About Me

August 2008

Today as I was driving either to or from Mother's Day Out, I passed a cute little Mustang car. I used to have a blue Mustang that made me look much "cooler" than I actually was. That car was just the best, and I was so sad when it got totaled a few years ago. As I was thinking about that car, I realized that I was driving an SUV with two carseats and now two strollers in the back (none of which would have fit in the Mustang). How did this happen? I guess my kids (one is 2 and the other is still unborn) are too young for me to really be called a Soccer Mom, but the title still fits.

Don't get me wrong. I don't want to be working, and most of the time I love my life, but this is certainly not the life I would have predicted.

I grew up in a small town and graduated from high school with some of the same kids who were in my kindergarten class. We moved twice while I lived there - from the South end of town to the North end, and then back again. When I went away to college, I definitely didn't plan to move back to that same town, but I guess I figured I would likely end up somewhere fairly nearby.

Well, I currently live about 45 minutes from where I grew up, but it hasn't been a straight line from there to here. I got married in 1998 right after graduate school, and we have moved 10 times in the past 10 years. Our longest-running address was in Seattle, WA, for 2 years, so you know many of the other moves were less than 1 year apart. It's been a wonderful adventure, and I would change very little, but it was just so unexpected. (I'll save the latest part of that adventure for another post.)

I was never a Mommy type of person. I hated babysitting and was scared to death of working in the church nursery. I think I would have been perfectly content without kids were it not for the "peer pressure" of some friends in Knoxville, TN. Once they all started "trying," I definitely didn't want to be left out. :)

Nathan arrived in 2006, and my world completely changed. (You know you have changed when you find yourself picking someone else's nose!) I never knew I could love someone so deeply and completely, and I have never known such intense frustration and exhaustion. Some days I can't quit hugging him, and other days I want to run away and join the circus. (Being a trapeze artist is one of my two dream jobs, but again, that can wait for another post on another day.) We're expecting a little girl in about 6 weeks. We have a name picked out, but David doesn't want to share it with the family until she is born - a tradition started by my brother that drives my mother crazy. Again, I have a wide range of feelings from excitement and anticipation to fear and incompetency. (The second stroller is a double stroller in case I get up the nerve or feel the overwhelming urge to take them both to the mall or the park.)

I used to teach Calculus and Differential Equations. Now I wipe noses and sing silly songs. Are there days when I want to go back to teaching? Sure! Are there more days that I'm glad I'm at home instead? Absolutely! So how exactly did this happen?

I saw an advertisement for Campus Crusade once that consisted of a picture of a girl lying peacefully on the beach as the waves crashed in front of her. The caption read: "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Unfortunately, this probably isn't it." God's plan is often not the easiest, and it seems to be almost never what is expected, but it is always for the best. I wonder what will happen next?