I am a Native Texan, born and raised in Houston. I graduated from Waltrip Sr. High School on the "not so plush" side of the tracks. It's a little known fact but during the years I attended Waltrip, two Academy Award Nominated Actors, an Olympic Gold Medal winner, and a whole lot of other people also graduated from Waltrip. I attended the University of St. Thomas as an Art/English major. Going to school was a huge adventure in the late 60's ans early 70's. I don't feel kids have the same sense of freedom and adventure now. While there I met my future husband, George Horton, a fourth generation Houstonian. He was born in the same house his father was, and it still stands! On the corner of Austin and Elgin on the south side of downtown. So, I guess I married on the "right side" of the tracks.

As young marrieds we bought our first home in the Larchmont neighborhood, thus began my career in real estate. The house was a 1956 post-war tract house. We slowly began updating our little home. A baby followed, another house, another. You can see a pattern developing can't you? By the time our daughter was 3 we decided that we didn't want to be in the city much longer. After much deliberation, we had a plan! Taking our experience in home remodeling, my husband's abilities in management and my interest in cooking....we concocted a scheme. We were going to open a Bed and Breakfast! And we did. In December of 1983 we opened High Cotton Inn in Bellville TX. A huge Queen Anne Victorian home, over 6,000 sq.ft. of Cypress and Long Leaf Pine, 12 ft ceilings, incrediably detailed woodwork and over 100' of porches and balconies that need power washing  twice a year and painting annually.

We opened the Inn just in time for the Oil bubble to burst. For those of you that weren't born or conveniently forgot, Texas was in a tail spin after the price of oil dropped to less then $20 a barrel. Downtown Houston was empty, for that matter so was downtown Bellville. We were beginning to learn the hard way what a downward business cycle was. So, we needed a plan B. Enter the bakery. As an Innkeeper, I had placed a jar of cookies uptairs for the guests. When an entire jar of cookies disappeared in one weekend, we decided that we might have a product that could be sold. It took several years but we did make it work. The High Cotton Inn & Bakery was a viable, growing business for 17 years, until May 20th 1999. That is the day my husband's heart stopped. Yep, just like that. It stopped. No indications of any problems, low blood pressure, low cholesterol, no history in his family. I received a phone call around 7PM that my husband was in critical condition in a hospital in Houston. On complete life support for 10 days, he survived. With some limitations, he's still around. I was successfully able to sell both the Inn and the Bakery (go to www.eatcake.com to check it out)

This is how we began the next phase of our lives. By now (2000) our daughter was in college and we were ready to do nothing for a while. So the day after the sale of our Inn and Bakery, we bought a wonderful home in Comal County on 5 acres. We still live here and love it. I set about downsizing my furniture, after all, this house is less than half the size of the previous one. That took a while, we also took a grand trip for our 30th wedding annivesary, from Miami to San Diego in 19 days. Travel is a sub-theme of our relationship. We both love it, but now that it is more difficult for George, we take cruises. We also began exploring the hill country in earnest. I find it exciting to be only 10 minutes from some of the most beautiful places in Texas. After a couple of years I decided to take my act on the road and get back to work. Real Estate finally became my vocation as well as my avocation.

Since 2003 I have been actively establishing a fun circle of clients. I love selling homes, finding all the pieces of your personal puzzle. I take care in asking my clients a lot of questions, so I can find the home that they dream of. Hopefully without looking at every house on the market - but I will keep on trying!