could suffer brain damage from my blood sugar going too low. I could die from my blood sugar going too low. Having my blood sugar too high also could kill me, but not as quickly.

My diabetes (dy-a-bee-tees) is not the main reason I cannot work outside the home. The main reason I cannot work outside my house is fibromyalgia. More and more people are becoming familiar with fibro. Although I do hurt at times, mainly when there's a weather front that will pass through two days later, the worst part of my fibro is how it effects my sleep.

I am always tired, I never sleep well, and I never know when I will finally fall asleep or for how long I will sleep once I do. That becomes even worse when I get into an all-night cycle. I can't get to sleep, so I get up and do something for a while. I try again, still no luck. Finally, between 9 and 10 the next morning, I am able to go to sleep. This wouldn't be too bad if I fell asleep every day at 9 or 10am. At least then I could get a night job. As it is, I would be fired by the second time I feel asleep at work at midnight.

So, how can I do the other things I do if my sleep is so unpredictable? I never do anything for very long. No matter what I am doing, I stop at least once every 30 minutes. The other thing that helps is I am often doing two things at once. As I type this, I also am working some polymer clay (look for new beads, coming soon!). When I watch TV, I am either reading something or beading. And my mouth is always running if there is someone around (sometimes when there not, too!). lol

Well, that's some information about me and my life. I hope that one of my stories has touched you. Even better if one has made you laugh.

amberwool@yahoo.com

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