Welcome to Katie's page!

General

My name is Kathleen Joy Followell. I was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, 29 years ago, to Richard and Joyce Flaherty. The youngest of seven, I have four brothers and two sisters. My given name was Kathleen Joy Flaherty, but everyone called me Katie. Other than for a short time when I was on military training, I have lived in the Indianapolis area all my life.

On June 13, 1992, the happiest day of my line, I married my best friend, Paul Followell. We have two golden retrievers, Timmy and Hannah, that we adopted from GRRACE.

School

For grades K-8, I divided the years between Brookside Elementary School #54 and St. Philip Neri Grade School. For High School, I attended Arsenal Technical High School where I graduated in 1989. Last year (1998) I completed my Associates Degree in Business Administration at IIT. I will have my Bachelors Degree completed in December of this year. Eventually I would like to get an MBA.

Work

Immediately after finishing high school, I left for Basic Training. As a member of the Indiana National Guard, I spent six months on active reserve duty. The first two were spent in Basic Training at Fort Jackson and the remaining four were at the US Army Signal School at Fort Gordon. In my eight years as a weekend warrior, I earned two MOS's: 72E, Tactical Telecommunications Systems Operator and 31D, Transmissions Systems Specialist. I was honorably discharged in 1996.

I currently work for IQuest Internet, Inc., a local Internet Service Provider, in the business office.

Hobbies and Interests

I collect teddy bears, especially Cherished Teddies. My collection started when I was in High School and has been on-going ever since. In the last few years, I've shifted my attention more to the Cherished Teddies figurines, but still enjoy finding an adorably soft, cuddly, teddy bear. My collection has gotten so large that is has its own website, www.teddies.com which I will eventually finish.

I enjoy traveling. Some of my favorite trips have been: Australia (1993), our Royal Caribbean cruises to the Southern Caribbean (1995) and the Western Caribbean (1996), and my visit to France and England (1997). Overall I think I enjoyed my visit to France the most. I visited the Louvre, the Museum D'Orsy, and Monet's gardens in Giverney, as well as all the usual tourist sites.

Recently a lot of time has been spent decorating our new house. I know it really isn't "new" anymore (July 1997), but until I get it completely decorated the way I want it, I'm going to continue thinking of it as "new." The two most recent projects I've completed are wallpapering the entry, downstairs hallway, and kitchen, and painting the master bathroom. My next project will be painting/wallpapering the stairway and the upstairs hallway.

Other hobbies and interests of mine include Impressionist art, reading, going to movies, bike riding, shopping, and camping.