This Path: Dramatis Personae
I have a lot of new friends. Welcome! Most have come from my due date community, I think, and many of them have done nifty Intro posts. I'm going to do the same, but I plan to break it up into a few different posts. Here is where I introduce you to my family.
Hello! I'm Amanda, aka ahavah_ehyeh, and this is me today at 40 weeks. This is the first time I've ever hit my estimated due date. The baby I'm still lugging around is affectionately known as "Guillermo" or "G" around here. Its LJ tag is Baby3, but I'll probably replace that with a name when we actually have one. We don't actually know if it's a boy or a girl, but I bestowed that utero-name upon it when I was joking about wanting a dark-skinned, redheaded Mexican baby. (I'm half Mexican and my husband is full ginger.)
This is my husband, Josh. (Our oldest daughter and lahermite's son are in the background - hope she doesn't mind, but this is my new favorite picture of Josh.) Interestingly enough, while Josh is all freckled, redheaded white boy, his family is mostly full of dark-haired, darkish skinned folk heavy on Native American blood. So my joke actually has a decent chance of coming to fruition.
Josh and I have been together for over ten years, though we just got married in 2008. I've actually known him for much longer (he dated one of my friends back in high school). I believe I first met him when I was 16, which means that besides my blood family, he is the person who has known me the longest in my life. This meant quite a bit to me when I realized it, since I moved around a lot as a kid and I really don't have any other friends who've known me since childhood. It may be pretty corny, but Josh is definitely my best friend. He knows me a lot better than even my family does, and I dare say he knows me better than I know myself sometimes. We've been through quite a lot together. He's known me as an extraordinarily spacey teen, a homeless young woman on my own for the first time, a roommate, a spun-out partier, a girlfriend with a surprise pregnancy, an unreluctant and completely dedicated mother, a birth junky, a rather eclectic spiritualist, a broken shell, a wife who tries really hard, and now a budding homesteader. He's been right there with me through all of it.
This is our oldest, Eden. She's eight, deeply devoted to cats of all kinds, a huge Calvin & Hobbes fan, a zombie fan, a passionate artist and budding writer, and self-proclaimed "Grade A nimrod". Her super-villain alter-ego is "Stupendous Woman". She's also very much into dance (particularly ballet), archery, and she really wants to start hunting. She tentatively plans to own some kind of outdoor animal rescue shelter when she grows up, although there's so much that she wants to do that it's really hard to pick. I try to remind her that she has a while before making a commitment.
This is Ivy, who just turned six. She is also a huge cat fan and a big fan of Tinkerbell (and fairies in general). She also loves dancing, drawing, archery, helping out on the farm, and she's looking forward to being a big sister and helping the baby grow up to be awesome. Her super-villain alter-ego is "Cat Woman". She would like to provide grooming services at Eden's animal shelter when she grows up. Ivy is a little flirt and is the one who is more interested in boys and crushy things. She also wants to marry Josh, but I beat her to that.
This is my other best friend, my beloved Achaiah. Now 11 years old, I've had her for slightly longer than I've had Josh. She's half pit, a quarter border collie, a quarter unknown but assuredly awesome. She did have the pit muscles back in the day, but we've grown old and fat together. She's still got her border collie smarts though. Mostly. We've been through a lot together as well. I dreamt about her before she was born, and I know without a doubt that we were meant to be together.
Baby and Vader, our wethers and first goats. We got them to eat the pasture, mostly. (We had a flock of Buckeye chickens first, but most of them were recently taken by someonething when we were on vacation. We have a few mixed hens now, but no good pics.)
Our dairy goat, Rosie, and her two bucklings, JJ and Patches. We're excited to finally have a dairy goat! Although we'd like to sell or trade her boys. They're all a bit much to handle at the moment, and since they're not castrated, they're likely to create problems in the future.
Occasionally I mention my family back in North Carolina. My Dad:
My sister Tina and her husband Adam, who just gave me my very first niece, Chloe:
My (half)sister Liz, who I very rarely hear from. No one in the family but me hears from her at all though, so I'm the lucky one:
And my (half, other side)brother Adam, not to be confused with Tina's Adam, seen here with my (ex, but not really to me)step-mom, Kathy:
And my mom. She passed on (if you can call it that) in 2008. It was extremely traumatic for me, and while I've tried to work through it, she's still my mommy and I still mention her quite a bit.
