(Originally written in the fall of 2010) So, you want to know more about me, huh? Well, my name used to be Courtney Erickson. As of December 19, 2009 it has become Courtney Wood. I am married to the most amazing man, John (he likes to be called Johnathan, but I do not call him that). Since that day, I am also an army wife. Hello to moving at least every 3 years, having friends in every corner of the world and never seeing family or friends from “home”. Not that I’m complaining too much. I like to travel. I haven’t done much in my life so I’m taking it as a blessing in disguise. I miss my friends and family dearly, but I’m excited for the adventures ahead of me. Currently we are awaiting the arrival of our baby boy, Easton James who is due March 16, 2011.
I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin called Reedsburg. Just about 15 miles away from one of the most famous places in Wisconsin, was the Wisconsin Dells. Waterpark capital of the world. I worked there every summer since my junior year in high school. I was a lifeguard at the Wilderness Hotel and Golf Resort for a total of 3 summers, working breaks in between when I was away at college in Iowa (that info later). Then the summer of 2006, I started working at Desert Star Cinema (D-Star as we employees called it) and also working next door as a lifeguard at the Kalahari Resort. Was one of the worst summers because I was working full time at almost two jobs. Kalahari was 5 days a week and the cinema gave me at least part-time hours. However, I made some amazing friends at the cinema, and although I quit lifeguarding that summer, I stayed with the cinema until the summer of 2008 when I had to do an internship to graduate from college.
sidebar! I went to college in Iowa, at a private Christian college called Northwestern. The reason I chose that college was mostly because my cousin went there the year before me, and I also wanted to be in that type of environment (being around other Christians) and get out of where I was. After my first year I was sick of that environment (irony?) but stuck it out and actually had some of the best years of my life with friends, teachers, and actually learning! =D
My internship was at a bible camp that my family goes to every summer for a week. For my internship I was to videotape the kids and families at camp for the week and put together a DVD for them to buy at the end of the week (even if they didn’t buy it, everyone watched it at the end of the week program). It was a blast and I loved every minute of it (even though I didn’t get to sleep as much as I love to). After that summer, I moved in with my aunt and uncle near Madison, WI, looking for a “professional” job while working at the Star Cinema there in the meantime. Found a job at a TV station in La Crosse, so I moved there (Oct 2008) and worked the morning shows running the video camera for the news. That was a lot of fun too, although I had to be at work at 4:45 A.M.! My lease was up in May 2009, so in May I moved back to my hometown area, moving in with my friends Amanda (a friend from d-star) and Matt in Amanda’s old house in the Wisconsin Dells.
We had some crazy times there and I miss those times like crazy. Starting in June 2009 I started working at the Kalahari again, but was employed in the new Indoor Theme Park. That’s right, yours truely was a carney. Kinda. At our house in the dells, Matt moved out, friends Austin and Travis from work moved in, and then out, another Amanda (we’ll call her Amanda B) (from the ITP) moved in, then the original Amanda (also, my bridesmaid in December) was basically living with her boyfriend, and I was basically living at John’s when he was home in August. Amanda B got a puppy, beagle/retriever mix named Killface, so Beast (my cat) had some company. I stayed living there with Amanda B until December 2009 when John came home for the wedding and then I moved to Alaska with my him on January 2, 2010. Once we got up here, we stayed with some friends until we could get our own home. Once we knew where we were living, we checked out the house and signed the lease, we went to the pound/animal control place in town to pick up the puppy we had seen the night before. BUT…… something happened with the puppies, one had parvo so the others were quarentined until the vet could look at them. We were sad, but decided to look at another puppy… well, she was a year old, so not really a puppy, but she acted like it!
She was gorgeous!!!!!!!! And she was so playful and really gentle, got along with kids, cats, other dogs, and potty trained, so, we were hooked and we got her! We named her Dakota, and she’s been with us since February 2, 2010. She is an Alaskan Klee Kai.
(Added Nov 2017) We also recently adopted a lab mix named Evee. Her and Dakota got along very well right away, however, since Dakota is now approaching 10 years of age, she’s very picky on when she wants to play. Evee is slowly learning that, but she is only about a year old. Below are some pictures 
