WELCOME...to the party that is!

Well, I couldn't be left out by my friends, Meshellyn and Bek. When I heard that they were having a party, I just HAD to come!

Let me introduce myself. I am Devion. That is a nickname given to me by a friend of mine. "You know, like Evian?!?" That will tell you how to pronounce it. I am the mother of 1-1/2 children. I have a beautiful 21-month-old, Cassie, and a baby due in June who will be named Conrey. I have been married just over 5 years (Oct 26) and have no greater joy than is found in my family.

Let's see...background...I have 2 brothers and a sister. We are all super close. We are separated by a 16-year span from my oldest brother to my little sister. She is adopted and we couldn't have "picked" a better one! OK, OK...in all fairness, God picked us the perfect completion to our family. :)

My parents have been married for 38 years this Sept. and my in-laws just celebrated their 40th anniversary in Dec. Both have been a huge influence to the way I view marriage and the future of MY marriage.

I come from a large extended family. My mom's side is mostly in South Dakota and is not so huge. I don't see them nearly enough as I'd like to, but enjoy them greatly when I do. I have 10 cousins on that side, so there are 14 grands all together. My DAD'S side of the family, however, is very large. I have 35+ cousins on that side. My dad is 3rd of 10 kids.

As you can see, family is a very big part of my life. The Christian heritage that was passed down to me from all sides is my most precious treasure and I hold it a high responsibility to pass it down to my children and their children, etc.

Hmmm...what else would be of interest? I am a SAHM and take care of 2 children twice a week, though that will soon be over. I have always known that I wanted to be a Mommy. If you asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, that was always my answer. I would sometimes say and a teacher, but always first and foremost, a mommy. God made me physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually to be just that...a mother to all children that I have had contact with. Being a SAHM is not as easy as I would have thought, though. I struggle to find the balance between nurturing my daughter, keeping up with the house, providing meals for the family, and doing things for myself. Unfortunately, I think that I spend too much time on the latter, though I spend a large chunk of my time teaching Cassie.

Let's talk a bit about Cassie girl. I must say, though I MAY be a bit predjudice, she is a very intelligent little girl. By the age of 15 months, she knew her ABC's. By 18 months, she could count to 15. She conceptualizes better than many 2 and 3 year olds that I know and I really think that she is headed for great things in school. I know a huge part of this is the time that I spend with her daily in challenging her to think for herself and problem solve.

Have I bragged enough on my cute little doll? Let's do a bit more bragging...this time on my husband. He and I are as different as night and day...chocolate and vanilla...summer and winter. While I am an emotional person...a nurturing person...a happy-go-lucky person, he is a thinker...a doer...a worrier. He feels great pressure to provide for our family in the way that he feels he should, which is far beyond my expectations (if I've ever even had expectations). He is a master electrician. Until about 3-1/2 weeks ago, we were small business owners. We haven't discontinued the business, but rather re-evaluated our life at the present and he's pretty much set the business aside at the moment for the sake of our family. He currently is the master tradesman for the electrical department at Home Depot. This is a fairly new position in which they hire 1 per store to be the expert for the entire store as far as electrical things are concerned. I'm abundantly proud of my husband and find that opposites really DO attract. :)

This is getting lengthy, but I just can't help but tell the story of how Mark and I met. It's just too cute. :) Let's go back to 1981 (I was 11 months old). My family moved from Enid, OK where I was born to the Kansas City area for my dad to go to chiropractic school (Did I mention that I come from the largest chiropractic family in the world? At last count, I believe that there were 30+ chiros in my family including my dad and oldest brother). We started attending church and as I got older, I attended Sonshine School...the preschool at my church. Mark was in my class. *grin* Our parents were in the same circle, but not really close friends...just friends. Fast forward to the mid-1990's. Our older brother's were rivals in college, as they were in rival Christian bands. Mark's brother, Mike, moved back home and later my brother, Derin, moved to KC to go to...you guessed it, chiropractic school. This time, however, they forged a close friendship. When talk of siblings came around and they both realized that they had unhappy siblings around the same age (unhappy that we couldn't find Christians to date), they quickly realized that we were meant to meet. Eventually, we did...at Zio's Italian restaurant...and talked every day from there on out until we were married 9 days shy of a year of our meeting...all the while, I lived in Wichita, KS and he lived in the KC area. Three weeks after our wedding, my mom found a picture of us from preschool...Mark was kissing me. :) He was my first kiss ever! :) :) :)

OK...so, you may now be realizing that I am quite the rambler. I must apologize now for the length of this post. You see, as I mentioned before, I'm pregnant. I'm 26-1/2 weeks to be exact. Having said this, when I am pregnant, I tend to ramble...endlessly...until someone cuts me off or my husband tells me to go to sleep. I didn't even get into my interests or anything like that. I guess if you've read this far, you'll just have to browse through past posts, answer some of my "RANDOM QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK," and come back for more...later.

Let's stop this run away train. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll stop back by for a visit soon!