You know, there is something great about being able to come on here and spill my heart out on these internet pages. I can come on here and cry about my sleep deprivation, rejoice in how God’s working in my life, post pictures of my awesome and cute daughter, share about things going on in our life, talk about my adoption story, or whatever else I please. But, what about the daily detailed stuff that gets left out? What about random things you may not know about me from just these posts?

Well, here you go! 11 things you probably wouldn’t know about me.  Why 11? Because that’s my favorite number.

1.  I rarely watch TV unless I’m completely and utterly bored with nothing else to do (or avoiding laundry!). And about the only thing I watch regularly is the reruns of King of Queens with Mark.  Because that is seriously the funniest, best show ever. It’s sad how alike we are to Doug and Carrie.

2.  I danced for about 7 years, tap, jazz and ballet.  I didn’t start ballet until my last 3 years but it’s my favorite. I even tried pointe (you know, the wooden toed shoes that allow you to stand on your toes? Ouch.).  For 2 years I competed with a dance team. We usually did pretty good, but only because it was small competition.  None-the-less, it was fun until one day the dance flame I had in me burned out and I quit in the middle of practice.

3. My thumbs are double jointed.  They look normal most of the time, but they can pop horizontal when the rest of my hand is vertical. Hard to explain.  It makes my thumb look crippled, but it’s not.  See? Normal.  Not normal. There, I said it. I’m a freak.

4.  I have moved so many times in my life, I don’t think I could count.  I haven’t lived in the same city more than 6 years in a row, and even within that time period I’ve never lived in the same house/apartment/dorm more than 2 years. I think.  No, I wasn’t a military family (Mark’s is though so he grew up with the same thing).

5. I have a complicated family. My Mom and Dad are not (and were never were) married.  I grew up most of my life (until age 13) with my single mom, visiting my dad every other weekend and holidays. I have a Step-Mom, Cyndi, who I’ve known as long as I can remember and I would say she’s one of my best friends (a long with my Mom and my husband).  I have a younger half younger brother and sister through my Dad and Cyndi, who are the cutest but most talkative little kids ever (but I love them! Their pictures are below with the wedding party)).  My mom also married, so I gained a Step-Dad and two older step-brothers. They (the brothers) are both way older than me and I’ve never lived with them, so there fore I never really got to know them. Two whole different worlds and families, plus now my own family. It gets complicated trying to visit everyone. Growing up was hard, to say the least. It was crazy being in the middle of two families and traveling so much all the time.

6.  One of my step brothers is Joey Cheek, the Olympic Speed Skater. He won the bronze in 2002 in Salt Lake City, Utah (Which, I got to go and it was the coolest thing ever to experience in person). In 2006 he won a gold and silver medal and donated ALL of his winning money to help children in the Right to Play foundation.  I never talk to him, and when he is in town I’m too shy to speak, but I am very proud of him and all that he’s accomplished.  Maybe some how he’ll find this blog and finally know that.

7. I was able to plan (with the help of my amazing family) and have a beautiful wedding with $3,000. This makes me proud.  All you see on TV and magazines are these amazingly elaborate and HUGE budgets of $25,000 or more, and I think it’s insane. If I had that kind of money, I still wouldn’t have used it on the wedding. Shouldn’t savings for the future, putting that money towards a house, or something be more important than ONE day.  I just don’t get it. But I guess when you don’t have a lot of money you value things more.

8. I can’t keep things clean and tidy. I hate it. I hate things being a wreck but I hate taking the time to clean.  My laundry from last week?  Still sitting in about 4 baskets all wrinkled up. I’m horrible. But really, when you spend all day chasing a almost 9 month old, changing diapers and trying not to get bit and, oh yea, going to school and doing homework all week long…would you want to clean in your very rare few minutes of free time?  I think not.

9. I’ve changed my ideas of what I’ve wanted to be “when I grow up” many, many times.  When I was younger I wanted to be a teacher (ask any girl and most say a teacher, at least the ones I grew up with. It was thing to do!), but then I realized that you actually had to talk in front of people and I wasn’t up for that.  Then it was Interior Design, which lasted mostly though high school.  I took a few classes in school that I loved, but it didn’t feel quite right either.  Then I became pregnant with Kaylee, I experienced adoption and I had my wonderful social worker help me through my pregnancy and years after birth, and I thought maybe I could do use my own experience to help other girls. So, I majored in social work my freshman year in college.  I love, love, love sociology and psychology courses, but they just aren’t my best grades.  And, there was still the whole, having to actually talk to people thing.  After Kaylee’s birth and adoption writing also started to take a huge place in my life, and has since grown and developed even further to my passion.  So, I prayed and talked with family and my heart feels lead to write for a living!  Eventually.

10.  As you may have noticed the trend, I’m a really shy and quiet in person. I’m a complete behind the scenes person, I like the attention but not everyone staring at me (or judging me…ah!). Unless, you are my Mom or Mark, only then you’ll see the truly dorky, weird side of me.

