Friday, September 30, 2011

Getting To Know Me!


My name is Kay and I was born right here in Houston. I am the oldest of four kids. All my siblings (two sisters and a brother) live in The Woodlands with their families and my parents (who are the greatest ever) aren’t too far away either. It is a wonderful thing being so close to all my best friends. We are always looking for ways to be together. Even though I grew up in Houston, I am still part country girl. My daddy’s family is from East Texas and we had a small house and land there where we ran cattle. I learned to shoot when I was five years old by hitting Coke cans off the barb-wire fence posts.

My dad taught me to hunt, fish, drive a tractor, ride a horse, herd cattle, plant a garden and basically appreciate the great outdoors. For this, I will always be grateful! Some of my best memories as a youth include sitting in deer stands with my dad on cold winter evenings, fishing from his boat (whether we caught something or not), shelling peas with Mamma and the women-folk on those long, hot summer days as they told family stories on the front porch of my Great Aunt’s house, taking my turn sitting on the hand-cranked ice-cream maker so daddy could turn it faster, swimming in the lake, hearing ghost stories in the back of the pick-up truck in the middle of the dark pasture, and dancing at the lodge in “town”. The good country life will always have a special place in my heart.

Fast forward to city life - I am married to the bishop and we celebrated our 24rd wedding anniversary this year. We are both CPA’s and met at work. We have 3 children: Sarah is 18 (off to BYU in the fall), David is 17 (a senior) and Grace is 12. Sarah and David were born in Singapore as we were living in Jakarta, Indonesia during 1991 to 1995. Those years of expat life were some of the best! I love, love, to travel and have been to Norway, Sweden, France, Scotland, Hungary, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Hawaii, The Cayman Islands and Costa Rica to name a few. I haven’t been able to travel as much lately, though. Now, most of my time revolves around my children and their church, school and sporting activities. Over the years, we have had more soccer, volleyball, basketball, track, swimming, football and baseball games/practices/meets that I can count. Bill and I do get a lot of enjoyment watching them compete. The one sport our whole family enjoys doing together is snow skiing. Our favorite place to go is Park City.

I went back to work part-time two years ago for a small CPA firm, so now I basically have no free time. Any spare moment I have I spend reading, scrapbooking or in the gym trying to stay healthy. Other things that make me happy include: sleeping in late, York mint patties, Chinese food, walking along the beach, my puppies Bella and Sadie, family game night, listening to 70’s music (huge Eagles, Styx, Foreigner, and Rod Stewart fan), floating in my pool, dancing in the kitchen when no one is watching, and helping out a friend.
I have been in this ward for 15 years of which 11 have been spent serving in the Primary. I currently serve as a Sunday School teacher for the 12-13 year olds. I truly love teaching the youth of our ward and have enjoyed seeing their testimonies grow along with their faith in Jesus Christ.