This is of course where you get to read all about moi’ : ) I was born Carmella Mae Johannpeter, on November 5th, 1962, at 2:03 a.m. in Granite City Illinois. Granite City is just outside of St. Louis Missouri. My parents were Theodore Joseph Johannpeter and Betty Jean (Richardson) Johannpeter. My parents divorced when I was a little more than a year old, and I was raised by my Dad and my Grandma, (and a wicked step mother for a few years). Granite City, was home until my Dad moved us to California in 1970. We lived there for about 18 months before we moved back home to Illinois. Then in 1976 we once again packed up and moved back to California. This time I remained in California until after the birth of my 4th child in 1984. This time I moved to Missouri to be closer to my Mother. That is a very long story. Remember my Mother and Father divorced when I was very little? I never saw my Mother again until I was 20 years old! I had an ok childhood. Of course I did not understand at all why my mom was never there and wanted absolutely nothing to do with me, and the step mother, oh boy was she a dewsey! I’ve never met anyone so mean in all my life and Pray I never do again. Most of the 5 years my Dad and I spent with her I have blocked out. The times I do remember are not pretty at all. Thanks to a wonderful loving God, I made it through that time and through all the rough times I had growing up, and I am sure I am a much stronger person because of those times.
I had many trying times growing up. By “Growing up” I don’t mean growing from a child to an adult. I mean growing from an adult “Physically and mentally” to an adult “Spiritually”. I was born and raised Catholic. I had the Catholic Religion crammed down my throat, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. I attended a Catholic School from 1st through 8th grade. By the time I graduated the 8th grade I really didn’t want to see the inside of a Church any more. I was bitter and angry that I had been forced to go through all the rituals and rosary, and everything else pertaining to the Catholic Religion. Please don’t get me wrong, Catholics are good people, but the religion was forced on me in a bad way that made me bitter towards the religion itself, but not the people. In fact one of the greatest women I have ever known was a Nun that taught my 7th & 8th grade class. You don’t find a lot of people like this lady in the world anymore. She was a great Blessing to myself as well as all the other kids in St Joseph school back in the mid 70’s. I would love to be able to see and talk with her again. She is probably the only teacher I ever had that I think of often and miss dearly.
As I had children I became concerned with what to teach them about Religion. I did not want them to have the type of experience I did, so I decided that I would not push any Religion on them, thus I did nothing at all to teach them anything either. I was so afraid I would do or say the wrong thing, I felt it better to allow them to grow up and choose their own faith, rather than push my beliefs on them. Especially seeing how my beliefs were all confused within my own head. I knew one thing for sure, I believed in one God, and I believe that Christ died on the cross to save me from my sins, and that is what I taught my children.
As I said I had many trying times “Growing up”. I had a few bad marriages. Now I am not saying that I married a bunch of creeps, I’m saying that for one reason or other the marriage was not healthy. One thing that I will never regret though is the beautiful children that came from each of those marriages. Finally in 1994, towards the end of my third “Unhealthy” marriage, I found the greatest man in the world for me… My now Husband Dan Dunkin.
When I met Dan, I was delving a bit into things I should not have. I still never lost site of God and Christ, but I was a bit confused to say the least. Anyway, Dan helped pull me to reality of what Religion and the Bible is all about, and I thank God that he did, as I was on a really bad road Spiritually, and mentally too. I met Dan on April 21st, 1994 on an on-line service called Prodigy. This was a couple of years before the “Web” really got going. Back when most things were just BB’s and everything was text, no graphics. I was living near Youngstown, Ohio, and he lived in Indianapolis. We hit it off right away. We thought the same thoughts, which at times was a bit scary, but eventually I became used to it and now I enjoy it. We had the same likes, dislikes, views on life, etc. We got along very well, all the time. My children, (All 6 of them) liked Dan a lot Oh did I leave out that we eventually met face to face? We had our first date after we met and I was back in Ohio and Dan in Indiana. You say how is this possible? We each chose a secluded spot outside under the moon to go and sit. We did this at the same time, so we were in essence “together under the moon”. We were both looking at the same object, at the same time, even though we were more than 300 miles apart. Romantic huh? we had a few of those dates, and I still cherish each one of them, (as does Dan).
Dan and I married on July 14th, 1995, in a small Chapel in Riley Park, in Greenfield, Indiana. It was very hot that day, 106 at 6:00 p.m. And of course I had to pick this cute little Chapel with NO A/C!!! I’m sure all of our Brides maids and Grooms men will never forget that day. I had these poor guys in Victorian style tuxedos, you know the kind with those tail things that go down almost to the floor! The girls had it a little easier. Their dresses were a light cotton with short sleeves. My dress on the other hand, was a victorian style, full length, full bodied, wedding gown made from bridal satin. It was so hot, but once I walked down the isle, (dripping all the way, LOL), and was standing next to Dan, I forgot all about the heat. I’m sure no one else did. In fact our Minister hurried the service along so we could all get outside, were it was a little bit cooler than inside the Chapel.
We spent the night at the Holiday Inn, then headed for Brown County State Park the next day. Brown County was awesome! We started out in a small one room cabin. Then we looked into getting a family cabin for a few days and going home and picking up the kids. We got lucky, they had a cancellation and a cabin we could get into that very afternoon. So we headed home, grabbed the kids and headed back to our family cabin nestled in the woods of Brown County State Park. We all had a blast! We saw so many Eagles, they are such wonderful birds. After our “Family honeymoon”, we settled down in Shelbyville, and we remain here still today.
Me and my handsome hubby Dan!
Ever since I can remember I have loved to take pictures of EVERYTHING, as well as sing, act, craft, and do art of all sorts. So with all the interesting past I have in my life, I find writing, photography, web design, and graphic arts to be a very good way to make money as a disabled individual by being myself, and having a great time doing so writing, designing, and still taking pictures of everything in sight, LOL!
