Introduction

   So I know an introduction is supposed to come first, but I had written that first post up yesterday and was planning on making it a Facebook note. However, I decided that I'd rather start a blog so I had a different place to put my ramblings.
   As most reading this will know, my name is Brendan. My story has been getting more interesting as I get older. I grew up just south of Seattle, Washington in unincorporated King County just outside of Burien. My parents still live in the house where my sister Katie and I grew up. Katie's older than me by 4 years, but she's a good big sister. Of course I say that now as y'all wouldn't want to know about the troubles we had growing up together. But we're pretty good friends now. I grew up in a Christian home, going to church every Sunday. I also remember going to people's houses for Bible studies on occasion as well. Both of my parents work outside the home and have always done so for as long as I remember. My mom worked from home when I was little, but I don't really remember that. My dad is a banker and my mom is a programmer. They did everything they could to give me a good start at life and I'm very appreciative for what they've done.
   I started kindergarten at Seattle Christian Schools and stayed there all through high school. The summer between my sophomore and junior years of high school I went to one of the greatest places on earth, Lakeside Bible Camp, and spent 4 weeks doing a program there called TCL. I would honestly say that that summer was when I really started to understand what living a Christian life meant. All growing up I knew some things that Christians were supposed to do. Since I went to Christian school, we had Bible classes and the teachers were good. However, I didn't often see much living out of the Christian lifestyle among my peers before TCL. There were some and I'm still Facebook friends with many of them, but the people that were on that first TCL I did were eye opening to me. It doesn't make much sense from a worldly perspective to pay to go somewhere to work, but we did. We had a blast together, working hard and studying Christ. It was that summer that I decided I wanted to go to a Christian college to get my education. The next summer during TCL, a man from this tiny college in Iowa came out to camp. His name was Ken Daughters and he was then president of Emmaus Bible College. Between his pitch and talking to some of my friends that had been there I felt that it was where I was supposed to be.
   Arriving at the Dubuque airport was an interesting experience for someone who's used to SeaTac. There was one gate. My grandparents had driven out with a lot of my stuff and were there at the airport waiting to pick me up. We had a great weekend during orientation and I bid them farewell. At Emmaus they push you right into the deep end of studying God's Word and I was loving every minute of it. I learned how to articulate a lot of the beliefs I had grown up with. I learned, as I studied the Bible, that some of what I had always thought was the "right way" was simply tradition or even downright wrong. I learned better techniques for studying and drank it in. During orientation I met a guy named Stephen in line to get our pictures taken for our IDs. As we talked we learned that we were both interested in computers. I didn't know it then, but he has been one of my best friends since that day. I met one of my other good friends that same day when I got back to my dorm room. Nelson was sitting there on my bed and immediately popped up and introduced himself. I would've made it through college without these and other friends, but it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun.
   Later that year, thinking I was going to make it through Emmaus "Bridal" College without finding a girlfriend, God decided He had other plans. During the trip back to school from Christmas break (which is a whole other story) I started talking to this girl named Michelle. We had talked a bit before and had even sat together at the Christmas banquet concert before the break, but I hadn't really noticed her then. She'll never let me live it down either, since she's now my wife. I'm so glad that God had other plans than mine.
  We now live outside of a small town called Snyder, Texas (her home town) and I work as a web developer for a local drilling company. We have two kids, a girl and a boy, who are our pride and joy. Elizabeth (Beth) turned 2 last November and Thaddeus (Thad) was born just this last January. We also have 4 dogs and 2 cats and don't really know what we'd do without them either. We live day in and day out in the grace of God and are so grateful to Him for all He's provided to us.
   Thanks for taking the time to read part of my story. I'll hopefully be moving some stuff I've already written over to here in the coming days. Then I'll have to start thinking about new things to write, as what's the point of a blog that you never write in. Thanks again for stopping by and God bless y'all.