100 Things

It's finally my 100th post and I have a list of 100 things about me - some are about my kids and husband though, I guess I've cheated a little.

1. I have a pen fetish. However, I’m not as bad as my friend Crystal, she’ll steal pens from the wait staff at restaurants because she likes the pen she signs the credit card slip with. Weird.

2. My father died in a small plane crash when I was five weeks old.

3. REMOVED

4. My earlobes are too small to have more than one hole for an earring.

5. I don’t have any tattoo’s but my husband has one.

6. I’m a family black sheep, just like my mother.

7. My grandmother thinks I go to church every Sunday and I haven’t corrected her.

8. I had two children before I got married, but all four of my kids have the same father.

9. I met the hubby when I was 15.

10. I buy too many pairs of shoes.

11. I am painfully shy. Because of that, I often give people the wrong impression.

12. I hate beer.

13. I’m a Wal-Mart snob. Translation: I shop there when I have to, but I don’t like the four-square-mile parking lots, the idiots who let their kids run wild, and the families of 20 who think that it’s their right to make an area impassable… the shopping experience leaves something to be desired.

14. I’m kind of afraid of water, as in: pools and lakes. I’m not a great swimmer and I hate to have water splashed in my face.

15. My favorite wine costs $25, but I’m totally okay buying a $4.99 bottle of Sutter Home White Zinfandel.

16. I think it’s crazy that in other states you can buy alcohol in a grocery store! You can't do that here, they only sell 3.2 in supermarkets in Colorado.

17. You probably don’t know what 3.2 is.

18. There are maybe only 6 people from high school that even remember I exist. They only remember me because I still call them or send emails.

19. I speak without the benefit of thinking sometimes.

20. I would rather lie to a friend than tell them something is wrong between us.

21. I’m working on number 20.

22. I give unsolicited advice. All the time. I can be annoying.

23. I love horses and had two Shetland ponies when I was little.

24. I’m a control freak. That should have been number 1.

25. I have two brothers but they have a different father than I.

26. Between my brothers, the hubby's brother, half-sister and step-sister, we have five nieces and two nephews.

27. I didn’t grow up with my brothers so I don’t know them very well.

28. My brothers are eight and nine years older than I am.

29. The hubby, on the other hand, is four years older than his brother and 14 years older than his half-sister.

30. I’ve had two step-fathers. I’ve called my mom’s current husband ‘Dad’ since I was 21 – even though I met him when I was 6.

31. I introduced my mom and dad.

32. There is a neat freak living inside of me but she can’t get out.

33. That said, I’m a messy person who managed to raise a neat freak. Jake is the cleanest, most tidy 17 year old I’ve ever met.

34. Since the hubby and I got married 17 years ago, every house and apartment we’ve lived in has had to have the hot water heater replaced after it spewed water all over our belongings.

35. Major household appliances hate me. Our dishwasher, hot water heater, furnace and refrigerator died and my dryer is in need of new bearings and a belt – I think. We haven't replaced the dishwasher or dryer yet.

36. My neighbor warned me that my oven might die too and I jinxed myself by saying that nothing could go wrong with it… it doesn’t have anything electric on it. I'm waiting for the fall out on that one.

37. Cars hate me. We live in a perpetual state of crappy car karma. I have no idea why.

38. I love to cook but I can’t bake. Besides, baking is too much work and it’s more of a science whereas cooking is an art.

39. I am a coffee addict. I have a regular drip coffee maker, a Senseo and an espresso maker.

40. I love to read. My favorite ‘easy reads’ are the Stephanie Plumb novels by Janet Evanovitch. I also like Dean Koontz, Michael Crichton, J.D. Robb, Patricia Cornwell, and tons of other popular fiction writers. I find lots of books through an online book club and wandering around the library.

41. I also like auto-biographies written by comedians. Don’t Stand Too Close To A Naked Man & I’m Not Really Here, Tim Allen - Everything And A Kite, Ray Romano - No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem, Jeff Foxworthy

42. I wear glasses because I’m totally blind without them. I can’t see anything farther away than three or four inches. Yeikes, right? I have an on-again/off-again relationship with contacts because my astigmatism is in a constant state of flux and the glasses handle it better.

43. I think it is arrogant to assume that there is no other intelligent life in the universe.

44. My pantry has a lot of expired cans of food – and did you know that Velveeta expired???

45. I’ve lived in Colorado nearly all my life; I spent a few years in Oregon as a child.

46. I’ve never learned to ski and I have no desire to.

47. Only once in my life have I gotten so drunk that I got sick. It was St. Patrick’s day 2007 and my neighbor and her boyfriend were too drunk to drive so I picked them up and brought them home. Once there, they invited me to have a drink with them and I proceeded to drink a bottle and a half of wine on my own in about an hours time and got sick when I made it home. Remember, I said neighbor – she lives next door.

48. Yeesh, and I’m normally a lightweight. Two glasses of wine and I’m really close to either rolling on the floor giggling or passed out in bed.

