I suppose people reading this will most likely want to take a look at the woman running the place. This is what I consider to be one of the best pictures of myself and Matthew. I'm no beauty, though Matthew would argue the point. I even look a little different now, because I was dying my hair red at the time this photo was taken. I have brown hair, rather plain, and eyes the same color. I'm 4'11", though you can't see that here, and I'm NOT EVEN going to tell you what my weight is. My husband is a tall 6'2", and actually I barely come up to his armpits. As you can see, he has sandy blonde hair with blue eyes, and he normally wears glasses. I just convinced him to take them off for this picture. He looks so great either way, though! If we get another picture taken later, I'll put that up and you can see my updated look.
To start with, my name is Cassie. I believe there's a reason I'm here, and I always have. I won't go into the gory details, but I survived a difficult birth where most would have died. There were two major counts that should have killed me, but I lived. God wants me here. I know that. I'm also just stubborn that way.
Well, other than that, my life has been a fairly quiet one, I'd say. I've never really been in serious trouble except for the typical childish things, and my childhood hasn't been fraught with problems and anxiety as most of my peers' lives have. I'm from one of those families that have two happily married parents, a rare thing nowadays. They managed to keep me out of major trouble. I never used drugs or drank, or had intimacies or a child before I was married. Now, some may laugh at that, but it saved me a lot of pain and heartache that I see others around me having for doing such things.
My family also moved around like gypsies, every few years. We lived in 8 different places, I think, before we finally settled down in Arizona when I was 14. So I didn't get the experience of having a lifelong friend that I grew up and planned my future with. A lot of times now, I wish I'd had that.
When I was small, I was hyperactive and my mother, being a new mom, had a hard time handling me. I was just a terribly active kid. I liked reading, playing with my dolls, and running around the neighborhood and riding my bike around with my friends.
When I was a teenager, I discovered my major talent, singing. I loved singing from the time I was very little, but my voice really developed well when I was in my teens. My family also finally settled down to stay in a small town in Arizona during that time, so there was no more moving. Those were also some of the hardest years for me. One of my mother's friends once said "Cassie will make such a wonderful adult, if she can just survive her childhood." I understand what she meant only too well now. I don't like going too much into it, because I want to keep it in the past and forgotten, but in my teens I was teased mercilessly for simply being myself and doing what I enjoyed. I read Phantom Of The Opera in 7th grade and I was the only one in high school who read Shakespeare and Anne McCaffrey for fun, as some examples for you.
At 21 I went for the first time to a major university, and for the first time in a long time, life was happy for me. I actually got a social life, finally. I had lots of friends and dated, and at last got my first kiss. I studied there as an english major for three years, and then met the man who became my husband, Matthew. We met on an online role playing game, and before we knew it we were talking more about real life than we were playing the game. We realized we were falling in love, and we married in the Las Vegas Mormon temple on June 19, 1999 after knowing each other for about two and a half years. Matthew and I are still very much in love and although we sometimes have had problems, we work them out, and our marriage is a very happy one, I think!
We also have jobs we love. Matt works as a computer programmer, and I'm a student, working for my teaching degree. My life is a happy and comfortable one now. We aren't rich, but we have what we need, and not everyone can say they enjoy what they do either. I hope and pray our lives and marriage stay happy.