100 Little Things

about me. Somethings you probably would never have thought to ask.

1) I was born in Detroit Michigan, but was moved to Nashville, Tn. before I was two years old. Personally, I think I have lost the southern accent, but many others claim that I still have a southern drawl.

2) I don't particularly care for my voice, I think it's too deep and at the same time too little girl sounding.

3) My speaking voice and singing voice sound absolutely not one iota alike.

4) I took 14 years of professional voice training. When I sing, I know how a potter feels. What they do with clay, I do with sound. I shape it, mold it, transform it. I try to make emotions tangible in it. I don't really care what other people think about it. I get lost in myself when I do it. It's my art. My greatest gift. People mocked Julie Andrews when she sued the doctor who botched her throat surgery. I did not. If it happened to me, I might not stop at a lawsuit.

5) I went to a small private Christian school my entire life except for one miserable semester of ninth grade.
There I was taught some of the most legalistic, dogmatic, unloving, unjoyful doctrine ever preached on the planet.

6) While I hated the theology, I loved most of the teachers. My favorite teacher of all time may have been Ronnie Rummage, whom I had the priviledge of having two years in a row, for junior advanced English and Senior AP english.

7) I made the only 5 (high score of 5) on the AP test that year. I also got the academic award for AP English. I beat out Robin Knothe. She always got the academic award for EVERYThING!

8) I had the award framed, and it still hangs on my wall today. It reminds me never to let people underestimate me.

9) From the time I was very young I knew I wanted to teach. I also knew I wanted to homeschool. I don't know that I ever thought about the logistics of how that would work, or the fact that it was really the best of both worlds. Though I am still waiting for Volusia County to send my paycheck for this year's work. I know we paid our taxes, so it must be coming sometime.....

10) This year I plan to read 52 books in 52 weeks. Though I have been hideous about keeping up with the blog, the reading is coming along right nicely. Boy, it sure is rough having to read so much!

11) In real life, I am horribly shy and quite introverted until I am really comfortable. Once I am comfortable, I am the life of the party. I stink at small talk and can't bare insipid conversation that goes on just so that there is no quiet. I would rather sit with someone in companionable silence then talk innanely.

12) Speaking of talk, I don't believe in baby talk. I have a fairly decent vocabulary (though I can't spell half the words I use with any regularity) and my children speak very well and fluently too. My oldest daughter began speaking at 7 months and has not slowed down or looked back. She can hold her own in a conversation with any adult. My friend at church calls her "an old soul locked in a child's body" and I find that description to be the most apt yet.

13) I'm 30 years old and have decided that I really want to learn ALS. I also want to teach it to all my children. Now I just have to get up and do it.

14) I'm also a little shy here in blog land. I'll lurk on a blog for weeks until I feel comfortable enough to comment. By that time I probably scare the person half to death because I feel comfortable enough to just say whatever it is that I am feeling, like I've known them for a long time. And though I may have been lurking, they don't know me from anyone.

15) I met my husband doing Shakesperian Theater in college. We were performing A Midsummer Night's Dream I was one of the lovers, he was one of the fools. I guess that pretty much sums up our whole lives together! He, by the way, spent most of the play dressed as a woman, and I still respect him.

16) We were each other's consolation Valentine's date in 1992. Both of us had recently ended relationships, but didn't want to be dateless for "the big day." We'd already been friends for awhile by that time. I don't think either of us really expected it to turn out like it did.

17) We hadn't been dating very long when he was dropping me off at my dorm one night. As he was walking away I shouted out "I lo......." without even thinking. Then midsentence I thought to myself "ohmygosh! what are you saying to this person you've only been dating a FEW WEEKS! So I quickly changed it to "Goodbye!" So the first time I ever told him "I love you" it was really " I lo......Goodbye!" We sorted it all out on the phone later that night. But we still laugh about it today. I guess anytime it pops out that naturally, it has to be pretty honest.

18) Sometimes I still get baby fever.

19) But I really NEVER want to be pregnant again.

20) Someone needs to leave a baby on my doorstep.

