Kellyn Zimmerlin - Grover Beach, California

Hi! I'm Jim's faithful sidekick, Kellyn. People have a lot of trouble pronouncing my name... but it's actually very easy once you know that it rhymes with Helen.

A digitally re-touched photo, not my real license plate!

Welcome to my web page... where I can tell you about all the things that are dear and important to ME! At the top of that list would be my husband Jim, and our kids Sheri and Jeff. You may have noticed that there's quite a bit of information about Jim here on our web site, but not much about the kids. It's not that we're not proud of them, it's just they've asked that we not say much about them here on the web site. Let me just say that I have totally enjoyed every minute of being their mom – they are awesome and a pure joy to have in my life.

Sheri and I are very close. She got married in the Spring of 2005 to her longtime boyfriend, Jason, and is now living in Arizona. I'm proud of her strong religious beliefs and her quiet, gentle nature.

Jeff is attending college in San Diego... and he's already well established in his chosen field. He has worked for the NBC-TV affiliates both here in San Luis Obispo county and there in San Diego. If you're thinking that at his age he probably just makes the coffee and sweeps the floor... you don't know Jeff! He's been involved in video production since Junior High School... had a job at a commercial television station while still in High School... and at the age of 21 landed a job at an NBC owned and operated station in a major market. Not bad! When he used to live at home, it was fun to sit in with him at work and watch him in action in the control room, running an entire live newscast.

I may very well be the Los Angeles Dodgers’ #1 fan. (If anyone else out there that thinks they deserve the title, we probably should compare notes!!!) I remember listening to the Dodger games on an old transistor radio when I was very young, like 6 or 7 years old! I'm ready for baseball season by about the middle of January, and experiencing major withdrawal symptoms by the time opening day rolls around in April! I even got to be at Dodger Stadium for opening day a few years ago. My family knows at every gift giving opportunity that if they can't think of anything else, they can always buy me tickets to a Dodger game or any kind of Dodger logo merchandise! The only other “stuff “ I have more of than Dodger stuff is Cocker Spaniel stuff.

I'm sure you've figured out already that I totally adore Cocker Spaniels. Jim and I always say that the best antidepressant is a litter of Cocker Spaniel puppies... they bring so much joy! If you've ever had a Cocker puppy of your own, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Now multiply the joy you experienced by a factor of 7 or 8... and you'll appreciate what fun it is to have a whole litter of puppies to play with for 8 weeks. I love puppy breath!

I get a lot of pleasure out of helping our female dogs deliver their puppies. I spend the first 4 or 5 days in our "Puppy Palace" with the mom and her new babies to disprove the old saying that "only the strong survive". With my help, they ALL survive! Even the weak ones... and believe me, I've bottle-fed plenty of puppies who wouldn't have made it otherwise. It always very tiring when we have a new litter of pups, but it's such a satisfying kind of tired!

I know I look healthy in all the pictures, and even when people meet me in person... but I actually suffer with Fibromyalgia. It's a very painful, chronic illness, that as of right now they have not found a cure for. The good news is that people don't die from Fibromyalgia... but in a way you do lose your life. Before Fibromyalgia, I would just go, go, go... no goal was unattainable. Fibromyalgia has slowed me down quite a bit. There's pain every hour of every day. Stop and imagine that for a minute! It gets frustrating to want to do so much, but to be in so much pain that you have to stop what you are doing and wait until another day. Fibromyalgia is teaching me to be thankful for what I have, and to prioritize what is important. The most important lesson that I am learning is one of balance and moderation.

I have always enjoyed a lot of craft projects. When I could no longer do the projects I enjoyed I felt lost and bored. I recently found an embroidery machine that does a lot of the hand work for me and has helped me get back into some of my favorite hobbies. I purchased a Singer Quantum Futura embroidery machine and have been having a lot of fun embroidering Cocker Spaniels on Jim’s sweatshirts and testing out other designs I found on the web. I made a quilt for my nephew that is cars, trucks, dirt movers, etc. The machine did all of the work, I just picked the thread and pushed the button. The embroidery machine even did the quilting after I got the squares all done! I also make a lot of personalized doggie blankets for all of the Cocker Spaniel people we meet on the Internet. Check out my Crafts By Kel page!

Doing embroidery and raising puppies are just my hobbies, though. My "real job" for over 15 years was with the Cal Poly State University. All those years of repetitive clerical tasks really took a toll on me... and in 2003 I had so much pain throughout my body that I couldn't continue working at all. I had to use the "disability retirement" option. My husband likes to joke that I look 20 years younger than I am, but that I feel 20 years older!

I've had all sorts of doctors working on helping me to get better for the last several years, and finally I'm to the point where I'm ready to move on... as long as it doesn't involve anything very physical. The state of California paid to put me through a two year training program to become an ultrasound technician, and I recently completed my ultrasound internship at a local hospital. There has been a lot to learn, but I've always been good at learning. Doing ultrasounds on pregnant women is fun... but there's also a lot of not-so-fun stuff involved in this kind of work. I'll spare you the details!

Now that my training and internship are over, I'm starting to get paid for this! It's a nice change after several years of school and the non-paid internship. Now the question is... if I only work a couple of days a week, will I be within the limits of the Fibromyalgia? I know there's no way I could work five days a week... I'm just hoping to avoid a repeat of what happened to me at Cal Poly.

Even as a young kid, Kellyn had a lot of spirit! Here she is rooting for her brother's baseball team.
Quite appropriately, she was the exclamation point!

There is a LOT more to this web site than just this page!
Please explore the rest of the site by viewing our table of contents,
or by clicking on one of the quick links below.

Kellyn Zimmerlin This is the place to find out all about Mrs. Zim

Kellyn Zimmerlin
This is the place to
find out all about Mrs. Zim