25 random things about me

this list was harder to come up with than i thought!

1. i eat my lunch at 3 pm when all my kids are napping. i eat my dinner at 10 pm when all my kids are down for the night. what can i say, i like to give my food total concentration and my undivided attention.

2. i can go for days without leaving my house. there are stretches ofdays where the only place i go is 1.5 miles down the road to dropoff/pick up mikey from preschool. the rest of the time i am home. with the kids. it is partly because i feel so self-conscious in public that i’d rather just stay home and partly because i find it way easier staying in with my kids than having to go anywhere with all three of them. bonus for me is that my kids all love staying home, too. what’s that saying? to love the home, you have to be home. yeah, that’s what i’m aiming to teach my kids. ahem.

3. i’ve lived in three motels while i was growing up. my parents owned each one at different times. i never thought this was unusual until phil informed me last night that that was kind of strange and interesting about me.

4. my hair is too fine to hold a perm. the perms would fall out in less than a week whenever i got them when i was younger. but i’d still keep trying! the worst was three years ago when i got the digital perm for over $100. the stylist assured me that my hair would hold it and it would last for months, if not a year. the curl fell out in three days.  i tried to convince my husband that was how it was supposed to look.  the look he gave me said he wasn’t convinced.

5. my kids LOVE fruit and so i prepare at least three servings of fruit a day (and 2-3 veggies!), but i rarely remember to eat it myself. only if allie brings a piece to share with me. which she often does.

6. i am very low maintenance when it comes to clothes and shoes and makeup and accessories. i’d much rather spend money on my kids’ clothes than my own.

7. i never liked having “two first names” (according to my high school teacher). but didn’t realize what a bigger pain it is to have your last name constantly mispronounced and having to say, “t as in tom, s as in sam…” when asked to spell it over the phone.

8. 8 is my favorite number. has been since i was 8. i automatically look for an 8 in any number that i’m given: ssn, food order number, confirmation number, etc. each of my kids has an 8 in their birthdays. i planned it that way. just kidding! but they really do each have an 8.

9. speaking of my kids’ birthdays, they were each born on a saturday morning and each one weighed 6 pounds, 1 ounce.

10. i love shopping online. i love reading reviews on something, then finding the best deal, then an extra coupon code for free shipping, then having it delivered to my front door. awesome.

11. i am a very light sleeper and have to sleep with earplugs and a pillow over my head. the earplugs are to block out my husband’s snoring and the noise from the kids’ monitors. the pillow is to block out any last traces of light since i need it pitch black and totally silent to fall asleep. but i still wake up at least once or twice during the night. and if one of my kids cries at night, i wake up right away and instantly know which one is crying. so i’ve trained each of my kids to sleep through noisy fans and lightened rooms. they can thank me later.

12. i am a night owl and can stay up really late. but i can also get up early the next morning without much trouble.

13. i don’t drink coffee. more amazing is that phil doesn’t either.

14. i have never been pulled over and the only ticket i’ve ever received was left on my windshield for having an expired registration sticker. but i’ve always been a speedy driver.

15. i dislike my freckles very much. i fully intend to do something about them once i am done nursing.

16. i don’t know how old i am off the top of my head. i have to stop and calculate it to be sure. i think i stopped automatically knowing after turning 17.

17. i almost drowned twice. once when i was 5 or 6, i went down a waterslide (without knowing how to swim) and a fobby korean kid went right after me without waiting and landed right on my head. he didn’t know how to swim either and was flailing and kicking and holding me under water. someone got him out and finally they noticed i was under him. the other time was when my cousin freaked out in the pool when we were only in the 4 feet area and grabbed my neck and held me under the water. this time i knew how to swim but her body weight held me under. it took my other cousin and i holding her to get to the pool’s edge. now i have to wonder, where were our parents in all this?!

18. i’m totally a dog person and generally dislike cats. but i have recently been adopted by a stray cat who purrs and rubs against me when she sees me. even though it’s phil who started giving her cat food, it’s ME she likes.

19. i think it would be fun to be an editor or proofreader. i tend to catch mistakes and typos and am always tempted to circle them in books.

20. i love cafeteria and airplane food.

21. i still consider myself a boy mom even though i now have more daughters. not that i don’t love my girls and enjoy them very much, being a boy mom just seems to come more naturally to me.

22. i have always wanted to be 5’2″ tall. i stopped growing two inches short of my goal.

23. my favorite color is blue– blue sky, blue ocean, but i don’t like blue painted walls.

24. i really, really love my life as a wife and mom. it’s my dream job. i just wish i were better at it than i am. i hope my kids know how very much i love them and how very much i hope i don’t mess them up!

25. i married my best friend and am so glad i did. he is still the one person i most enjoy talking to and being with. he knows me better than anyone else on this earth and loves me still. i feel the most genuinely ME around him and it feels so nice to be so comfy and accepted in your own skin. we’ve definitely had our ups and downs, but there are no regrets in this journey we’re taking together.