I am a lucky guy. My life is not at all what I planned it to but it is way better than I expected. My wife Kristen and I don't recall meeting. When we were in our twenties all of the political staffers around Lansing hung out together. She just knew me as the guy who wore a bow-tie that she suspected of being a Republican mole. We were great friends for a long time and then all of a sudden we decided we didn't want to be friends anymore, there was something more there. There was only three months between that November afternoon in Spartan Stadium and the day I sent her flowers asking her to meet me in front of Spartan Stadium and asked her to marry me.
Kristen is my biggest fan and the person who takes my big ideas and puts them into a plan of action. I couldn't imagine a better person to have by my side. For awhile after we married, our family was just us and a couple of dogs. In 2009, our daughter Piper made her entrance and took the world by storm. Thankfully, she gets a lot of her great qualities from Kristen. When Kristen was pregnant and we weren't telling people we were having a girl, one of my friends told me "If it's a girl, remember you will be the first man she ever loves and everyone else will have to measure up to you." That thought drives me every day when I am parenting. Sometimes (often), I am not perfect, but I remember that I'm trying to set a standard.
I was born near Grand Rapids, MI, grew up in idyllic Charlevoix, MI, and now live in Okemos, MI. I am so fortunate to still be close to both my parents and my younger sister and brother and their families. Kristen's family is terrific as well. We love to spend time with all of them, or just the three of us, swimming, skiing, attending Michigan State Football games and entertaining friends and family.
