100 Things About Me...

In honor of my 100th post and in the tradition of fellow bloggers I have compiled 100 things about me. Hold on to your seats folks....

1. I hang my clothes up inside out.
2. My favorite cereal is Fruity Pebbles. It used to be Fruit Loops. See? I like fruit.
3. I love roller coasters.
4. I met my husband when I was 17 years old.
5. I married him when I was 19.
6. I thought I was full of worldly wisdom.
7. I was an idiot.
8. I lived with my grandparents until I was 4 years old.
9. My mamaw started me on my diet of mostly bread & sugar items and those have been my must-have staples ever since.
10. She let me eat maraschino cherries out of the jar until they made me sick.
11. When I was a kid I had more imaginary friends than real ones. Thank goodness that changed.
12. My mom got pregnant with me when she was 17 years old.
13. She attended the Edna Gladney School and I always remembered that name. It wasn't until I was an adult that I found out that the primary purpose of that school is for adoption services.
14. I was conceived one year prior to the Roe vs. Wade ruling. If my mother had been given the "choice" she would have most likely chosen abortion. She was encouraged to choose adoption. She chose me instead.
15. She died of cancer when she was 37 years old. I was 19. My brother was 13.
16. I hear her voice and see her hands every day that I mother my children. She impacted my life like no other human being.
17. I will turn 35 this year on my birthday.
18. I cannot imagine not having more children.
19. Newborn babies make me cry...even when they are not my own.
20. I have 3 children, but I have been pregnant 5 times. I miscarried two babies.
21. I think miscarriage is a very difficult thing to understand if you haven't experienced it.
22. When I was a kid, I would stick pillows up my shirt and pretend that I was pregnant.
23. When I was a kid, I would light the butt-ends of my mother's cigarettes and try to puff away on them so I could look like her. Are you enjoying the visuals?
24. I was a goofy kid.
25. I love Girl Scout Thin Mints.
26. I have eaten a whole box in one day.
27. I can't buy them anymore. It isn't safe.
28. I have been to Cancun, Mexico.
29. That is the only time that I've left this country.....so I need to get out more, huh?
20. My mom would drop me off at Vacation Bible School when I was a kid but I didn't know anybody there.
21. I made a ceramic plaque that said "Jesus" and I painted it with pastel colors. I thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever made.
22. I hung it in my room.
23. I still have it today.
24. I don't have very many things from my childhood because when I was 16 we lost almost everything in a fire.
25. I had cut school that day and was washing my friends car. (Nothing says, "bring on the weekend" like a clean ride)
26. When my mom pulled up in the driveway, I nearly wet my pants. I thought she had busted me for skipping school...but it was much worse.
27. The year that followed that fire was probably the worst year of my life.
28. Then I met Chris, a.k.a...Big Daddy!
29. We had yet to surrender our lives to Christ, so things were hard...very hard.
20. Praise God, He had been working in both of our lives from the beginning.
21. Chris had the hair of three grown men when I met him and the first time he took off his hat, I thought would be the last time I would go out with him. I was scared of that mullet.
22. When he cut it off (beard included) I didn't answer the door because I didn't know who it was.
23. Young love was dumb.
24. For nearly two years, we drove one truck. We shared a truck.
25. It had no air conditioning. Did I mention we are from Texas?
26. I will eat beans from a can before I will drive a car without air....ever again.
27. Now that I think about it, we did eat beans from a can AND drove a car without air. We have paid our dues.
28. Our first apartment together consisted of a brown love seat, an orange recliner, a brass & glass (classy) dinette, and a twin mattress on the floor in the bedroom. Boxes for a dresser and we were set. Insanity. Remember when I said young love was dumb?
29. With all of these fine luxuries and his high paying job, I decided this was an opportune time to marry.
30. We married at the Justice of the Peace and I borrowed my aunt's dress. Chris wore jeans and a tie. We looked pretty doggone spiffy.
31. I don't regret much in my life, but I still wish we could have afforded a wedding. That whole living "vicariously" through your children thing will be rearing it's ugly head in 15 years or so. Look out Hannah!
32. My favorite shows when I was a kid were Hee-Haw, Little House on the Prairie, Donny & Marie, Fantasy Island & The Love Boat, Batman & Robin, A Family Affair, and Gidget.
33. I loved spending weekends with my aunt. She made me feel like I was special. I thought she was super-beautiful and I had crushes on all her boyfriends.
34. I want to be an aunt. (anybody out there listening?)
35. I moved 5 times by the 5th grade.
36. When I was in 2nd grade I lived in the Wilmer-Hutchins school district in South Dallas. I was in the minority-10% population of Caucasian students.
37. Being the minority is not fun.
38. In the 3rd grade I was the only white girl in my class. My parents pulled me out and I went to private Christian school for one year.
39. The private school taught about God and Jesus and bible stuff and that freaked my parents out.
40. I went back to Wilmer-Hutchins.
41. I guess they thought the crazed, racially charged, dangerous environment there was better than the invasive bible school where I had been. That's how offensive God's word can be.
42. I rode the short bus, but I wasn't mentally challenged.
43. Everybody loves to make fun of the kids who ride the short bus and it ain't right.
44. I'm glad they did away with the "short" bus.
45. We used to eat powdered kool-aid from the palm of our hand at the bus stop while we waited. I guess that is like the crack-equivalent for today's kids.
