Meet the Family
June 4th, 2008 ·
Welcome to Suzy's Place. I thought I'd take a few moments to introduce you to my family, since I'll be talking about them a lot throughout this blog.
MrJ is "Da Man"… or as he likes to think "The King of our Castle". I let him continue thinking that as it tends to keep peace in the family. The kids and I know the truth, so that's all that matter.
MrJ and I have been married for 6 1/2 years, we found each other in an AOL Chat room about 8 years ago. I still get a lot of funny looks when I tell people that. I still can't believe it sometimes. But as my father said, sometimes that's what it takes to find the right one. Why fight it?
Growing up in the rural Midwest, he tends to have some "farm boy" tendencies that I'm not quite used to. I've always considered myself a country girl at heart, but he's teaching me that there's a lot more to country living than just enjoying the sounds of nature.
Me, I'm an almost 40 mom who works at home. And YES… this is a real job, where I get a real paycheck and have real responsibilities. I currently work as a training coach for Blog i360, which is an awesome blogging platform (in fact that's what I'm using to build this site.)
My pastimes are many and my interests are varied. I don't pay a whole lot of attention to politics, but can name pretty much any song on a country radio station and tell you who sings and when the album was released.
Designing is probably one of the most intense hobbies I have (for the time being). I spend a lot of time creating characters, like the ones you see here, along with my Suzy's Kidz characters that I sell at Cafe Press. Designing websites is a stem from that, after all, my characters do need a home.
I also enjoy video games (The Sims 2 is an addiction) and reading, particularly within the mystery genre, although I've read all the Harry Potter books and am now working my way through the Twilight series at the recommendation of my girls.
MsGeek is my 16-year-old daughter. She has pulled straight A's through all her school life, plays the tuba for the high school marching band (which has earned her the geek title) and aspires to be an artist.
While she tends to be extremely opinionated and slightly moody, she has a very empathetic nature and goes out of her way to help those in need.
Her current fascinations run to cult-classic type movies, like "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" and anything vampire related. Geek might not be the exactly perfect title for her, but it's something she's very proud of, so we'll keep it.
When my mom used to say "just wait, you'll get yours when you have kids" I didn't realize that I would be trying to raise myself. Mini Me is quite possibly the only child I have that scares me. Why? Because she IS me, to the core!
Socializing is her specialty, and school a chore she just has to get through. While there are times her self-confidence and self-esteem have gotten the best of her judgment, singing in the high school choir seems to have helped. She sings beautifully, and as she's been accepted into the Women's Choir for next year, she's starting to see that for herself as well.
She is also a very entertaining personality. While there may be times her energy overload and extreme enthusiasm can drive me insane, she keeps us on our toes as you never know where the next question might lead us to.
Of course every family with girls needs at least one Princess in the group. Ours happens to be our 10-year-old who actually thinks she's 30. Then again, I think most prepubescent girls are like that. She's struggling to find her own path now, with two older sisters dominating her life whom she admires one minute and loathes the next.
With middle school looming around the corner, there may be a lot in store for us. We're crossing our fingers that she'll get MsGeek's teachers and not MiniMe's. We don't want the teachers holding a grudge just because of a last name 
Last but not least is Bam Bam our little man. Our 5-year-old is the only boy in the family, so being the youngest and the only boy, he tends to get away with a lot. He's about as tall as our 10-year-old and weighs the same. He can just about take me down in a wrestling match, especially when I'm not watching for those drop-kicks He's enthusiastic about everything in life, and has a way of making everyone smile.
He's so much like his daddy, it's almost scary. Very independent, he doesn't want help with anything! And once he makes up his mind, convincing him otherwise is almost impossible. (He got a double dose of the stubborn streak between MrJ and I, so these challenges were inevitable.
