Meet the Bride

Ready to meet the bride?  I was born Rhonda Lynn Lamb to my biological mother, Shelia Gay Lamb (Stone) in 1973 and was placed for adoption.  I was adopted by my parents, Frank and Betty Thornhill shortly after.  I was raised as an only child in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and can honestly say that I have had a really good life.

I was given many opportunities, for which I am very grateful for.  I obtained my high school diploma and then attended Arkansas Tech University where I pursued my degree in Psychology.  Following this I obtained an Associates degree in Chemistry at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, and then following that I obtained an Associates in Biology from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.  After taking a break from college life for a few years I decided that I wanted to go back.  In 2003, a year after our son was born, I found myself at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock working on my Psychology degree again.  After obtaining my Bachelors I then began working on my Masters from Capella University and thus far I feel very overwhelmed (in a positive nature) with that experience.  Some people (parents included) call me a professional student.  I find learning new things to be very rewarding!

I am honored to say that I have had many good friends throughout my life and have discovered that I have many interests.  Many of these interests I have not had much time to pursue due to being a mother (x 2), student, and full time employee.  However, in my free time I find that I enjoy reading for leisure,  working on arts and crafts, painting (oil and acrylic), drawing, crocheting (Beth Duke taught me), sewing (decided to teach myself once my daughter was born), scrapbooking, photography (an art that my father lured me into at a very young age), and writing.

On January 27, 2003 I located (with the help of Dietrich’s birth mom, Brenda) my biological mother, Shelia.  This was without a doubt one of the happiest moments of my life.  This day in January was coincidentally my youngest brother Keith’s birthday.  I was so excited to have learned that I have not only one brother, but two!  I had wanted siblings my entire life so this was definitely a new experience for me.  Over the years I have gotten to know my biological family and have learned many things about where I have come from and have gained a little more knowledge about who I am.  This has been a very positive influence in my life.  I would like to thank my parents for being so supportive of me and Shelia through this experience and in our short years of getting to know one another.  My parents have been a real blessing in my life!

I am sad to say that I lost Shelia to cancer on April 28, 2009.  Some of you wonder why this day is so detrimental to me…this is why!  Shelia was not only a second mother to me, but she was also my best friend and someone I could always turn to.  She was always telling me how proud she was of me and that she was honored to have me as a daughter.  She always told me the truth no matter how much it may have hurt, and for that I am grateful and respectful.  I also was unfortunate in that I lost my baby brother Keith on April 10, 20011 to heart failure.  He had heart problems since the day he was born.  I am sad to say that neither of them will witness this joyous event in my life, but I know that they would both be really happy for me.

I can honestly say that in some regards my life has had its ups and downs but I have never been through so much personal growth and development as I have since I met Dietrich.  Dietrich, is without a doubt, the love of my life.  There are so many things about this man that appeal to me, and some of which are really had to explain.  This man has so many hidden talents that are not seen by many, but I am starting to see new things about him daily that I have grown to love and respect.  He is an amazing father to our two children and I’m proud that he will now be my husband.

Professional Life

My professional life at the moment is one of things about my life that I am very happy about.  Currently, I’m working as a medical transcriptionist for Conway Regional Medical Center.  It has been a very rewarding job and for once in my life I can honestly say that I really do like each and every one of my co-workers.  These ladies are amazing!

Prior to working in Conway I worked as a medical transcriptionist for Youth Home, Inc., which is an inpatient facility for troubled teens.  This too, while very high stress, was a very helpful job for me.  In some ways, it inspired me to study to be a therapist.  The therapists I had the privilege of working with were very inspiring and helped me greatly as I worked through obtaining my bachelor’s degree.

Where will the future take me?  That remains to be seen.  But I’m hopeful to obtain my Ph.D. soon and not only counsel youth, but maybe even teach psychology on the side.

Personal Life

My personal life mainly consists of my little family and our circle of good friends.  In our spare time we like to travel, take family walks along the river, participate in Hunter’s cub scouts activities and have small gatherings at home with our friends.

Dietrich and I are both cub scout den leaders for Hunter’s cub scout group and we both enjoy it very much.  However, I have not been able to participate as much as I would like due to our new addition, Chloe.  When she gets a little older I’m hoping that this will change.  I miss going to all of the den meetings and helping the boys achieve their advancements.  This too is very rewarding!!

When I’m not helping Hunter with his nightly homework, or doing my own, I’m usually either watching a movie with Dietrich, watching the weekend Razorback games on TV or working on my arts and craft.  Reading books is another leisurely activity for me, and most of the time you will find me reading psychology books or true crime cases and mysteries.

I also enjoy the time I get to spend with my friend Jessica.  She’s the craftiest girl I know!  When I work with her on crafts my creativity starts to flow again…something I’ve missed over the past several years.

Getting to know me

This is what you will read about me on facebook in the “About Me” section and if you really want to get to know more about me…read this.

I’m the 38 year old mother of one beautiful 9 year old little monster (and I say that in a loving way of course) named Hunter Michael. I live with my amazing soon-to-be husband and best friend, Dietrich, in Maumelle and I have never been happier. We just recently had our second edition born to the family…a little girl by the name of Chloe Elizabeth.

I’m the proud parent of a Tazmanian Devil Kitten named Tigger and a crazy 22 pound Garfield kitty named Smokey. I am also the proud parent of a 4 pound Chihuahua named Chico.

I’m going to school to be a psychiatrist and I love it. At this point I feel like a professional student because I waited so long to get my degree, but for me the time is right and I couldn’t be happier with what I’m doing. There is nothing more important to me than learning and, in my opinion, one can never learn too much. My parents tend to think that I will be a professional student and, in some respects, they are right. After all, I have years of experience with Biology, Chemistry, and Psychology under my belt. Next degree is Ph.D.

While I fall somewhere between Hippie and Gothic my social circle includes people from just about every walk of life. It includes the Hippies, Goths, Preps, the skaters, the computer and techno-geeks, the ordinary average Joe, the Prom Queen, the Jock, the cowboys and cowgirls, the head bangers, punk rockers, and the future political figures of America. Everyone is unique and that’s what I like about my friends, family, and people in general. Can you imagine how boring the world would be if we were all alike?

I’m pretty low key and laid back but every now and then my stress levels are exacerbated by my all-work-and-no-play lifestyle. After all, I share a life with a 9 year old little boy, 7 month old daughter, a psychotic cat, a crazy little Chihuahua dog, and my oh-so-crazy and ever so amazing soon-to-be husband.

I like a lot of things. I love to read and I love to express myself through art, journaling, scrapbooking and photography! Philosophy, psychology, religion, and political subjects are just about my favorite reading subjects! I like reading leisurely things too and those books would mostly fall under the mystery or horror categories.

I love to meet new people and am always looking for new friends with similar interests and even those with differences because it’s the differences that allow me to open new doors and explore new things. I love to have intellectual conversations with people. Everyone’s opinion interests me. Seriously!

My interests and hobbies include scrapbooking, photography, computer art, art in general, oil painting, history, politics, religion, reading (of course), the outdoors and nature, computer geeks, the internet, chemistry, microbiology, philosophy, ethics, travel and lots of other things.  I consider myself to be pretty well rounded.