Identity Crisis

When you get married you go through that whole thing of deciding what to do about your last name? I did not hesitate to change it at all, I knew of course that I was still me and wanted our family to have one name. I really did not want to be called "Mrs. Kurt Strikwerda" because then I would be stripped of my name, not cool with that at all. Actually, I did a little graffiti on our church mail slot which read "Mr and Mrs K. Strikwerda", using a felt tip marker I inserted " & N". In fact I do recall doing this for a few other mail slots who I felt would appreciate it. It must have worked because the next time they redid the slots (move them all around to allow for new people to enter in the alphabetical order) they made new nametags that all had both spouses letters. I like to think it is because of me!



Anyways, I have been stripped of my identity again. I was out for a walk with Jude and on my way home strolled past a friends house. Since Jude was asleep I didn't stop to say hello and just carried on my way. Little did I know that I was being watched by their 4 year old daughter. She was so excited to see someone she knew outside her window she raced to tell her mom. But she couldn't remember my name. As she struggle for a way to tell her mom who she saw, she remember who I was married to and said "It was the other Kurt".



Now Kurt is a bit of a kid magnet, as seen in my earlier post of him playing hockey with the neighborhood kids. In fact, the minute he is home from work we hear the doorbell ring and it is some kids wanted to play hockey with him, or to borrow the bike ramp he made for them. If he even steps outside for a minute there are kids around wanting to play. The little toddler next door could say a handful of words, one of them was "Kurt". We would be in the backyard and hear this little voice saying his name through the fence.



This is not the first time I have been given my husband's name from a little child either. Another friend's daughter couldn't quite figure out how to identify us when we were dating. She was trying to talk about me to her mom but couldn't come up with a name for me until she settled on "Kurt's Mommy" because in her world there were mommies and daddies.



Ah well, at least Kurt calls me by name!


p.s. to you other bloggers out there, how doyou get your words to space properly? I write in separate paragraphs, but it posts in one huge blob - ergggg