In Our Home

Funny to think that many of the sayings mentioned on the above picture are practiced in many homes. How sad. What would life be like without second chances, thank yous, realness, sorrys, love, mistakes, respect, happiness, dreams, faith and family.

When you start talking about homes, there are so many different types of homes to talk about. Not everyone grew up in the same kind of home environment. This is true. Lots of times we notice this when we marry. I know that is true for the Major and I. His upbringing and mine were not the same, in fact they were total opposites. Together, we have come together and we have a foundation set for our own home and family.

I was born in SC in the 70's and reared in a home where my Father worked and my Mom stayed at home. It was nice having a Mom that was at home. She was there with us to get us up in the mornings and take us to school, she was there to pick us up from school. She helped with homework and took my brother and I to our extra-curricular activites, and she had dinner ready and we were ready to eat when my Dad got home from work. I grew up drinking sweet tea, and most everything was fried!

I grew up in the country where my brother and I went to a country elementary school where everyone knew everybody and our middle and high schools were considered in the city because of the distance we drove to get there. We would enjoy swimming in the pool during the summer time, riding our go carts and four-wheelers. We would hunt and go barefoot. We even, at one time, each had rabbits, and goats and ducks! It was a fun childhood. We were also very fortunate to have both sets of our Grandparents living within minutes of us and even my Aunts and Uncles and Cousins. Family vacations were to the beach or mountains or Disney World, and my Granny would most always travel with us.

I went to a Southern Baptist Church, in fact, I went to the same Church my whole life and I accepted Christ as my Savior and became a Christian when I was 10 years old. It was a rural country Church, but it was full of some of the most loving and wonderful believers that I have ever known. Many are gone now and they are in Heaven, and I will never forget them and the impact that they each had on my life. This is the Church were I grew up, this is the Church where I was Baptised, and this was the Church that I said good-bye to when the Major and I married over 17 years ago.

I grew up with one sibling, a brother whom is 3 1/2 years younger than I am. We are completely night and day. I have brown hair:he has red, he is tall:I am average height, he never had to study:I always had to, I have kids:he doesn't. It was fun growing up with a little brother and it was fun to dress him up too with make up and heels! We had lots of fun times swimming, riding bikes, go-carts, four-wheeling, hunting, playing video games. No, we were not always nice to eachother, we were like all other siblings, there were times where we would argue and tease eachother. One of those times ended with me getting a broken arm!

I grew up in a home where my parents married young, and had me when they were only 19 and 17 years old. They had known eachother for every and fell very much in love and still are, and have been married for 37 years. My parents have gone through many seasons in their life. There are no kids at home as my brother and I are both married. My parents still live in the same home and city in which I grew up in and which I never moved or left until I married. My brother is married to my sweet wonderful sister-in-law and they recently moved to Georgia after living in Illinois for the past five years. It is so nice having them a few hours away now. The Major and I have been stationed in SC going on four years now and it is very nice being close to my family and it's especially nice that our Princess and Bookworm have their Grandparents(my parents) only alittle over an hour down the road.

The Major was also born in the 70's, but he came from a Military family and lived lots of places as he was growing up. He has lived from the East Coast to the West Coast and like me was born on the East Coast, even though he was born in Rhode Island and is a notherner(yankee)! But I will say that he is far from a northerner, he is very much southern. Unlike me, the Major was educated in private Catholic Schools, although I will add that I did go to a private school during second grade, until he moved to SC and was in a public High School.

He was raised Catholic, had a Dad and Mom whom both worked and he lived in the city. Unlike me being the oldest, the Major is the youngest. He has two siblings, a sister whom is the oldest and a brother who is the middle child. There is a 3 year age gap between each of them. His siblings are married and now have children of their own just like us and they all reside in the same state close to where the Major's parents live. The Major wasn't only the baby in the family, but also the last one to marry and last one to "leave the nest".

Although the Major was raised in the Catholic church, he never accepted Christ until was 17 years old, but never fully understood the feeling and understanding of being a Christian until months after we were married, where he fully gave himself to Christ and was baptized. Every since that day he has given himself completely to Christ and is a God strong and a man of faith. Funny how God called a boy who grew up Catholic to be His servant and go into the Ministry...The Major continues to work on his Master of Divinity at Liberty University. I know God has great plans in store for the Major. Who knows, maybe we'll end up starting a Church or being Missionaires!

The Major and I met our Junior year of High School. We were both in the Band and we knew eachother, but we didn't really know eachother. It was on a Band trip that we started talking and we got to know eachother better. After the trip we started dating(dating almost 2 years) and we have been together ever since. We gradutated from High School, we were engaged the year we graduated, I went to College while the Major went in the Army and then we were married after he completed AIT. Our wedding day was on the Thanksgiving long weekend because we knew that the Major would have a four day and would be able to come to his own wedding :)

We were young when we married, we were both 19 years old. We were criticized by some because they thought that we were too young. We were in love and knew that we wanted to be together, the Major had a great job in the US ARMY and we knew that we wanted to be with eachother for the rest of our lives. We didn't care what the "few" people thought about us or our age. All I can think or say about it is, look at us now! Happily married with two children and we've been married for almost 18 years! Alot longer than some people and other people our age!

We had a most lovely and beautiful wedding. My parents spared no expense. It was rainy the day of our wedding, which is said to be good luck, and was held in one of the biggest Churches in our city. We had a traditional wedding, and no, it was not in a Catholic church with a mass, etc. Neither of us wanted that( I wasn't Catholic and that wasn't us), so we were married in a Church that was neither mine nor the Major's. The Preacher that married us was one that had watched me grow from being a little girl into a woman, he was the one that baptized me and he was the one that I wanted to marry us. The Major met him on several occasions before we were married and he agreed, he thought that he was very nice and had a fun personality. My Dad walked me down the aisle and gave me away. And my Mom, words can't describe what kind of a Mom she is, she helped with everything that had to do with the wedding and made sure that everything was perfect! So on November 26, 1994, the Major and I were married and we began our life together.

I'll never forget when the Major found out where his first duty assignment was going to be in the Army. I asked him where and he said Fort Rucker. I thought that sounded like a cool place, at least it had a neat name. Then I asked him where that was, and he said Alabama! For this country girl that had never moved before I thought that we would be getting stationed somewhere out of the south, so I was a little disappointed with Alabama. Yet, we loved the years that we spent in Alabama, it was a wonderful first assingment, still close enough to SC to go and visit family. It was where we had our first house and where we started our family. It was where the Princess was born. Now it's almost 18 years later, 13 moves, 8 duty stations, 3 deployments and two teenagers in the Cottage, and we're in the best season of our life!

We have a home where the Major is the head of the household, where God is our foundation, where our faith and trust are in God and God alone. A home where we give second chances, where we say thank you, where we're real and not fake(you either like us and love us or you don't and leave us alone and we'll leave you alone too), where we say I'm sorry, a home where there is much laughter and love, a home where we all make mistakes becauae we are not perfect, a home where respect is given, a home full of happiness, a home where it is okay to dream, a home that believes in faith and stands on it, and a home where we are family.