Who I am.

So I am new to the whole blogging thing. However, I am not new to writing. In fact I LOVE to write. If I didn't have children I would write all the time. I will start my first blog page with a getting to know me blog.

My name is Michelle Dawn Smith... formerly (Burton) 7 years ago. I grew up in a small town (Where everybody knows your name)... or your momma's name or your great uncle Harry's first cousin twice removed sister in law. My family lived on a farm. The only male influence in my life was my Papa who passed away a year ago on September 11th. He was 89. Every spring from the time that I can remember my mom and sister and my aunts and grandparents tilled the land and grew a garden. Not just any back yard garden either. We literally lived off the land. We had carrots, onions, green beans (the rabbits liked the beans the best), taters, maters, squash, corn and green peppers. I used an outhouse to go to the bathroom when I was little. It was the cutest little outhouse you ever saw. It was always clean and Mama hung pretty curtains in the windows. I loved drinking goats milk... straight from the utter. I knew that goat manure grew the best vegetables this side of the mid west. I learned that squirrel meat was too greasy for me to like. However, deer meat made the best steaks. There is nothing like the smell of pine in an old potbelly stove on an early morning when you are heading for the bus to go to school. The mountains around me always a pallet of color. Fall is my favorite season. The oak and walnut trees all fanned out in reds and oranges and the bright green of the pine trees was always a wonderful contrast. Fresh chicken eggs make the moistest cake you will ever put in your mouth. Ducks were great pets but were often a nuisance. They loved to run away and I was always the one to chase them home. I decided at the early age of 9 that I wanted to own my own land and become a veterinarian. I had already helped clean more than one rooster after a fight. Farm life was my life. That dream was smashed rather quickly when I entered high school and realized that I hated math and science. Most of my free time then was wrapped up in art and music. I learned to play the clarinet at the age of ten and continued to play until I was 19. High school was like a mix of a good and bad dream. Some parts I loved and some parts I just hated. I hated gym because I couldn't swim... I still don't really know how but my husband continues to teach me when he can. I wore big bangs and had frizzy red hair. I was never really friends with the "in crowd." Though a few kids from the "in crowd" from grade school still said hey now and then. I was an artist and a band geek. Those two combos weren't so great for my image. I knew back then that eastern Kentucky was not the place that I wanted to spend the rest of my life. I fell in love my senior year with a guy 6 years older than me. I look back now and realize that God knew more about my life than I gave Him credit for. I went to college and failed miserably. However, I met my future husband while I was there and I can say that it was time well spent. I learned much about my self in that year. I liked to drink... not a good thing looking back on it. Hind sight is always 20/20. In the year 2000 Michael and I got married. I was only 21. Michael was 20. In that same year not only did I become a wife, I became a Navy wife. A breed of women who take pride in their families and their men. We left Kentucky behind and settled in South Carolina. What a humid, hot, mess of a swamp. We became parents in November of 2001. By the time we were ready for a new duty station I missed home more than I though possible. I missed the farm life and the quiet country ways. I longed for Sunday's at Mama and Papa's after church. I longed to be sleeping on a picnic bench, not doing my homework. I look back and think about how fast I grew up and how I wish that I could just go back for a few moments. Not really knowing what I would do when I got there. We moved to Silverdale, Washington in 2002 and were once again going to be parents... AGAIN! The two years we lived there Michael was gone 18 months. Our youngest daughter was not even a month old when he left for his first deployment. That was in 2003. That same year Bush declared war on Iraq and Michael game home in late September to find that both of his children were walking and talking. We moved from Washington in late 2004. In 2005 Michael made his last sea tour before his first years on land. Abigail, our oldest daughter, started school in 2006. Our shortest stay since first joining the Navy as been Norfolk, Virginia. We met a wonderful church family, where we hope to go back to someday soon. So here I sit, the year is 2007. I've moved away from my farm life and into the city life. I am still the same girl... minus the big bangs. (I still have the frizzy hair.) I'm the country mouse who's been brought into the city. I'm a mom to Abby and Tori. Both are in school now. I'm Michael's wife and best friend. I'm a part of the Navy. My husband is my defender. I'm a college kid again. This time around I don't need the hind sight... I've already seen where I don't need to be. I'm smarter this time around and wiser. I'm a Christian serving the Lord wherever I may go. I believe that God led me to this life with Michael so that we could be witnesses to the life most people don't believe in. I'm far from perfect but I'm perfect enough. I'm the country girl who longs for home. To see the rolling mountains of the Appalachia. I long to hear the hoot owl in the still of night. To see the millions of stars put in the sky by God's own hands. I miss that life. I love my life. That is why I am... Me!