Wife. Mother x 4. Writer. Thinker. Story-teller. Joyful. 60% Sanguine. 40% Melancholic. Evenly split between my Midwestern roots and my Californian spirit. Above all, I seek to laugh often, live purposefully and know God with my whole heart.For a short bio, that pretty much captures it.
If you want more, fascinating, life-changing statistics:
- I'm a preacher's kid.
- I'm a boring preacher's kid. My parents never pressured me or my siblings to be perfect, and we were protected from other people who might have wanted us to act Better Than Most. As a result, I never had an off-the-cliff rebellious streak. (Although, certainly, I had my fair of struggles through high school and college. I'm just saying it's nothing that would make for a decent Lifetime movie.)
- For all but 2.5 years of my educational experience, I attended Christian schools.
- I have very mixed feelings about Christian schools. Very. Mixed.
- I am the oldest of four siblings: girl, boy, girl, boy.
- Amazingly, my own children are following this same pattern: Natalie (girl), Connor (boy), Teyla (girl), Kieran (boy).
- I have lived in Kentucky, Texas, Minnesota, Arizona and California -- but I spent the majority of my formative years in the Twin Cities (which is why my core is Midwestern) and the majority of my early married life in California (which is why I have a love affair with homemade salsa and guacamole and I frequently say "DUDE!" when excited).
- Corey proposed to me two months to the day after our first date.
- The youth group kids who we worked with at our church set us up. They are still very proud of their achievements.
- I was a 21 when we got married. That's really young. But I didn't feel young at all.
- Corey and I skipped all the children questions during our pre-marriage counseling, since neither of us wanted to have children.
- God snickered at that, I think. But that's OK. I like it when God laughs.
- We were married more than eight years before we even considered having a baby. During that time, I worked as a newspaper reporter/editor and as a TV news producer. Those were fun years, and for someone in their mid-20s, I was pretty successful. I was even nominated for an Emmy at one point. But I was fried crispy by the time I left NBC, and while I would love to work in visual media again someday, I no longer have the patience to even watch the drivel that is TV news, much less produce it.
- These days, I get all my news from the Internet. And I am as well informed as I was when I worked in the newsroom at NBC.
- I have also worked as a media relations coordinator for a beachside Christian college in San Diego, as the world's worst teacher ever at a Christian high school in San Jose and as a food server at the trifecta of chain restaurants: Friday's, Olive Garden and Chili's.
- I loved being a food server, especially at Friday's. And yes, I still have my red-and-white striped shirt and flair-covered suspenders in storage somewhere. Although I do think I tossed my red tights.
- My life changed dramatically in 2001, because that's the year Natalie was born. Suddenly, I had an insatiable desire to be the very thing I used to despise: a stay-at-home-mom.
- Natalie was quite possibly the sweetest, easiest baby in the history of mankind. I fell madly in love with her. I seriously can't remember one minute of that first year when I wasn't blissful.
- Two years later, Connor was born in a rather dramatic fashion.
- Connor was born just months after we moved from San Diego to a tiny town in Minnesota.
- I am not a tiny town person. God blessed our years in Tiny Town in many ways, but the culture shock for a girl who's always lived in suburbia almost did me in.
- My husband's career path has moved us many times. To date, we've moved 10 times in our 16 years of marriage.
- I'm OK with change. As long as I can control it. (I hear God laughing again.)
- We miscarried a baby between Connor and Teyla. When I went in for my 12-week check-up, we couldn't find the heartbeat.
- Teyla was born a few months after we moved back to the Twin Cities.
- I found out I was pregnant with Kieran on the first day of school in September 2009.
- We are currently living in the Twin Cities in a cozy-but-small townhouse, because our rather large lake home in Tiny Town took 3 years and 10 months to sell.
- I have kept a journal since I was in fourth grade
- I love the act of writing. It is the way I form order out of the scattered bits in my brain. I often don't know what I think until I write it.
- I crave diversity. I get bored quickly.
- My soul is fed by living around water. (See also: I hated living in Arizona.)
- God changed my spiritual DNA by speaking to me through Beth Moore's "Believing God" study.
- The only reason Corey and I are still married is because God is a God of resurrection and restoration.
- My favorite verses in the whole Bible are Hebrews 12:1-3. The truths in those verses have grounded me, encouraged me and nourished me since 1992, when I finally surrendered my all to Jesus.
- I think life is the craziest, richest, most amazing adventure. I feel privileged - honestly - to share it with you.
