The Wilsons

Check back now and again, this page is a life work in progress… (p.s. we’ve left the comments turned on in case you wanted to respond to any of these or with your own personal memories/about us for the Wilsons).

(We were going to put a number (like 50 or 100) but we wanted to be able to add to the list without abandon.)

onni was born and raised in Michigan, but he escaped just after his freshman year of HS.

elodia is Puerto Rican, born in New York City, but spent 5 years of her childhood living in Puerto Rico.

onni became a Christian his senior year of HS, just after midnight on November 1, 1990, in a quiet one-on-one moment beside his bed, long after his family had fallen asleep. There, in the quiet, no great preacher, no singing group, no flashing lights, just he and Jesus having a conversation.

onni tied for valedictorian of his graduating class, but the principal at the time felt that he wanted “only one valedictorian at his HS.” In a tie-breaker based on the number of classes taken, Lonni became Salutatorian (2nd) instead.

Valedictorian is based on GPA at the end of the first semester of one’s senior year. At the end of the second semester, just before graduation night, the final GPA standings came out, and Lonni was alone at the top with a 4.25 weighted average.

To this day, his HS transcript shows a “Class Rank” of “1” that was whited-out and handwritten over it was a number “2,” the result of his principle’s “tie-breaking” decision. He’s not still bitter about it though… not most days anyway (yeah, does the fact that he has a picture of it - see above - hint at anything?).

onni and Melodia met on the internet in late July 2003 when they were both 30, and registered on a Christian internet dating site, www.loveandseek.com. Their first phone conversation began at 6pm and ended just after midnight, lasting 6 hours. They met face-to-face for the first time in early September (the weekend Johnny Cash died), were engaged mid-October, and married in December, just 103 days after their first face-to-face meeting. When you know, you know… and they knew.

ort of a continuation of #5, but it gets its own. Melodia had been on a couple of dates with another person when she and Lonni began chatting online. One night, in an IM, Melodia said to Lonni, “when I am sitting there listening to [him, the other guy], I find myself wishing I was talking to you.” Lonni immediately typed his phone number and told her to call him (he was still at his office).

At the beginning of the conversation, Melodia warned Lonni that [the other guy] was supposed to call her. At 9pm, when they were 3 hours into an amazing conversation, Melodia’s call waiting indicated [the other guy] was calling. She told Lonni she needed to talk to this guy and that she’d call Lonni back.

Not willing to end a great conversation, Lonni saw this as a [if not the] defining moment in their new relationship. He stopped Melodia with these words, “You need to choose, right now. It’s either him or it’s me.” (to steal a line from Lonni’s favorite movie, Top Gun, “Gutsiest move I ever saw”). They stayed on the phone together another 3 hours, and finished that conversation agreeing that they had to meet face-to-face.

onni attended a private Christian College in San Diego, CA… Point Loma Nazarene University. He had planned to return to Michigan and attend the University of Michigan. At the time, he wanted to double major in physics and philosophy (the how and the why). But becoming a Christian his senior year of high school changed his direction (both short and long – eternal – term).

Lonni was filling out his application to attend Point Loma Nazarene College (he’d been going to a Nazarene Church after being saved) when he received a letter from the University of Michigan indicating that he’d received a full ride to their honors program at UM. He set it aside, thinking, “nice, but my plans have changed.”

t PLNU, Lonni double-majored in Christian Ministry and English Education. He contemplated triple-majoring at one point, even went to the registrar to discuss it. They said they had nothing on the books, and no way to indicate a triple major on the diploma. They’d never even heard of someone wanting to do that. His third major would have been Physical Education.

n HS, Lonni read (in a class from his favorite teacher, Thanks, Mr. Rowe) an article that said that the average person has 7 different careers in their life. Lonni wanted all of his, and he got them… Pet Shoppe Employee (3 different shops, covering 4 years of my life), Drug and Alcohol Counselor, Airline Ticket Sales Agent, Youth Pastor, Junior High School Teacher, College Athletics Department Personnel, and College Professor.

onni spend all 5 years of his undergraduate college career living on-campus. He was an RA (Resident Assistant) for 3 of those. During that time he met two of his life mentors who both spent time serving as Resident Hall Directors (Vic Alvarado & Eric Spindler).