49. I think if my house ever got clean – as in, it was acceptable to my grandmother – I would pass out, or possibly die of shock.

50. I can’t wear fingernail polish because I can feel it on my fingers. Yeah, I know, it’s weird.

51. I like to paint my toenails in the summer though… they don’t bother me.

52. During a previous marriage, my father adopted his wife's two daughters, Christen and Melody. These are my older sisters and I've never met them, nor do I know where they are.

53. I think when we move I’ll consider lighting my old house on fire rather than packing everything. It might be easier to buy all new stuff. Just kidding. Maybe.

54. I hate crowds. I get a little panicky in large groups of people.

55. I love popcorn at the movie theater but not out of the microwave, air popped or on the stove.

56. I don’t like to go to the movie theater because there are too many people. It sucks to be me.

57. Jake has my maiden name, not the hubby's last name.

58. My last name is hyphenated so that – and this is stupid – people know he belongs to me. I know, weird.

59. People think that Jake doesn’t belong to the hubby because of his last name.

60. Ten years ago, I broke my right leg – both bones – below the knee all the way down into my ankle and had to use a handicap placard for five months.

61. My favorite number is 5 and my birthday is 5/25.

62. My favorite color is green.

63. With friends, I’m a social freaking butterfly and I try to collect more friends like other people collect seashells – or whatever it is that people collect. I can be almost stalker-bad when I meet someone I’d like to be friends with. I have an easy conversation, love the person, get their phone number, and call all the time. Yeah, I know, bad.

64. It is possible to be a social butterfly and shy at the same time – trust me. (See number 11)

65. I’m a freaky, overprotective parent. Matt adds, “…hell bent on destroying my kids lives.” Hmmmm.

66. I prefer Pepsi to other soft drinks.

67. In the summer I drink lots and lots of lemonade, strawberry lemonade and from Sonic… Limeades. Yum.

68. I am a Democrat, but that’s not a reason to hate me.

69. I love the fall, all the leaves are beautiful, it smells great, and the weather is nice. Too bad it doesn’t last long here.

70. When I was 14 months old I broke my left femur. I was in a body cast and smelled bad, because, well, they leave a little hole for diapers. You get the idea.

71. While I was in that body cast, the hubby's aunt babysat me a couple of times. She says she remembered that I smelled. Yeesh!

72. The hubby's aunt and I figured out the strange coincidence over Christmas in the mountains when I was 21.

73. In response to the question, "How are you?" I always seem to answer with, "I'm tired and I need a nap."

74. I have insomnia, but when I’m stressed out, I sleep really well. Go figure.

75. I love stupid movies, Tremors, Ghostbusters, The Mummy, The Goonies, Groundhog Day… you get the idea. I sometimes watch them to go to sleep because I know every line of the movies.

76. I have the attention span of a gnat. That would be another reason I don’t like to go to the movies.

77. Celestial Soda Pop from the Deep Breakfast album by Ray Lynch is my favorite piece of music – ever. Again, raised by hippies.

78. I hate math. I almost didn’t get my AA because I would cry when I had to do math. I don’t think I have to take anymore math to get my BS. EEK!

79. Star Wars Episode IV, A New Hope was released on my fifth birthday.

80. Artificial sweeteners make me sick.

81. I hated God for several years after my son died.

82. I love BareMinerals. Yep, I bought it and it was so worth it. Only problem is that I don't wear makeup often.

83. I took SCUBA classes with the hubby but when it came time to do my open-water certification, I freaked out and wouldn’t go. See number 14.

84. I’ve never been out of the country.

85. I didn’t meet my fathers family until I was 31.

86. They had no idea where I was until I turned 18 and my mother gave me their names and last known addresses and phone numbers. One of them still lived in the same place with the same phone number.

87. My family took our first vacations in 2006.

88. In April of that year, we went to Southern Colorado to see the Royal Gorge Bridge, the Cave of the Winds and the Garden of the Gods.

89. In July of that year we went to South Dakota with my in-laws to see Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse. It was the longest five days of my life. 'Nuff said.

90. I learned to drive a stick shift before an automatic.

91. I’ve only had two dogs in my life, a German Shepherd named Zack that we got when I was four and died when I was 13 and an English Springer Spaniel named Hunter that died in 2007.

92. I’ve also had nine cats, three ponies, two cockatiels, a gerbil, four rats, and tons of fish – not all at the same time.

93. Rather than a green thumb, mine is black. I kill plants of all kinds.

94. I was in two car accidents in six months. The first one wasn’t my fault and almost totaled my car, the second was my fault and cost my insurance company $300.

95. It's odd, but most of the cars the hubby and I have owned have been Nissans. This is purely unintentional and I will make a point to never (ever, never, never) buy one again.

96. I love Starry Night and Café Terrace at Night by Vincent Van Gogh.

97. I like chocolate but I don’t eat it much.

98. Next to cherries, Navel oranges are my favorite fruit.

99. I took first-semester German twice – once in 8th grade and again in 10th grade. I still don't speak German.

100. I am a phone addict. I talk on the phone for hours almost every day.