11 Things

A new blog friend over at Allie In Between tagged me in a fun blogging idea.  The task is to post 11 random facts about yourself, answer 11 questions asked by the nominating blogger, nominate 11 bloggers you think bring sunshine into the world, and come up with 11 questions to ask them.  I'm not big on the whole tagging other people to do things, so I'm going to skip the last part.  But I will go ahead and come up with 11 questions if anyone else would like to join in.  When I read her blog post, I kept thinking what a perfect thing for me to do.  A random fun post is exactly what I need right now.  So here are my 11 random facts about myself

1. On our first anniversary Ty bought me a heart necklace.  He gave it to me first thing in the morning and a few hours later we got a phone call from my parents that my grandpa died.  I got in the habit of rubbing the necklace when I was feeling sad, anxious, worried, or just missed Ty.  It was such a comfort to me and it connected me to him.  I find strength in him whenever I am feeling weak.  To this day I still catch myself absentmindedly reaching up and rubbing it between my thumb and index finger.  Sometimes I don't even realize I'm stressed or upset until I reach up to touch it.  I wear it every day.  I forgot it at my brother's house when we went to visit and was without it for a week.  I would reach up to rub it only to realize it wasn't there.  I felt naked without it.  Needless to say, I've rubbed it a lot on days at work when I've missed Carter like crazy!  It will be getting less use very soon!

2. I met Harper (our dog) a few hours after she was born.  I had a little sister through Big Brothers, Big Sisters all through college.  Her dog had puppies in April of my senior year in college.  I went to pick my little sister up and saw all the sweet puppies.  The next month I got first dibs and picked my sweet little Lee Lee out of the litter.  She was the first dog to hop in my lap and had no interest in leaving it, so actually I guess you could say she picked me!

The day I picked Harper out.

3. I love to paint.  Whenever I get bored with our house or feel like a change, I want to paint a room.  So far we have painted the guest bedroom, living room, entryway, hallway, master bedroom, master bath, and Carter's room during the 3 years we have lived in our house.  All we have left to paint are the guest bathroom and kitchen.  Although I would also like to paint the outside of the house as well as the laundry room.  Ty hates painting so I'd say this is something about me he isn't too fond of.  I think that mostly has to do with the fact that he tends to end up painting the trim because he is better at it than me.  I am way too much of a perfectionist! 

4. Getting my nails done is totally not my thing.  Typically the only reason why I clip my nails is because I chip one and it is ragged.  Sometimes I go days with a ragged nail before clipping them.  I don't know how I do it, but I chip my nail polish the same day or next after painting them.  So I get irritated paying to get my nails done.  I've actually only had my nails professionally done for one of my best friend's wedding and for my wedding.  I have received gift cards for a manicure from parents of students before and they expired before I got around to going.

5. Most moms only call their children by their first and middle names when they are in trouble.  I love Carter's middle name so much (because I love his daddy so much) that I pretty much always call him Carter Ty.  When I'm getting onto him I've accidentally called him Carter Ty Steven before because his daddy's full name is Ty Steven and I call him that when he's being "naughty".  :)

My sweetie baby!

6. I'm notorious about not paying attention to how much fuel is in my car.  I don't notice that I'm almost out of gas until my gas light turns on.  When I was in high school I ran out of gas multiple times due to that.  I am also bad about locking my keys in my car.  One time I locked my keys in my car with Harper in the car.  Another time I locked my keys in my car at a gas pump at a very busy gas station on my way to work.  Ty had to bring me keys and I had to tell the people lining up behind me at the pump what I had done.  It was incredibly embarrassing and I haven't stopped to get gas on my way to work since!

7. I love to read.  I can't decide whether I like children's books or adult books more.  Anytime I'm visiting a library or book store I go straight for the children's book section.  Partially out of habit because I've been collecting children's books for my classroom for the past 6 years.  When Ty and I go to garage sales I rate them by the price of children's books.  If I walk up and they have picture books for 25 cents it's a winner!

Carter even loves to read in the tub!

8. Every summer as kids we spent a week at our granparents' house.  They lived less than an hour from Branson and took us to Silver Dollar City each time we visited.  We were there right after a new roller coaster called Thunderation opened.  I was terrified of roller coasters but everyone who rode got a button when they got off.  My grandpa told me to put my hands in the air and scream yippee kiyiyay and I wouldn't be as scared.  I did, but was still miserably scared the whole time!  When we got off the ride I found out they were out of buttons.  Talk about disappointing!

9. I've never been one to take medication unless absolutely necessary.  Tylenol for a headache?  Nope.  Ibuprophen for sore muscles?  Very rarely.  Excedrin Migraine on occasion.  Most of the time I just tough it out.  When it came to childbirth it didn't take me long to make my decision, epidural or any other pain medication, no thank you!  We saw videos of childbirth at our birthing class.  None of it grossed me out or scared me except for seeing how an epidural is placed in someone's back.  It gave me the heeby jeebies!

10. I am a huge Ben Harper fan.  From the first time I heard his voice on a CD I was hooked.  I have been to 3 concerts and am always looking for concert dates in our area.  I named my sweet Harper girl after him and then her middle name came from the author of "To Kill a Mockingbird", Harper Lee.  Which coincidentally is also my middle name!

