Who Am I?
Just another housewife trying to amuse myself in between keeping house and
tending to my two daughters. If you're a returning visitor, then you know that I have my spurts of updates. Just
part of the cycle of things I tinker with when I have that very rare moment to myself where I'm not soothing cranky kids,
tending to jealous pets, or cleaning up messes left by the cranky kids.
Background Check
Heritage wise, I am a mutt. On my father's side of the family, I am both Hawaiian and Italian. On my mother's
side, I am... well... I'm not 100 percent sure. She *is* from the Philippines, but considering one of her siblings is
seperated in age by only 4 months... yeah, there's a family secret hiding somewhere in there. Not to mention mom is
the only child with white skin and freckles... But it doesn't matter cuz it's not my own story to tell and well knowing who
her real parents are won't change anything. So back to my story... I have a large extended family. Mom is one
of 13 and dad is one of... um... 7 or so, I think? Anyway, like I said! Big family. Excluding the sperm
donor who technically is my paternal grandfather but I don't like the bastard so, to spout off a infamous line, "He is
dead to me."
I didn't grow up knowing those people tho. My folks came to the States and made their own life together here.
Pops had a career in the Army and mom was your traditional housewife. In 1966, they were blessed with twin boys
whom they called Allen Francis and Allan Michael (En and An for short). I joined the family in 1981 (note that large
age gap - basically affected how I viewd the boys more like uncles than brothers when I was little). My sister Tracy
was born in 1985 and by then we were all living just outside of Bragg in Fayetteville where our parents ended up retiring.
The boys joined the military. Believe Michael joined the Army and Francis joined the Marines. Francis is
the reason people call them jarheads. But don't get me wrong. I love my brother. They were gone for several
years so my memories of our family being all together are vague at best. By the time they came home to stay, I had grown
up enough to feel a little awkward around them. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to really get to know them before
Michael was killed by a drunk driver on my 11th birthday. Francis became involved with his twin's girlfriend after that
and eventually married her, adopted her two children and then a few years later had a son with her that they named Ryan Alan.
Drama, drama! I got plenty of that in this family. So to make things quicker, I met my husband during my
second year in college and we had Lila in 2002. We also married later that year. And to bring things up to
date, Serena was born on my husband's brother's birthday last year. I know I skimped out on some details, but I'll end
up blabbing about it elsewhere.
Current Status
When we moved back here, I ended up getting a sales associate job to wet my feet
in the working world before finding my true calling. However, I had to quit it because the pregnancy with Serena was
rough and Mark and I both agreed that I would stay home at least a year after our second daugther was born. Lila
is still adjusting to having a baby sister and we have some issues to iron out with her (i.e. she's a big girl and her
sister is a baby and babies need a little more attention because they can't take care of themselves etc etc etc).
So now that I'm essentially at home all the time with our daughters, I'm pretty much a homebody taking care of the house junk.
There are also a cuople of pets to look after. We have a german shep/chow
mix that I named Cherish (she looks more and more like my dog first dog Rusty). The story with Cherish is that her mother,
while pregnant, had been found by our old roommate's family. Ben offered to give us a dog. We were expecting a
boy, but ended up with a little girl puppy instead. We knew the mother was a German sheperd. We didn't figure
out Cherish was part chow until her tongue started to turn black and plus her tail had that curl you see in the chow breed.
She's a wimpy dog. Let's see... next pet would be the fish. Lila and Mark won some fish from the festival two
years ago and the only survivor is Comet (who should be renamed Ghost cuz all his pigmentation is gone). He's currently
living at my folks' place, but since Lila is over there often, she helps take care of her fish. But that isn't the last
pet. My mom went fishing and found a common slider turtle (at least I hope that's what I identified) that we named Rocky.
And just a little more about me...
Let's see... what else is there about about me... I strongly believe
that family comes first above all else and nothing should break those bonds. Of course, by this, I mean a true
family. Not one where you are abused, mistreated, etc etc etc. You know what I mean.
I also cherish my friends. The majority of them are scattered across
the States. Hell, they're scattered across the world, but they are always in my thoughts. Granted, I don't have as many
friends now as I did in high school. After a while you realize that you don't need hundreds of friends to be happy and
that as long as you are surrounded by people who don't give a rats ass that you haven't shaved in weeks, your hair is tangled
more times than not - basically, you look like crap - but that you are happy and comfortable, not only have you got the friends
worth keeping, but they are a part of your family.
Enjoy your visit into the inner workings of Crystal...
Enough about that, check out the rest of my little web corner. If you want
to kill time, this site will keep you busy for about three minutes. 
Psst... if you want out, just go here:
