100 Tid Bits

1. I have strawberry blonde hair, blue eyes & of course lots of freckles.

2. I used to hate my freckles, but I am ok with them now.

3. I always wanted my parents to get divorced even though they didn't have the worst marriage ever. Mainly, I just don't think they belonged together. They finally did after I graduated from college.

4. I hate telling people that I graduated from BYU. I think it makes me sound like a weirdo cult girl even though I don't think of Mormons like that.

5. I wanted to go to Texas A&M, but my parents only seemed interested in financially assisting me at BYU.

6. I believe it is important to be spiritual, but necessarily active in an organized religion.

7. Unlike lots of Americans, I am not the ultra proud US citizen that believes everyone who is not American wants to live here. In fact, I can see myself living in many countries and loving it. However, I appreciate my US passport and the privileges that come with it.

8. I lived in Doha, Qatar for a year and enjoyed every minute of it. In fact, I think Arabs are great people.

9. I had an Arab boyfriend for 4 years. All the fighting we did made me become a much better person. Truly, I am a better wife because of that experience. I was able to work out a lot of my childhood issues.

10. I think it is good to move to different cities and change jobs every 3 years just to spice up life. However, I have lived in Miami for 7 years and had this job for 4.

11. Anyone who knows me knows that I am always scheming about ways to make my life better. That habit runs in my family. I thought it was normal, but several of my friends have told me that I am an inspiration to them to change what they don't like about life.

12. I don't like being referred to as a mam, lady or woman, because I don't want to be that old. I prefer girl, chic, gal, hot bombshell (*smiles*), etc. Even blondie sounds better to me.

13. At the tender age of 12 my mom decided I should be responsible enough to pay for all of my own necessities including clothes. I wasn't given an allowance by the way. I babysat & for very little money, but all the time. I always struggled to buy clothes & I think that is the reason I buy too many now.

14. When I was born, I had lots & lots & lots of bright ugly orange hair. I'm glad that it became strawberry blonde rather quickly. Plus, it is a good thing Lexi was born blonde.

15. I never liked the idea that we marry someone like our dad. I can tell you that I didn't. In fact, they are practically polar opposites in every way.

16. Whenever we visit relatives, my husband becomes much more loving towards me. I guess he gets a chance to think about the greater significance of our relationship and future together.

17. I have high expectations of myself and others, which means I am often too hard on everyone.

18. I like country music, but growing up with a father who had a masters degree in English makes listening to it annoying sometimes.

19. As a child/teenager, my mom used to tell me that someday I would consider her my best friend. So far, she is wrong. I still think of her as my mom.

20. My mom is more of the tough love kind of mom & my MIL is more into covering up or smoothing out the problems for her kids. I plan to be somewhere in between, but more like my mom.

21. I met my husband while working in the Bahamas on an island called Cococay. It sounds more romantic than it was. We were just friends. Plus, living on the island and meeting the people was nice, but my workload and employer (engineering firm) were horrible.

22. My husband is completely different than I ever pictured and exactly what I needed.

23. I am the oldest of 5 kids, 3 boys & 2 girls. Clayton is two years younger than me. Alma is two years younger than him. Chris/Paul is three years younger than him. Paige is seven years younger than him.

24. I was 14 1/2 when Paige was born. When I held her, strangers would constantly ask me about my baby. That creates a bizarre feeling for a virgin teenager.

25. My mother thought she was old when she had my sister. She was almost 35, which is only 2 years older than me & I just had my first baby.

26. I hate talking about my female issues. In fact, I just don't. It is probably because I REALLY didn't want to deal with that crap as a teenager. I thought it might have to do with having so many brothers, but my sister is opposite.

27. The only times I have been in the hospital was when I was born & when I gave birth. Basically, I have never broken any bones. It isn't for lack of adventure just luck (knock on wood).

28. I don't drink coffee or eat pork. Coffee probably has something to do with my Mormon roots. I have just never been interested. Pork happened in the Middle East. Arabs think the idea of it is so disgusting, so it wasn't available. I stopped eating it for a while and now when I have tasted it, I don't like it.

29. My favorite roommates in college were Chinese. It was nice to come back to a quiet and clean apartment. I don't think it is a good idea to be roommates with your best friend (unless you are married to him). You end up spending too much time together and you have nobody to complain to.

30. I hope the corporate world will one day do away with secretaries and personal assistants. Everyone should be able to take care of their own crap. It is fine to have people on a team working together, but not one person making another person's work/life easier.

31. I even tell "my assistant" that. She has her designated duties that I don't oversee. However, she is very nice & does help me make hair appointments because she speaks Spanish. That is all the receptionist at the salon speaks.

