Who started this anyway?

Lars was, ahem, kind enough to tag us. The mission, to tell about various stages of your life. Hmmm. I think I figured out that I have moved 24 times in my life. Do you have a couple of days for me to go through my life story?

Well, once upon a time, or was it a midnight dreary?
While I wondered a little bleary
Over many a quaint and curious bottles of wine. [Hat tip - EAP]

Ten years ago; in a state far, far away; there lived a humble sergeant with (last name removed) on his name tag and a maroon beret on his head. He was the training NCO for a Long Range Surveillance unit on Fort Hood, Texas and drove a Ford Mustang convertible. Sergeant (last name removed) would spend his weekends visiting his parents and brother in Dallas or <smirk>enjoying himself in Austin. For those that don't know, 6th Street in Austin is a very fun place. It doesn't matter what type of scene or music you are in to, it's there. A fellow grunt, PFC Buster, came from Austin and sometimes we would go stay with his parents or at their lake house. His dad was a physician and owned a party-pad on Lake Travis for rental income. If it wasn't being rented, we could go. Saweeeeeet!

Hang on, we're zooming forward in time to the year 2000. I hope you didn't get sick by those two little bumps along the way. The first in 1996 when I left the Army and moved in with my brother in Dallas. The second little flicker you experienced was in 1998, when I moved to Iowa...for a woman<gasp!> Not the smartest thing I've done in my life, but then again, I wouldn't be married to the dream wife I have now if I hadn't.

But I digress and you're still wanting to know what's going on in 2000. Well, the woman<gasp!> was still around, but everyone and the cat knew we weren't going stay married. I ended up putting her through her BA and MA at Iowa State anyway because I'm a moron...I mean a nice guy.

Well, 4 years go by in a seeming instant and in 2004, Jody and I have hooked up and then hooked up again. If you know what I mean, wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Jody is pregnant and we are trying to get everything ready for Brenna's grand entrance into the world. See, she wasn't even out of the womb and already controlling our lives.

This past year has been a blur of perfect little moments with Jody and Brenna. I cannot describe how deeply I love them and the life we have carved out for ourselves. We are all a sum of our experiences. You can't help but use that as a filter through which you see the world. It takes extra-ordinary circumstances or extra-ordinary people to break out of your nice and cozy pattern. Sometimes, with just right person at just the right time you can be more than just the sum of your experiences. You can smile all day long because your wife gave up her gift card for a 1/2 hour massage. You smile because your wife came to the client-site so you can show of the Princess to her adoring fans.

The 3 of us (maybe one more - sometime in the future) can face anything because we smile readily, bounce happily and aren't afraid to play peek-a-boo in front of perfect strangers...while dressed in tights, knee-high riding boots, a sword and a cavalier hat.


Songs I Know All The Words To:
Most Sesame Street songs
"The Army Goes Rolling Along" - I was the First Infantry Division "Soldier of the Year", I went to a lot of ceremonies where this was sung.
The Big Red One Song - Ditto


snacks:
grapes
chips


Things I would do with 100 million buckaroos.
An estate in the British Isles
Buy houses for siblings
Build a wind farm
Start a company to build turbine/electric cars.
Enjoy my family