Hello!  Thanks for stopping by.

My name is Cathy Blanton.

And, this is my sweetie, David:

Here is my calendar:

Here are my web page updates:

December 30, 2002:

Well, it seems that I have neglected this page for two years <so sorry>.  We have been very busy with "life" and you can probably get more updated just by looking at our 2001 and 2002 photo albums.  The boys and I went to Colorado over the summer and then the whole family went to Vermont for Christmas.  Angel Cakes (www.angelcakes.org) is flourishing with two more chapters and possibly another one after the first of the year.

December 31, 2000:

Again, it has been almost a year since I've updated my web page, but as everyone always says, time just seems to fly by :-)  This year the thing that has changed my life the most has been reading the "Left Behind" series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins.  Check my Hot Links page for their websites.  They made a movie this year about the first book, "Left Behind" and it will be out in theatres in February, 2001.  Be sure to see it if you get a chance!  Another thing that I did this year was I started a non-profit organization called "Angel Cakes."  I am making specialized birthday cakes for underprivileged children (mostly from a homeless shelter here called Samaritan Inn).  I'll be starting an Angel Cakes website after the first of the year.  I think the domain name will be www.angelcakes.org.  Hopefully, I'll be able to start a network of people to do this all over the United States.  It will be a big project, but it is worth it to know that a child will have a smile on his or her face when they see their own special birthday cake, when they might not have one otherwise.  Other than doing a LOT of reading (I'm on the 8th book in the series) and getting set up for Angel Cakes, mostly I have just been enjoying being with the boys and keeping the family in order.   This year I also found out that one of my good friends from high school passed away.  His name was Steve Owesney and I've put a tribute page together with some photos of him for you to see.  Click on the button on the left titled "Tribute to Steve."  I will miss him - he was a really neat guy!

January 15, 2000:

OK, so I now realize that it has been a year since I've added anything to MY page, sorry :-)  But for those of you who know us well - most of it was in our 1999 Christmas Newsletter.  One BIG thing that happened this year though that I didn't get to add to the newsletter is that my brother David and his family moved here to the Dallas area.   We are so excited that our kids will get to grow up together now - although our busy lives seem to get in the way of making plans on a regular basis.  David's wife, Lisa, and I are really getting a lot closer than we ever have been before (more like sisters-in-law should be).   Right now, I'm working on getting braces - not quite there yet though (I've got to get two teeth pulled - and I'm not looking forward to that).   Also, another project for 2000 will be to carpet our  family room (maybe even the whole house - right now we think we'll be here until we retire - we'll see...) 

January 3, 1999:

It seems so strange to type 1999.  It happens every year, but this year is different.  I'm sure because it is the last year of the century.  We had a wonderful Christmas and a very uneventful New Year's Eve.  Unfortunately, we have ALL been sick.  I just love staying home with the boys.  It was the best decision we ever made (other than getting married, of course).  If you had a chance to read our 1998 Holiday Newsletter then you already know most of our news.

September 25th, 1998:

David no longer works for Perot Systems, and I will be leaving as well on October 9th, 1998 to be a stay-at-home Mom (yeah, that's what I said...)  We have been working towards this goal for a few years now, and we both know how important it will be for me to be home with the kids...  Michael and Spencer are very excited about the upcoming change in our lives.

My many assignments with Perot Systems have been very challenging.  Here is just a brief description of some of the contracts I worked on:

EXCEL Communications  This was my last contract assignment with Perot Systems.  As Testing Manager on a Year 2000 project, we were responsible for testing all of their internal systems and applications for Y2K compliance.  I was in the process of hiring a team of 20 Senior Test Engineers and Testing Team Leads.  This position was the most challenging by far - and I learned so much in a short amount of time.

East Midlands Electricity (EME)  On this account, I was a Senior Test Engineer working on a Year 2000 project responsible for testing for Y2K compliance on EME's many internal applications.  Most of the testing team that I worked with at Texas Instruments rolled on to this account when our TI contract was complete.

Texas Instruments (TI)  I was a Senior Test Engineer working on a software development team that was designing a suite of applications to manage the semiconductor manufacturing process.  I truly loved this job and was challenged EVERY day.  The folks I worked with there were some of the neatest people.

Swiss Bank Corporation (now UBS)   For this assignment, David and I relocated our family to Basel, Switzerland (for almost 2 years).  Perot Systems was engaged there in a long-term contract to migrate all of Swiss Bank's legacy systems to client/server Windows NT.  My role was Testing Manager and Senior Test Engineer.

In my personal life:

• David and I met when I first went to work for Perot Systems Corporation in February of 1991.   We were married on December 3, 1993 and shortly thereafter relocated from Northern Virginia (where I was born and raised) to Plano, Texas (just north of Dallas) where we currently live.   We have two beautiful children, Michael (age 9) and Spencer (age 4).

• What I enjoy the most is being with my family.  We are fortunate to have my mother Nancy (aka Nana) living just down the street (10 doors down the street to be exact).  Here is one of my favorite photos of her:

• This is my best friend Marykay and her family.  They live in Virginia.  She and I have known each other since we were in high school (I won't tell just how many years ago that was - but it has been more than half our lives!)  One of the hardest things about living in Texas is being away from my family and friends.  Marykay and I talk on the phone as often as our busy lives will allow, and we are also fortunate to be able to e-mail one another.

• The end of 1997 was also the end of a decade for me.  I traded in my 10-year old white 4-door Honda Accord LXi for a shiny new red Honda CRV (see my links page).  Boy, oh boy, I'm loving it!  We also added an awesome CD player (for the music lover in me) and a few of the dealer options like window tinting, and roof rack.   It looks pretty sporty!  I was certainly overdue for a new car.  Even though the old Honda ran like a champ, it turned 100,000 miles just before the trade in (and also traveled to Switzerland and back with our household goods).

• As some of you may have read in our 1997 family newsletter, my father, David Stockwell Baird, Sr. died Christmas day when we were still living in Switzerland.   This is one of the best pictures I have of him - he was so happy here.

• And this was my Bo Kitty.  He and I had a wonderful 15 years together before he went to heaven on September 3, 1997.  He was a Manx cat, and had a very unique personality.  I grew up with cats and Bo was my favorite by far.  One his favorite things to do (to get my attention) was to walk across my keyboard while I was trying to work on the computer.  Oh, I would get so mad!  But now, I have such fond memories of his little games.  I still feel his presence here on earth, especially when I lay my head on my pillow at night, as this is where he would curl up with me - like he was trying to protect me or something.

• This is my long-time friend and buddy, John Orford with his wife Mila.  John has always been there for me (like the big brother I never had) and helped me out whenever I needed it.  John has an identical twin named Ed.  Ironically, I met Ed first, then after meeting him again a second time (or so I thought) realized it wasn't Ed at all - and that's how John and I became friends.  Mila is a flight attendant for United Air Lines.  Some of the things John and I have in common are a love of music and dancing, as well as going to the movies.

• This is one of my good buds Diane Blahnik (aka. Aunt-Dee).   She and her husband Mark (aka. Mr. Mark) recently relocated to Boulder, Colorado.  We sure miss them, but look forward to visiting them at their new place and skiing with them and their kids.

• Some of my interests are computers (of course - it is our biggest hobby), graphics, water and snow skiing, boating with my husband and kids, reading, and listening to music.

Please email me at: cathyblanton@hotmail.com

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