We thought this would be a fun and quick way for you to get to know us a little better, So we are writing an A-Z list of things, we like, dislike, and anything in between:
A- Ainscough (our last name) We love family, it's a huge part of our life. We love all of our crazy extended family as well as our little unit, the 4 of us. Family is very important to us. One of our hobbies is family History, we enjoy researching and learning more about where we came from and how that makes us who we are.
B- Blogging, (obvious) we are so excited to be starting this blog, it's been a dream of both of ours to explore something new in the world and share it with others. I've also always been an avid journal-er so it's nice to have this as our own digital family journal.
C- Camping, nature in general, we love being outdoors and seeing the beauty around us. It also creates the perfect environment for bonding with our kids, because there aren't other distractions.
D- Diversity, we are drawn towards differences and diversities in people and places. We are excited to move to China and be able to introduce different cultures and ways of life to our kids.
E- Education, one definition of education is "an enlightening experience" and that is a goal we have for ourselves and our children, whether that be through schooling, or experiencing the world, we hope to be educated in a well rounded way, so we can empathize with as many people as we meet.
F- Frugal, Drew and I hate spending excess money, which is a catch 22 because we also love FOOD (another F). On our honey moon (to Disney World) we went without food the entire day because we couldn't stand the though of spending $6 for a churro. When we were 1st married we lived in an apartment just under 300 square feet so that we could save money. I will say, even though it was pretty janky, I do miss being able to toss my dish into the sink from my bed...yes, I'm that lazy.
G- Games, we love to play! Lately Ellie has been really into board games, which has been a fun thing for us to do as a family, and we may or may not spend many of our nights driving around town playing Pokemon Go.
H- Hangry, unfortunately, we all deal with hanger issues in this family. If any one of us starts to get cranky, you can bet it's time to eat!
I- Idaho, where we met, started married life together and had our 2 kids. Idaho will hold a special place in our heart, we've had a lot of personal growth happen here.
J- "Joy in the Journey" We love the journey. We get excited about the little changes in life, and not just the destination. For example riding buses instead of owning a car in China (Ellie is particularly excited about that).
K- Kids, we have 2 and they're insane! Being parents has been the most fulfilling, difficult, and exhausting job we've taken on, but we love our kids more than anything and want to give them a life full of adventure.
L- Learn a new Language, Our goal while in China is for all of us to learn Chinese, wish us luck! Seriously though, we'll need it!
M- Music is something we are all very fond of. I was in choir in High school, and play guitar, and write music. Drew and his cousin started a mobile DJ business in college, which was actually one of the first things that we hit it off on. Our kids LOVE singing and dancing. Ellie often makes up her own songs.
N- New Foods, Drew and Ellie especially love to try new foods. One of Ellie's favorite things to do, is going to the grocery store and picking out something she's never had before. Something we love doing as a family, is going to Asian food markets and getting obscure groceries and trying to cook with them. Ironically that's something we enjoyed before we knew we were going to China, soon, trying to cook with obscure groceries will be and every day event.
O- Opportunists. This quote by Richard Branson sums it up better than I can, “If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later!”
P- Parks and Rec.. yes,the TV show, we are normal people who love TV, what can we say? (and Drew is somehow a weird combination of Andy and Ron-don't ask me how that works)
Q- Quick, we make decisions quickly in our family, I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing, but it's what we do...I mean marriage took us a whole 3 days to decide. I guess we just know what we want out of life.
R- Religion, we hold our religion dear to our hearts, and try to teach our children the best we know how, to love others.
S- Spontaneous is probably our favorite word in the English language, we're pretty much down to do whatever, whenever!
T- Travel, If there was one thing we could spend our money on, it would be taking trips. We typically don't buy birthday gifts, and go on a trip as a family in the spring.
U- V- (Index) We seriously would die without sunlight..Winters in Idaho have been probably the worst thing for our well being, luckily the summers here are beautiful!
W- Water, we all love to be in the water! If we ever "settle down" one day, it will have to be near a beach. Drew lived in Florida for 7 years, and I lived there for 5, so you could say we're beach bums.
X- Xenization : A 19th century word meaning “the act of traveling as a stranger.” Yes, we did use google to find this word, but it's fitting!
Y- Young. We've been reminded many times in our short married life that we are young. We actually did plan our marriage and pregnancy, neither were accidents (I was 19) We feel like being young parents has put us at an advantage to accomplish our goals with the support of a family, and we love that. How great is it to share life with people you love!?
Z- Zany, a synonym could be misfit. We embrace the fact that we can be a little odd and do things differently.
We hope you've enjoyed getting to know us a little more! And cut us some slack, I know these aren't all very original, but you try it! the A-Z list is a lot more challenging than we expected!