It's All About ME!

So, who am I? What makes me tick?

At this point in my life I am "Mostly Mom." I have 5 children. Jesse, my eldest, is 10. He is in 6th grade, and he loves to cook. That's great for me, since I strongly dislike it. Caleb, child 2, is 8 years old. He is in 2nd grade. Caleb is all about order and routine. This is particularly challenging for me. Elizabeth, the first girl, is 6 3/4 and also in 2nd grade. She is our mother hen. When she was barely toddling she would keep her eye on her older brothers at all times and gently correct them if they began to step out of line. Abigail is 5 1/2. Abby is stepping out into the world of kindergarten this year. There is not a stage big enough for the drama that comes out of this child- and not all of it is bad drama either. I have heard that 5 is the number of God's grace. I can easily see how this could be true. Jonah is my baby- even though he turns 3 in 24 days. He is the sweetest child I have ever met. He speeks the language of love that I "get." We both love quality time. I'll do a more thorough introducton to my kids in a later set of posts.

I am married to Sebastian. We met on New Years Eve of '95/'96. We have been married for 10 1/2 years. Wow where did those years go?! I can't imagine my life being any different than it is now.

Our household, in total, consists of 2 gravely outnumbered parents, 5 young children, 3 goldfish, and one semipermanant houseguest. We are large and we are loud! Shopping for a dining room table that could seat 8 every night raised more than a few eyebrows!

I am all about MOPs (Mothers Of Preschoolers). MOPs is a church based community outreach program that caters specifically to women who have children that are kindergarten aged or younger. The immediate goal is to give these women a sense of community. We are all women in the same stage of life. We all have potty issues, children who take so long to tie thier shoes, discipline issues- that kind of thing. Of course, the long term goal of MOPs is that every woman would be brought into the famly of Christian believers. The normal format for a MOPs morning at my MOPs would be: snack and fellowship, announcements, teaching time (all mothering/ womens issues), small group discussion time, craft and fellowship time. All of this fun is crammed into 3 hours. Of course while we are having all of this fun, our children are in thier classes having fun, too. The children's classes are set up in a Sunday School format and include music, gym, snack, story, and free play time- at our MOPs group anyway. By the way, if this sounds like something you would be interested in checking out you can. I go to Camano Chapel MOPS. We are one of the few groups that meets every week in the state of Washington. The Chapel even has a night MOPs for women who can't make it durring the day. Anyway, as you can see, I fully support MOPS.

This year I am the Special Teusday Coordinator at MOPs. I believe it is a leadership position unique to our group. I am in charge of the nonformat days (the SUPER fun ones). I am doing The Bite of MOPs on November 13th. Be looking for a post on that.

If I only had to look after me I think I would probably live on sugared cerial for two meals a day and starbucks coffee for the other. I guess it's a good thing I have to think about good nutrition on an ongoing basis! I also love taco salad- but it has to be made with Doritos, 1000 Island dressing, and lots of Ketsup. And Coke.

I love to play games. I like word games and I like card games. My current favorite card game is Phase 10. I am teaching my 10 year old how to lose like a good sport. We throw in an occasional game of Uno for the littler kids who would cry if they had to play Phase 10 with me. Jesse and I also like to play Scrabble- but it's not much of a challenge to play with him yet. Since English is my Husband's second language he won't play word games with me. I do like to play games with my dad, though. He almost always beats me.

I like to read, although I don't get much chance. I love to sing- I think I'm good, too. I have a huge collection of decorating magazines. I live in the typical mom uniform of a t-shirt, blue jeans, a zip front sweatshirt, and tennis shoes.

In a really small nutshell- that's me!