A girl of Many names...

I have gathered quite a collection of nick names over my 25 1/2 years of life.

When I was young my Farfar
(Norwegian for "Father's Father") called me "KiKi"

In Jr. High kids started calling me "KJ"

In high school some called me "Kage"

And since then, the sky's the limit for the names:
PayJay, KayJer, K.J.E.E., K.Jizzle, KahJara, etc...

I don't mind any of the names. It's always interesting to see what a person may beckon me by.

However, the most seldom used name in my life is:
My real one.

Now, here's a little history for you. When my parents decided to name me, they wanted to be unique. My family is very much Norwegian on both sides. My great grandparents from my Mom and my Dad were born in Norway. So apparently, as I'm told, my Dad was looking through the Norwegian dictionary one day, to see if he could find a name and he came upon this:

kjære: darling, dear.
Similar to - kjæreste: beloved.

He thought that would be a wonderful name for me.

However, in Norwegian it is pronounced: Sharrah
(and you have to role the 'r's in the middle, which I can't do!)

He didn't like that pronunciation, so he decided on the pronunciation of "Key-are-ah"

And to spell it with English letters, instead of the
Norwegian squished "a" "e" letters.

Thus I became the one and only: KJAERE

To be honest, I have never asked my Dad why he chose to pronounce it that way. I'll be calling him tomorrow, and if I get an answer, I'll update this.

So why make a lengthy post about all this? Well, Zoe thought it would be fun to try to bring my real name back.
I love it when people actually use my real name.

So that is our current mission.

Don't worry, I'll still answer to anything
with a K and a J in it...
but besides my family and a handful of friends,
this transformation shall be challenging...
but you can do it :-) Don't worry!

Norwegian Table Prayer
(prayed at many of my family's important dinners and such... although don't tell my grandparents I can never remember all the words!)

I Jesu navn går vi til bords
å spise, drikke på ditt ord.
Deg, Gud til ære, oss til gavn,
Så får vi mat i Jesu navn.
Amen.

In Jesus' name to the table we go
To eat and drink according to His word.
To God the honor, us the gain,
So we have food in Jesus' name.
Amen.