oth of our girls have two middle names, McKinley Elizabeth MacLeod Wilson and Izzabelle Linda Maria Wilson.

cKinley is named after our Friend Eric Spindler’s wife, Betsy, who lost her battle with cancer on August 10, 2005, and went home to be with Jesus.  Betsy’s full name was Elizabeth MacLeod Spindler.  MacLeod (pronounced, Mah-Cloud) was a family name on Betsy’s side of the family.

zzabelle is named after pretty much everyone in our family… Israel is the name of Melodia’s father (sr) and brother (jr). Her brother often goes by “Iz.”  Like McKinley, Izzabelle  has two middle names.  Linda is the name of Lonni’s mother and Maria is the name of Melodia’s mother.  So with Izzabelle, naming rights for 3 of the 4 grandparents were accomplished.

il’s full name is Wilson Steven Wilson.  Yep, that’s right, we named our son Wilson Wilson.  As an FYI, Lonni had wanted this name for years (going way back to his early college days, and long before Tool Time revealed it to be Tim Allen’s neighbor’s full name).

Lonni’s rationale?  When we’re younger, and filling out paperwork, we often have one of those mistake moments, “Oh, darn, it’s say last name first, can I have another paper/application/etc.?”  Wil will never have that problem.

The other rationale is that, we both liked the name, Wil, but didn’t want a Bill, and a William would be a Bill.  Steven, Wil’s middle name, is his grandpa’s name, and his dad’s middle name as well - Lonni Steven Wilson

ll of our kids were born in the month of the same year.  Wil was born in the May of 2005, aka 05/05.  McKinley, 06/06, and Izzabelle 08/08.  With Izzabelle, we hit the trifecta, because her day of birth is also 08… so she’s 08/08/08.

elodia and Lonni love games.  In particular, we’re into board games.  But we also play card games and video games.  We just love gaming together, and have built that into the fabric of our family.  A family that plays (and prays) together, stays together.  Good stuff.  A list of our boardgames can be found here.  And if you just happen to be reading about this and thinking about our next birthday, Christmas, anniversary, cinco-de-mayo, etc. gift that you just can’t help but want to buy us (I know, it’s a long, shameless plug), click our wishlist of boardgames (you can’t go wrong giving us one of these games as a gift).

onni was born 11 days after his mother’s 15th birthday.  Lonni’s mom has never liked that fact being too public, but all things considered, Lonni’s been proud of his parents and of his life given the young nature of his parents when they started out.

It has been a unique experience for Lonni to, relatively speaking, be so close to his mom in age.  For instance, Lonni was a freshman in HS when his mom turned 30.  When Lonni hit 25 (kind of a milestone age, i.e., post college, late 20s, etc.) his mother hit 40.  Lonni hit 35 (another milestone age) when his mom hit 50.

Of course, the family tradition hasn’t continued with Lonni.  Lonni was 32 when his son, Wil was born.  In some ways, it was weird to think about the fact that, when his mom was 32, Lonni was 17.  Lonni’s always treasured having been born to such a young mother.  It was actually a little bit hard for him over the years as he wondered when he’d find his wife or have kids, and would often think about how old he would have been when his mother was his age at that time.  Some of his other friends started marriage and kids earlier - that just wasn’t an available option for him - God needed longer to prepare him for the life changing (butt-kicking) that comes with being married and having kids.

hen we were pregnant with our first child, the doctors ran one of those “optional” screenings.  The same day we found out our child was a boy, the doctor pulled us into his office and told us that our unborn son came up positive for Down’s Syndrome.

We were sent to specialists for second evaluations, and finally told the only way to know for sure was to do an amniocentesis.  In doing so, there was a 10% chance it would cause the baby to be aborted.  Well, that wasn’t an option.  We didn’t want to risk losing Wil.  We left there and went out to eat lunch for the first time at Famous Dave’s (what a yummy place–we needed food to soothe our pain and frustration).

