I’m Rebecca, born and raised in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, about 40 minutes outside of Pittsburgh. By all accounts, normal childhood: went to grade school, junior high and high school in the same town. My parents still live in the same house. I took a year after high school (much to my parents dismay) and took off for Ocean City, Maryland for the summer. That gap year ended up being a huge learning experience. I ended up enrolling at Slippery Rock University, and after 3 majors ended up graduating with a B.S. in environmental science and a minor in meteorology.
I’m Danny, born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, specifically the Collinwood neighborhood. I went to grade school, catholic junior high and catholic high school in Cleveland. Spent the majority of my free time playing goalie for several hockey teams. I graduated high school and enrolled in Cleveland State University, with a major in elementary education; this path did not work out so well. The first summer in college, I landed a good paying job. Such a good paying job, that 15 years later I was still there!
Well, we are not high school sweethearts… Danny and I met when I was on Christmas break, my junior in college. I spent the break with my sister in Eastlake, Ohio. Danny was spending Christmas day with friends, who happen to be my sister and her boyfriend. So, I met him on Christmas day 1996. We married on May 19, 2000 (a Royal day)! We honeymooned in Cancun, Mexico.
Danny was previously married and has a daughter, Katie. Katie (my darling step-daughter) was 13 when we married in 2000. We have been a happy and healthy bended family- with the occasional routine family drama:). Katie graduated from Ohio University in 2010 and now lives in Columbus, Ohio with her two (2) kids, and when I say kids, I mean cats!.
We are a big, scratch that, HUGE dog family. Currently we have 2 black labs. The one we got as a puppy (Madeline) and then six and a half years later we were told by Madeline’s people dad that someone could no longer keep one of her litter mates (Baylor). So we have 15 year old black lab sisters. One blessed us as a puppy, the other blessed us 6 and a half years later. Literally, our every day revolves around these two little nuggets. The subject of us catering to our senior dogs could be a whole other blog.
I graduated college with a degree in Environmental Science and for the past 15 years have been at the same environmental consulting firm. I became a partner in the company in 2004. The career and life I’ve been fortunate enough to experience at this company is immeasurable. We work hard, play often and respect one another. It has allowed me to work on other parts of my life, such as finding inner peace and serenity, exploring different hobbies- including traveling and trying to be the best human I can be. Danny has been working swing shift for the local electric company for the past 18 years and up until about a year ago he worked at the local coal powered electric plant. Everyone sees where this is going, right? Yes, the plant closed down and now he walks 30 miles a week reading electrical meters. Needless to say, summers are scorching and winters are brutal in northeast Ohio and this is not a cushy job. At the end of the day, we both enjoy vacations and look forward to exploring new destinations.
We are landlords as well. We bought our first rental house in 2005 and currently have three (3) total. We ventured into rental properties as another avenue for retirement funds. We still do not know if we will sell them when we retire or hire someone to manage them for us. We are quite the team when it comes to managing properties. I find the homes, market the homes, find tenants, keep the books and occasionally evict tenants. Danny collects rent, deals with broken appliances, fences, and most of all other tenant issues. I should also mention I have my Realtor’s license. I HATE being bored and am always looking for new ways to fill my time. Currently, I have my license “on hold”, because I wasn’t doing much with it, but it’s there if I ever get the itch again.
Danny is also a hockey coach and has been for the past 35 years. You could say hockey is his passion. For most of those years, he coached “squirts”, and for those of you who don’t follow little kids hockey 🙂 those are 9-10 year olds. He is currently coaching high school kids. He loves working with the kids and seeing them progress. To date, he has coached three (3) kids that have made it to the NHL.
Danny was quite the hockey star in high school. He also played goalie in men’s leagues until about ten years ago. As he recalls, it was just too difficult getting out of bed the morning after men’s league games. I should mention that men’s league games start on average at 10:00 pm on weeknights!!
