Four Years On (and Eight in Total)

Four years ago I wrote a post about our fourth anniversary,. So it seemed like a nice idea to write today's post, four years on.

Well, four years on tomorrow, anyway.

Miss Leanna is fourteen, in ninth grade, and soon on to high school (which, in our district, is three years until the 2017-18 school year when the new high school is completed). Her recent color change to redhead suits her personality down to the ground, and I just love it on her. Sadly, I do not have a current picture, but maybe her mom will see this post and send me one; I would take one of her but she's down for the count with laryngitis today, and as she lives with her mom I don't have her handy even after school. They live nearby though, which is really nice. Leanna is our Nature Girl.

Miss Abby is twelve, in sixth grade, and on to junior high in the fall (she'll be the first class at the new high school in 2017). She's seriously excited by the prospect of choosing some of her classes, and she has an interesting mix of performing arts and technology as her preferences. This is so Abby it's a little scary; she's the Performer of our three, and she's happiest when singing, acting, or consuming science fiction or light horror media. I have a current picture of her, but it scares the crap out of me because she looks more um... womanly in it than I am comfortable sharing with the world. Yes, it's just a swimsuit but it scares her mother.

Miz Liz, who was still in utero when we got married, is seven and a half. She's bright, quick-tempered, reads like a fourth grader but has the scary-tolerance and attention span of a first grader (the latter of which she is) and hates to write. She can't really explain why, but her grandmother and her first grade teacher and I all think she writes a LOT slower than the ideas come, so she gets impatient and just gives up. Also, ADHD would not surprise me in the least. She's the Engineer of the three (she was good with this once we explained that an engineer is not necessarily someone who drives a train) and the one who likes to take things apart to see what makes them tick.

And us. +Laston Kirkland and +Jenn Kirkland, the nerd and the geek, the scientist and the fantasist, gamers and writers and decent (if messy and poor housekeepers) parents to his, mine, and ours.

It's a nice family.

Happy anniversary, honey.