Family & Friends

This is my family. There is Jeremy and Me, Isabella (9), Jeremiah (4) and Olivia (2) The purpose of this page is to give you a glimpse of the people I blog about regularly.

My incredible, handsome husband. This man is the love of my life. He has so many amazing qualities that I find it hard to choose the words to adequately describe him. He is unlike anyone I have ever met. He is driven, focused, witty, responsible, solid, disciplined, funny, genius, respectable, sharp, complex, charming, thoughtful, contemplative, relaxed, a leader, downright sexy, and just one of those people you want to know and be known by. He also doesn't enjoy praise or compliments or realize how incredible he is so he will probably be slightly embarrassed that I have published this for the whole wide world to see in cyberspace, forever. He is also a self proclaimed "nutrititarian". This is someone who strives to eat as many nutritious, nutrient dense foods like fruit and vegetables, beans and legumes, grains and the like. He's one of those people who adds flax seeds to his morning smoothie, eats sprouts by the handful and three times the amount of salad a normal person would, skins up the ski mountain for fun, and rides his bike over multiple passes for 8 hours straight because he likes the challenge. (He wasn't like this when I married him, but this has been Jeremy for almost 2 years now and I think he's here to stay) He doesn't eat meat, aside from occasional seafood, and really limits dairy. He would most likely not eat any dairy but he is married to me and so, he must eat cheese once and a while. He just must. I should mention that he does eat dessert on occasion and enjoys wine so he's not a total bore, food wise. He is sort of a wet blanket when I make things like pizza or pasta with cream sauce for dinner. Any other person would be ecstatic, yet he playfully and wildly yells how we are killing ourselves by eating this and politely eats a small portion. Then he will scour the fridge for raw bell pepper or something like that in an attempt to cleanse himself from the abuse he has just inflicted on his body. And he thinks I'm dramatic. He loves salad, beets, Zinfandel, and bread pudding. He doesn't much care for sushi or red sauce on spaghetti.

This is Isabella, my oldest daughter. She is smart and intuitive. She is also an incredible athlete and picks up any sport quickly and easily. She is responsible, sassy, and much cooler than I was at her age. She also has an uncanny way of picking up "bad" songs and remembering them, singing them as often as possible. We listen to k-love, the christian station in my car 24/7, yet she sings "Poker Face" as often as she can. :) She is also a sweetheart, very sensitive, tender hearted and tough. Isabella is a mental workout to parent because she is so smart, but man, what an incredible woman she'll be someday! Her favorite foods are soup, chili, pineapple, shrimp, avocado, spaghetti and steak. She hates zucchini and salmon.

Meet Jeremiah. He is funny, and can worm his way into your heart like no other. He is such a delight and has such a good heart that he might get away with more shenanigans than he should. He has never ending energy and is extremly loud but he wants to please and likes all his family to be together. He spends his days complimenting his mommy on her "beautiful lips", when I'm wearing lip gloss, stroking my cheek and overusing "I just love you" in a breathy, very genuine voice. I know! I'm the luckiest, right?!? He loves noodles, soup, shrimp, salmon, grilled cheese, broccoli, raw spinach, hot chocolate and whipped cream, sweets of any kind, pizza and gelato. He hates anything that is hard to chew and sweet potatoes are not his "fravorite".

This is my little Olivia. She is our little ray of sunshine. The first thing you should know is that she has Angleman's Syndrome. The second thing you should know is that the hallmark of kids with this syndrome is they are happy, social and content. That describes our little girl to a tee. She is joyful, likes to tease, and definitely has people she favors. She is learning to communicate properly with different signs and so fourth, but has no problem getting across to you what she wants or needs! She is loving, warm, friendly and engaging. She has taught me so much about love, patience, grace and life and I consider it a blessing and honor to be her mom. She likes most food but especially her fruit smoothies in the mornings, water, roasted butternut squash, pizza and bananas. She tends to not like chili.

Danielle Heit. We met in a college art history class in 2002. She invited me to go with her to the local high school's dance showcase performance and the rest is history. She was easy to be friends with. We had both just moved to a new town (well, she was born here, moved away and moved back) and needed someone to hang out with. It was a good scenario for friendship. I have come to know Danielle as an extreme extrovert and someone who loves to be around people and events and part of community. It is essential to her being. We are not extremely alike, but we sure have a lot in common. Well, the way we grew up was polar opposite, but now we have a lot to relate to. Oh, and our husbands are partners in business, I forgot to mention that. Danielle is strong willed, trendy, fun, compassionate, social, loyal and will do just about anything for a friend. She used to do interior design and now stays home with her kids, Will and Anabelle. She's a very involved and caring mother. Danielle and I both like good food and we see each other a few times a week, so I blog about her a lot. She enjoy's champagne, fondue, tapas, coconut and cheese...A girl after my own heart. Find her here. She likes most food but dislikes butternut squash curry. This is a recent development.

Melissa Fielding. Melissa is easy to be friends with as well. Again, she is not much like me and doesn't even really like to cook, gasp. I actually gave her cooking lessons a few years back! Ha ha, just who do I think I am anyway? Well, she can now roast a chicken with the best of them, so that's good. She is also the best massage therapist in town, hands down! She is candid and doesn't have much of a filter with what she says. For this reason, she can be downright hilarious and amusing. She is also very responsible, prompt, reliable and dependable. She sort of puts on a front of being a bit ditsy, and part of her is, in an endearing way, but mostly it's just a front. She is also an extreme lightweight. Give the girl a glass of wine and half way through she is bursting out with laughter and yells instead of talks. She doesn't let a lot of things bother her and if they do, she hashes it out, throws a fit and then decidedly lets it go like it never happened. It's wonderful really. Her daughter Taylor is very good friends with my daughter and they go to school together. Melissa likes most all foods and is not very picky. She would show the same enthusiasm over a prime, perfectly cooked filet mignon as she would a tray of simple roasted vegetables. I can't think of any particular food she doesn't like. Her son Reece, is another matter entirely.

Kel Elwood. Her picture is bigger than everyone else's but I'm not sure why. This friendship is new in comparison to the others but it doesn't make it any less special in my book. I don't know her incredibly, incredibly well but this is what I get. I liked Kel from the moment I met her. She has an easy way about her. She is confident, unconcerned with frivolous issues, friendly, smart, a go-getter and loves to evangelize to strangers. That's what she told me anyway one of the first times we hung out. I totally believe her. She said "you can make them food and I'll evangelize". She makes me laugh. She sort of reminds me of Katherine Hepburn personality wise. She uses phrases like "good Lord" and "what the what?" all the time. She is just herself. All the time. She does not change and adapt to her environment like I do, she is just quintessentially, Kel. She used to live as a missionary in China with her husband and has a lot of world experience. She is also very willing to help people out with a "no big deal" attitude. She helped me a ton with my site, computer issues, problem solved, gave me tips on using my camera, took photos of me and for me and still thinks nothing of it. She is a very talented photographer. Find her here. She likes homemade pizza, breakfast for dinner and good cheese but can't stand cilantro (crazy talk if you ask me) or raw tomatoes. I agree with the tomato thing.