Things New Readers Might Not Know

1. I am 39 (in 7 days). 2. I met my husband on the internet through MSN chat. We were both divorced. We married 11 months after we met online and 8 months after we met face to face. We moved in together 2 months after meeting face to face. I packed up my kids and moved from the only home I have ever known and started a new life. I moved from Georgia on a farm to Northern Virginia in a townhouse. We bought the house we live in now in January. It is our little farm of 10 acres complete with red barns and a big white farm house. 3. I have 2 daughters: Colby, age 18, and Gracie, age 7. I have one step-daughter (Steven's daughter): J., age 10 -she does not live with us full time. I am now pregnant with our child, due early February. I was also a surrogate in the mid-90's. Yes, we keep in touch, the child knows me well. It was invetro transfer of embryos of the parents. None of my biological material was used to in creating this child. I was a vessel through which God performed a miracle. 4. My house was built in 1909. We never intend to sell it or move away from it. We intend for this to be the last place we call home. The house is in great shape. We knew when we bought it we would have to do some things to make it our home. Actually for a house of this age we have gotten off very easily. 5. Things we needed to do: insulate the downstairs, paint, strip the floors upstairs and the front and back stair cases, install a fireplace insert (in progress), rewire the cellar and the hot water heater, rebuild the front steps and add railings to the front porch, replace the 1909 era light fixures (in progress), install a french drain near the cellar wall (in que for the landscape work). 6. Things we want to do: add ceiling fans to all the bedrooms and the study (in progress), replace the kitchen cabinets, replace the double back door, build a swimming pool (in que waiting for the builder to get started), restore the barns and replace the white fences with new white fences, add recessed task lighting in the kitchen (in progess), a ceiling fan (in progress) and 2 hanging lights (in progress), install outdoor flood lights (in progress). 7. This is the first time in my life I have been a full time stay at home mom. 8. The first time I was married for 14 years and never intended to ever be divorced. The last years of my marriage I lived a lie and pretended everything was good. I will never do that again. 9. This is the first time in my life I have ever been spoiled. At times it is very uncomfortable to accept being spoiled. It is exactly the same for Steven. We are learning together. 10. My oldest is starting college and I am having a baby. How strange there will be nearly 19 years between my oldest and my youngest child. 11. I am a type of earth mother but I am not a holistic, organic guru hippy leftover mother. I like to garden and preserve what I grow. I like to sew and am good at it. I like to cook. I put a full meal on the table every evening. I have it down to a science. When Steven walks in the door almost every day the last dishes are going on the table and the kids are ready for supper. I have far too many interests and not enough time to indulge in them all. 12. My husband commutes to work. He leaves at 4am. I get up with him and make sure he has a lunch to take with him and I say I love you, bye and watch him pull away. Sometimes I go back to bed. 13. My husband is not used to being pampered. In his previous marriage he worked full time, came home and did all the chores and cooking, took care of his daughter and step-son, went to grad. school and earned his masters in computer science. He also has a degree in bio-engineering. It took a while for him to understand that a wife being home all day should do dishes, laundry and general things around the house and that children should not be in daycare 12 hours a day when there is a mother at home doing nothing. Sometimes I think I have spoiled him to the point of no return. LOL Since marrying this is the first time J. has not been a daycare. 14. My husband is 36: 2 years and 11 months younger than I am. 15. I talk to my mother on the phone every day. I talk to my sister sometimes. I am the oldest. We have never gotten along well. We get along better when we are far apart. 16. I wish you all could be my neighbors because the neighbors we have now suck. We have been told by more than one person that we are very much disliked by most people around us. It seems several people wanted to buy this house but none of them could afford it. We can't even get local people to do work for us. Not even yard work. I have met 2 neighbors. One is drunk everytime we see them and I choose not to invite a friendship. One is old, like 74 years old and only visits over the fence when she wants too. The mailman is nice. 17. The church we have visited and thought about joining is small -a country church and close to home. The people there arevery nice too. They are also very poor. I feel guilty taking my children to church in nice clothes with clean faces and many of the other children are dirty and have old clothes. I have no clothes that are hand-me-downs to pass on. I sometimes worry if we offered something through the church anonymously we might get taken advantage of. We are not rich but I was raised to dress my children well and to make sure their faces and hands are clean and their hair is brushed when we leave the house. I am baptist. My guilt is that of a catholic. 