We spent the entire rest (5 months) of the pregnancy wondering if we’d have a special needs child or a healthy little boy.  Not until the doctor performed the c-section did we know for sure.  Ours was a false positive.  We subsequently learned that happens all the time, and we did not allow the doctors to do that screening for our other kids.

ur first 911 call with the kids came when Wil was just 9 months old.  He’d fallen and lost consciousness for a few seconds. When Lonni checked him, he awoke, and moved a little, so Lonni carefully braced him and picked him up, bracing his head and neck, and flipping him over.  Wil looked up into Lonni’s eyes as Lonni kept saying, “Wil, Wil, are you ok, it’s ok, stay awake…” But his eyes rolled back into his head and he passed out again.

Thirty seconds later he awoke.  Melodia was in panic mode the whole time and called 911.  By the time the firemen/paramedics arrived, Lonni was sitting in a chair with Wil and Wil was looking around on his own, conscious, and able to move.  We still took him to children’s for eval, but avoided the ambulence ride.  We spent a long night waking Wil up every hour on the hour to make sure there wasn’t a concussion (Children’s didn’ t want to xray him - because he was an infant - if they didn’t have to; but felt after evaluating him that he was ok).

onni is an eternal student.  He completed the equivalent of grade 23.  He has a double BA, an MFA in Film, an MA in sports management, and a PhD in sports management.   Both of his parents (at the time he graduated high school) only had HS educations, and Lonni was encouraged to go to college.  Boy, did he!  (*Lonni’s mom has since earned a college degree! Go mom).  Lonni says he’s now trying to figure out what the next degree he should go for is - med school appeals to him.

or his 16th birthday, Lonni’s dad bought him a new car…uh… new to him… a 78 Ford Granada, grandma blue (no offense, grandma!).  To top it off, that “cherry ride” featured a personalized license plate, “Lonni W.”  Lonni often joked, “the cafeteria in our high school has a sign that reads, ‘maximum, 231 persons.’ I have the same sign in the backseat of my car!” The thing was huge. He used to also joke that he could just drive it right into the Lake in Havasu, because it was such a boat. Typically the hood of the car arrived at a venue, and Lonni arrived 2 minutes later, when the rest of the car finally got there!  Lonni wasn’t too thrilled about the “new” (to him) car, but it served him well, and hey, we all need some kind of first car experience like that to appreciate life more.  Oh, but make no mistake… Lonni loved that his dad personalized his license plate, he just wasn’t always sure he wanted people to know who owned the blue boat parked out front.

crabble, if you didn’t catch on from the letters starting each “about” topic, we enjoy Scrabble. We don’t play it that often.  The truth is, this is a game that Lonni plays with his Grandma Jo, every time he goes to Michigan to visit.  He actually looks forward to those opportunities to game with Grandma.  Grandma herself plays it often with her sister, Lolly.  So usually when Lonni’s there, both Grandma and Aunt Lolly are playing.  Thus, scrabble will always have a special place in Lonni’s heart. Gaming brings people together.

olleyball became a part of Lonni’s life late.  He started playing it with church friends just after being saved as a senior in high school. But he went on to learn all he could about the game, and coach as much as he could.  One of the highlights of his career in the sport was winning a Gold Medal at the 2000 Junior Olympic National Championships in the 18-open division.

efine commuter student. After a year (1996-1997) of living in Miami, FL while a film MFA student at the University of Miami, Lonni decided he just didn’t want to live in Miami any longer.  He missed California.  When he’d first arrived in Miami, he was lucky enough to score a job working for Delta Air Lines. When he moved to LA, he still had a semester of classes to attend.  All of his classes met on Wednesdays (once a week).  So, every week, Lonni boarded a redeye flight in LA Tuesday night, arrived in Miami wed morning, went to school all day, hopped the last flight out at 830pm EST, and arrived back in LA just about 1am in time to get home and in bed by 2am). Most who heard about it thought he was crazy, but living it, Lonni didn’t find it crazy at all, just creative commuting, and his best friends? -Oh, that’s classic Wilson.

ities that Lonni has lived in include: Mt. Pleasant, MI; Harrison, MI (grew up here); Lake Havasu, AZ (graduated HS), San Diego, CA (undergrad-Point Loma Nazarene University); Miami, FL (film MFA degree), Pasadena, CA (taught Jr. High), Turlock, CA (youth pastor); Novato, CA (MA in Sport Management; worked at CAL); Santa Cruz, CA; Stanford, CA (worked at Stanford); Columbus, OH (Phd); and Carrollton, GA (UWG).

