Who is the Girl on Foxy Lane?

Welcome!  Thank you for stopping by and hopefully being entertained by my shenanigans and learning from my experiences, both positive and negative.  In all honesty, I didn’t start a blog because I felt like I had anything profound to say; or that I have an important life compared to others.  I wanted to write, learn from my mistakes and others’ successes.  I’ve lived a somewhat interesting life thus far and I am hoping that as you read my blog you will end up laughing with me; or even at me.  I would love to share the lemonade I try to make when life gives me lemons.

So who really is the girl on Foxy Lane?  Well…Hello, I am Katie Marie.  I am the oldest of 6 kids, 3 boys and 3 girls and the daughter of a dad and a mom who are constantly cracking jokes, checking in to see how we all are doing, and just generally loving and keeping their family together.  My dad was in the Air Force for 21 years, but we spent most of his career seeing the mid-west.  By the time I graduated high school and left for college, I had lived in 7 different houses.  The farmhouse on Foxy Lane was the last of them; the family house we ended up at after my dad retired from service.  And the one that, for the first time felt like home.  I don’t know if it was due to my dad building and enlisting our family to finish over 40% of the house ourselves; or if for the first time I knew we wouldn’t be up and moving 4 years later.

I have been married to my husband, Mr. Man, for almost 15 years and we have 4 beautiful boys together.  Just like I spent most of my youth, I have been following Mr. Man around the country for most of our marriage while he serves in the Air Force.  We’ve lived in Mississippi, California (twice), Colorado, Texas, and now Nevada.  We’ve been here in Las Vegas for the last 6 years.  Our two oldest, twins, were born in Colorado Springs.  Bean is the oldest by 30 seconds and definitely does not let anyone forget that he’s older.  His twin brother, Keegs, maybe younger but definitely holds his own and doesn’t hesitate to push buttons.  Third in line is YoYo and he is a sarcastic Kindergartner who already thinks he’s smarter than everyone.  The caboose is Goob, and he’s not only the newest addition to our boy brigade but he just barely made his appearance this year.

I met Mr. Man when my dad was stationed in Omaha, Nebraska all the way back in 1992.  His dad was in the Air Force as well and we ended up in the same ward.  While we definitely didn’t date while we both lived in Nebraska; our families’ lives had a lot of overlap and our paths crossed many times over the years.  It wasn’t until we were both in college that we met back up and began dating.  I was a young and dumb 18-year-old and he was a much more mature, didn’t want to play games 25-year-old.  I soon learned that if I wanted to spend the rest of eternity with him I would have to mature and stop acting like the typical teenager in college.  Somehow I pulled myself together enough to trick him into asking me to marry him.  Mr. Man and I have had many adventures, from Air Force life and dealing with infertility, to living in semi-exotic places (such as Mississippi) and raising 4 boys who never cease to keep us on our

toes.

When I’m not being a mom-taxi, I spend most of my time meal planning and/or tweaking meals to keep them flavorful yet healthy, taking classes online towards my eventual dietetic degree, perusing fashion sites (especially handbags), training for various 5k-half marathon races I signed up for (not entirely thinking any of them through), immersing myself in strength training activities at the gym, and serving in some capacity for my church.

AND…that is the girl on Foxy Lane.  Pull up a seat and get ready to be thoroughly entertained by my lack of life experience and my perpetual treading of water in the boy brigade.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you stay a while.

Katie Marie