Saturday, December 20, 2008

So I just joined Facebook and reconnected with like a bazillion people. Some of whom I haven’t heard from in years, so I decided to write a sort of abbreviated history to catch some of you up and post it here on my blog, since I just started that too.


Lets see… I graduated from Princess Anne in 1992 (Yikes!) I deferred my first semester and went to BYU in Winter of 1992 came home and worked Summer of 1993 at Cinema CafĂ©, went back to BYU for Fall 1993, then came home that December, I decided to stop school and work for a year so I could go on a mission. I got a job at Sentara and stayed at the Drafthouse. My dad passed away in November 1994 just three months before I got my call. I went to Uruguay from February 1995 until August 1996. It was an amazing year and a half. I had mostly native companions and when I got back my Spanish was pretty good. (Eleven years later, my Spanish, not so good). My mom moved to Utah while I was gone so when I came home I lived with my older brother and his family in Provo, UT. After six months of living in the basement storage unit, I wanted to go home to Virginia Beach, so John D’Acquisto came and picked me up and took me home. We had an on again off again relationship since high school and in the Spring of 1997 I took the step necessary to make a clean and final break from him. As usual, that lasted about two weeks until we were talking on the phone again. He was in California and oddly the relationship blossomed again. We talked about finally just settling down and making this now nine year relationship serious. I was waiting for him to finish his summer job and come home. In September I got a call from John’s brother telling I had to come over. John had been killed ina car accident in Needles, California on his way home to Virginia. My best friend was dead. I lived in Norfolk over the next year, had a wonderful year long relationship, even tried a semester at ODU, but I eventually ended up in Northern Virginia living with my older brother again in 1998. Again I missed the beach so we kicked out the renters in my mom’s house in Va Beach and I moved in with Michelle Lewis (Pepper) and David and Naomi D’Acquisto. I was engaged Spring of 1999. It didn’t pan out and while I was hanging out and sort of dating Ian Billings in the early fall, I wound up engaged again to Jared Wynn in October 1999. We married in December. Things were OK and I got pregnant in September 2000, and had Mason in June 2001. Jared’s interests were not really focused on us, so in March of 2003 I told him I was done. However, he was in school and I wanted him to finish so I stayed as a “roommate” for nine more months.








January 2004 was a new year and a new life. Mason and I moved to Riverton, Utah and lived with my other brother. After eight months of mooching off him, I got focused and decided to go back to BYU. Just as classes were starting I was offered a bilingual reservationist job with JetBlue Airways. The prospect of a few more years of school versus a possible career job with an airline led me to drop BYU and take up with JetBlue. Who’d a thought that decision would change my life?









JetBlue Rocked! I worked from home, an evening shift from 7:00pm to 1:00am. I never needed a babysitter. Mason was very well behaved and trained to know that when I was working he couldn’t disturb me, and he was asleep for the majority of my shift. My new job also afforded us to travel a lot. In the 16 months I worked for JetBlue we went on 12 trips. Mostly to Long Beach, California and back home to the Beach. In April 2005, I went on a trip to Las Vegas with Ian. We had a long distance phone and flying relationship that was slowly developing. After Vegas, I was falling for him, but he had just started a business in Virginia and I didn’t want to leave my sweet job in Utah. I decided that there was no future for us, and if I had any chance of breaking it off with him I had to do it now; I was falling in love with him. Two weeks after Vegas I found I was pregnant. That puts a monkey wrench in the plan.







After many long discussions and lots of soul searching we decided to get married. Ian and his family came from Virginia, his father came from Afganistan, and we were married in Utah in August 2005. I was five months pregnant and we found out the morning of our wedding we were having a girl. Ian stayed in Utah for a week and returned to Virginia. The plan was for Mason & I to stay in Utah while I worked until I had the baby, then we would all go back to Virginia together. Great in theory, horrible in execution. After a month of missing my husband and being totally hormonal, I scrapped that plan and at the end of October, Mason & I moved back to Virginia.










Ian owned a hardwood floor and tiling business that was working OK. Eva was born January 2006 and life was good. In August 2007, after throwing a baby shower for some friends, I took an at home pregnancy test and it was positive. This was an unplanned event but we looked forward with much enthusiasm. We had our ultrasound in early December and had the tech put the results in an envelope which we wrapped and put under the Christmas tree. I have never wanted to open a Christmas present so badly. On Christmas Day we found we were having a boy!








Early April 2008, Ian’s dad was diagnosed with a very large brain tumor. A few weeks later he was still in the hospital when I went and had Kaleb by planned C-section. A week after I had Kaleb we drove to Fredricksburg for my nephews baptisms, and a week after that Ian’s dad passed away on the very day he came home from the hospital. So a few days later we all flew out to Utah where he was buried and then flew back home. A couple of short weeks later, Ian was offered a job in Utah and we felt it was the right thing to do. So in July, Ian flew to Utah to start work, and I stayed with the kids to pack the house. With lots of wonderful help from friends, we got the whole thing done and Ian flew home, packed the truck and drove it out to Utah with Mason and his sister Traci. I flew a few days later with Eva and Kaleb.




August 2008, we are all together again, in a (brand) new home, in a new state and here five months later I’m still trying to settle in. Kaleb is a little high maintenance which I am not used to but we manage. Eva is a trip. She turn three in January but is often mistaken for a four year old because of her height and how well she talks. Mason is my little trooper. He’s in the 2nd grade and has had more addresses than birthdays. He is an amazing reader and loves video games.



Well that’s us, I guess. Your update for however long it’s been since I’ve seen you…

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Thanks A Lot Guys....

So I got an invite to view Wendi's blog. I also used her link to view the blogs of everyone else from Virginia that we miss, and guess what? I wasn't really homesick or anything until I started seeing the pictures of everone and seeing all the new babies. Thanks A Lot guys!!!

Just some pictures


Here's Mason & Eva up the Canyon. We had to go to Walmart and buy coats and boots before we went.




This is all of us at Cascade Springs back in August.


Here's my Kaleb. He followed in Eva's "kneesteps" and began crawling at six months. Now he crawls all over the house and likes to pull himself up and stand on everything, the couch, our benches, and even climbs the stairs. Crazy kid.