Jennifer Blair (Barrick)

Like most of you I am floored that 20 years has passed. I do not feel that old. Well, some days I do. More to the point was I ever that young? I see high school kids now and though they look more mature than I did at their age I cant imagine that I was ever that young. I feel like the years have been good to me though; I am content and blessed.

Like many, again, I was more than ready to leave the hill and move to a big city. So at the end of the summer I packed up and moved to Albuquerque to attend UNM. I went back for a few summers to stay with the parental units, but thankfully I grew out of that too. I went to UNM for 5 years and quit 3 hours short of my degree. Yeah I know, pretty stupid. But all is well that ends well. I got a job as an assistant service advisor at a dealership and managed to work my way up to a full fledged advisor in about a year. The money was good, but the stress and politics were bad. I stuck it out for about 7 years and I am glad that I did because I met my husband at the second to last dealership that I worked for.

Steve and I married in 1998 and in 1999 I became pregnant with our first baby a boy. Tyler was born January 2nd 2000 yes just long of being a millennium baby-bummer and we did not get the tax benefits for the year before because he was late! But we love him just the same. I was fortunately able to put my wonderful career, well maybe not so wonderful, out the window and stay home with our son. While I was caring for him I got the wild notion that it would be great to finish my degree so I went back to school. I finished my bachelors degrees in History and Spanish. Then I decided that since I was there and I was not employed that I should get my Masters. In the process of getting my masters I also gave birth to our second child, also a boy, in 2003. We named him Alexander and he is now going to be 4 in June.

I graduated in 2005 with the full intention of perhaps putting my degree to work. However, we also decided that it would be an ideal time to have another child if we were going to do it. I was of course not getting any younger. So I got pregnant again and in 2006 we were blessed with the birth of our 3rd childa little girl thank Heaven!! We named her Madalyn and she just turned 8 months. My children have become the biggest challenge and the biggest source of joy and pride and amazement in my life. I love being with them and seeing the world through their eyes. I love that my 7 year old is learning to read and that my 4 year old is learning to love animals and that my 8 month old has a whole life ahead to learn and is already crawling and pulling herself up. I would never change a thing.

My husband is a real trooper and works his tail off so that I can stay home with the kids. I am truly blessed in my marriage. Steve is my best friend and confidant and my ally in parenting. And he is patiently waiting for me to decide what I want to be when I grow up so I can contribute monetarily to our family. I swear I am going to use that masters degree!!!

We moved to Bosque Farms in 2005 and I love the countrynever thought I would say that after leaving Los Alamos so fast but in my old age I really treasure the small town life. I also finally got the horse that I always wanted and my sister lives just about mile away and my parents are building a house down the road from her. I am surrounded by family and friends and I am loving my life!!

I am looking forward to seeing everyone at the reunion. It will be strange to see all of us at middle age as I have a picture in my head of everyone as a teenager!!!

Jennifer