In the beginning...

Here's the story of the family.

I got pregnant with Daniel when I was 17 and he was born the September after I graduated high school. September 11 in fact. DO NOT say “ohhhh, so sad” if you ever see him. I will beat you until you cry. With all respect to the tragic event on September 11, I hate when people do that to him. He’s a kid for Jesus’ sake, don’t make him feel awful about his birthday, he knows what happened. I married his father, my, ahem, high school sweetheart, when Daniel was 7 months old…in effect, we got married because we had a child. I had Brett just 18 months later on March 13. Their father and I rightfully divorced a bit after that. He is still a big part of their life.

I met Mike at work in a casino. You will undoubtedly hear all about the casino one day. Be patient. Mike is a teddy bear geek who laughs a lot and who loves me like no other. We married when my boys were 2 and 3. Who does that? Mike is the most able parent I never asked for…and believe me, folks, I never expected another parent for the boys. I felt it was unfair to expect it. The boys will introduce us to teachers, friends, etc. in this way: "This is my Mom and this is my Mike." They are too cute. We have two tyrannical cats, Ivan the Great/Terrible and Nero/Baby. They are the most spoiled cats on earth. No, really.

On June 28, we'll have been married 7 years. Oh my god.