Welcome to our world!

Ryan and I are just two regular folks who met at a quarters table at Virginia Tech, became friends, fell in love and eventually married. We decided to start a family, and had two amazing girls, Jenna and Rachel. We also had three insane cats (Chester, Buster and Toby) and an amazing dog named Molly along the way. Currently we share our home with a lovingly neurotic dog named Bella.

Our path in life pivoted 180 degrees on June 9, 1995, when Jenna was born. For those of you who know, you know. We planned our journey to Italy and then have spent the rest of our lives learning to live in Holland.

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It has been an amazing journey, full of wonderful times, and devastatingly hard times. I began jotting down stories along the way, storing them here and there. They were attempts to find humor in the sorrow, the good in the bad, and to make some kind of sense about it all. I truly believe that Ryan, Rachel and I are better people, friends, and family as a result of this journey.

I finally decided to stop waiting until later to start my blog. Because I have learned the hard way, none of us are guaranteed later. So in no particular order, welcome into our moments while raising Jenna.