AFOL new to the group from the south!

Hello everyone! I hope I don’t ramble too much here! Thanks for reading, I hope I don’t bore everyone, and I hope to speak with more of you and get to know all of you better! I had heard that these types of groups existed, but I had never done much research to locate any. When my 12 year old son and I took a rare one-on-one outing to attend BrickFest Live this year, I learned of this group specifically! I am immensely excited to have others around that have the same type of passion for LEGO as I do! I tend to bore my dear husband to death! My name is Lindsay and I am 36 years old. My husband, Kevin, and I, with our sons, Izayah, 16, Michael, 12, and the baby, John David who is 22 months old and will be 2 in November, live in the little “blink and you’ll miss it” village of Amity. It is about 10 minutes south of Washington on 79, and we are basically right between Washington and Waynesburg. I have lived in this area, Washington county specifically, for about 15 years now, but I will readily admit that I do not know a lot about the Pittsburgh area. I did not grow up here; I am originally from Ohio. Despite the years that I have lived here, I’ve never spent time much further north than Canonsburg! We also have another son that doesn’t live with us, but comes to visit every other weekend. He is 11, and his name is Holden. Kevin is a mechanic and store manager for Monro Muffler and Brake in Washington. As such, I have been blessed to have the ability to stay home with all of our kiddos. My LEGO addiction started a few years ago at Christmas. Michael and Izayah always built their LEGO sets on their own. The building was their fun in the sets. Holden on the other hand, loved to play with his sets, but got frustrated way too quickly when trying to build. About 4 years ago, Santa had brought him a City helicopter and he just wasn’t getting it. So, he asked me if I would help. I of course obliged, having never touched LEGO bricks longer than the amount of time it took to grab them from the way of the vacuum or peel them off the bottom of my feet in the middle of the night on the way to the bathroom! It didn’t take much for me to catch on to the way the instructions read and the bricks clicked together. Little did we all know at that point that from the one little set we were creating the monster that we have today!! I had a BLAST building that set, partially because of the time spent with Holden, but also because I truly enjoyed myself and found myself relaxing in a way that I hadn’t in a long time! From then on I started buying and building my own sets. I had also just recently started really getting interested in all of the Marvel MCU movies. So, I made it my mission to acquire every set that was made based from an MCU movie! I did… I never got a lot of the Spiderman sets or XMen. Like I said, I focused solely on the sets that were inspired by the movies. I’ll never forget the day I got my Helicarrier!! I don’t think I have ever been so excited for a “toy”… at least not since I was a kid! From there I started collecting sets from Star Wars, which, just like Marvel, the hubby got me into as well! My next most exciting piece was when I got set 9949, the long since retired Gungan “Una-bung-o” from Episode 1. It was bestowed to Obi Wan, Qui-Gonn, and my ABSOLUTE, BEYOND QUESTION, FAVORITE character, Jar Jar from Boss Nass! I didn’t then, nor do I still, quite understand why Queen Amidala was the other figure included in that set… Just seems a little out of place; as though she may have been better to be with the Flash Speeder or something like that. From there my collection has continued to grow exponentially including Ideas, Creator, Creator Expert, some DC, space and science themed sets with a planned set up to honor Wernher Von Braun for his work in getting us into space using the ISS, Saturn V, Women of NASA, and Lunar Lander sets with other sets and accessories. I had planned to focus on some MOC Halloween ideas next, but that plan has recently changed. I had never owned any Christmas sets. I’ve always liked them, but with the kiddos, it was never an expense I wanted to take out when it was the time of year they always emerged in the stores. This year I started really getting into Waffles on FB. I’ve gotten very lucky with a few of them. I won a group with the Elf Clubhouse, the Gingerbread House, and the Charles Dickens set. I also bought an Ice skating GWP. Shortly after these, I also won a Santa’s Workshop set! I have been so very excited about these!! My focus has now shifted to creating a North Pole Village for a Christmas display. Who knew individual holiday elves and gingerbread men mini figures could get so expensive?? lol… Anyhow… I have quite and eclectic array of interests regarding the sets I collect. I have considered applying for a position with the local LEGO store as a way to help financially support my building habits, but more importantly to be able to meet others with the same interests. I’ve never been one of those really outgoing people that makes friends or fits in easily. I’ve always been a bit introverted, and it would be great to have a position like that simply to have introductions to others. As an alternative means to that idea, I have been very active in the waffling groups on Facebook. I have had a lot of fun and been introduced to some really great people as well as being able to win some and make some money on sets that are just collecting dust here that another could be loving! Now though, I am ecstatic that I have found this group! I’ve been trying to read through the handbook and blogs on events and build challenges, meetings, things like that. If anyone has any information you feel would be good for me to have or helped you out early on, please by all means share that with me! I am sometimes limited in my ability to participate in some things as my youngest one is ALWAYS with me! Anything I can do and bring him along, I will gladly, readily participate in! Other things I will try my best to be able to participate in as well. Generally, when I have decent notice given, I am able to find appropriate care for the kiddos, so that I can be free for whatever the group would need. Thank you so much for taking the time to get to know me a little! I am looking forward to getting to know all of you as well!!