46. I was always fascinated with Jesus. I knew God was working...speaking....calling....showing...teaching. I knew. I didn't know enough to repent. But I knew....something.
47. I was so infatuated with Jesus that I put together a manger with two sawhorses, some hay and my tomcat, Toby. I tried to wrap Toby in a papoose so he would lay nice and still in the manger...just like Jesus.
48. I was able to snap a quick photo before Toby tried to claw my eyes out.
49. Because I did not repent and God had yet to transform my life....change my heart....or wake me from my coma of sin, I made a lot of really stupid decisions.
50. For a long time I was embarrassed about who I was...what I did...who I hurt.
51. I know longer focus on me at all. Only on the glorious grace that God has poured on me. He covered me with Amazing Grace and my sins are forgiven. My past only points to what He saved me from. Period.
52. I always wanted to be a dancer when I was a young girl.
53. FAME! I want to live forever. I want to learn how to fly...HIGH!
54. Oh, have mercy, did I ever want to be on that show.
55. I love chicken & dumplings.
56. I am a morning person.
57. I love flip-flops.
58. I feel funny when I dress up. Panty-hose are retarded.
59. I have a gray streak in the front of my hair. So did my mom.
60. My husband says he "loves it" but I think he just wants me to look older than him.
61. I broke my arm when I was 6-years old and it was summertime, so I had to wear a Mrs. Baird's bread bag on my arm if I wanted to sit near the pool.
62. I have one brother named Joshua. I miss him very much.
63. I can remember my mom singing to my brother when he was a baby about Joshua fighting the battle of Jericho. I did not know what that meant until I was an adult.
64. I wore braces as an adult and through my pregnancy with Hannah. People thought I was a teenage mother. I got asked for ID to buy spray paint.
65. I didn't wear my retainer and my teeth moved back.....Duh.
66. I like to tell it like it is.
67. I don't like it when you tell it like it is, if it hurts my feelings.
68. I guess that means I can dish it out but I can't take it.
69. I'm working on it.
70. My closest friends must be okay with my continual stream of random thoughts.
71. My teachers were not okay with my random thoughts.
72. I met my biological father for the first time when I was 21-years old. It was like a cross between the Twilight Zone and Oprah.
73. I got his bushy eyebrows and pot-belly. Thanks biological Dad. You're the best.
74. I want to live in the country. Lots of land, some rolling hills, and chickens....I want lots of chickens.
75. I don't ever want to live more than 20 minutes from Target, church, and Sonic.
76. That kinda puts a cramp in our hunt for farmland.
77. I love the lake. I love fishing, boating, camping, all of it.
78. I love my husband.
79. My husband makes me laugh. If I were offered a million dollars to stifle it and not laugh...Chris could ruin it for me every single time.
80. Seeing my husband hold each of our children for the first time filled my heart up to the tippity top with crazy love and admiration.
81. Seeing my husband being transformed by a God's grace leaves me without words and on my knees in gratitude and humility. His provision is an abundance of blessings and that young boy that I married has been changed into a Christ-like image of what God says is "husband" & "father".
82. I drive too fast.
83. I like for someone else to drive so I can finish putting on my make-up because....
84. I am always late.
85. My feet are always cold.
86. I take a really hot bath every single night (almost)
87. When I read a magazine I never start at the beginning. I do the same thing with catalogs.
I just sort of flip around.
88. I have a wonderful "event" memory but I can't remember phone numbers. I probably only know about 10 phone numbers at any given time.
89. I think breastfeeding is the best way. There ain't no talking me down off this soapbox.
90. I think being at home with my children is the only way. Nobody else to wipe these noses or bottoms. I'll be the one with the hugs, kisses, and wooden spoon...thank you very much.
91. I think spankings are almost always a necessary part of discipline. There you go California. I said it. Bring it on!
92. I love chicken & dumplings....peanut butter & syrup....cake icing from the tub.....Blue Bell Wedding Cake ice cream.....sugared pecans.....biscuits & gravy......sweet tea.....and white bread.
93. I am always struggling to lose about 10 pounds. I have never wondered why. See #92
94. I once thought that I would be a hair dresser....then a teacher....then a midwife or lactation consultant. I now know that I am what I am to be. This is it. I am their mother and his wife. It is enough.
95. When God converted my life...changed my heart....opened my eyes....resuscitated me, I was never the same. I changed. There are things that I did before that I have never done again. There are things that I never did before that I started doing and have not stopped. I still sin. A whole bunch. It is covered with grace. I have faith. It is a gift from God and I do not deserve it.
96. I wish I could "convince" others to believe and have faith and follow Christ and know the truth of the gospel. It is a burden to know that people that I love are living without the love of Christ in their lives.
97. There are people reading my blog that I don't know. They have never commented but they read my blog everyday. That is funny to me.
98. I drink my coffee with a "lot" of cream. I drink Diet Coke and Diet Dr. Pepper and I prefer them in the can....cold.
99. My middle name is Marie. My mother's middle name is Marie. So is my grandmother, my great-grandmother and my daughter, Hannah.
100. I never know when to be quiet. If I'm quiet you can be certain....something is wrong.
101. Apparently whenever I count to 29, my brain believes you go back to 20...cause I did that twice. So it goes without saying....Numbers ain't my thing!