Meet the fam...

Well, it's official - I have created a blog and I really want to stick with it and use it to write about my family and everyday life and living. I have a lot of family that lives 2 hours away and I feel that they don't get to know how my life is coming along. I don't know even how many people will follow my blog and read it, but it's out there for anyone and everyone and I hope you enjoy it :-)


So Post #1 - Who are the Eckenrodes?

You have me, Tabitha. You can sum me up with a quick statement of "I'm OCD about almost everything in life". To know the women on my maternal side of the family explains a great deal about why I am the way I am - oooh, boy! We don't have a choice. These OCD genes are in our blood, I tell you. It has been said that it gets less with each generation, but then my hubby says that I am getting worse the older I get, so I think that those two statements cancel each other out unfortunately. I love being a kindergarten teacher (are you saying "God bless her" in your head? That is so sweet!) and am super excited about the path that God lays out before me in my profession.

My husband - Dan: my soul mate, my best friend, my partner in life. We work together as a team to keep our house standing, our bills paid, our faith strong, and our daughter raised properly (and in one piece). Let's sum up Dan in one statement: a jack of all trades, master of none (our daughter thinks this is a completely derogatory statement), but that is Dan. I never would have married him if he wasn't this very thing. He fixes things around the house, can make a mean plate of spaghetti, has a totally unique handful of hobbies (that will have to be a later blog), plays referee for the house's raging female hormones, and a plethora of other odds and ends. 

Our only child: Madeline Rose. I love her more than words can say and I try to thank God everyday for bringing her to me and letting me be her mom. She is living proof that dreams come true! This kid has a better head on her shoulders than Dan and I EVER had at the age of 14 and we hope that she keeps that level head through the rest of her teenage years (we are only a portion of the way through yanno?) She has a bunch of friends at school (I feel like some of the names run together, the majority of their labels end in "best friend" and then I smile remembering how 8th grade was for me) and would stick up for any of their rights like they were her own! She is an animal lover to her roots and hopes to be a veterinarian or an animal cop one day.

Our family is rounded off with a 10 yr old tomcat: Maximus Eugenicus (it was during the Gladiator time period of movie watching in Dan's life), a 2 yr old German Shepherd: Rocca Mocha Noelle, and a 1 yr old chocolate Lab: Bay Leigh Dorito.