in honor of the 100th post...100 things about me

I'm going to write these 100 things because it's fun to talk about myself.

1. Bryan and Anna are my two favorite people. They are tied. I cannot pick one over the other.
2. I am an only child. My mom's only.
3. I am one of 4 children. None of us have the same 2 parents.
4. I went to Catholic school from 1st - 12th grade.
5. I went to an all girls high school. It has it's good and bad points.
6. My first kiss was to a boy that worked at the game room at Treasure Island in Las Vegas. It was a really bad kiss. My sister watched from the peep hole. I was 16.
7. I had the same BFF from 1st grade to 10th grade. She stopped being friends with me when I started dating her ex-boyfriend.
8. After I broke up with my college bf, I wrote down a list of qualities I was looking for in a bf.
9. I found all of those qualities in Bryan.
10. Dating Bryan was drama free. I didn't want to change him. Those are 2 of the ways I knew he was "The One".
11. I had the BEST time at my wedding. It was so fun. My sister gave a wonderful speech - it was the only time I cried that day.
12. We went to Hawaii for our honeymoon. We had a great time.
13. I had a C-Section to deliver Anna. The doctors told me they wouldn't let me try to have a vaginal birth. I didn't mind.
14. Anna's cry after they delivered her was the best sound I had ever heard in my whole life.
15. I would like to have another baby - maybe in a few years.
16. My girl's name: Audrey Carmen. This could change.
17. My boy's name: I have no idea.
18. I try to keep my life balanced. I strive for the right mix of mommy, wife, teacher, and me time.
19. I was diagnosed with type 1 (juvenile) diabetes when I was a freshman at college. I was almost 19. I manage.
20. I was diagnosed with Meiner's Disease when I was 24. I get vertigo. It's mostly horrible.
21. I no longer eat/drink: chocolate, alcohol, caffeine, or fake sugar because of the Meiner's Disease. Chocolate is the most difficult.
22. I eat a low salt diet.
23. I don't mind people asking about my health issues, what I have to do to stay healthy, or any of that stuff.
24. I LOVE fruit, baked goods, and ice cream.
25. I love to read, but I used to hate it when I was in school.
26. I read all 4 books in the Twilight series 3 times. It's a problem, I know.
27. I am more recently addicted to Nora Roberts' novels. They are easy and fun to read.
28. My two favorite books are: Gone With the Wind and To Kill a Mockingbird
29. The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LaBlanc changed my life.
30. I only keep the books that really mean something to me or that I really love. I sell the rest.
31. I can not sing well, but that doesn't stop me from doing it.
32. I am not an animal person.
33. I have a dog. I like her, but I would have been fine if I never got a dog.
34. I like the zoo because I don't have to touch the animals.
35. I do not eat mac and cheese - not Kraft, not Velveeta, not homemade. I think it's disgusting.
36. I heard or read somewhere that everyone is better at 3 things than everyone else.
37. I can only think of 2 things that I'm usually better at: baking cookies and directions. There are probably plenty of people who are just as good at those things.
38. Graeter's is my favorite ice cream. The no chocolate thing has put a kink in my choices though.
39. I love 80's movies, especially: 16 Candles, The Breakfast Club, Footloose, and Goonies.
40. At one point in my life I had the words memorized to Annie, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Breakfast Club, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dirty Dancing, Grease, Beauty and the Beast, and the Little Mermaid. Much of that stuff was erased with motherhood.
41. I don't remember the last movie I saw in the theater. Babies and movie theaters don't mix.
42. Target is my favorite store.
43. I like shopping by myself.
44. I have yet to find a pair of jeans that I love. I'm probably too cheap.
45. I'm a saver that tends to have fun spending now and again.
46. I would rather live near the beach.
47. I love to be in the sun and hot.
48. My favorite time of the year is when we can have the windows open and feel the breeze.
49. I am not adventurous.
50. I have never lived alone.
51. I want to travel to Italy.
52. I want to travel to Ireland -I can thank Nora Roberts for that one.
53. I'm proud to say that I'm a teacher.
54. I enjoy teaching first grade.
55. If I wasn't a teacher I would still work with kids.
