HI AMY !

Here's me & us in a nutshell:

I am Laurie, middle of the 5 of Jack and Jo's clan. I use Lauren in my adult world but there's overlap, so it's interchangeable.
I was born in Baltimore, MD on December 5, 1960, about a year and a half later than my brother, Scott.
I was the youngest until Jill was born six years later, then Christy was born four years after Jill.
We grew up in Elkridge, MD, known for the historic Viaduct. We moved from Arbutus to Elkridge when I was 1.
Dad and Mom still live there, and amazingly care for and enjoy their brick cape cod and nice big yard.

I lucked out getting a scholarship from High School from a local rotary club and headed to University of Maryland in College Park to do pre-nursing. I floundered the first semester taking the hardest courses for me, then got better grades, was accepted into the UM at Baltimore School of Nursing, and got a BSN. I travelled to Hawaii to visit Ernie, Sue, Greg and Jennifer the summer before starting work at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. I worked there in neuro and psych under a great boss in various capacities for 11 years. I got a Master of Science degree from UMAB, a 4.0 (I can write and, you know, Master's are mostly that) and Hopkins paid since I was working fulltime. My career highlights include recognizing a woman with a brain tumor I was admitting to psych so she got moved up to neuro right away; a nun with a bunch of neuro symptoms: saved her from lots of testing recognizing on interview she was toxic on aspirin as the cause; getting paged to people wanting to learn ways to minimize pain, Rx, and healing time, for after surgery . . .
I got married at 23 and birthed Natalie Marie in April of 1992. I birthed naturally Lindsay Marie in August of 1994. I breastfed my babies until 13 months and 9 months, respectively. I left him in 1995 and lived on my own with the babies in an adorable historic home apartment. The girls were in a diverse childcare at a nearby college while I worked during the day then went to the nearby Catholic school where I went as a child then I moved them to public school for several good reasons that bore out to be true, thankfully. On March 10th, 2000, I married John August Koenig, 5 years older than me. He is from a neighborhood this same side of Baltimore that's beautiful that I never knew. He was an accomplished baker, then became a Realtor and has been doing that (with integrity) for 20 years. He likes to help people. We've had years of conflict (not much around the kids) unfortunately, and he's been physically sick alot (chronic fatigue, then Lyme dz, then early stage colon cancer -- he's a perfect patient: I've aided him to reverse diabetes, lower his BP naturally so he's on low dose monoRx only, and cure CFS, and his cancer) so I'm quite weary. He's just discovered Byron Katie (TheWork.com) and is changing which is finally, hopefully, refreshing. My girlfriend's 91 year old wonderful mother and friend of ours just died and her son said to me at the funeral home "are you married? are you happy in your marriage?" Hmmm ... am I terrible or what ?! No action, just thoughts, mind you ... Now about the girls. Natalie is loving high school and in 9th grade. She brought home straight A's for the first time in her young school life ! She loves art and also playing softball and loves being part of a team and seems to be a natural ballplayer. She's getting an award for most improved ... she loves to babysit and she's pursuing Confirmation ... I hope she will take advantage of earning college credit in her Jr. year. She started off right with a HS credit earned in Spanish during 8th grade.
Lindsay is in 7th grade and loves her new middle school. She is a chronic straight A-er and loves to dance, sing, cook, and do art. She's virtually good at everything she does.

Well, that's us in a nutshell.

I hope this is the start of a deep female relationship. I will say upfront that I lose touch, then re-connect and catch up well with my closest friends. This is because life is hectic with fulltime work and children priorities, and a mother-daughter bookclub, occasional dancing, and a home we just moved to a 1962 home that needs some work but is in a safer 'hood and school district. Both reasons to move, thankfully, have been the case.

Fondly,
Laurie (Marie Bateman)
425 Chalfonte Drive
Catonsville, MD 21228
Home 410-788-0807
Cell 410-371-5948