32. I wish I had taken Spanish in high school or college. I thought it would be fun to be different. I took German. I also took Japanese in college. I learned a little Arabic while living there and a little Spanish while living here, but not enough. Unfortunately, I am far from being bi-lingual.

33. I feel sorry for my brother, Alma. He likes his name, but it has to be difficult sharing a name with old ladies. My parents were nice to the rest of us and I intend to be nice to my kids.

34. I like to tease my husband about weirdo names for our kids. Lately, it has been Gaylord for a boy or Weasley for redhaired kids. It is much more funny if you know our last name (similar to Gaylord's).

35. My brother, Chris, couldn't wait for me to have a baby so he could call me Mother Focker.

36. I use my maiden name at work, but only because I started working there before I got married and it is just easier than changing.

37. I have been married 3 years and I have yet to change my name on my drivers license. I updated my passport though. It has more to do with the fact that I hate the DMV in Miami. The lines take 3 hours & most of the workers don't speak English. I consider this my protest, so I just update my address online.

38. Kids have always been in my life goals. I used to want LOTS, but I am already old so 3 would be nice.

39. Kids were more important to me than finding a husband. Most of my relatives had/have unhappy marriages so my idea of it wasn't that positive.

40. Now that I am married, I realize it is nice to share my life with someone. It also helps during the difficult times like dealing with the death of a parent.

41. I am not adventurous with my hair color. I keep it natural, because the color is a bit strange anyway.

42. Running has been something that relatives on my dad's side have always liked. I enjoy it too, but don't do it nearly as often as I should. Some day, I would like to run a 10k. So far, I have only run a 5k. Marathons seem way too difficult and the training is too time consuming.

43. I think runners and soccer players have great bodies, which makes me wish running was a higher priority for me.

44. I hope nobody else in my family dies of cancer. A nice quick heart attack is better.

45. My dad's grandparents were in their 90s when they died. His parents are currently in their 70s and are still alive. He passed away at 56. I hope I am a lot older than that as long as I am healthy.

46. My dad ate very healthy, exercised, and never smoked, drank alcohol, or had caffeine. Sometimes healthy actions don't make you live longer.

47. Even though there is good reason, death has been on my mind too much lately.

48. Someday, I hope we move to Katy, Texas. I went to high school there and it is a wonderful place to raise a family.

49. My brothers all want to live on a ranch in Montana. They try to talk me into the dream too, but I think they are crazy. I want my home to be less than an hour away from an international airport.

50. I like snow sometimes, but I prefer warm weather climates.

51. I like owning jewelry, but usually only wear my wedding ring and little stud earings. Both of which, I rarely remove.

52. It sounds ridiculous, but from age 19 to 28 I felt very old. That was mostly due to the Mormon culture and not being married. When I turned 29, I decided to stop worrying about the stupid Old Maid crap. I like being in my 30s because I don't worry about silly ideas.

53. I have had jobs when I worked practically around the clock, but I am not a work-aholic. It simply is the best way to move up the corporate ladder. Now, I don't care about the ladder or where I am on it. In fact, jumping off it sounds like a great idea.

54. Funny thing is, I was only interested in my career and the corporate ladder for about 3 years. I didn't care about it while in college or for a few years after college.

55. I have a degree in Geography/Travel & Tourism, but got my first out of college job in construction/engineering. I have discovered that jobs in male dominated industries pay better.

56. My dad had no talent when it came to fixing or building things. My mom, on the other hand, was great at it. She took wood working classes and everything. My dad was basically an intellectual.

57. I think the fact that my mom could naturally do more things than my dad lead to her not asking him for help or having respect for him.

58. My husband is amazing at building and fixing things, so I ask him to help and do lots of things, including some of the things I could do myself. Perhaps, he'll get sick of it.

59. I have big dreams of traveling the world. When I was in jr high & high school, I was so jealous of my friends who got to go on international vacations. Jealous to the point of insanity.

60. Although I have traveled more than a lot of people my age, I don't think I have gone to nearly enough places. That is frustrating to me.

61. As a teenager, I always enjoyed babysitting hyper-active kids and kids that other babysitters avoided. They just seem more fun.

62. I used to babysit a family with 5 crazy little boys. They shot an arrow at one of my friends while she was babysitting and it stuck in her hand. I never had a problem & thought they were a blast.

63. I have only been snowboarding once. Despite the horrible bruises, I really liked it.

64. I always liked playing sports as a kid. Now, I watch professional games with my sports crazed husband.

65. I never had school spirit or favorite teams because we moved around too much. I like teams with interesting stories and players. Of course, I usually know more about my husband's favorite teams.