I took this picture of Ben Harper from the front row at a concert!

11. My favorite children's book is "Beast" by Susan Meddaugh.  As a kid I would follow anyone of reading age around begging to have it read to me.  My grandma would read it to me 3-5 times a day when she came to visit.  I loved that the main character, Anna, didn't judge the beast by how scary looking it was, but waited to learn about it's personality.  Even as a child I understood the moral and wanted to be just like Anna.  I still love this book and read it to my class every year, usually during the first week of school.

#2 Answer the questions from the nominating blogger:

1. What would your perfect night consist of?
 Playing with Carter outside either in the backyard or at the park on a sunny 70-80 degree day.  Meeting Ty at home for dinner.  Then relaxing and chatting after Carter goes to bed.  Either playing some games or watching some tv.

2. If you could meet any person (living or dead) who would it be?
Gosh, there are so many people I would love to meet, but I'd have to go with Maya Angelou.  She is such an inspiration and has met so many influential people.  I'd love to hear her thoughts on politics, religion, and life.  I read "I Know How the Caged Bird Sings" in college and quickly became engrossed in her autobiographies.  She is amazing!

3. What do you do for a living, and what do you like most about it?
I am an elementary teacher.  There are so many things that I love about my job.  It is so hard to say what I love the most.  I love the hilarious stories children tell me.  I love seeing how different each child is.  I love the innocence, sweetness, and downright goodness of children.  I love the curiosity and wonder of children.  What I love the most would have to be guided a struggling student to learn something after lots of hard work and frustration.  Seeing a child's eyes light up when they finally understand something or figure out a reading strategy that had been eluding him/her.  That is the real paycheck of a teacher.

4. Do you have pets, and if so, what are their name(s)/age(s) (give us a pic if you have it too!).

We have our Harper Lee.  She is a border collie/beagle mix.  She is now 5 years old, 6 next month.  How in the world is she already that old?!?  We also have Skippyjon Jones.  He is named after a wonderful children's book series, "Skippyjon Jones" by Judy Schachner.  We typically just call him Skippy.  We aren't sure how old he is.  The vet guessed he was about 4 years old when we got him.  So that would put him around 7 or 8 years old now.  Ouch, I don't like to think about how old he is now!

Our precious pets together!

They weren't always such good friends!

 5. What's your favorite food?

I am a lover of food so this is a difficult one for me!  I love Mexican and Chinese.  Two of my very favorite things are enchiladas and sweet and sour chicken.  Honey seared chicken from Pei Wei is one of my all time favorites.  It's one thing I think I could eat almost every day.  I also love blueberries.  I have quite the sweet tooth and love ice cream and cupcakes and Oreos.  I could write a whole post just about food.

6. Have you ever won anything? What was it?

I've never won anything that takes luck.  I am incredibly unlucky!  I have won a few races and a few essay contests.  In high school I set school records in the 1600 and 3200.  The 1600 meter record still stands and my 10 year high school graduation is coming up soon! 

7. What's the most exciting thing that's happened to you in the past year (or two)?

This is such an easy question!  The most exciting thing that happened to me was the birth of our baby boy, Carter!  It was such an amazing day.  December 14th was the best day of my life.  Meeting Carter for the first time I fell so in love.

Our sweet newborn.

8. What's one place you haven't visited but would like to?

There are so many places I would love to go.  Out of the country, I would love to go to Greece.  It looks so beautiful in pictures.  Within the country, I would love to see the Grand Canyon.  Nature is so amazing and I'd love to see one of it's wonders!

9. What's your favorite space (can be a place you like to go, an area in your house, etc).

My favorite space in our house is Carter's room.  So much time and love from so many people went into the creation of his room.  When I'm in his room I am reminded of nursing him while rocking in the chair, changing multiple diapers, playing on the floor.  There are so many memories wrapped up in the room.

10. If you had unlimited store credit to any one store, which store would it be and why?
Store credit at Target would be where it's at!  Everything there is so cute!  I love to get shoes, clothes, holiday stuff, and home decor there.  Not just that but they also have groceries.  We have a Target about 10 minutes away, so it is really convenient as well!

11. What's some good advice?
It feels weird to me to give advice.  I mean, I'm only 27 years old and I don't have nearly as many answers and wisdom as those who have experienced so much more.  So I'll go with a Steve Prefontaine quote, "To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift".  Obviously you can't always do your very best because that would be exhausting, but I think it is something to strive for.




If you would like to join in on the fun, here are my 11 questions:
1. What is your favorite childhood holiday memory?
2. What is your favorite sweet treat?
3. When do you get up in the morning?  When do you wish you could get up?
4. How many children do you plan on having?
5. Which season is your favorite and why?
6. If like in the movie "Demolition Man" there was only one restaurant left, what would you want it to be?
7.  Who is your favorite actor and why?
8. If you were famous, what would you be famous for?
9. Who is your favorite celebrity and what would you do if you saw him/her in public?
10. If you had a soundtrack for your life, which musician or musical group would you want to perform it?
11. When did you start blogging and why?