Well, here I am in Blacksburg, Virginia, which is located between the Blue Ridge and the Appalachian** Mountains.  I am a Programmer/Data Analyst at Virginia Tech (Go Hokies!). 

After high school I attended Pittsburg for a few years then married Pat O'Reilly. (Some of you may remember that his grandfather had a drugstore on the square downtown).  While he was in the Army we lived in Georgia, Maryland, Tennessee, and ended up in Yuma, Arizona.  We came back to Pittsburg where I worked at PSU and he got a Master's degree.  Then on to Penn State.  Then to Mississippi where I went to school and he taught for a year. 

I finished my degree in Botany at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.  Then off to Virgina Tech where I worked part-time and he taught.  Some of my work included working on a project for the organization of Virginia's native plants and animals.  I really enjoyed that but when funding was cut I started on a Master's degree in Agriculture.  I still worked part-time on various ag projects and at the Learning Resources Center Test Scoring Office helping with the data analysis, test grading, etc. (By this time I was divorced.)  When I finished my degree I decided that I enjoyed the analysis part of my soybean research at least as much as the greenhouse work.  When a full-time job opened at Test Scoring I took it.  I've been here ever since.  I became Operations Manager a number of years ago.  We have eased out of most of the research analysis and now concentrate on multiple-choice testing for university classes and course evaluations. 

I try to get back to Kansas every year to see my family.  This year I'll be back home for Memorial Day and the first week in June so I will miss the reunion.

I see that I haven't included much personal information so here goes:  I love to cook, hate to clean, don't have any pets, and dislike shopping (except for shoes).

Thresa

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** A note about the pronunciation of Appalachian for any of you teachers out there.  I seem to remember in elementary and high school in Kansas that we pronounced this word with a long A (ap a LAY shan  or  ap a LAY chan).  But from mid-Virgina on down the correct pronunciation is this:  (ap a LATCH an).