An Introduction

This is me.

My name is Angela. I'm currently 30 years old but not for long. Soon I'll be joining the thirty-something club. *shudder* I'm the oldest of three kids. 

My brother Tim, the youngest, is a pilot and about to be married to his beautiful bride Jessica. 

My sister Becca, the middle one, was a brilliant and creative woman who tragically took her own life in 2010. I'll share more about her story in another post.

My parents, Beth and Russ, have seen us through every moment of our lives, the good and the bad.

I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Creative Writing from the University of Texas at Arlington. Although, I started my education as a third generation TCU Horned Frog, I ended up finishing my degree at UTA but my blood will always run purple. I work full time as a receptionist at a retirement center. I don't have any living grandparents so working with my old folks fills a big hole in my heart.

In 2004, I had my daughter Anna and for the first six years our family looked like this.

We're both total goofballs so we have a lot of fun together. Anna is an imaginative, creative, compassionate kid with a LOT of energy and curiosity which means life is never slow or boring. She just started 3rd grade and had her first homework meltdown on day one. Like me when I was a kid, she'd much rather be outside riding her, actually, MY bike and climbing trees than sitting inside. Unless there are cartoons involved. Then she will gleefully lounge all day on the couch, rising only for bathroom breaks and snacks.

In 2007, exactly 2437 days ago, I met Josh.

We were both at UTA in the Creative Writing program and we ended up in two classes together. At the time, single Angela would wait till most students were already there and class was almost starting and find the cutest guy in the room to sit next to. In my Fiction class, that was Josh. In my Biology class, that's how I met Gay Greg. Turns out not all attractive guys are straight and single. I digress. Josh and I were friends for a long time. Then I gave him his first kiss. Yep. First kiss. Me. Then we went on our first date. I ended up being his first girlfriend too.

Then May 14, 2010 he took me to browse engagement rings.  I found one I loved and he said, "we'll take it." What what?!?!? The jewelry store very nicely sized the ring for us right away and we sped off down the highway to my brother's college graduation. I ended up announcing my engagement to my parents at a gas station on the trip to graduation. "Can you grab me some sunflower seeds? Oh by the way, we're getting married."

A little less than a year later, on March 12, 2011, we tied the knot and our family got a little bigger.

We moved to Denton, Texas shortly there after so Josh could finish his Masters degree at the University of North Texas. When he graduated in May 2012, we packed up and moved to Arlington, Texas where I had gotten my job as a receptionist.

Then in October of 2012, I told Josh a secret. Our family was going to change again.

Eight and a half months later, on June 10th, 2013, Gargantuson was born. Weighing in at 9 pounds 6 ounces and a whopping 22 1/4 inches long, when my epidural didn't work, I was fully aware of just how big this "little" boy was.

Carson (His name is not ACTUALLY Gargantuson.) was SO big, in fact, that he had a bit of a rough start and spent the first week (and the hardest week of my life) in the NICU.

But fear not! He is coming up on four months and he is doing just fine.

See? He's learned to smile and we're very near official giggles. Life is good. So now our family looks like this.

That was taken on our very first family of four vacation to Colorado, my favorite place on earth.

So my little family of four is just doing what all families do, living life. When I'm done with my eight hours at work, I head to my other full time jobs- wife and mom. Oh, and don't forget daughter and sister. And friend. Although that's more of a vacation rather than a job. 

These are my bestest besties. From left to right, there's Amanda (holding Kenzie), Robin (holding Ava who actually belongs to Megan), Megan, myself, Holly and Mary. This was taken at the awesome Harry Potter themed baby shower they threw for me (and Carson!). Between the six of us, we have eleven kids. ELEVEN. I have no idea how this happened. Well, I know HOW it happened. But I don't know when. One minute we were in college dancing away our Thursday nights at Billy Bob's (the biggest, most famous, most amazing honky-tonk in Texas for you non-Texans) and then suddenly instead of boot-scooting, it was more like booster seat-scooting. (I refrained from using boob-scooting. You're welcome.)  So now, we've got nine girls and two boys between us all and some of us aren't even done. There will be MORE at some point. In the meantime, we lean on each other for support through everything from dumb husbands to hospital visits. I'd be sunk without these ladies. They keep me from poisoning my kids both on accident and on purpose. They also, on occasion, keep my husband from meeting with his untimely death. Haha. Just kidding. But only kind of.

So this is pretty much my life. It's not exceptional. It's not unique. But it's mine. And even on bad days, I love it and I look forward to sharing our stories with you as we grow.