A little about me!

Thought you might want to read some background information about me and mine...

My immediate family....I've got 3 sisters. Yes! My dad ended up with four daughters and no sons. I guess his Y sperm just weren't fast enough! Ha! I'm the 3rd daughter out of the bunch. My oldest sister is almost 4 years older than me, my second sister is 28 months older than me, and my younger sister came in 12 years after me. That's right...TWELVE years after me. I was in seventh grade when my Mom got pregnant. How embarrassing is that? What's even more embarrassing that my best friend's MOm, who lived next door, was pregnant too (about 3 months ahead of my Mom)! So our two Moms with their pregnant tummies would be out between the houses chatting it up while us teenagers were outside.

Both my folks are still alive and still married to each other. They've been living in the same community for the last 30 33 years. They're currently in their 3rd house in this community and have lived in it for about 20 years now. I'm trying to get them to move out here because the standard of living is lower than where they're living now. My Dad is retired and my Mom is still working but will be retiring soon. Living here would allow them to live comfortably and not have to worry about money. But I think they're going to follow my younger sister wherever she decides to live. Oy! My Mom is an energetic and kind lady. I could only dream of growing up to be like her. Growing up my Dad was the most strict person alive. I guess he thought he had to be with only daughters. He treated us like we were boys. We helped him with mowing the lawn, building a brick fence, planting trees and shrubs, and any other kind of yardwork he could think of. He didn't let us watch more than an hour of cartoons on Saturday mornings. He's let us watching any kind of sports on tv in the afternoons with him though -- track and boxing were his favorites. He's mellowed out with age but still shows his crabby side to my Mom and us girls. He adores the kids though and never shows them his icky side.

But having my younger sister was the best thing that could have happened to my parents. She's good to have around for us older sisters too because she keeps us "hip" to what's happening, you know? She's just finishing up her path through college and is looking for a job. She's currently interning at a place and hopes to make some good contacts so she can get the inside scoop on a job. She's still living with my folks & working that angle for ALL it's worth. She doesn't pay rent. She doesn't pay for food. Good deal, eh? But I do adore my younger sister. She's very generous with her time and with anything she has. She's good with all her nieces and nephews. When we have family get-togethers she's the one outside with all the kids playing with them. ALL the kids gravitate to her because she'll play board games or video games with them. This allows the rest of us to just hang out and talk so she's wonderful. I'm very close to her. She calls me at least once a week to talk. Usually she'll call when something interesting happens in her life. Sometimes it's a bother because it's usually about a boy but I'm just glad she feels that she can call me whenever to talk.

Now my second sister is a great lady. She is married and has three children of her own (9, 6, & almost 5) (12, 9, and 8). She is the most like my Mom. Generous, kind, gentle, and pleasant with everyone around her. She's the steady middle child. When she was little she'd play quietly alone and not bother anyone. In high school, she was the ultimately female jock. She played volleyball, field hockey, and track. She lettered in all of these sports the first time she got into them. So not only is she kind but she's also tough as nails! She's one that never says NO to folks when they need a favor. Actually, both she and her hubby are that way. They live about 40 minutes away from my parents and about 20 minutes from my BILs parents, so they've got family close by. My parents have never had to help her with anything once she got married. They always rely on her when they need any kind of help.

Then there's my oldest sister who now lives in Florida. My oldest sister is what I'd call the "wild card" of our family. She ran away from home when she was 16 years old and soon married the guy she ran off with. The two are still married! She's been married for about 25 28 years now and has three daughters and one granddaughter. Yes, she's continued the X-chromosome family trend. Her girls have all graduated from high school...so they're a lot older than the other kids in the family. They've always lived far away from us so she brought up her kids without much family interaction. Of all my sisters, she is the one I relate to the least. I never know what's going on her mind because she doesn't express herself to me (or to any of us really). She keeps herself to herself. I find that kind of sad because I know my other sisters SO well. But that's the way my oldest sister has wanted it and that's the way it is.

As for me? I'm married and have two kids. The Princess will be four soon is 7 and my Bear is 5 now will be two in January. We've lived in Arizona for almost 8 12 years now. His immediately family all live here so when we got married I knew we'd end up here. This year he landed his dream job so we had to move from Phoenix to Tucson. So now we're a couple hours drive from his family and about 6 hours drive from my family. I do miss Phoenix though. What I miss about it are the friends and the familiarity of it. Now that we're in Tucson I've got to start fresh and find friends for me and the kids. I've got to figure out places to eat, to play, & to relax. Yes...I need to find a good place to drink a good cup of coffee with two kids in tow.

We didn't want to move into this new city and jump into buying a new house right off the bat. We're currently renting a 1200 square foot townhouse. It's actually a nice set-up. All the townhomes are separate buildings so we don't have to share a wall with ANYONE! We've got 3 bedrooms and 2 baths so everyone has got their own space. The main living area has a great room concept so there are no walls separating the kitchen, living, and dining rooms. We've got these nice vaulted ceilings and have two skylights in the great room and one skylight in each bathroom. Needless to say, the place feels bigger than it actually is. We're glad we found it because we didn't want to share any walls/ceilings/floors with anyone else. We've got two feisty kids! I didn't want to have to tell them to be quiet or stop jumping or stop running constantly. Plus, our unit is at the back corner and there's a church at the back of our place. Therefore...our location is ideal because the church only gets busy on Sunday mornnings and we only are in contact with three other units (all of which have GREAT & quiet neighbors in them).

After living in the townhouse for several months we went to a number of open houses and looked on-line at what was available and at what kind of price. We ended up deciding to get a new house built! We're now in the process of waiting for it to be constructed. It's supposed to be completed in January. We'll see if it gets delayed for any reason. Our new house will be 4 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths with a three car garage. We'll have a kitchen that has a nook that'll look onto our family room --- yes...it'll be one HUGE space. Then my hubby will have his formal dining and formal living room along with his den in the front of the house. Yes, my hubby likes to have the formal areas for some reason. I just consider it wasted space and more for me to clean. ARGH! It's going to be a big change from living in the townhouse but it's going to be nice.

Well that's a basic synopsis of me and my family. I'll write another entry on how I met and married my hubby along with how the kids came along. Hope you enjoy!