Who am I? Well, I’m a south sider, an Iowa Stater, and died in the wool Chief fan. I love to play with my kids, spend time with my wife, and enjoy the occasional video game or two. 
I’ll give you a bit of background, so you’ll know if you know me. Hopefully, I’ll entertain a few of you who already do.
Younger Years
My earliest memories are of our house on Miller. We had a huge backyard. I remember the swing under the tree, playing baseball, hopping the fence to the Mesina’s yard, growing sunflowers in the garden, watching dad in the garage… the list goes on and so do my memories. My friends at the time were Lori, Anthony, the Klines, and the Mesinas. We hung out together all summer long, getting into trouble just like kids in the movies do.
At some point in the middle of this, my Grandmother moved back into the house on Miller, and we moved to a house on Hackley. It was big, brown, and was the standard for every house we ever considered moving into after that. I remember a few things from that house, but I don’t think we lived there for too long. It was hard moving back to Miller afterward, but just like any family in the 80’s… times were tough.
As far as school goes, I went to Jefferson. My best friend Matt Goode was a bit of a trouble maker and always seemed to drag me into the middle of it… or at least close enough to get stitches. 
I was in Cub Scouts, TAG, and was the Mad Hatter in Alice and Wonderland. Strange combination of memories, but hey… you don’t get to pick what you remember!
Growing up
Eventually, we moved to a house by the Fort Des Moines baseball fields on Villa. It was close to the mall, the schools, and state park. Living there was great as both my brother and I loved playing sandlot ball in the summer. I can remember the old auto repair shop where Skate South is now, and I remember the first time I went to skate south. It was about the time that I started middle school.
McCombs middle school wasn’t necessarily the finest educational school around, but at that age most kids are figuring themselves out anyway. Matt Goode (my best friend from Jefferson) really got in to music, and I really got in to… well… girls. I remember having crushes and going to Skate South to meet them. I never had the courage to talk to any of them, but I skated with friends anyway. Middle school was all about learning social networking the hard way.
At McCombs I had a great Tech Ed teacher Ms. Johnson (IIRC). She was a great teacher and really encouraged me in technical learning. It drove me to learn more about drafting and eventually fueled my desire to be and architect.
The woes of high school
I went to Lincoln. The 2nd largest school in Iowa and the most overpopulated (at the time). Because of where we lived, I had the option to go to Norwalk school, but decided that dealing with a large student body was good for me. I can’t say that I regret my decision one bit, but as an adult reflecting back, I think there were more advantages to attending a small HS than I give credit for.
My years were filled with sports. By my sophomore year I was in football, wrestling, track, and baseball. If that wasn’t enough exercise, I also was in the distance runners club. To think… I thought I was “fat” then… pfft! By my Junior year, I had a car and a job. Priorities changed for me then. Girls, clothes, and cars became my focus. I say cars because I never seemed to hold on to one very long. 
One interesting thing happened to me my senior year. My parents and I took a trip to Iowa State University for a tour. While I was there, I got a chance to see the design building and learn more about the architecture program at ISU. The problem with that was I had been studying my math and sciences as if architecture was an engineering field, which it was at one point. According to the advisors there, they decided to move the program to the art department, but nobody thought to let me know! Thinking I still wanted to do architecture, I took art classes my senior year of school. Sadly, I had yet another terrible experience with an art teacher. To sum it up, I decided “art” wasn’t for me.
My next step was to look at engineering. Being that I actually enjoyed classes like physics and calculus (apparently not everyone does?!!?!?), the idea of continuing to learn about those subjects seemed exciting. I decided it was a good fit, regardless of what field of study, and I applied to Iowa State, University of Nebraska, and a design school in Georgia. Iowa State, my first choice, responded quickly. I accepted immediately and thus ended an era.
College life
I was so anxious to move out of my house, as soon as I could, I moved up to Ames. The day I moved my stuff up, I sent my parents home and began college. The first day I was there, I pledged Delta Tau Delta. From an academic perspective, it was a terrible decision, but I learned several important life lessons along the way. I’m better for it, but from a GPA perspective, wished I’d joined the glee club instead.
Sophomore year I did not return to DTD, and lived on campus instead. My grades improved, but I still struggled juggling a job, a girlfriend, and school. The first few years at Iowa State most classes in engineering are designed to weed out inept students. It seemed I was the only one of my friends that continued on with engineering.
My junior year, I started a fresh perspective. I set strong goals for myself, and even joined a study group. It sounds innocent doesn’t it? Wrong! This cute girl asked me to join. I wasn’t really fond of studying with other people, but hey if you’re a single 20 year old and a knock-out blonde asks you to hang out… you just don’t say no!
I studied with the group day after day, and eventually the group of 6 whittled down to just two of us. That cute blonde girl changed from a study pal to a girlfriend in pretty short order. I remember sitting with her in the food court at Memorial Union and thinking to myself how amazing she was and how lucky I was to have found her. I asked her out a couple of times but to no avail. One of the groups we were both involved in made a trip to Iowa City for a conference. We were both attending and by the end of the trip were glued to each others side.
After I finally convinced Candice to date me the rest was pretty easy. We dated for a little less than a year before I proposed. I knew she was the one back at the MU, the decision to buy a ring and follow through with it was relatively easy. I proposed to her in the middle of the day after our finals under the campanile. Tradition at Iowa State is that you are not a true Iowa Stater unless you’ve kissed at the campanile at the stroke of midnight. We continued the tradition like many other Cyclone love birds by making occasional trips there between classes. That particular day I surprised her with the proposal after we stopped there that afternoon. Lucky for me, she said yes.
The time flew by after that day, for those of you who don’t know planning a wedding is a very big deal. We spent lots of time picking things out for the big day. We also made several trips to Winona to organize things and even attended marriage classes at our church in Des Moines every Wednesday. To top it all off, from January to August of 2002 (we were married on August 8, 2002) I was working in Amana, Iowa.
Our wedding was fantastic. Thanks to the help of everyone involved everything went off without a hitch. The ceremony was great and totally encompassed what marriage means to us. Our reception was light hearted and joyful. It’s a day I’ll never forget for the rest of my life. Sweetheart if you’re reading this, I love you just as much today as I did then.
After our wedding we had our honeymoon in Hawaii and then settled into married student housing at Iowa State. I finished school and Candice worked at Riddles for the first semester. In January Candice took a job in Fort Dodge with Trinity Hospital and we rented a house up there. Candice and I did the long distance thing while I finished school.
After college
During that stint of living apart, we found out Candice was pregnant. By the time I finished school and moved up in May, Candice was in the throws of pregnancy. We made our house a home, we spent lots of time getting baby stuff prepared, and I looked for jobs. I wanted to stay in the area so we both were employed, but I wasn’t getting many bites. Eventually, I just took a part time job at Sears to help pay the bills.
After our first son was born, Aaron Josiah Woods on October 16th, 2007, I stayed home with him and kept looking for jobs. Finally, I was given an opportunity to work at Fort Dodge Animal Health.
To be continued…
