25 Things About Me.

I’ve gotten about 9 million facebook tags to do the 25 things. I was trying to resist, but lately I’ve been reading some and enjoying them… So I took a spare hour and composed mine:

1. I use the words cervix, catheter and bloody show indiscriminately. It’s just part of me, get used to it. Some people prefer not to eat around me. Your choice.

2. I am in love with little boys. I am entirely a little boy mother. Things like “don’t use your urine like a light sabre” flow out of my mouth without a thought. When I’m at the fabric store I’m drawn to the boy fabric. I am afraid of a little girl.

3. I miss living in Utah. I miss snow at Christmas, I miss the mountains, I miss Brick Oven Garlic bread, I miss having church news come-up on your local news. Of course, I miss my family.

4. I don’t miss living in Utah. I don’t miss driving/sliding in the snow, I don’t miss how the population doubles during education week and women’s conference. I don’t miss how judgemental people were.

5. It kills me not to be with my family at holidays. I really miss the family parties that we had as kids growing up. I am grateful that I have friends here who take the place of uncles and aunts, and who my children hold dear.

6. I find living away from my family very free-ing. I got to be a whole new person when I moved here — not a soul knew me from before. It was nice to be myself, instead of the dean’s daughter, or the band geek.

7. I have more friends here then I could ever have imagined. I spent the first year here in almost complete solitude other then going to work (and thankfully my brother lived here, so I made many trips to Palo Alto). When I look at all the friends we have here I feel extremely blessed. I also try and go out of my way so that people I know won’t be friendless for a year like I was. 🙂 However, I could do better at this still.

8. I am an obsessive shopper. I spend hours and hours pouring over coupons and deal sites so that I can save the most money — be it a car, or a stick of butter. When I buy a car seat I go to every car seat message board that the web has to offer to find the best/most economical one for our family. I finally have to just go buy so I can stop. It’s a blessing and a curse.

9. I have no idea who I would be if I wasn’t Mormon. I most likely would’ve been pregnant at an early age with an entirely different life. I liked boys too much, and I get stressed out easily, and I could very easily find solace in a lovely glass of wine. Luckily, instead I get to make casseroles for friends and spend 3+ hours at church. Not to mention all the cross stitch and crocheting I’ve done.

10. I’ve only kissed two boys (on the lips in a va–va–va–voom kind of way). One is married to me (lucky dude), and the other one is married to an LDS singer (which I find very amusing if you know our family’s stance on “church” music). I have been to her website just to see what they’re doing as a family. And believe me, they were boys before they kissed me. 🙂

11. I enjoy cooking new meals for my family, although I doubt you would know it if you watched me do it. I get stressed trying to get all the components out on time (plus, being asked to help someone on the computer, do homework, and play Marshall or setting the fire alarm off).

12. My blog and the Internet has opened a whole new world for me. My best female friend is someone I’ve only met 3 times in real life, but we talk almost every single day — and have done so for about 3 years now. I know more about her then I do about any of you. Really. I do. Sometimes it’s scary how much we know about each other. However, it is also very freeing to be so close to someone that’s so far away and will most likely never meet anyone you’re talking about. I don’t ever have to feel like it’s gossip when I share my feelings. I would worry if she ever moved here (or I moved there) because of all she knows about my life. 🙂 Does that even make sense? Plus, I love getting my thoughts out on my blog, and I enjoy reading other’s thoughts on their blogs.

13. I am the luckiest person to have ever met Drew. It was extremely poor timing (first semester of nursing school) and our courtship wasn’t your regular one but we’ve been married over 11 years and beat all the statistics of young love (got married right after I turned 21). I won’t say that our first few years were delightful, but they’re over now. 🙂 Now I feel extremely lucky. He is the the yin to my yang (and my shamma–lamma-ding-dang).