11. I’m really short:  4 foot 10 1/2 inches (the half is important!). You obviously can’t tell that in my writing, but that is usually the first thing people notice in person. I look like a kid. Some day I will be thankful for this when I’m 50 and only look 40. Yes! (To the right is me with my old buddies in our senior year of High School. Good grief my hair was long!)

And there you have it, a little weird and random background of the Mrs. O.

It’s an important weekend for us O family members. Yesterday Mark and I celebrated our 2 year (dating) anniversary. Actually, it’s the day that fate stepped in and began the journey to dating. See, October 11, 2005 Mark saw me sitting at the bus stop (since ya know, ASU forces you to park miles away from campus) coming home from fall break. He didn’t speak to me, he just stared (because he’s shy) and had no idea what his friend was talking about to him about. He just thought to himself, “Wow she’s pretty.” Ok, I don’t know that, but I do know that he had a feeling he’d meet me some how and get to know me. I didn’t notice him staring at me at the time.

Then, the very next day as I was leaving the cafeteria with friends, I looked back and saw this cute guy in a hat with a friend of mine and thought, “Oh! How is that?”. My room mate said she was pretty sure she knew who he was and we came back to our room to “stalk” him on Facebook.com. Since Mark and I had a mutual friend, it was easy to do. I checked out his profile to find out that he was a Christian (hard to find in college!) and had moved around a lot, like I had during my childhood. I simply added him as a friend and left it at that. I figured if something was meant to happen, it would.

Well, before I know it, I get a message on Facebook from Mark. We talk about moving, the stupidity of the Applcart Bus, Left Behind the movie (which I totally hinted I wanted to watch it with him and he didn’t pick up on it lol), mutual friends, etc. We had so many messages that eventually I said, “Why don’t we just talk on AIM?” So, we did. And my ‘study breaks’ turned into 3 hour conversations with this Mark guy that I hadn’t met yet. I was intrigued by him, he wasn’t like other guys I knew and we had a lot in common.

A few days later I send him a message saying that me and my room mate we about to eat lunch and asked if he wanted to join us. He did. I still remember the first time I laid eyes on him and knew who he was. He stood there by the door, hat and hoody with his back pack. He was cute, that was for sure. And we hardly said a word to each other the entire meal, which he didn’t eat any thing during and we joked that he was anorexic. We just made eye contact and then would quickly look away, you know what I’m talking about. We were shy. I don’t know how we formed a relationship out of our shyness, but we did.

Within days we had our first real date and had sat on the ASU football field at the 20 yard line until 1 am talking about everything and staring at the stars. Mark’s classic line, “You know, this might be obvious, but….I like you.” What made my heart flutter even more was when I brought up that I had a daughter already that I had placed in an open adoption. His reply? “If God can forgive you, so can I.” Yes, I knew I had found myself a good, good man. From there, things happened quickly. We considered ourself a dating couple within days of that bus stop sighting. And, here we are today, married with a daughter. Who would have thought? It’s been a wonderful 2 years.

Of course, by “celebrating” yesterday meant spending all day at school, but that’s what makes this weekend special because it gives a chance to stop, spend time together, and remember. I had a surprise planned for tonight but the nice hotel decided to not record all my information or reservation (which turned out to be a blessing in disguise), so that plan has been moved to next weekend. Instead, we get to go to the mountains for the weekend with my Mom and family.Which is perfect since the mountains are where we fell in love, where he proposed to me (a year ago on Sunday!) and where we were married in May. What a great way to spend our anniversary weekend.

I’m excited. Plus, it finally feels like fall and nature is calling me! I think a hike is planned for the weekend, yes? Anyways, it’s time to pack up and hit the road. Have a great weekend, folks!

Apparently we’ve been lost since December! I had grand dreams for this little blog, and I let it slide. But, I’d say I have good reason with a move in January, a new baby in February, and a wedding in May. In between those major events were the smaller-but-still-stressful times of adjusting to being a parent to our new baby girl, getting months of little sleep, Mark finishing his sophomore year of college, and myself rushing to make wedding plans before it was too late!

Needless to say, our lives have been packed. But, life is good. We’re just now to a point where life is settling down. Mark is doing an internship full time for the summer, which has a good chance of turning into a full time job when he graduates. I’m working part-time as an administrative assistant, and when I’m not at work (which, really isn’t a lot) I’m taking care of our fastly growing little girl. I’m planning on starting college back again this fall, as an English major and a minor in technical writing. I’m excited. I hope things fall into place as I feel they will!

And without further…em…waiting? Meet our newest family member!

Ha, well it’s true. It’s me! I’m now an official Outten as of May 19th, 2007, when Mark and I said our vows before God, our family and friends..and those mountains we love.

