Family Introductions

I'm a mom, college student, planning a wedding, full time employee for the state, active member of the National Society for Leadership and Success attending stress management classes and volunteer for the Keep Learning... Our Future Depends On It organization.

I have another blog, which is more geared towards the professional side of my life and if you are interested it is at http://tiffenator.blogspot.com I focus primarily on my passion and future goals within the Human Resources field, primarily Workforce Development.

This blog, however is just about balancing my life and some of the challenges that I'm facing and a place to hopefully inspire others to pursue their dreams as I'm doing.

I'm engaged to a wonderful man named Mike and we are planning a wedding for St. Patrick's Day 2012. Our wedding will take place at the Charlotte Historical Courthouse in Charlotte, Michigan. I was fortunate to find my veil, wedding dress and bridesmaids dresses at Pierre's Bridal Boutique in Lansing, Michigan. My photographers are Christine Servis of Always Christine Photography and Sarah Foster of Sarah's Photography. Our officiant will be Jennifer Trefry. We still need a place for our reception and some other things are in the works.

Mike has a daughter, Victoria, who is 12 and is often mistaken for being my biological daughter. I gladly claim her, after all, she is my only girl. She currently attends Olivet Middle School and bounces back and forth between our house and her mother's due to joint custody.

My oldest son, Dylan, is 9 years old. He's been diagnosed with Oppositional Defiance Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and a "sensory disorder" by his doctors; the school has labeled him as being on the Autistic Spectrum though. He's had some major challenges over the past several months and has been institutionalized. He began at St. Vincent's Home for Children in Lansing, Michigan beginning in September of last year. Rather than being able to be discharged, his violent behavior became too much for the staff to handle. He's currently living in Jonesville, Michigan at The Manor. I'm hopeful that he'll be able to reunite with our family soon.

My youngest son, Dale, is 7 years old. He's quite a handful, but his behavior is nowhere near outlandish as his older brother's. He's an active second grader who is attending Galewood Elementary School in Charlotte, Michigan. He's extremely excited to be a participating at Martinez ATA Martial Arts in Charlotte, Michigan. He completed his second class this evening and has one more for the 3 Class Confidence Boosting sessions. He is looking forward to continuing on and is evaluating his goals; surprisingly he wants to become a black belt in Taekwondo.

Stay tuned and I'll post more about my life...
-Tiffenator