The LPs

The Little People (aka LPs)

Some of my most famous traveling companions (which will be referenced frequently) are the LPs.  Here is their background story...

When I was in 9th grade, I was the oldest of 4 children in the G household...my parents were Christian school teachers, and life was steady...predictable...as it should be.  One night, my parents had us watch a video during family time. An ultrasound. Now, at that time it was me, Charity, Will, and Christy (who was almost 9), and Will was the only sibling to have had an ultrasound (US). We complained for a few minutes about watching Will's US when the typing started...Baby G...#5! Talk about SHOCK and AWE! Thomas was born a couple weeks before I turned 15. And we knew then that life would never be the same. For starters, we had all come in pairs and figured there would be another after Thomas. Sure enough, in January of my 11th grade year, Charles (aka Chaz, Charlie, Chuck) was born. Six seemed a pretty complete number, but according to my parents, 7 is "the number of perfection." And just after I graduated from high school, they announced we would be expecting Chenie (finally another girl!) in November 2004...my freshman year of college.

And truly, life has not been the same since.  We've had to get a bigger house (which is a VERY long story), more bunk beds, extra cars (since the only vehicles out there big enough to fit the entire family were those 15 passenger vans that we forbid our parents from getting)...but we've also been able to enjoy the perks from having extra kids around the place. For example, I'm up on most kids movies and tv shows (which makes me the coolest babysitter), I can still get Happy Meals without people judging me ("the toys are for my little siblings"), I can pull teeth and play toothfairy...and they provide one of the best excuses for taking mini-road trips!

Since they are school age, (10, 8 1/2, and 7), they homeschool 9 months out of the year (helps to have those parent-teachers)...and guess who volunteers for field trips?! Me. We've gone to Discovery Place, multiple zoos, mining, explored a cave, random trips to Grandma's are always appreciated, a couple of battlefields, not to mention road trips where we "get lost" and enjoy seeing where Mr. Darcy takes us.

In short, life would be very boring without the LPs.

And everyday I spend with them is a priceless gift.