Introducing...

It never occurred to me that I would ever have anybody (except those who already know me) coming to this blog to read the rantings of a mad-woman. I probably say some things that confuse people, and I spell things in weird (to you) ways. Hopefully this post will clear some of that up.

My name is Joanne, and I am Canadian. I was born in Montreal, but moved to Vancouver when I was just a year old. Well, I didn't... my parents did. I have to say, their decision was a wise one!

I met Fred (my husband) when I was 19 years old. He was 25. Fred always has to interject at this point in the story and tell people that I was only 2 weeks away from my 20th birthday. So I'll do it for him. We met in Vancouver at the radio station we both worked for. Fred is from Portugal and lived there until he was 19. He moved to Toronto, where he lived for six years, then onto Vancouver. You cannot tell by talking to him that English is his second language. He's very adaptable that way.

When I was 23, Fred's company moved us to San Francisco. I loved it there. Loved it. Loved. It. Would move back in a heartbeat if I could. Anyway, it was there that Fred and I got married (actually we were wed on a beach in Carmel, CA), became Christians, and found wonderful friends that my heart still aches for. We lived there for a year and a half.

Fred's company then moved us to Texas. Eight years later, I'm still in mourning. It's just not my kind of place, and I mean no offence by that. It's just hard for a left-coastie like myself to adapt to being land-locked. From time-to-time you might hear me talk about visas and such... Fred and I are (still) waiting for our green card. Only 6 years after first applying. Forgive me if I have not-so-nice things to say about immigration.

We were married 6 years before we decided to give child-rearing a try. On September 4, 2007, we welcomed Elise Rian to our crazy little family. She has the tri-fecta in citizenship; Portuguese, Canadian, and American (and no, Elise being born here does not give us the right to live here). Some Texans will tell you that being born in Texas adds a forth to that list.

On September 6, 2008 (two days after she turned 1), Elise was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. We received the call that we needed to take her to the hospital in the middle of her birthday party. How's that for the crappiest birthday present ever?

If you want to read more about Elise's dx, you can go here:

Dx story part 1

Dx story part 2

If you want to bore yourself with the non-D parts of my life, I have a separate blog here. I'm not sure why I keep the D stuff separate, I guess I just like to compartmentalize.

So that's me in a nutshell (nutcase, more like it). Now you know. And as G.I. Joe used to say, "knowing is half the battle."