14. I hate all of you that tagged me on this. Really. I do. Yes, even you.

15. My job is a total love/hate relationship. I love the patients (really, I do — especially when you form a bond with them, it is an amazing thing that I also get paid for those days — although, there are times when I should get paid double — so I suppose it evens out), I love the other nurses, I love the things I’m learning, I love that I’m still learning new things. I hate that we have to have management (I’m not sure that I would love any management at this point, so I hate to point fingers… but sometimes, I think I do), there are some doctors I’m not super fond of, I hate that I have to miss things in my children’s lives and when they cry that I’m working on a certain day (although, usually they cheer and say “maybe dad will take us for slurpees!“). But mostly it leaves me with amazing, feelings and stories. Oh, and a lovely paycheck.

16. Nursing school was the second worse time in my life. I absolutely hated it, I had a teacher who hated me (and who can hate me, I ask?), I felt stress every moment of every minute. I worried my job would be like that. It wasn’t. I love my job now. It was worth the 6 semesters of pure hell. I have no idea why I chose to become a nurse (as my uncle once said, “you’re not exactly ‘caring’.”, but I know that God guided me to it, and for that I am forever in his debt (besides already being in His debt).

17. My religion is really hard for me to share, I think it sounds exceedingly silly when I share it. That is hard for me, because it’s so important to me. Every single good decision I have ever made has been from the church and from God. I have no idea how I’d parent without Him, I have no idea how I’d exist. I want to share that with others, but I’m not very good at it.

18. While I’m at it, one of the main reasons I didn’t go on a mission is because I am deathly afraid of bugs. I heard stories of people with roaches in their apartments and that pretty well ended it for me. I got married instead. I guess Drew should be very thankful for all the bugs.

19. My parents are my idols. Don’t get me wrong — they’re weird at some things, but I can’t get enough of them. Especially now that I live hundreds of miles away. During college, that was a whole other story.

20. I probably have more in common with Monk (the USA series character) then I do with many of you. I have many OCD tendencies that I am not proud of. Pregnancy is bringing the out even worse. Lucky Drew. Currently I fight not screaming when I see my son’s shoes not tied (which is often). Literally, I want to breathe fire on him (if I was a dragon, which I am not). I suppress it as much as possible. I won’t be shocked if I need medication for it in the near future.

21. Family vacations get me all va–klempt. Especially looking at the pictures. I find that uninterrupted time with my family is far and few between and I am so grateful for the times we’re able to go away and spend that time together. Be it Yellowstone, or Disneyland, they all hold a special place in my heart. Sometimes I look around while on vacation and dream that’s what life will be like in heaven. No beds to make (unless we’re staying at our parent’s house, then that’s not quite as heavenly), plenty of snacks to eat, time to spend together. It’s pretty well the bomb.

22. I am deathly afraid of having this child. Afraid of dying, afraid of the girl-ness, afraid of the newborn-ness, afraid what changes it will have on my other two. I’m not a big fan of change in general.

23. Having my first child was the first most worst time in my life. I was in a world of pain, both from the delivery and in my mind. Things weren’t like I’d envisioned. It killed me. I also learned that my boobs are mutants.

24. I am a slave to a schedule. I LOVE it. I love having my certain things that I do at certain times and it works well for me. I even have my housework scheduled for each day of the week. When I have this baby you will see a little part of me die each day until I am able to get onto a schedule. Enjoy that.

25. My family is my life. When Drew and I were married — we were married in an LDS temple where we were sealed for “Time and All Eternity.” This means our family will be together forever, and I will take the role of mother forever. I take my role as a mother very strongly. I am big on dicipline, hard work, fun and involvement. I don’t work outside the home full time, so I take it as a job inside the home. We have lessons, piano lessons, I work in the classroom, I’m room mom, I teach them to cook, how to clean and how to be people without me. No bon bons for me, even before this stupid diabetic diet. I try not to take too much credit for my kids, because I’d prefer not to take the blame when they do something not so smart. However, it’s hard not to be so freakishly proud of the people they are becoming. I love those two little boys. And a part of me is excited to see our next addition (and the rest of me tells you to see #22).

THERE, it’s done. Really, I am guessing any avid blog readers knew most of this stuff anyway. It should be called “random stuff about me” instead of “Pulling Curls.”