21) My house is less than 1,000 square feet. I am the world's most creative organizer.

22) Speaking of organizing, I am a weird, oxymoronic mix of ultra-organizer combined with horrid procrastinator. This leads to many mental thrashings of myself. It's not pretty.

23) Despite a bent towards procrastination, my house has VASTLY improved over the last three years. The war on crap continues, but I am winning.

24) I long to create something.

25) but I have no idea what.

26) Some people are encouraging me to try altering a book. I am not sure I can bring myself to do it. It's just wrong!

27) The practical side of me wars with the creator in me and wants to know what the heck a person does with an altered book anyway....

28) she also would like to know where the heck we are going to put such an Item in the aforementioned less then 1,000 square foot house.

29) The creator in me might modge podge her mouth shut.

30.) I can ride a bike, Ice skate and roller skate forward and backwards, ride a pogo stick and jumprope.

31) but put me on a skateboard and it's a suicide mission to burnouts-ville.

32) I learned that the hard way.

33) I spent winters sledding down real Tennessee hills. The kind that wore holes in Big wheel tires.

34) It's been 10 years since I have seen snow.

35) There are lots of real perks to Florida "winter-ish" I can garden and play outside all year round. It's never too cold for the park. Seldom to cold for the beach, and you generally never have to look far to find a place to swim. But I still wish we could have one real snow fall a year.

36) The only season I really pine for is autumn. We never get that crisp smell here, and the leaves never change color. They just wait until you are asleep one night and die and fall off the tree. Then you wake up, put on your shorts, look out the window and say "oh it's fall."

37) Christmas generally falls 1 week or so after that.

38) I can't dance.

39) don't ask me too. I do well to walk somedays.

40) I also don't play a single organized sport, nor have I any desire to. Ever.

41) But I can swim circles around most anyone. And I'm not afraid to do it naked.

42.) As for me and my house, we will root for the Mets.

43) We do not questin #42 for any reason under penalty of tickle.

44) Penalty of Tickle is held with utmost respect in this house as well.

45) I have many moles. They're gross.

46.) I also have many stretchmarks--they're grosser, but in less obvious places (for the most part).

47.) For a person who was 22 before they had surgery of any kind. I am a walking medical journal of surgical scars. Each with a delightful story.

48) It's a good thing my husband loves me like he does, because this body has gone down hill from the college years.

49) This December I will have been married for 10 years. My husband is absolutely the greatest man I know. Men could take lessons from him on how to be a good husband. That said, he still doesn't know where all the laundry goes once it's folded.

50) Many people crashed out wedding ceremony. There ceremony was private (family only) but we held it in a public place (Opryland Hotel Conservatory), so we told people we couldn't "invite" them, but if they were in the area we couldn't really stop them from seeing the ceremony.

51) My husband and I are both completely addicted to coffee, and I never drank coffee before I met him so he is entirely to blame.

52) My caffiene addiction is not something I intend to ever worry about. There are many far worse vices in this world, and if this is mine, then I'm not doing too badly. Me on a "rebellious" day would be unshowered, drinking coffee and reading a book. I real threat to society.

53)I want to learn to do a million crafty things like knit, crochet, sew and more, but right now all I can do is cross stitch.

54) I have never spent Christmas away from my family.

55) This year my children have told me they want to spend Christmas at home.

56) I'm actually considering it.

57) I am a Thanksgiving hermit. For two years I got to make a full Thanksgiving spread and we spent the entire day, just us, doing and eating whatever we wanted, and it was wonderful.

58) Last year we didn't get to do this, and I don't have the guts to tell family its the way I would like it to always be.

59) I love christmas lights. Lots of them. Everywhere.

60) My pet peeve is to have them still up when the new year rolls around. People in Florida leave them up all the time. It's the tackiest thing I have ever seen in my life.

61) I live in a neighborhood where there is very little hope. It is heartbreaking.

62)I am an eclectic dresser, but I am also very picky.

63) I really hate to shop.

64) The main reason is that I can be extremely critical of myself and how I look in certain clothes.

65) I need to relax and give myself a break sometimes.

