The Hodge Family

Site Last Updated -- July 2009 (Design by Richard - Text by Michelle).

Richard and I met in October 1996, and it just gets better every year. We met the day we entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo, UT, when we were starting our missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We both served our missions in Chile. Richard served in Antofagasta, and I served in Vina del Mar. We became best friends through our missions and ended up getting married on 23 March 1999.

Our first daughter, Faith, is currently 9 years old. She will be starting 4th grade this fall. Our second daughter, Samantha, is 5 years old and is looking forward to starting kindergarten in the fall. They are both fully enjoying the summer too though.

We bought our first home this year, just before our 10th anniversary and joke that the home was our present to each other. We love our home and feel much closer as a family now. I know you don't have to have a house to make a home, but the house has made a huge difference for us as far as feeling like it's a home.

In January 2007, shortly after moving from upstate NY back to TX, we adopted a 2-year-old Labrador/Retriever mix dog from the humane society. Krista (the name the shelter had for her & we decided to keep) has been an absolute joy to our family. She is the perfect fit for us and is part of the family. She is now about 3-1/2 years old.

When we bought our house, we wanted to add another four-legged family member since we have a yard (although it's not big) and so Krista could have a companion. We were given the advice to get a puppy because Krista has so jealousy issues and we were told that if we got a puppy, she would probably have her "motherly instinct" kick in & wouldn't be quite as jealous of the other dog. We ended up going to the humane society and they had a litter of puppies that were about 8 weeks old. We adopted Shadow (the shelter had named him Bear) who is a Great Pyrenees/Shepherd mix. He is now about 6 months old and almost as tall as Krista. From everything we've read about the breed, he should be about 100 pounds (or more) when he is full grown, which could take up to 2 years. He is a joy as well, but definitely a puppy! He has a lot of energy. We're going to be doing a training course with him soon so we can control him a little easier.

Richard finally finished his Bachelor's Degree in December 2007 after 8 years of off & on school. He is now a working Web Developer (programmer). He enjoys his job and is starting to study to take the GRE to apply for graduate school soon.

Since March 2007, I have been working from home as a medical transcriptionist. Sometimes it is very hard to juggle work and family life when they both occur at home. However, overall, I love my job and love being able to work from home.