My Foundation

Today seemed like the "How to raise your children in the gospel" day in church, and so that had me thinking a lot about the fam today. Since many of you have never met them, maybe just some of them, I thought I could introduce to the awesome members of the Ross family. Besides, they rarely read my blog anyway, so they won't have a chance to protest before I write this ;)

First, meet Dad Ross.


I am lucky, I got one of the best dads ever. He hails from Pittsburgh, PA and his dad used to pack them up for Sunday drives to various places around the area. This is something my dad did with us (although we usually made weekends out of it), and so we spent a lot of time in Amish country, at Hershey's Chocolate World, and hiking in PA and Virginia (Shenandoah? We went there, right?) We traveled everywhere from Maine to Florida to Idaho, and so often on Sundays I get the itch just to go somewhere, anywhere and see something. I thank my dad for this! My dad is also a super hard worker, and he has what I think is a cool job. He helps cities and universities draw up emergency plans for chemical disasters, which sounds a bit morbid I guess, but after 9/11 its become necessary. Someday I want to see one of the drills he helps put together. His new job is moving my family to PA, which I am sad about and excited for at the same time. They will be close to Hershey and Gettysburg, and will hopefully have more room for visiting grown-up children!


Here's Mom.

This is kind of a bad picture, but my mom is known for not being too photogenic, so she probably won't mind that our faces are a bit dark! This picture was taken in front of the Palmyra temple (another one of our Ross family travels).

My mom and I are a lot alike. We look alike and people say our laughs are similar. My mom is from Idaho, and now I'm an Idahoan (for now) so things have come full circle. She did something super hard by going back to school in her 40's, but she is a super smart lady and her classmates respected her. We were all very proud of her. Right now, she is preparing the family for the move and enjoying her new grandchild. My mom is one of the most generous people I know. She always treated my friends like they were her own and she is a very good friend to others. My mom is a strong member of the gospel and is very spiritual. She told my dad no a few times when he tried to ask her out before he became a member of the Church. Through my mom, my dad received exposure to the church, and got baptized. Well, obviously, she eventually went out on a date with him, and the rest, as they say, is history. When they met, they were working in the mall!! It's totally cute to think my parents met at the mall :)

Now, for the siblings. This is Jess, aka "Baby Buffalo."
She will probably be mad I put her baby nickname on my blog, but she is 500 miles away so she can't do anything about it yet. Plus, I'm older by three years so I have authority! I'm not sure why she received this nickname, but growing up she was always stronger and could always beat me up. We don't always see eye to eye, and lots of times in our teenage years we would yell at each other and get in girl fights (you know, smacking, hitting, pushing, that kind of pleasantry). This probably drove my mom nuts. However, we really do love each other and as we've gotten older we get along better. I have to try hard not to give her older sisterly advice, but she puts up with it well when I do dish it out (and she usually ignores it anyway). She was also a great sport by driving with me the 3000 miles out to BYU a few times, and learning how to drive a stick on the I-80. She is married to Joey McCabe (Joey has practically been family for a while now too!) and just had a little boy...they grow up so fast!

My oldest youngest brother is Ian. He is the tall skinny one on the right (that's probably obvious).

This kid has grown like a weed in the past two years. In my wedding pictures, he is a bit on the chubby side, and short! In Jess's pictures, he looks so different! Anyway, Ian and I get along great. My mom always talks about his laidback personality, and its so true. Ian is just...chill. He has other interests now (girls, but I think that might still be a secret), but when he was younger, he would always tell me all about his video games. He is still into them (he even let me win playing Star Wars back in January), but he saves all the technical stuff for his friends who know what he's talking about. He is a smart kid, but he's not into school like I was...something about getting his stuff turned in! He's like me in that way, though, he would rather be doing other (fun) stuff than worrying about some of that other more important (boring) stuff (like cleaning...wait, thats just me!) He is getting to the point where he can almost give me piggyback rides. It's weird, when I left home for BYU he was 9 years old, so he is almost always still 9 in my mind. Let me tell ya, it was shocking when his voice changed and I kept thinking my dad was answering the phone!

Last, but not least, Jacob (Jake the Snake, Chickenlegs, etc etc)


Ah, the baby of the family. He had to fight for attention even more than the rest of us, so he is the comedian in the family. He is the one who when I heard my parents were having another baby, I cried. Yes, I cried because of this cutie pie. But in 10 years, I have forgiven him, in fact, I even LIKE him! Of course, 3000 miles can do a lot of good for relationships, but he seems to like me when I'm home. Anyway, Jacob always says funny things, makes funny faces, and does funny stuff. He got in trouble in third grade for plagiarizing part of his Powerpoint presentation. An honest mistake, especially by a third grader (they teach 3rd graders Powerpoint now?!), but just another funny Jacob story.

Anyway, there they are. I seriously grew up in a great home, where we were taught the Gospel. No, things were definitely not always perfect (especially some of the attempts at FHE), but I feel that we are a tight-knit family, and I will be forever grateful for that!