Who ARE These People Anyway? The Home Team

I don't know that I've described the denizens and usual visitors to Chez Gamers' Babes except sporadically as the posts go on. So I thought I'd take a moment and let you know who I'm talking about!

Me: I'm Jenn - 42, fat-but-losing, jobless-but-looking, generally cheerful, occasionally-stressy, chronically-tired, gamer-geek-girl. I have green eyes, red-to-brown-hair (depending on the time of year and my mood), and fair skin. I've lived in Western Washington all my life; I didn't even go away to college. You'll know me the best of the bunch because... well... I'm the author of this little love fest.

The Hubs: He's Laston - 46 next week, has a degree in Education (although that's not what he does for a living, except in the one-to-one customer service sense). High Intelligence and high Wisdom... but with the Oblivious disadvantage. He is currently taking network classes in addition to working full time, and far more employable than I am. He's generally very laid-back but bites if he's concentrating and you interrupt him. He's addicted to Internet games (one at a time) and Diet Coke. He's losing impressive amounts of weight using the Four Hour Body and has a gray beard, not much hair, and dark blue eyes.

The Eldest Daughter: She's Leanna - 11 in a couple months, asthmatic, our wild animal SME, completely besotted by horses and other animals, with very fair skin and  thick dark wavy hair and dark blue eyes. She lives with her mom and spends weekends, a couple weeks in the summer, and some holidays with us. She's sensitive, easily offended (normal for her age), and tends to take things personally (ditto). She has this way of making sudden statements that only later does the listener realize are hilariously funny.

The Middle Daughter: She's Abby - eight and a half years old, anaphylactic to tree nuts, our genre-savvy media child, Tomboy Princess, and Perky Goth (kind of). She has fair skin with a few freckles, green eyes like mine, straight and fine brown hair (but a ton of it) like mine, glasses, and a round face. She lives here and goes to her dad's place on the opposite schedule that Leanna comes here, so some weekends we have three kids in residence, and some one. She's an auditory learner, has never met a stranger, and is big into Girl Power in her reading and TV habits.

The Youngest: She's Lizzy - four in September, our wild child, and a real pistol. She's constantly on the move and sometimes referred to as "the spawn of Tigger and the Energizer Bunny". She seems to grok pre-literacy skills and is particularly good for her age with minutiae... assuming one can get her attention. She's also pretty technically-adept; she can for instance run the Netflix Instant Play on the Wii. Her sleeping skills are improving; her potty-training skills are not, and she's about the sweetest child on the planet once you get her to slow down a bit. Her wildness and tech-savviness are belied by her big blue eyes and Jane-Austen-esque curls.

The Cat: She's Tiger - a name she was given before Abby's dad and I adopted her from the Humane Society, or we would have named her something original. She's oldish, cranky, easily confused, and tends to allergies as much as some humans around here.

The Other Parents: I haven't asked their permission to mention them by name, but they're Leanna's mom and Abby's dad from our respective previous marriages. Good people. They each live near enough (in opposite directions) that visitation is fairly simple. Unless it snows, but that's another post. They both do a great job of treating their respective daughters' half-and-step-sisters as though they were essentially nieces, which is hugely appreciated.

Grandma: The kids have a lot of grandparents - his, mine, and their other parents' parents. But my mom is the one who lives nearest and is most often involved directly in our household. She's the younger girls' primary babysitter, the frequent school-driver, the one who ferries Abby to and from swim lessons, and the one whose time-share we visited earlier this week. She's very involved in the girls' lives and when I'm working, she tends to see them more than I do.

So that's us...stay tuned for the Regular Visitors Edition of Who ARE These People Anyway?