Meet the Family

I'm visiting my family this weekend, and I have a feeling their names might show up when I post, so I thought I'd give a little introduction.

My parents met and married in college in Colorado. They dropped out for financial reasons when my mom got pregnant with my older sister. They moved back to my dad's hometown where my dad got a "temporary" job at a factory. He's been working there now for 22 years. My mom stayed at home while I was growing up, but she got a job at the same pizza place where I was working the summer after my freshman year of college. (I'd highly recommend not working with your mom...) My mom grew up in India where her parents were Baptist medical missionaries. My dad grew up in a small town in Michigan and wanted to be a pastor. As a pretty liberal semi-agnostic, I'm their example of how they've failed in parenting. (I know that probably makes it sound like I hate them or something...really, I don't. I love my parents very much, and I know they love me, we just don't really understand each other. Let's just say we get along much better long-distance.)

Now the siblings, all of whom live with the parents...

Rebecca (Becca) is 23. She's currently in her 6th year of undergraduate college. She's on her 3rd or 4th major; I think she's now double-majoring in accounting and physical training. She's talking about transferring schools and moving out. I think she's afraid to grow up. She and I were best friends as kids (basically I tagged along with whatever she did), hated each other as teens, and got pretty close when I left for college. She teaches Sunday School at my parents' church.

(I fit in here. Read my list of 100 things about me if you're curious...although I'll warn you that I'm kind of boring.)

Benjamin is 20. He dropped out of college (he was commuting to the school Becca goes to) after one semester and is now training to be a mechanic. He's very into hunting and fishing. He has a girlfriend named Heidi who he's been dating for a few years, and they'll probably get married when she graduates from high school. He's pretty much an exact copy of my dad. We don't really have much of a relationship...we have practically nothing in common.

Sarah is 18. She's kind of everyone's favorite...I've mentioned her a few times before. She's always been "the cute one" in the family...big blue eyes, dimples, bubbly personality, etc. She's an amazing soccer player. She actually left home for college here in Grand Rapids on a soccer scholarship, but moved back home and is now taking classes online. She has a serious boyfriend (Tim, who lives in Illinois) and will probably be married within a year. She also teaches Sunday School at my parents' church.

Faith is 16 (almost 17). Think Phoebe from Friends...tall, thin, long blonde hair, and somewhat of a stereotypical "dumb blonde." She's very musically talented, especially on the piano, and plans on pursuing music in college. She also has the stereotypical artistic moodiness, and can be very interesting to be around at times.

Deborah is 15. She's incredibly intelligent. She's also very quiet and hides in her room reading all the time. She was kind of chubby as a kid, in a family where everyone except my dad is quite thin, and I think she's kind of shy now because of it, although she's not at all overweight now. I have a feeling she'll end up writing a best-selling book about growing up in a family of craziness...she kind of sits quietly on the sidelines and observes everything.

So...um...there's the family. Reading over this post, we're even stranger than I thought, although in a very boring way. I'm kind of an anomaly in the group, although I think some of the younger ones will probably take after me a little. I know Faith and Deborah are at least planning on leaving home for college...it's a start! I should also note that everyone in our family has always been rather intelligent, although it's not always applied well. Benjamin's the only one of us who didn't get straight A's all through school, and he could have if he had cared about it. My parents were always very strict about being called by our full names, so none of us except Becca go by any nicknames...I'm not sure why, but they've always called her that.