Just A Little About Us

My husband and I grew up in Small Town, USA where everybody was related to everybody in one way or another.  We attended the same church and graduated from the same high school - 2 years between us.  We had our first date the Friday night after I turned 16, and we've been dating since...

For 6 years, we grew in love, and we married 10 days after I received my college degree, in May 1997.  The day I married my high school sweetheart was one of the most wonderful days of my life!

We began our married life in another small town.  We were loved by some of the dearest people on the planet, and we formed some of the most tender relationships of our lives.  There, I began to learn how to be a wife...and a mother.  (I had a lot to learn - and I still do!)

Gregg worked as an engineer and I taught middle school Science. 

Our first child, a son, was born just over 10 months after our wedding day.  Through a series of circumstances, God confirmed what I already knew in my heart...I was going to be a stay-at-home- mom.  Our second son, born prematurely, arrived just 13 months later. 

In April 2002, God moved us to another small town (Yes, we like small towns!  Can you tell?).  The move was a result of a job shift, with a new company, for my brilliant, very hardworking husband.

We have lived in our current home for 10 years now (Wow!  Time, indeed, flies!).  We love it here!

Over the past 10 years, we began homeschooling our 2 oldest sons and slowly (well, maybe not so slowly, actually) added 6 more children to our little crew.  We currently homeschool all of our kiddos, but "officially" we homeschool the oldest 5 - now ages 6-14.  This just means I get to keep records and turn in paperwork for the "official" homeschoolers, but the little ones tend to learn right along with their older siblings.  Homeschooling is incredible that way!

Overall, we're a pretty ordinary family - with just a few not-so-ordinary aspects - like 8 kids and no t.v. 

But, if you met us, I think you'd find us a lot like you!  We like to laugh, LOVE to eat, we're really grumpy sometimes (especially me!), we love watching our kids play baseball, we cheer for our favorite football team, we love people, we have dreams, we have fears, we have failures, we have disfunction in our families...

Probably what makes us the most "not-so-ordinary" is that we love Jesus Christ and want to follow Him wholeheartedly.  This fact infiltrates everything about us - as it should.  Don't be mistaken...we are stubborn and sometimes deaf when it comes to doing what He wants us to do.  We have been known to be negative, and bitter, and not very nice to others. 

But, God has so often shown His love for us, He has taught us so much, and He has blessed us beyond anything we deserve.  So, we tend to see the world through a special lens - a "God lens" so to speak - where things just make sense based on God's word.  We call that a "Christian Worldview"...and that, frankly, makes us a little different. 

So, as you follow my blog, I pray that you will read between the lines, and see God there.   I pray, if you know Him already, you will learn to love Him more and more each day.  And, if you don't know Him, I pray you might meet Him here.  Because He loves you more than you could possibly comprehend!