Melodia has lived in: Manhatten, NY (born); Carolina, Puerto Rico (childhood, age 1-6); Tampa, FL (largely grew up here, also returned here after college in), and Cleveland, TN (undergrad-Lee University).

Our married life has involved stops in: Douglasville, GA (halfway between Atlanta and Carrollton); Knoxville, TN; Cleveland, TN (back to the town Melodia did her undergrad in); Buffalo, NY (Medaille); Jamestown, NY (summered here 2008), and West Senca, NY (suburb of Buffalo).

requent Flyer - Lonni flew over 200,000 miles in two years (all personal travel) while working for Delta Air Lines.  Gotta love the free flight benefits.  While living in Miami, he flew into Niagara Falls for day to see the falls, Hawaii for the day while taking a girl on a date, New York just to go ice skating, San Diego for a day to have lunch with friends, and Knoxville, TN long enough to step into the airport, then turn back around and get on the same plane back to Miami to attend class (That flight was a self-reward after pulling an all-nighter to finish a 30-page paper, I mean, relaxing in first class is a reward - at least in those days, can you say, “pamper me”?!).

ow far would you go on a date? (no, not that way… geographically). How far, geographically do you go while taking someone on a date?  In a “Wilson-instant-classic,” Lonni once asked a girl out on a date. When she replied, “Where to?”  He said, “I was thinking Honolulu.” She jumped at the chance. Lonni picked her up at 6am for an 8am five hour flight to Honolulu.  They spent the day on the island, and caught an 8pm flight home. 20 hours into the date (i.e., 2am), Lonni dropped her off at her door. That’s one long date.  In another “Wilson-instant-classic,” the girl called the next day to inform him that she had a great time… and that she wanted to “just be friends.”

f he could, Lonni would love to go back to living in California.  He sure misses the ocean. There are other oceans, but living in California is about more than the ocean.

eep (an 8-point letter, is it on a triple??? lol) - Lonni still has the first new vehicle he ever bought, a 1994 Jeep Cherokee. Until 2006, this was still his primary vehicle. 14 years and 238,000 miles later (all put on by him), she’s about ready for retirement. These days, she doesn’t see much action as the family bought a new 06 Dodge Ram Mega Cab 1500 in 2006. While there are a million Jeep stories to tell - places he’s been with it, things he’s done - the one Lonni often likes to mention is that he once lived out of his Jeep for three months while homeless.  He subsequently bought an RV and lived for a year out of it as a full-timer.

he Wilsons love the outdoors, fishing, hiking, backpacking, rock climbing, kayaking, canoeing, snow-sledding - if it’s outside, it’s for them.  But sadly, they’re not as active in the outdoors right now (2008) as they’d like to be. Like for instance, we would have added, we love snowshoeing, but, we can’t.  All we can say is, we love the idea of snowshoeing, because in 5 years of talking about it, we’ve yet to buy/rent a pair and actually do it. Ugh!

here’s the beef? We typically buy a whole cow and/or pig every year, have it butchered (yes, we’re meat lovers and make no qualms about it!), allowing us to put about 250 to 300lbs of meet in the freezer at once. This way, we know where our beef comes from and how it was raised (as opposed to a grocery store). And it is awesome to go to your freezer whenever you want steak and have your choice of anything!

onni longs for a small farm in the country, but it just has not come together yet.  Mainly, he wants to raise his own chickens and pigs as well as other animals, including the rabbits he used to raise on his “city farm.”  Melodia? The farms a “ni de coca, ni de piña” type of thing.  But she, too, would like a few acres for the kids to play on as they’re growing up.

he Scrabble scores of our names are: Lonni=5, Melodia=10, Wil=6, McKinley=19, Izzabelle=29. Ok, so admittedly, this was one of those weird, late-night thoughts.  Nonetheless, Izzabelle wins family Scrabble.