An Introduction

My name is Angie. I have been married to Dave for 13 1/2 years. We have 4 children. Spielberg is the oldest and is 12. Then there is Ice Princess who just turned 10 and Speed Racer who is 7. Little Warrior is our angel. He is Ice Princess' twin brother and passed away when he was 10 months and 5 days old. I am certain I will speak more about the experience of being a brereaved parent as this blog develops. It has been 9 years since his death and while I feel we(Dave and I) have come a LONG way in these 9 years, we still have moments and no matter what, I will always miss my sweet baby boy. Like I said, more to come on this topic later! We also have a dog, named Minnie.

A little about each child and why I chose the nicknames I did for them:

Spielberg: Ever since he was 5 years old, he has wanted to be a movie director when he grows up. He loves movies and he LOVES watching the footage about how they made different movies. It facinates him! He also enjoys acting and recently played Captain Jack Sparrow in a play he was in. He did a great job and plans to be in the same theatre program next year. He also is learning how to play ice hockey. He will play for leisure since he wants to continue with his acting program. :-) He's been skating since October 2007.

Ice Princess: She figure skates. She's been taking lessons since October 2006. She enjoys it and loves being on the ice. She wants to be a vetrenarian when she grows up. She LOVES animals. She collects Little Petshop stuff and stuffed animals. She is still a typical girl who loves nail polish, clothes and having her hair done but her passions seem to be animals and skating. She also enjoys reading. She has discovered the Little House on the Prairie books and loves them! For her birthday, her grandma bought her 2 American Girl books about Mia. Mia figure skates and Ice Princess is also enjoying those books.

Speed Racer: I chose this name for 2 reasons. The first reason being that anyone who knows this little boy, knows that he LOVES cars. He has loved them since he was very little and cars and trucks seem to be the main type of toys he plays with. He would like to be a mechanic when he grows up. He also would like to buy himself a Corvette! He is currently very obsessed with Corvette's and talks about them whenever he has the chance. The other reason I chose thise name for him is because he also likes ice hockey. He will be playing on a team in the fall. When he skates, he likes to skate FAST! It has been fun watching him develop his skating skills! He's been skating since October 2007.

Little Warrior: This has been this child's nickname for 10 years. We called him our "Little Warrior" in the hospital because he fought so hard to live. He and Ice Princess were born 3.5 months early in May of 1998. Ice Princess also fought very hard to survive, but Little Warrior was "gifted" with a few more complications that I will explain later on. Little Warrior is a very fitting nickname for this child! Little Warrior is still very much a part of our life. My other children speak of him often and tend to share that they have a brother in heaven, a lot. Sometimes this makes me uncomfortable because it usually means I have to explain more then I care to, to people I don't want to share this information with. For example... the checker at the grocery store who asks how many kids I have. I once made the mistake of saying "3" in Speed Racer's presence. Speed Racer promptly corrected me. To people I know I will see regularly(ie: co-workers, fellow church members, ect), my generic response is "3 living children". That leaves the rest up to the other person. If they feel the need to inquire further, I share more. If they don't, I leave it at that. Little Warrior is a part of who I am, so I do speak of him often(when appropriate) but to be honest I still find that question hard to answer! I could write more about this, but since this is an introduction, I will save this topic for a later date.

As for my hobbies, I also skate. I have always loved skating and over the last 6+ months, our little family has taken up skating together. It's a fun and healthy activity! I am learning some new (simple!) moves and I feel great when I can do a new move. :0) I also enjoy reading, eventhough my husband seems to think I don't! I just don't make enough time for it. I read a series last year and now that I am done with that one, I need to find another series to read! I also and planning on going on more bike rides and hikes this spring and summer. We live in a beautiful area and I want to explore it together with my family. I want to take up sewing. I keep looking for an inexpensive used machine but I have not had any luck yet.

I work graveyards at Target. I actually like this shift. Some think I am strange for liking it, but it works well for our family. It allows me to be home with the kids, even if it means I am sleeping!

Dave's hobbies are: ice hockey, home theatre, HALO(oy!) and he would also like to take up biking and hiking as a family. He also enjoys jet skiing and I am sure he will start doing that as soon as we have warm weather that sticks around for more then a few days! We may do it less this year then we have before due to the cost of gas. BLECH! His other favorite past time is reading. He will devour a good book in a matter of a day or two.

I think that is about it for now. Thank you for reading and welcome to my blog!