About my Family
My husband Christopher and I met in the Spring of 1993 when I started working in the fabrication department with him at Mid-States Aluminum Corp. on third shift. We flirted back and forth for about a month before another co-worker encouraged him to ask me out. I knew right from the start that we were meant to be together... our first date was quite a memorable one. We broke my bed! NOT how you are probably thinking though! :-) It was all very innocent.
We married October 20, 2001, surrounded by all our loved ones. My brother (Vince), sister-in-law (Traci) and niece (Alaine) stood up for me, while Chris' brother (Cory) and sister-in-law (Wendy) stood up for him. My two younger half-brothers (Daniel and David) were ushers.
Now, over ten years later, we have two beautiful nieces, Alaine Noelle and Georgia Christine, and two handsome nephews Riley Christopher John and Lukaas Hayden.
- Alaine, my brother Vince's daughter, is fourteen and in ninth grade, her first year of high school!
- Georgia, Chris' brother's daughter is nine years old and in fourth grade.
- Riley, Georgia's "little" brother, is eight and in third grade.
- Lukaas, my brother David's son, just turned three years old in January.
Everyone (particularly our parents!) always asks when we're going to have a child of our own. As far as I'm concerned, we DO have a "child", although he is of the furry feline variety.
Meet Mr. Hufflepuff, called "Huffy" for short.
In the fall of 2008, we decided to pay a visit to Kelly Lake, where we used to have a cottage, to visit old friends, and that's where we came to meet our furchild... We were driving around the lake and saw a sign on the side of the road "Siamese Mix Kittens for Sale". I had recently experienced a bad allergy attack from a cat so I didn't think I'd ever get to have another cat but we stopped, and I gave the one remaining kitten they had left what I called the "belly-rub test" and fully expected to be miserable in an hour or so. I wasn't, so we adopted him. And oh what an interesting ride it has been. Hufflepuff's hobbies include chasing laser lights, napping, climbing Christmas trees and kneading his mama.
We recently lost our other furchild, Licorice (a.k.a. Licky).
Licorice came into our lives in February of 1996. She was hanging out around my father's home, and being a breeder of King Pigeons, he didn't want her hanging around scaring his birds. Knowing my soft spot for cats, he called me up and suggested I come pick her up. I did, and a couple weeks later after I was head-over-heels in love with her, he called me to tell me there were two other cats roaming his yard now, presumably looking for my Licky. He was right on! My little Licky became mama to five kittens about two months after we brought her home. Boy, did we get more than we bargained for! :-) We gave away the kittens to good homes, and kept little Licky. She gave us so much laughter and companionship for so many years. It was so hard to say goodbye.