About Me

I have always loved weddings. As a little girl, growing up in Poughkeepsie, New York, I attended a lot of church weddings, some at my local church, Vassar Road Church of the Nazarene, and those of relatives at other churches all around the Poughkeepsie area. I would go home after each wedding and play wedding, much like the little girls in the movie, "Bride Wars" would do. I would find a sheet or a towel to use as a veil and I would play the beautiful bride and go through the entire wedding ritual.

As I got older, my Barbie dolls would be the bride and groom. I would dress them in beautiful wedding gowns that my paternal grandmother, made. She was an expert seamstress and made gorgeous outfits for customers who would come to her home all day long. Unfortunately for me, I did not inherit her beautiful gift of sewing.

My other grandmother, baked beautiful and delicious wedding cakes. I can bake, but not the way she could!

My parents had me in church every time the doors were open, so I got exposed to a lot of church activities. I grew up loving the church and Christian life. I accepted the Lord, Jesus Christ, when I was eight years old in my little church on Vassar Road. I was baptized at age 15 in the Catskill Gorge while at youth camp.

When I turned 16, my father was transferred to El Paso, Texas with IBM (I've Been Moved) so my life turned upside down. This was not a good time for a teenager to move and it took me a good while to adjust.

Many years later, a young soldier in the Army showed up at my church in El Paso. He did not seem interested in me, but I took note of him. About nine months later, he noticed me and started coming over to my house to talk to my father about church, cars, and other topics of interest. Then he would show up with dessert after a meal.

He finally got around to asking me out. The first time he did, I turned him down. A month later, I said yes. Five months after that, David asked me to marry him. I said yes and we began to plan our own wedding.

After four months of planning, we got married. Our ceremony was beautiful. Our reception was simple and tasteful. I did not have much to spend on the wedding and reception, but we got married 24 years ago and, although we have seen friends who had elaborate weddings, get divorces, we are still married.

So what I am trying to say is that it does not matter how much or how little you have in your wedding budget. It is all about your love and commitment to God and to each other that counts and whether or not you are willing to tough it out when marriage gets rough.

You must make up your minds together before your wedding day that no matter what, you are committed to your marriage. Divorce is not an option. That is the only way you will stay together. Believe me, rough times will come. They come to all couples. How you handle those rough times depends on the commitment you made ahead of time.

David and I moved all over the country while in the ministry. We ended up in San Antonio, where David was born, and we managed to stay right here now for over 12 years.

We have three children, all grown up now. Andrew, our oldest, is 23 and a senior in college. One year ago, he married the love of his life, Cinnamon, and together they are having a lot of fun, enjoying their time together, working and going to school. For fun, Andrew practices Tae Kwon Do. He is a 2nd degree black belt.

Matthew is 20 and works and goes to college here in town. He is an excellent musician, playing guitar, drums, and keyboard, and has recently begun to learn violin. He also loves video games. He is a hardworking young man of whom we are very proud.

Tiffany, our youngest, started college this past fall out of town, living in a college dorm.

My husband, David, is out of the ministry. He was laid off again this past fall when his company shut down, laying off 832 people. Fortunately, he has two websites that he works on, one about his real passion, vegetable gardening.

He has a big backyard vegetable garden. He loves to grow things. It is definitely what he cares about most. So naturally, he started a website about gardening to benefit others. He shares his knowledge and experiments both in word and in video on his gardening site, Vegetable Gardening Made Easier.

He also spent six years over in the Middle East, serving as a civilian contractor during the first and second Gulf Wars, so he has a website about those adventures as well, Iraq Up Close And Personal.

He continues to build that site, but his real passion is about helping others garden like he does, for rest and relaxation. He loves it and gardening is a great hobby because we get to eat the results!

Oh, yes! This page is supposed to be about me, yet I have gone on about everyone but me. I pay health insurance claims for a living and have been in the health insurance industry since 1981. I build websites in my spare time. It is a good hobby and brings in about $1,000.00 extra a month so far. We need all the extra money we can get with three children in college this year! To learn how I built this site, click here.

That is me, pictured above, dressed as the mother-of-the-groom, when our oldest son, Andrew, recently got married. Time sure flies!

I have two other sites as well as this one, that I have recently started, Your Massage Therapy Career and a site about the city where we now live, San Antonio Family Fun.

As a matter of fact, writing my websites has become much more than a hobby. It has become a small business, done in my spare time, a way to insure a solid financial future for my husband and me. He and I both believe strongly in sharing information to help others on topics that we know and love. SBI! is the perfect vehicle to make it happen.

Without SBI! over the past two years, facing various layoffs, our finances would have been in the toilet. No joke. But our website earnings took us through the tough times until we could find jobs. Now, that my husband has once again been laid off, he is focusing on turning his websites into his full time job. Thank God for Dr. Ken Evoy, the founder of SBI!

Thank you for taking the time to visit my wedding website. I hope it is helpful to you as you plan your wedding. My very best wishes and prayers for a wonderful and long-lasting marriage!Juanita

P.S. If you would like to learn more about having your own online business, like my husband and I do, take a look at this quick video below and learn how to build one using SBI, just like we have done. The money I earn from this site helps me pay down my mortgage each month. Enjoy!

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