Completing His 30th Trip Around the Sun

Happy birthday to Stephen Andrew! It all began in 1981 on that original July 28th when Stephen became the first Moody son and grandson. {for his generation anyway}
His early years were filled with uber cuteness.In fact, there was so much cuteness, that even kindergarten couldn’t contain Stephen for more than 6 weeks. That’s right–he’s a kindergarten drop-out. Sad, but true. He couldn’t lie still for naptime, and he couldn’t color in the lines {probably had a little something to do with him being a lefty, but he wouldn’t claim to have an artistic bone in his body. you should see his pencil drawings of jets and tanks though} Moving on, Stephen had a blast hanging out at home for the rest of that year. But, then something tragic happened in early elementary. As if dropping out of kindergarten wasn’t bad enough {qualifying him for grand employment prospects such as window washing–no offense to all you window washing friends out there}, this poor boy got glasses. And they weren’t just your typical wire-rimmed, thin-lens glasses, but the thick-window-pane-magnify-your-eyeballs kind with dark plastic frames to ensure that no one missed the twin windshields mounted squarely on his face. Enter the nerdy stage. We all have our nerdy stage, but this?? this??Let’s just say contacts are a wonderful invention. And laser eye surgery is even better! We’re hoping Silas inherits Mommy’s 20/20 vision. {too bad that, at least in the case of Stephen’s eye surgery, the Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics isn’t the way nature works}

After the coke bottle glasses era, Stephen managed to overcome his early failure as a student and go on to complete both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in Physics. {“why physics?” you ask. “because it was easy for me,” he answers} The Hallmark movie of this heroic story, entitled The Little Einstein that Could, is coming out on DVD this fall.Here’s a look at Stephen’s life in his years as a(n):

son: 30
brother: 27.57
student: 18.08
musician: 10 {trumpet & trombone}
athlete: 5 {basketball & soccer}
driver: 14 {1988 Ford Taurus, 1988 Chevy Astro, 2001 Chevy Impala, 1995 Toyota Camry, 2004 Buick Rendezvous}
employee: 13 {paper route, Burger King, engineering intern, lab assistant, and private tutor to name a few}
Colts fan: 14
Hoosier: 16.49
Minnesotan: 10.58
South Carolinian: 2
Arizonan: 1.75
homeowner: 1.14
boyfriend: 3.55
fiancé: 0.62
husband: 4.98 (one more week, and it’ll be an even 5!)
father: 0.73

I’m sure when he was little, the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” had a lot of answers for Stephen.

Fireman…Quarterback…Basketball MVP…G.I. Joe…Cowboy…For all of those early aspirations, he grew up to be a physicist, turned teacher, turned computer technician {and a selfless, loving, leading, humble husband and father}.