About Me: My Family

While most of you know me, I thought it would be a good idea to give you a little taste of who I am. I'm going to start off telling you about my immediate family.

Clarinda and I have been married now for over 10 years now (our wedding was July 17th, 1999). We met through Awana (Varsity USA, which is now called Summit) and dated for a couple of months before I popped the question. The only reason we waiting as long as we did to actually get married was her dad's Army National Guard Reserve unit was sent to Bosnia for 9 months, and we thought it was kind of important for her dad to be there (I know, call us old-fashioned), so we planned our wedding during his 3 week leave in July. If he hadn't been able to take his leave at that time, our back-up date was September 11th, 1999, which would now be really easy to remember.

We decided to wait a few years before having kids because we wanted to make sure we had built a strong foundational relationship between the two of us before we added kids to the mix. We now have 3 kids and another on the way (baby Ella is now due on December 26th according to the ultrasound, so go buy her presents at Target now before the Christmas rush!). Our current plan is to stop at 6 kids. We'll see how that goes.

Savannah is our oldest. She's 7 years old and very "motherly" (which means she can be very kind and nurturing, but also very bossy). She's very talented musically and intellectually, and also somewhat shy (she's getting over that more and more lately). Her personality most closely resembles mine.

Hunter is next at 6 years old. We had planned to have kids roughly every three years so there'd be a decent gap between them. God however had other plans, so Hunter came 16 months after Savannah. Hunter's favorite thing right now is playing video games (just like Daddy). Hunter is also our emotional one. He really has a heart for other people's feelings which makes him very kind and loving, but also easily manipulated. If another kid cries or is hurt because they want to toy Hunter has, he'll (usually) hand it over and find something else to play with. He most closely resembles Clarinda's personality.

Then we have Dawson. Dawson will turn 3 this month (August 20th). Dawson's personality is still developing, but he is by far our most animated. Cries of "woohoo" will let you know when Dawson is happy. Dawson also has a VERY high pain tolerance, which makes it easier for him to take risks since pain isn't really a deterrent for him (yes, we've been to Urgent Care with him bleeding already). His favorite thing to do right now is rough-house, which he knows to do with Daddy and not Mommy (he usually tries to take me out at the knees when I get home from work). We have no idea where his personality came from.

Well, there you have it, my family in a nutshell. Now you have some idea what I'm talking about when I refer to these mysterious people throughout this blog (I haven't referenced the kids by name yet, but don't worry, that's coming soon).