Hello World!

I have thought about starting a blog for a long time. Today, in between doing dishes and whatever else this day brings my way, I decided to stop thinking and jump in. I am not ashamed to admit my age. I am 50 years old and have seen and experienced many things on my journey through life.

Thirty Random Facts About Me:

1) I am the daughter of a career military dad and a stay at home mom.

2) I have lived in several places across the state of Texas and overseas. My family moved every two years like clockwork until the year I entered the 4th grade. We moved, for what would be the last time I moved with my parents, the summer before my freshman year in high school.

3) I have had scoliosis from birth and have dealt with back pain all of my life. I was diagnosed at the age of five.

4) I wore a Milwaukee brace twenty-three hours a day from the summer before 4th grade until the spring of my Junior year in high school.

5) I lived at home during my college years and worked various jobs to help with college expenses.

6) I have a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration with a major in Accounting and am a CPA who enjoys doing taxes.

7) I did not date through high school and had only two dates in college.

8) My husband and I met at church shortly after I had moved to Dallas for my job. He was a college student in town for the semester working as part of his work/study program. We did not start dating for almost three years.

9) We dated for two months before our engagement and were engaged for one year before we married. We have been happily married for twenty-three years.

10) I worked for a major oil company for six and a half years before quitting to be a stay at home wife and eventually mother.

11) For a short time, I had my own Accounting practice.

12) We are the proud parents of one amazing and beautiful daughter.

13) I home-schooled our daughter in three different ways.

14) I taught school at a University Model School for three years.

15) I helped get two libraries up and working and served as librarian in both of them for a time.

16) I have taught and worked with children of all ages since my freshman year in high school.

17) My dream up until my Senior year of high school was to be a school teacher. That all changed when I took a Bookkeeping course. I found out I was good at it and really enjoyed the challenge.

18) I struggled with Math in school. Yet, I managed to pass the CPA exam back in the day when calculators were not allowed. During my teaching time at the school I taught Algebra I, which made my dad shake his head and laugh.

19) There was a time I looked around me at the lives of others and thought my life was boring compared to everyone else.

20) My hobbies include reading and knitting.

21) We have lived in our current home for almost 14 years. Passing the 9 year mark made it the place I have lived the longest.

22) We have attended the same church for seventeen years.

23) That boring life I thought I had became a wild ride in March, 2010. Funny how one phone call can change everything! Eight short months later (November, 2010) my father in-law passed away. Then ten months after his death (September, 2011) we lost my mother in-law.

24) The wild ride hasn't ended yet. Our daughter was diagnosed with pectus excavatum in November, 2012. She is now two months post surgery.

25) I will be visiting with a surgeon in November about possible spine surgery.

26) I collect Bibles. I think my husband cringes when he sees me walking toward the Bible section in the bookstore we like to visit. He loves the Word as much as I do, but really how many Bibles does one person need? Some women collect shoes or purses. I collect Bibles.

27) I really enjoy Bible Study. I think I really could spend all day every day studying, if it were not for the dishes and laundry calling my name.

28) Over the last year or so I have dreamed about writing a book or books about my life experiences: Life as a Military Child, My Scoliosis Journey, Our Pectus Excavatum Journey, Stories from My Life and What I Have Learned Along the Way. Don't know that I will ever write those books, but our daughter is a writer. Maybe I will write for her and she can turn it into something someday.

29) At the end of my home-schooling career I thought I would be teaching school by now.

30) Since my home-schooling career ended in 2011 my life has not been anything like what I imagined it would be. Our daughter's life has not been anything like I dreamed or she dreamed it would be.  God has us on a unique path and we are doing our best to follow and trust where He is leading us.

As I look back at my life, it has sometimes taken some strange and unusual twists and turns. I have been a Christian for 36 of my 50 years. I believe that all the ups and downs and twists and turns in my life have not been without reason or purpose. God has taught me and I have grown in my faith as a result of them. Through this blog I want to share with my readers my life experiences and the lessons God has taught me through them. Some of my writing will take a look back at where I have been, some where I am now and where I am going on this journey.