66) I have spent longer in labor with one child then many women I know have taken to have their entire family of children.

67) All of my children were born by C-section.

68) All of my children have four names.

69) My middle child looks very little like her sister and has not one gene of mine. I was simply the incubator.

70) People told me my middle child was autistic.

71) I refused to believe it.

72) She's not--in fact she is one of the sweetest, most social, delightful little creatures you could ever meet.

73) She just needed a little time to realize that the world is not a scary place. That is something I can totally relate to.

74) My oldest two girls are 11 months and three weeks apart.

75) They had the same due date.

76) My middle daughter and my youngest daughter are 17 mos apart.

77) We lost a baby between Bailey and Olivia. It was the most horrible experience of my life.

78) Without going into a ton of Detail, the only reason we have Olivia is because we thought we were still pregnant with the child we had lost. God knew what we needed even when we didn't.

79) Life without princess drama queen would be dull indeed.

80) I hae owned a succession of weird pets in my time--a ferret, two tarantulas, cats, dogs, birds, fish, hermit crabs, mice, gerbils, hamsters.

81) I'd really like to give my children the same experience, but at the same time the two dogs and the cat we have now totally drive me up a wall. They make me feel like "Butter spread over too much bread"

82) I rarely watch telelvision.

83) But my husband and I are addicted to Friends and M*A*S*H. We can quote lines from Friends for days!!!!

84) I have three younger brothers.

85) They are 4, 7 and 9 years younger than me. Sometimes it feels like a lot more.

86) I am the only child in my family who is married or has kids. So is Craig on his side.

87) We are both first borns, and our first born daughter is ULTRA first born. I am not sure how we are all going to live here when she gets to be a teenager. Maybe I'll move out into a little house on the beach.

88) My ultimate dream would be to live on the water. Or on a houseboat.

89) My dream vacation would be Kenya or New Zealand.

90) My dream house would be made of chocolate and I could nibble the walls all day and never gain an ounce.

91) I never ate vegetables regularly until I was an adult. And even now I am fairly picky about what vegetable I like and how I like them cooked.

92) All beef should be served rare. Anything more is simply a crime against the meat.

93) I can eat a three minute steak.

94)My favorite dish to serve to company is cornish game hens. They are the easiest thing in the world to serve, and they look very impressive.

95) I really enjoy cooking, and I am quite good at it.

96) I really enjoy eating, and I am quite good at it!

97) I have always been the world's fastest test taker in any class I have taken. I test very quickly and I never second guess an answer. I also never look back over a test. I have always made excellent grades. I guess I am simply very decisive about what I know.

98) I don't do well with compliments, and I don't really care to receive them. I always feel like a big doofus when I am saying thanks or trying to figure out how to respond.

99) I've never had a cavity and I've never had braces.

100) My elbows are double jointed.

Comments

[Kandra]

I think that you are a totally cool and original person. I came across your page because you have the lyrics to one of my favorite songs. Word of God Speak. I also home school. I love to teach. And I play the vibraphone and sing (a little). I think we are around the same age.

[Keziah]

We are quite similar in a few ways. I am also a singer and have just spent today recording my first CD - it was so exciting to hear the recording!

You said, "In real life, I am horribly shy and quite introverted until I am really comfortable. Once I am comfortable, I am the life of the party." I can completely go with this - it might take a wee while for me to get to know you, but once I'm comfortable, I am really comfortable!

All that said though, I just CAN'T understand why anyone would have tarantulas as pets. The thought is actually sending shivers up my spine as I type!

[Janice]

Oh how I wish I could sing. It looks like the most wonderful thing. I really envy a beautiful singing voice. I am hoping that is one of the perks in Heaven.

I am so the opposite when taking tests. I always go over and over. I rarely leave early. I do well, but I am not a decisive person - and I mean really indecisive. I live in the land of regret and questioning myself. When I shop without my twin sister, I will ask strangers their opinion - which is a crazy thing to do!! What do they know?!?