18. Steven is my best friend, my husband, my lover, my champion, my biggest fan and a million other things. He supports me in everything I do. No questions asked. 19. I love history. I love genealogy. I am trying to get my certification as a genealogist, a research specialist and a records specialist. It is very slow going. 20. All of the furniture in my house, except 1 bedroom suite and Steven's desk is cherry. I will be replacing that bedroom suite sometime before the baby is born. I will replace his desk when I find the perfect desk. 21. Steven never questions anything I spend on our home. We have a comfortable home. I want our home to be a haven, the place he comes to at the end of the day and he is sheltered from the outside world and worries. I want the same for our children. For some a home is their castle. For me, my home is a sanctuary for my family. 22. My house is clean. Many days it is messy. I spend more time with the girls than I do making sure nothing is ever out of place. 23. Steven and I watch Sci-Fi every night. We sit together, we watch TV, we talk, sometimes we are on the laptops together. 24. We don't have to talk to communicate. Many thoughts are unspoken, like we channel them or something spooky like that. 25. I used to smoke. I have quit and restarted many times. I never have smoked when I was pregnant. 26. When I suspected I was pregnant I stopped smoking, gave up coffee and diet coke with lime -cold turkey - all at once. I think this might be why the morning sickness was so very bad for about 2 weeks. I was really going through detox on top of it. 27. My success has led Steven to trying to stop smoking. He has not smoked a cigarette this week. Pray for him. He is having a VERY bad time of it. He started smoking again yesterday. 28. People, especially women, who complain about their life, who seem to constantly whine, those who claim to have no control over their children, piss me off. BIG TIME. I want to scream at them, "Get off your ass and take comtrol of your life. You don't have to live a shit life. Live the life you want. But no one is going to give it to you. You have to work for it and change and make it happen. FOR. YOUR. SELF." Amen. 29. I love chocolate and shoes. I don't eat choclate often and I don't wear shoes if i don't have to. 30. This is my home. I love it here. Sometimes I get homesick for Georgia and my momma. I know it bothers Steven when I say, "Back home ... blah blah blah..." 31. Colby could have gone to any school she wanted. She chose to stay here and go to a local school. The reason she did so was because she was worried when the baby came it would not know her as a sister but only as a transit person who came and went on holidays. She broke my heart and made me cry like a baby. Have you ever seen a more loving girl? I have raised an incredible young woman if I do say so myself. 32. The first boy I ever kissed, the first boy I was in puppy love with, the first boy I ever dated ... seeing him still makes my stomach flutter. This confirms that you never get over the first one. 33. I love George Strait. OMG that mans boyish smile. He makes me want to swoon. Steven knows this. It doesn't bother him that I have this desire for another man. He has his own. 2 words. Raquel Welch. 'Nuff said.(I think Fantastic Voyage made a real impression on my geek hubby as an impressionable geek boy.) 34. My favorite sandwich in all the world of sandwiches is tomato and mayonnaise on white bread but only if the tomatoes are home grown. Grocery store tomatoes suck. 35. I am the oldest child of 2. I am the oldest grandchild of 13. My daughter is the oldest child of soon-to-be 4. She is the oldest grandchild of 6. She is the oldest great grandchild of 10. 36. I am 3 years younger than my uncle. My grandmother married at age 12. She had 6 children. My mother is the Oldest girl, but the second child. 37. The electricians are in my house right now. They are wiring and screwing and hanging fans, etc. The younger guy (I swear the cutest little hottie you ever seen as an electrician) he has plumbers crack. I am shocked to find plumbers crack exist in men who are not middle age nor over weight. Colby was like "Ewwww" but she never said it out loud. I could see it on her face. She is my child. I know how and what she thinks. LOL 38. I have a Nikon D70 on my wish list. I also have a gazebo on there too. The kids hope I get the gazebo next. They could care less about a camera. 39. My birthday is in 7 days. I was born on my grandmother's birthday. She passed away last Septemeber. This will be the first birthday in my entire life that I will not be able to call her as soon as I wake up and sing happy birthday to her.