66. My brothers like to play sports, but they don't watch any. I know more about the teams in their cities than they do.

67. In high school, I once bet a guy I could make a basket from under the other basket and that he couldn't. I was just talking pure smack. I lobbed the ball across the court & it was nothing but net. Only god knows how I made it. The guy, of course, missed & never lived it down with the guys.

68. I took dance lessons all my life. I even had ballerina toe shoes. Looking back, I realize that it wasn't really my thing. I felt too self-conscious during the performances. I never worried about people looking at me while playing sports.

69. I haven't played any sports since high school.

70. I have never been a tomboy or a girly girl. When I was a kid, I liked both roles. Actually, I probably leaned toward tomboy more.

71. I never thought I would be intersted in plastic surgery until I saw the results of a co-workers tummy tuck. WOW! I hope I can afford one after popping out a couple of more kids.

72. I had lots of pets when I was a kid, but haven't owned even one as an adult.

73. It is a good idea to marry a divorced guy who was previously married to a bitch because he'll always appreciate you. That was my plan before anyway. Steve has never been married & I think he only dated nice girls.

74. My dad always went psycho when people used "swear words." Even if you try to avoid them, there is just no other word that truly describes a bitch.

75. My dad was always borderline crazy religious. That is why it was odd that he had such a huge crush on one of my friend's mothers (married). I found the love e-mails when my parents were seperated.

76. I didn't feel my dad betrayed my mother by having a crush on another woman. It was at the end of their marriage and she wasn't in love with him anyway. I was more concerned for my friend's family. I don't believe anything really happened between them, but it still wasn't right.

77. I have a very hard time keeping my mouth shut when I completely disagree with something.

78. I have a strong sense of fairness.

79. It is hard for me to be nice to people I don't like or don't respect. I prefer to blatantly ignore them and be very social with everyone else. I did this to my dad when I was mad at him. As you can guess, he hated it.

80. I enjoy playing mind games with people who annoy me. Is that cruel?

81. Both of my parents had physically abusive dads. My mom was never the target, but she watched her brother suffer. My dad crossed the line several times, but he wasn't as bad as his father. I would like to believe that my generation of cousins has totally eliminated that practice.

82. I don't consider spanking physically abusive. When I was about 7, I prefered to have my mom spank me over being grounded. The punishment was a lot quicker.

83. The truth often hurts, but it is better than the lie.

84. There are a lot of skeletons in my dad's family's closet. Anyone who tries to let them out is a traitor. I was my grandmother's favorite grandchild until about 10 years ago. Now, I am a blacksheep. I didn't even say anything that bad.

85. I don't mind being estranged from my grandparents. They live in the mountains of Idaho and are nuts.

86. Speaking of Idaho, the funny thing about the movie Napoleon Dynamite is that it is a pretty accurate representation of people there. It was my dad's favorite movie.

87. I don't believe that we should only speak positive things about people when they are dead. Everyone makes mistakes and hopefully we can learn from others.

88. I tend to smile a lot. In fact, some guys in high school called me perma-smile.

89. Life gets to me at times, but I prefer to deal with it and move on.

90. My father-in-law knew that my husband and I were meant for each other way before we started dating. In fact, it was from my photo and a long telephone conversation.

91. My husband and I have never had a fight. We have been mad at each other for things, but never totally disagreed enough to have a verbal brawl (yet).

92. When I am REALLY mad at my husband, I mentally plan out our divorce.

93. I am never mad for very long. I just don't like to be.

94. The first time Steve (my husband) asked me out, I told him I had dinner plans. That was a lie. I stayed home & watched tv. He asked me out the next night & I decided to go.

95. I didn't want to like Steve because I had been on 2 interviews in NY & knew that my whole life plan would change. I don't think women should change their plans for a man, but I did.

96. Steve lived several hours away at the time, so after our first date he stayed in my apartment. Funny thing is that he never left not even for a night. Suddenly, he was living with me.

97. I knew within the first week that we would get married. Eight months later, he proposed.

98. One of my friends, who had only met Steve once, told me she thought he would propose soon. I thought she was crazy. He proposed that night. How could she have guessed?

99. We both wanted a baby and never worried about birth control. After one year of dating & two years of marriage, we knew we had fertility issues. Even the doctor said it was a miracle when we got pregnant.

100. My dad & Steve's mom were both diagnosed with terminal cancer in April & May of 2005. A few weeks later, we discovered that I was pregnant. It couldn't have happened at a more perfect time. Our baby, Lexi, has been the best therapy for both of us.