My name is Helena Isabel Davey (maiden name was Rivera Navarro...). I was born to a German mother and a Spanish/Puerto Rican father who was stationed in Germany with the American army. I am sorta Rican and proud of it ;) My mom was an artist and wanted to go to art school. She got accepted but creative jobs in Germany are hard to come by. She got scared and went to nursing school instead. I basically did the same thing! Although I chose biology over art.
This picture really says a lot about me. I love animals more than anything. I love handmade things, and luckily my mom is a lot better at knitting than I am, so she makes me tons of stuff (like this necklace). I love old-fashioned things (hence the old-school glasses). In this photo I had a mullet, but I sneakily disguised it (yes, the mullet was done on purpose). And I have a habit of sticking my tongue out for pictures.
My mom and dad divorced when I was itty bitty, so I don't really remember him. I don't speak much Spanish on account of that. My mom remarried a few years later - another American soldier. I guess she had a thing for Army guys!
This was my mom and step dad in their younger years :)
I grew up mainly in Germany. We moved around a lot, but I call a little town called Ochsenfurt home. It's the German Oxford. Pretty cool.
I was a tomboy growing up. I loved sports, especially wrestling and soccer. I mainly hung out with my big brother and his guy friends. I also loved horses. Luckily I grew up around them and got to spend a lot of time mucking out stalls and feeding hay, even though we never had our own. This will change within the next few years, I promise you that!
Other than my big brother, who is 2 years older than me, I also have a little brother who is 4 years younger. Both of my brothers are very talented and creative in different ways. My big brother is very artistic and a free-lance graphic designer. He's also a body builder.... My little brother started making his own video games when he was 13. Self taught! He also designs websites and the like.
I lived in Oklahoma from ages 9-14, and then we moved back to Germany. I graduated from German High School at 16, and after much begging and pleading, my mom and dad decided to let me move back to the States for college. Now that I am older, I don't understand how I ever managed to convince them and I think I was much too young to be on my own. But I am really glad they let me go, because I don't know where I would be if I hadn't come back to the States.
I moved back to Oklahoma with $113 in my pocket and an unsure future. After some initial trouble, I found a home in my best friends bedroom. Her parents are awesome. I owe them so much for taking me in when they had absolutely no reason to. They took me into their family and treated me like one of their own.
She is my best lady friend since 6th grade, ever since got over our art rivalry and formed a Harry Potter Club together. She's a little bit crazy, but that's why we love her.
When I was 18, I got my first very own doggie. A Boston Terrier named Norton, after Edward Norton. He was the best friend a girl could wish for, and my soul mate. He was just over a year old when he was attacked by another dog and killed. Norton is the one who inspired me to get active in the animal welfare community. I basically owe my whole life to him. I will never stop missing him or regretting what happened to him. I should have been a better doggie momma.
When I was 19, I met my my future husband at the University of Oklahoma. He was in my chem lab. What follows is a brief outline of our scandalous love story. Very few people know this, as it really was a bit of a... faux pas. The thing is, when I met Patrick, I was in an almost two year relationship. The guy I was with was awesome. I didn't really have any complaints about him at all, and don't to this day. I was very committed to him, so much so that when I saw Patrick for the first time in lab and his awesome smile made my heart go pitter patter, I felt like I had cheated just for noticing that this other guy had nice teeth.
He really does have very nice teeth....
I never spoke to Patrick. Not for months. Not until I decided I was going to have to drop out of college because I couldn't finance it anymore. I was looking into the military. It seemed like a logical option, having grown up in a very military family. I think it was around April 2010 That I found out Patrick was in the Navy, which was the branch I had narrowed my search down to. I only talked to him to get information regarding the Navy. Yep, I was using him. After that, we actually became friends, and study partners. Thanks to Patrick, my grade went from an A to a B :)
My relationship with the other guy was on rocky grounds at this point. We just couldn't get a long. We broke up in May and Patrick asked me out the very same day. Here is the part where I sound like a callous whore: I said yes, and that's basically where our relationship started. Right then and there. It looked really bad, like I had been cheating, and I made an enemy out of a lot of mutual friends because of the way they perceived my treatment of the other guy. I didn't cheat, though.
In my heart, it was like the other guy and I had broken up months ago. I was no longer emotionally attached to him. Since we had a very pure courtship - no kissing, even - removing my heart from his was surprisingly easy. It also made it very easy to fall in love with Patrick so quickly.
About six months after we started dating, we got engaged. (Our proposal went something like this: Me: Let's get hitched. Patrick: 'Kay.(Really, we put a bit more thought into it than that, but you get the idea...)). He rescued me from a military fate (although that's a whole other story) and we got married a month later.
Now I am married to my best friend.we have an awesome, fun life. Our little family consists of two Boston Terriers (Marla and Spock) and 4 rats (Turkish, Durden, Gus and Spencer). And soon we will be adding a human baby to the mix (April 2012, to be exact!). Our life together is full of creativity, adventure, and animals - and I love it!
In the near future, Patrick is going to start flight school to become a Navy pilot. I will continue to be a mom to our animals and human baby. And hopefully I will one day open my own rescue!
