Some crazy stuff about me and my family

There have been a number of times that my husband and I have been told we should write a book about our lives. We've done a lot of crazy things over our marriage, and most people are shocked when they learn about our lives. So I'm going to work on a list of some of the "crazy stuff". If anything, it will give me a chance to reminisce about our lives!

Crazy stuff about our homes and moving:

1. We have moved 13 times in our 13 years of marriage.

2. Our first home we bought was a condemnable trailer (AKA "mobile home".) There were holes in the roof, a big section rotted and missing out of a wall, drug paraphernalia and cigarette butts, and water soaked carpet from an aquarium that the renters who left had spilled all over.

3. We lived in Thailand for 8 months as self-supported missionaries, and while overseas gave birth to our 4th child (unassisted, but that is another category.)

4. While temporarily homeless after a poor job decision (we thought we'd be resident managers at an apartment and the owner was a slimeball -to put in polite terms-) we stayed in a friend's basement for a few weeks, sleeping on a 3/4 size bed (in between a single and double) with our 4 month old baby.

5. We lived in a barn with our four kids on Salt Spring Island for two months, after we moved back to Canada from Thailand. It had a composting toilet, a wood stove for heat and rats. Hey, it was free.

6. Most of our moving has occurred in winter. Usually when it is -20 C.

7. We moved into our current house the day our sixth child was born.

8. We moved into the aforementioned home while it was gutted (stud walls, no drywall) and my husband sweetly installed a toilet that very evening in a bathroom which you could see through the walls - there were no walls!

9. Our current 5 bedroom home has 4 adults and 8 children living in it.


Crazy stuff about children:

1. We have six kids

2. I have had nearly every kind of birth experience:

-C-section (my first baby, who was breech)
-Midwife attended hospital birth with an epidural for a posterior baby
-Midwife attended home water birth
-Unassisted home birth in Thailand
-Hospital birth with an epidural
-Unassisted home water-birth at a friend's house while we were sleeping over for the night.

3. I have been overdue with all my babies. Everywhere from 13 days to 26 days overdue.

4. I homeschool my kids.

Crazy stuff about marriage:

1. We were married when I was 18. We had dated for just over a year - our engagement (included in that year of dating) was about 5 months.

2. We had our first baby after 11 months of marriage. Imagine the romance involved in bringing a 3 week old on your first anniversary trip!

3. I gained 65 pounds the first year we were married. I was pregnant! But I will admit that it wasn't all baby belly.

4. I will point out that I now weigh 20 pounds less than I did when we were married. Even after six kids. So there.

Health things:

1. We drank raw milk for nearly a year for the health benefits.

2. I don't vaccinate my children due to both moral and health concerns.


Work/Education:

1. My husband attended full-time university (graduate and post-graduate level) for two and a half years, not in succession. This occurred several years and several kids into our marriage.

2. My husband has worked at least 10 different jobs throughout our married lives. In no particular order, they included working for: IBM, working as a high-rise window washer, inside-sales at Telus, framing for a construction crew, taught courses at both a College and University, was a full-time Forex trader and instructor, and now is currently employed as a lead Pastor.

3. To help pay the bills while my husband was in University, I worked as a server at Earls and Ric's Grill.

4. The second restaurant I worked in, Ric's Grill, was renowned as an architectural wonder. It was a steak house that was built in an old water tower, high in the sky.


Well, that is all that I can think of off the top of my head. I'm sure there's much, much more - but that will have to be included in another posting on another day.