56. When I was younger, I only knew that I wanted to be happily married and be a mommy.
57. I'm thankful I have those two things.
58. I have a BS in Business Administration. I knew it was the wrong place for me, but I finished anyway.
59. I wanted to get a BA in Art History. You can't get a job with a major like that, but I would have loved all of my classes.
60. I have a MA in Teaching. I knew it was the right place for me.
61. I do not like crowds. I don't like bumping arms with strangers.
62. I do not like going to crowded places with traffic jams when you are trying to exit.
63. 3 of my friends from high school are still my closest friends even though they live far away.
64. I have one BFF in Lexington (Tara). She's actually living in Alabama for the year, but she'll be back.
65. I am a homebody.
66. My Reading Recovery training has helped me teach kids to read. It was really tough, but I'll always be thankful for it.
67. I like to use a blanket while I'm watching TV - even in the summer.
68. I only sleep on one pillow, and I do not like if Bryan puts his hand under it in a way that raises it.
69. I enjoy MTV's reality tv shows - it's a vice; what can I say?
70. I usually cry when I watch Oprah.
71. I wish that I was more motivated to dress nicely.
72. I do not wear high heals unless they are wedges, and even then, it has to be for a good reason.
73. I am a night person that has had to adapt to waking up at 5:30; it kind of stinks.
74. I wish I could go to bed at 12 and wake up around 8 or 9 everyday.
75. The only part of working out that I like is the cool down.
76. Our other house was really cute. I had a vision early on, and carried it out easily. I'm struggling with how to decorate our new house. It's nice, but I haven't figured out how to put personal touches on this house.
77. I do not like to wear sun glasses.
78. I have 20/20 vision.
79. I had to wear glasses from the pharmacy one time. I had just gotten out of the hospital from being diagnosed with diabetes. The blood vessels in my eyes had been clogged with sugar, and I couldn't read my notes to study for exams or highlight the March Madness brackets we were doing in our dorm - both important.
80. I believe in ghosts.
81. I saw a ghost in college once. I was taking a shower. I looked up when I saw something in the vent; a vent that was covered with carpet squares and the leg of a futon. It was a black outline of a person's head, neck, and shoulders peeling the carpet squares back and looking down in the vent. I yelled at it, you know for being a perv, because I thought it was my male roommate who had his bedroom in that room. He wasn't home. My BFF was in her room, my boyfriend at the time was downstairs. The boy that lived in the room felt someone in bed with him one morning when he was in fact alone in his bed.
82. When Anna was an infant, she used to stare at the ceiling. I like to think that she was staring at my Mimi who died when I was in college. I talk to her and ask her to look out for us.
83. I talk to Jesus and the Universe, too.
84. I believe in karma and believing in what you want.
85. I do not like to speak in front of crowds.
86. Sometimes I say things that I think only to realize later that I might have been rude when that wasn't my intention.
87. I cuss to much. I'm really working on this because I don't want Anna saying bad words.
88. I like any form of the f-word best.
89. I am not a button pusher, but I live with two people who are.
90. I rarely ever lie. I am not good at it.
91. My favorite color to look at and wear is red.
92. I hope to help Anna be her best self, even if her choices wouldn't be my choices.
93. I like routine.
94. I used to suck my thumb. My kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Walker, would not let me suck my thumb at school, so I had to stop. I got a doll from Toy's R Us when I finally did it.
95. I started biting my nails when I stopped sucking my thumb.
96. I quit biting my nails when I started dating Bryan. A sign? maybe.
97. I was and am still a very bad speller. I frequently open a Word document to check the spelling of words - even when I'm teaching.
98. I try to value each child in my classes while also getting work done. It's a fine line to walk, but it's important to me to let each child be who they are. Some days are better than others.
99. I worry about Anna. What parent doesn't worry about their baby?
100. I am thankful for the many blessings in my life, especially Bryan and Anna.

Today I am thankful for:

• sunshine
• a nap
• kisses from Anna