As a lady painter, I am not your average everyday painter. Being a woman, and a SuperMom to an exceptionally brilliant and gifted teenager, I bring unique aspects to all my projects, be they commercial or residential, such as: Fine attention to detail. My clients tell me that I am extremely neat, (compared to some male painters, no offense to male painters, but some are not very clean and orderly is what my clients have told me). I have a keen awareness for caring about what is going on in my environment. If a child, elder or pet is in the home, I am considerate of them, and clear passageways for thourough walkways as needed, and deeply appreciate all families, and single clients, and am careful to not let pets out. (Pets love me, as do children, as I do them, because they can tell when a person is safe to be around) For example, if school age children are coming home after school, I will take care to paint in their room first, so as to give them their space/room to be available when they come home, instead of painting their room while they are home. Oftentimes packages that need signatures while the client is away, I will sign for them as needed. Two times my clients were so happy I did so, because it happened to be a package from their bank, etc. so that they could then pay me, or other important related documents. I am very trustworthy, and have even passed a FBI background check in order to volunteer at our very own Family Justice Center in Santa Rosa, elder law abuse department.

One time last year, the neighbor was having some work done in the front yard, and hit a gas line. And what do you know, but the fireman came to the house, notifying us we must evacuate due to gas line danger. Boy, that was scarey! At that moment, I jumped into SuperMom mode, and told the lovely elder Grandma to gather herself, grab a leash to get the pup, that we were to evacuate immediately! And sure enough, we did so, left in my car and then promptly notified my clients as to what had occured. My client was at work at the time, and shortly met us at a local park which is where we ended up. I took the opportunity to fully enjoy the precious present moment with my clients Mother, who has since become my friend, and the pup, we all enjoyed our time at the park.

Current Life Happenings

The information I am providing for this website about me and my life, and family, would be incomplete without mentioning my late fiancé, Christopher Mondloch. We met when Alex was quite young, and in 2007 he became a permanent part of our family, my fiancé and Alex’s friend, soon to become stepdad. Chris was funny, and had a great sense of humor, was an old and wise soul and we shared the same spiritual beliefs, which is very important to me. Chris also helped develop the sound machine technology and new physics. He also did help me to take care of Alex, and our home life. If we were out of milk first thing in the morning, Chris would go straight to the store to pick it up so Alex could have it for his cereal, and when Alex was about age 4 ½ he would carry Alex on his shoulders as we walked part way to the local store, part way on my shoulders, because Alex would get too tired to walk the whole way, (about 3-4 blocks or so), until the day came when he could walk both ways by himself without help. Chris taught Alex how to dig canals at Dillon Beach, where they started about a hundred feet from the water on the shore, and dig canals which eventually filled up with water, Alex loved to do that, and watch the water magically appear right there where he had dug in the sand.  He was also very generous with his money. One time Chris had paid Alex an extra $10.00 on atop of his usual chores money, and Alex straight away excitedly decided right then and there, that he would buy yo yo’s for his 3 closest friends with the money from his chores. See, they were having the book faire at his elementary school that week, and Alex wanted to share his wealth with his buddies.

It is amazing how when we as parents or stepparents are generous with our young ones, they are watching and learning from that. And Alex was just beaming with pride and joy at being able to gift his friends with the yo yo!

Chris loved to spoil Alex, when he wasn’t bent over in pain and anguish. And his inner pain of having an ex basically steal the proceeds of the sale of his and her house, plus having served overseas as a young man, he carried the terrible memories of being a soldier with him until the day he died.

In fact, it is my intention to one day form a foundation for veterans who are disabled, elders, who do not have family, to give them tiny house villages, plus land to cultivate and sell the veggies, etc., so they can financially provide for themselves, and have the community of sisters and brothers to take care of each other, a community. I will do this in memory of Chris, and many like him, who served our country, who wear from that day, forever, the scars that never seem to heal, scars of being a soldier, of having to defend your life by hurting others, and presumed guilt and/or sheer horrors of war. I say presumed guilt because the couple months before Chris passed, he was wrestling with the anguish, loss and feelings of pain from all the intense and gory memories of war. I pray, that one day, our children’s children’s children, will never even know of war, that it will be something that is part of our history. However, I do appreciate all our sisters and brothers in the armed forces, for their continued sacrifices, and especially ask for prayers for the missing in action, and prisoners of war. These intense memories can make the veterans traumatized. I pray that all soldiers and veterans have understanding and loving family, like we were for Chris. It is not easy sometimes to love people who are so damaged from this kind of life trauma, as this kind of inhumane pain can turn them against themselves. But I never stopped loving him, and always looked toward the light filled man who made me smile, and made us laugh. We did enjoy fun outings with our family, with Alex, my parents, dinners, picnics and trips to Dillon Beach.

However, after a severe car accident in Sonoma, Chris almost lost his life, and survived a very severe car accident.  Due to this debilitating car accident, he was unable to work his normal position, which was a talented tiler, construction worker, and craftsman. Although he still did small jobs for friends and family, helped me in my painting business from time to time, and being a builder he was able to create many wonderful additions to our home, and at our art studio at The Art Farm in Sonoma for 12 years, and a wonderful tree fort at my parents house for the grandsons. Life was not easy at times; we did struggle, and were doing our best to do co-parenting and sharing parenting duties of our awesome Alex, aka Little Dude. Alex is no longer little, as he at 15.5 is six feet tall, a junior, and even taller than his Father, amazing!

Chris passed in 2016 from end stage liver disease, and he is sorely missed by me and my parents, who accepted him as our family and my spouse for over a decade. I am forever grateful to have known Chris, and even though grieving is a process, that takes time to heal, I rest in the knowing that we both believed that the soul lives forever, we never die and are immortal, just the body passes. So, I know that he is free now, of a painful body that in the end held him captive. His brilliance, sense of humor, and intelligence and spiritual beliefs and knowledge is missed by many. He continues to watch over me to this day, as I feel him as our Guardian angel now. My friends want me to move on, but when you meet and live life with your chosen life partner, no one seems to measure up. Besides, I don’t feel lonely, or need a man to complete me. Luckily, I feel Our Father in Heaven fills that void in my life, and my faith in God, Guardian angels and Holy Spirit, guide me to this day.

Another important aspect of my success has been due to my response of being a Mother, to be inspired to be my best for myself for me and my son, as well as my parents influence. Having been an elder caregiver, it does suit me and my siblings to have me be the one adult child who is to take care of our elders. Luckily, my Mom and Dad are very supportive, grounded and the newfound dynamics of their relationship show me as an adult, being so close to them, that we all will get old someday. If we wish our adult children, or now children to grow up and come visit us. let alone take care of us in our golden years, we had better be civil, nice parents, having good boundaries, but being the opposite of unkind to our children. For one day, all of us will need that level of care nearer to the end of our lives, if we are lucky we will have them in our lives to love us. Do you visit your parents often? I have witnessed elders who are retired, and if they were able, have provided enough to live on in retirement, do you know how much a visit form kids or grandkids just lights up their lives?

Think of how you wish to be treated as an elder? Do that today! You never know just when your number is up and it is time to retire the body. We will return to the light from whence we came. To God be the Glory, and may your lives be filled with God’s or your higher power’s light and life, with health, wealth and well-being.