We chose to have a wedding on the smallish side with guest of about 50. It was held in beautiful Boone, NC at the Broyhill Inn. The short ceremony took place outside on their lawn, and afterwards the reception took place inside one of their conference rooms. My Nanny and other family and friends helped with the gorgeous decorations (the flowers seriously were my favorite part. Well, besides of the fact of finally being married!). The day turned out perfectly despite the bout of cold weather in the mountains, doing my hair and make myself, and having a just-starting out photographer (which, did an amazing job). It all turned out PERFECTLY and has become a day where Mark and I sit back and reminisce on the wonderful memories of the day. It truly was a day God was smiling down on us!

For the honeymoon (aka the 4 days we got to sleep the whole night through! And took naps whenever we wanted! And didn’t have to lug around diapers and worry about feedings!), we went to the NC coast to the old town Wilmington. We stayed right on the river and it had the most amazing sunsets I’ve ever seen. It was wonderful.

Okay, seriously, meet our littlest, newest to this earth member, Savannah Leigh.

She was born February 22nd, 2007. A whooping 8 pounds 1 ounce (which, is a pretty good size for a little one like me), 18 1/2 inches long. Labor was induced 1 day after the due date. The good thing about being induced is that family and friends have time to make travel arrangements and can make sure to be there on the special day. And so, the day (and days following) was filled with family visits between the contractions, trying to remember to breathe and trying NOT to think about how hungry I was. All in all, it was a good day. Long, but good. Everything went smoothly, and we brought a healthy baby girl into our family.

And they grow so fast. She’s now 4 months old, “talks” to us, rolls over both ways (she loves tummy time because SHE puts herself there), eats cereal, laugh at her Mommy and Daddy’s silly songs and faces, loves to watch the cats go by, and grab her toes. Oh, and suck on her fingers, that’s a necessity in Savannah land. In short, parenting is by far the hardest thing we’ve ever attempted to do, but it’s oh so rewarding to see those bright eyes and toothless smile every day!

And that picture isn’t even the latest. That’s when she was almost 3 months old, and boy, do they do change fast. The expressions have developed even more. The giggles. The frustrations. The cuteness. Oh, how I love that girl.

With all that said, I’ll try to update more often. Promise.

Meet Leah. Of course, where Leah goes, so does Savannah for the time being so meet Savannah as well.

19 years of age, but don’t let the age fool you, she doesn’t live the typical teenage life nor acts like one (or so she’s told). Lately she’s been found at her awesome job, at birthing classes soaking up all the labor and parenting advice she can get, and occationally at home relaxing. She values that relaxing time because she knows come February, it will probably be a thing of the past.

Savannah is in her 7th month of gestation, loving the warm water she’s calling her home for now. She’s recently found the joys of kicking Mommy in the ribs as well as kicking, punching, pushing, or whatever it is she is doing in there as hard as she can to cause Mommy to jump. And yet, her Mommy and Daddy love her very, extremely much and wouldn’t trade this time for the world. We can’t wait to finally see her face one day :-)

(This picture was actually taken about a month ago during the 6th month of pregnancy. Just imagine a bigger, pointier belly that won’t fit in that red shirt any more and that’s us today.)

And then there is Mark. Or Marcus Bryan, as Leah likes to call him some times.

Also 19, but 6 months older than Leah. And, also doesn’t act his age (in a good way). One of the reasons why Leah grew to like him so quickly in the college enviroment! He’s often found working his butt off. Ok, not really, but he rarely has a day completely free of nothing to do. He goes to school for Accounting full time AND works close to 30 hours a week. Whew. That’s a lot of hours to devote to other people and Leah is so thankful for his hard work toward their future. When he does have spare time, he’s watching sports or playing Xbox. Especially the new College Hoops game that Leah got him this past week.

They met at Applachian State their Freshman year and quickly became best friends and fell in love. Within a year they found out Savannah was on the way and Mark proposed in October right after our 1 year anniversary.

Told you, life happens really fast.

And so, that is the Outtens, or soon to be, in a small box of a webpage. Of course there are many, many more details and layers upon layers of us as individuals, as a couple, and as a family. But, those can all be reveiled in the many more posts of this webpage.

After spending atleast a year reading other blogger journals as their family expanded and encountered life changing things, I decided it was time for me to jump on the wagon too.    So here I am, providing a place to keep memories, details, pictures, etc. for your viewing pleasure.

It’s also a way for me to pull out that creative writing part of me I’ve lost within.  My other journal serves mostly as a venting place, this place has a different feel, a “writers” feel.  By that, I’m not sure quite what I mean.  I guess it feels more public and “published” like, instead of personal.  It requires a different “voice” to my writing, and I crave that.

 I chose the name 3 Youngins’ because, well, we’re a very young family. Not 3 youngins’ as in 3 kids. No way, at least not yet. The name fits though, my fiance and myself both only 19 and our daughter, Savannah, still floating around in amniotic fluid, we are 3 young ones. 

 So, join us in our journey.  The journey toward becoming parents in Februrary 2007. The journey of us finally, offically,  becoming “The Outten Family” in May 2007.  The journey of our life, both joys and trials. 

So many life changing events in less than a year’s time, it should be an interesting ride.

P.S. I’m still learning how all this works, so bear with me!