Celeste - Beyond the License
This section is not of interest to many. But we know that everyone goes about choosing their agent in different ways. For some, it's about the numbers, how many deals have you done? How long have you been in the business? What's your education? Designations? and so on. While for others it's much less quantitative. Much like how different clients approach finding their next home. So since we know you have your choice of literally thousands of area agents, we've added this page so those interested can get to know more about Celeste, the person, not Celeste the realtor.
While Celeste does have a marketing degree from Purdue University, an MSBA from Indiana University, and virtually all of the key real estate designations, it's who she is that sets her apart from other agents.
FAMILY:
Celeste is the mother of 4 grown daughters (two of which are part of her team). Starting with the oldest it's Ashley, Alayna, Adriana and Audrey. She also is the proud grandmother of Celeste her 20-year-old granddaughter. Celeste was married to Tim and though they called it quits after almost 30 years of marriage, Celeste is very proud of how they handled it. Tim continued to live in the same neighborhood, (literally on the same street for several years), and though he remarried the two were a united front sitting together at all of the girls' events and coordinating birthday and holiday schedules so the girls' were never asked to choose between the two. This might seem an odd thing to put on a website, and while a divorce is never easy, the way she and Tim handled it is one of the things Celeste mentions she is most proud of. This became even more so after Tim's untimely death of a heart attack in 2014.
HOBBIES and a few LIFE HIGHLIGHTS:
Between building a real estate business and keeping up with her kids, Celeste found that the past 20 years have been pretty full. Still, she managed to write several books, (Her women's fiction can be found on Amazon and Audible.) In 2015, Celeste felt the need to get away after several key people in her life passed away. She and her daughter Adriana took off to Europe and walked the 500 mile Camino de Santiago in Spain. While not at all restful, the experience was indeed an experience they will always remember, with its ups and its downs.
When asked about other life highlights Celeste came up with a few:
- SWIMMING WITH WILD DOLPHINS: She spent a week in the Bahamas with the sole purpose of swimming with wild dolphins. On the fourth day of a 7-day trip it happened. Celeste found herself surrounded by dolphins, literally within arm's length away, (Though she had been trained not to put out her arms as the dolphins would see that as aggressive behavior.). The experience was even more special as a baby dolphin was swimming below. To this day Celeste still describes the experience as nothing short of magical.
- SEEING A GHOST: Now while Celeste can't swear it was a ghost, all these years later she still remembers it being sooo real. It was on her trip to swim with the dolphins. After a few days at sea and snorkeling over old shipwrecks, Celeste was alone below deck when she swears she saw a woman with a baby. She felt they were stowaways. With her heart pounding, she ran to the upper deck. Though the boat captain checked, he wasn't surprised that there was no one below. He explained that Celeste wasn't the first passenger to say they saw ghosts after swimming in the area.
- EATING DINNER AT OPRAHS: Do you remember Oprah? How about her book club? Well, Celeste had dinner at Oprah's house as part of the Oprah Book Club. This was another one of those 'really amazing and altogether crazy' experiences. During the dinner, the author Toni Morrison read a passage from the book "Song of Solomon". It was the death scene of a child. To her horror, Celeste found herself 'balling her eyes out' right there sitting next to Oprah. Long story short Celeste found herself a parody on Saturday Night Live. It was a crazy experience but oddly enough the emotional breakdown helped Celeste deal with a personal loss she had pushed down for 16 years.
- LIVING OVERSEAS: Another experience Celeste treasures is the time she and her husband and kids lived in Caracas, Venezuela. Both she and her husband were working with GTE at the time. Much has changed in Venezuela since their return but she'll always remember the warmth of the people and the beauty of the country. The family moved back to the states with a greater appreciation of our country.
RECENT CHANGES AND SPECIAL INTERESTS:
Celeste returned from walking the Camino de Santiago in November 2015 wanting to make changes in her life, So on January 1, 2016, just weeks upon her return, Celeste made the decision to make some changes in her life. She was feeling 'old' for the first time. And even Celeste can't explain what happened next. By the end of 2016, Celeste made not one but two major life changes.
- BECOMING A VEGAN: The first major change happened almost overnight. Celeste had decided to join the YMCA and get a trainer for a few weeks. Her trainer, also a woman in her 60s, ate a plant-based diet. She suggested that Celeste check out the movie "Fork over Knives", and "What the Health". From there Celeste read The China Study and started listening to several MDs who believed strongly that eating a plant-based diet was critical to one's health. The information was online, on Youtube, podcasts, etc. Click here for some background and info about a few of the doctors she checked out when she made the change. Prior to the change, Celeste's favorite meal was: A prime rib medium rare, with a loaded baked potato and creme brulee for dessert. She might have tossed in broccoli but that was for some color. Nowadays with the exception of the plain part of her loaded potato, none of the items are on her list of what she eats today. Despite that Celeste said arming herself with the "WHY" behind going to a plant-based diet made the change easy. She wants to point out that if she is at a party and they have cake and it has egg and butter in it...if she wants a slice she'll have a slice. If she's at an event and the only creamer they have is dairy...if she wants cream in her coffee she'll use it. So it's not absolutely 100% vegan, but pretty darn close.
- SOMETHING WAS MISSING: Though the most life-transforming change she has made, Celeste left this change for last. In part, because it can turn so many people off, in fact, a few years ago if someone told Celeste they read the Bible every day and were a born again Christian, she would have had to hold back either a groan or an eye roll. Yet here she finds herself on the other side of the fence.
- ANOTHER 180 FLIP: For most of the 40 years between High School and turning 62, Celeste avoided church. With the exception of going to a New Age church in the late 90s, Celeste avoided it. She described herself as 'spiritual' not 'religious'. Fast forward to January 2016, a past client invited Celeste to the opening of their community church. Since it was only about 8 minutes from where Celeste lived, she didn't have an excuse. She agreed to go. Then she went the following Sunday, and the next, and the next... Celeste didn't reach out to anyone, she slipped in and she slipped out, but during that time God was working on her. By October she decided to read the Bible for the first time in her life. And she admits that she did not like what she read. She called one of her sisters and complained that the Old Testament "sucked" (sorry to offend). She felt God was so harsh. There was rape, murder, genocide, you name it and she didn't see how people found peace reading it. To her sister's credit instead of criticizing Celeste for her harsh words, she simply said, keep reading. And that's Celeste's advice to others, "keep reading". Somewhere between October 2016 and December 2016, just a matter of weeks, something happened. Celeste felt a shift. So much so that she started reading the Bible over again in January with new eyes and heart and in March of 2017 Celeste was baptized. Today God and her church family make up the center of her life.
