Home - Our Little Place

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We're happy to have you visit us for a while! We hope you will find the information here beneficial, the stories enjoyable, the testimonies uplifting, and the music entertaining!

A little about ourselves: We live in North Florida. We are members of Celebration Baptist Church, and Jacki is very happily involved in the worship ministry there! Gorden worked as a Systems Project Analyst with the State of Florida before he retired in 2015, and Jacki was a Computer Programmer with the State of Florida before being forced to stop working due to chronic Lyme Disease, which was previously misdiagnosed for 21 years! Symptoms overlap with those of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), Fibromyalgia (FM), and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). Please take the time to read through the "Multiple Chemical Sensitivity" pages, which contain very important information about the health risks of using common, every-day products—which played a large part in Jacki getting sick. Learn to protect yourself and your family from getting similar illnesses. Jacki is now developing web sites and converting books into Kindle format as a hobby (as her health allows), as well as working on her original music.

We have been Apple Macintosh users since the old 512K Macintosh way back in 1985! We enjoy many different aspects of the computer, but especially for music recording and music notation (creating sheet music).

We have no children of our own, but we have had many "fur-babies"—even including being foster parents for orphaned baby squirrels for St. Francis Wildlife! More about us and our fur-babies can be found in the About Us section!

That's us in a nutshell (pun intended!)—now, just sit back, relax, and ENJOY!

Our Christian Faith

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Our trust in God began many years before we even met each other! We can both see now how God was molding us and making us ready to be each other's marriage partner way back then. We both truly believe that God has put us together for a reason and that He will use us in His divine plan for His glory and purpose.

We have been married now since 2/20/88 and are closer to God than ever before. When we first got married, we both committed the marriage relationship to God and asked Him to bless us and show us His plan for our lives. We truly believe that putting God first in our lives is what has enabled us to make it through the tough times.

We have had many trials to face and overcome throughout our marriage—such as Jacki's chronic debilitating illness, the loss of 2 grandparents, Jacki's mother, several aunts and uncles, and later on losing both of Gorden's parents. Especially hard was the loss of our little Dusty—our fur-baby for many years. It is trials such as these that have brought us closer to God and helped us to rely on Him more and more. When nothing makes sense, it always helps to remember that God is in control and that He is still working out His perfect plan for us. He has carried us through every trial, just as He promised He would, and we can give thanks even in them (not necessarily for them!) because we know that God can take whatever the enemy throws our way and meant for our harm and use it for our good! (Romans 8:28 – "And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them." and Genesis 50:20 – "As far as I am concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil. He brought me to the high position I have today so I could save the lives of many people."

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity

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(Environmental Illness)

Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) is basically a subset of Environmental Illness (EI), which is caused by living in a toxic world. The chemicals that were synthesized after World War II—including, pesticides, synthetic fragrances, cleaning products, detergents, etc.—are mostly "petrochemicals" (petroleum based) and are quite toxic to humans. There have been virtually no studies done on the majority of these chemicals to see how they affect humans. The industry just placed the chemicals in the environment with the assumption that they are "safe till proven toxic" instead of the other way around! One of the biggest offenders is PERFUME and other scented products. Did you know that many of the ingredients in your perfume are the exact same ingredients found in GASOLINE??!! I didn't either! The scary thing is that the perfume industry is NOT REGULATED at all—they can put any number of chemicals in fragrance without revealing what those chemicals are or how they affect humans. We humans are all participating in a giant "lab experiment" against our knowledge and against our will, and it's making some of us VERY sick.

canary with mask Those of us who are becoming chronically ill from these chemicals are similar to the "canaries in the coal mine." Coal miners would take a canary into the mines with them to warn them when the air became toxic. They knew that when the canary stopped singing or died, it was time to get out before it affected them as well. We "human canaries" are here to warn the rest of you that, unless you start making changes and avoid as many toxic chemicals as possible, you too may become very sick. Nontoxic living is actually much "simpler" and cheaper!

Dusty's Tribute

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"Dusty-Bear"

5/19/85 – 10/22/01

(16.5 years old)

… in loving memory

Where to begin… I guess at the beginning! Dusty was "Jacki's baby" at first before we got married, so Jacki will tell this part of the story…

I had been wanting a little furry friend for many years after moving out on my own, but this one summer day I woke up and decided this was the day. I was bound and determined to find "my" very own little fur-baby. I first checked the paper and the humane shelter, but there were none that fit the bill. I specifically wanted a "little, fluffy dog."

So I went to the pet store. I had first picked out a little terrier, but when they put him in the little glass play area for me to see him better, he just didn't seem to respond to me much. Then my eye caught this little fur-ball in the next cage over—it was love at first sight! They put him in the play area, and when I reached down to pet him, he jumped and jumped and licked me and wagged his little tail… I knew I had found my baby…

Our Squirrels

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Orphaned Baby Squirrel Fostering

NOTE: If you find an orphaned baby squirrel, please see this excellent site: Squirrel Tales. It includes all the proper care for baby squirrels, as well as how to find an experienced rehabber in your area. If you are in the Tallahassee, Florida, area, please contact St. Francis Wildlife. This page also has local drop-off locations where you can take the baby for St. Francis to pick up.

From 2003 – 2015 we fostered orphaned baby squirrels as volunteers for St. Francis Wildlife! What an amazing adventure this became! When we lost Dusty in 2001 Gorden always said if he ever got another pet it would be a squirrel (though we've since learned that squirrels do NOT make good pets!)—so when we found this little guy (whom we called "Fuzzy") crawling around in our yard one day, we took him in—and proceeded to do EVERYTHING wrong!

Health Risks of Perfume

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The Health Risks of Perfume
(and Other Scented Products)

Did you know that perfume is made of toxic chemicals that can injure your health? Many of the chemicals in perfume are the same chemicals as those found in cigarette smoke, and yet there is no regulation of the fragrance industry. Many people are "bothered" by perfumes—developing headaches, sinus problems, and even asthma from exposures. Many have gotten sick or even disabled from wearing—or being exposed to—fragrances and using other scented products (me included). Also fragrances are now used in almost every cleaning, laundry, and personal-care product on the market!

These chemicals go directly into the bloodstream when applied to our skin and are also absorbed into the skin from our clothing. We also inhale the chemical fumes, which then go straight to our brains—where they can do major harm. Many even have a "narcotic" effect, which is why some people seem "addicted" to their perfumes. Please take the time to read the articles in this section and educate yourself about the health risks to you and your family…