[ladjel]

hi
and good fir all

[VJ]

I taught Tony our dialect of ASL from the time he was a baby. He signed his first word to me when he was nine months old. It has become our "family" language, and we have found it very helpful.

I have never had a cavity in my mouth either.

[kristi]

#21 - 1000 sq ft - try 530 sq ft my new home..

#13 - What is ALS?

#53 - I'll teach you to crochet in St Louis, are you rt or lt handed....

great job, I couldn't do 100 things about me, that would require thought... :)

[Jojo]

2. Well, pooey on you, I like your voice JUST FINE.

3. this is very true... but both are beautiful.

10. I've sort of veered way off my reading plan... but am not really that far off-target for the number of books I wanted to read.

11. I think that was one of my favorite parts of coming to visit. Sitting in comfortable silence and not feeling like we HAD to fill up the silence with pointless crap.

17. THAT is totally sweet.

49. I don't think that most men do.

56. So are we... I'm actually rather looking forward to a very restful Christmas.

81. What happened to your fish? did you kill them?

[Jamaine]

Mets rule, Yankees drool!

I can't believe its almost 10 years for you and Craig. Congratulations! It couldn't happen to two more amazing people.

FYI - at least Craig folds laundry. Rick's only chore is the litter box and I have to stay on his butt to get him to do it a couple of time a month. Needless to say, the box is in the basement. Ugh!

[AGK]

Getting to know you better every day. YAY!

[Maria]

Thought yoy would like to know Leann had her baby!

Here's the link to know the story http://www.geocities.com/academy252/weblog.html

[Tiff]

Fabulous list! I still have 30 things to do for mine and I'm stuck. I guess I'm boring as dirt. LOL!

[Becky S]

Good read. But, uh, the Mets? THE METS?!?

[pattie]

Very cool list! Thanks for sharing yourself with us!

[Heather]

I htink I'll have to read in shifts cause I can't stay on long. And I LOVE your voice, singing or speaking. :o)

[naomi]

Well there you have it....

100 more reasons to LOOOOOVE Dana.

~hugs sweetie-pie~

[Gene]

Thanks for sharing that little glimpse of your inner self with us, Dana. Sounds to me like you're very comfortable in you're own skin--it's important to go through life that way! It also seems that you and hubby are deeply in love and are still eachother's best friends--also not a bad way to go through life. Incidentally, I can honestly say, your husband knows exactly where the folded laundry goes--he's just playing ignorant to get out of putting it away. That's part of our genius as men...

[Cheri]

#14 that is *so* me. A lot of times I'll type out a big response and my good sense will kick in and I'll remember that our relationship is one sided (lol) and if I send in what I've just written I'll be blocked from the site for fear of me being a stalker. :) The boys will have ASL as part of their schooling this fall. I'm still looking for a good resource for this. Living in S. TX I can completely identify with the feeling of missing the seasons. Although the one I miss is Spring, with everything in eternal bloom you don't get to see the earth 'wake up' and I miss that.

[Sara]

Love. It. I didn't know you were a first-born! Hey, me too!! Firsty-types rule. I can NEVER do these 100-things lists. I get to about #23 and my A.D.D. kicks in, and suddenly I'm talking about goose crap on the sidewalk. Freak.

Maybe one of these days I'll F.O.C.U.S. and actually do this. Hmmmm... I don't know that there ARE 100 things about me. 50 maybe? 62 would be really stretching it. I might could do 58. 58 things about me. That might be mildly interesting.

Um - anyway. Great postypoo. You're my hero. *heart*

[Tookshire/Jamie]

Can I request that everyone do this? I've shared with Dana that I have huge memory problems and try to keep straight who is who on line (I had it down pretty pat until everyone started changing backgrounds, then I was lost). I would love to get to know everyone a bit better, being the new girl on the block. I'll work on mine a bit, too.

[Tookshire/Jamie]

Can I request that everyone do this? I've shared with Dana that I have huge memory problems and try to keep straight who is who on line (I had it down pretty pat until everyone started changing backgrounds, then I was lost). I would love to get to know everyone a bit better, being the new girl on the block. I'll work on mine a bit, too.