Hello! I'm Amanda, aka ahavah_ehyeh, and this is me today at 40 weeks. This is the first time I've ever hit my estimated due date. The baby I'm still lugging around is affectionately known as "Guillermo" or "G" around here. Its LJ tag is Baby3, but I'll probably replace that with a name when we actually have one. We don't actually know if it's a boy or a girl, but I bestowed that utero-name upon it when I was joking about wanting a dark-skinned, redheaded Mexican baby. (I'm half Mexican and my husband is full ginger.)
This is my husband, Josh. (Our oldest daughter and lahermite's son are in the background - hope she doesn't mind, but this is my new favorite picture of Josh.) Interestingly enough, while Josh is all freckled, redheaded white boy, his family is mostly full of dark-haired, darkish skinned folk heavy on Native American blood. So my joke actually has a decent chance of coming to fruition.
Josh and I have been together for over ten years, though we just got married in 2008. I've actually known him for much longer (he dated one of my friends back in high school). I believe I first met him when I was 16, which means that besides my blood family, he is the person who has known me the longest in my life. This meant quite a bit to me when I realized it, since I moved around a lot as a kid and I really don't have any other friends who've known me since childhood. It may be pretty corny, but Josh is definitely my best friend. He knows me a lot better than even my family does, and I dare say he knows me better than I know myself sometimes. We've been through quite a lot together. He's known me as an extraordinarily spacey teen, a homeless young woman on my own for the first time, a roommate, a spun-out partier, a girlfriend with a surprise pregnancy, an unreluctant and completely dedicated mother, a birth junky, a rather eclectic spiritualist, a broken shell, a wife who tries really hard, and now a budding homesteader. He's been right there with me through all of it.
This is our oldest, Eden. She's eight, deeply devoted to cats of all kinds, a huge Calvin & Hobbes fan, a zombie fan, a passionate artist and budding writer, and self-proclaimed "Grade A nimrod". Her super-villain alter-ego is "Stupendous Woman". She's also very much into dance (particularly ballet), archery, and she really wants to start hunting. She tentatively plans to own some kind of outdoor animal rescue shelter when she grows up, although there's so much that she wants to do that it's really hard to pick. I try to remind her that she has a while before making a commitment.
This is Ivy, who just turned six. She is also a huge cat fan and a big fan of Tinkerbell (and fairies in general). She also loves dancing, drawing, archery, helping out on the farm, and she's looking forward to being a big sister and helping the baby grow up to be awesome. Her super-villain alter-ego is "Cat Woman". She would like to provide grooming services at Eden's animal shelter when she grows up. Ivy is a little flirt and is the one who is more interested in boys and crushy things. She also wants to marry Josh, but I beat her to that.
This is my other best friend, my beloved Achaiah. Now 11 years old, I've had her for slightly longer than I've had Josh. She's half pit, a quarter border collie, a quarter unknown but assuredly awesome. She did have the pit muscles back in the day, but we've grown old and fat together. She's still got her border collie smarts though. Mostly. We've been through a lot together as well. I dreamt about her before she was born, and I know without a doubt that we were meant to be together.
Baby and Vader, our wethers and first goats. We got them to eat the pasture, mostly. (We had a flock of Buckeye chickens first, but most of them were recently taken by someonething when we were on vacation. We have a few mixed hens now, but no good pics.)
Our dairy goat, Rosie, and her two bucklings, JJ and Patches. We're excited to finally have a dairy goat! Although we'd like to sell or trade her boys. They're all a bit much to handle at the moment, and since they're not castrated, they're likely to create problems in the future.
Occasionally I mention my family back in North Carolina. My Dad:
My sister Tina and her husband Adam, who just gave me my very first niece, Chloe:
My (half)sister Liz, who I very rarely hear from. No one in the family but me hears from her at all though, so I'm the lucky one:
And my (half, other side)brother Adam, not to be confused with Tina's Adam, seen here with my (ex, but not really to me)step-mom, Kathy:
And my mom. She passed on (if you can call it that) in 2008. It was extremely traumatic for me, and while I've tried to work through it, she's still my mommy and I still mention her quite a bit.