100 Things

100 things about me:

1. I copied this idea from Stacie’s blog
2. I am 5 ft ½ in, but I like to round up to 5’1”
3. Other than running shoes, I don’t own any shoes with under 3 inch heels
4. I prefer 4 inch heels, especially wedges.
5. None of my pants fit unless I wear heels
6. I’ve lived in Santa Clara, Utah for 6 years
7. I’ve moved 12 times since I’ve been married and have built 5 houses.
8. I like this current house the best
9. I never wanted a swimming pool; Mark had to talk me into it.
10. Now I wouldn’t move unless the new house had a pool.
11. Our first apartment was in the Avenues in Salt Lake City.
12. It was an old polygamist house that had been converted into apartments. The kitchen was huge, but did not have a dishwasher or disposal.
13. I moved next into the ‘dead guy apartment’. We got the apartment after the previous tenant died of a drug overdose in the bathtub. He was in there a week before anyone found him.
14. I was thrilled to take the apartment because we got new paint, fixtures, carpet, etc.
15. We built our first house in Riverton, UT in 1997; it had a green roof and log pillars. As terrible as it sounds now, it was our ‘dream house’ at the time.
16. My first teaching job was at East High School in Salt Lake City; East High is where High School Musical was filmed.
17. During the summer off between teaching, I worked at a bagel shop because I liked the food.
18. I got pregnant that summer and ate a lot.
19. I had seven or eight students that year who were also pregnant.
20. I quit my job after having Madelin and cried regularly because I missed teaching so much.
21. I got over it; I tutored students in the afternoon to bring in some extra $$$.
22. In-between building houses, we usually rented an apartment or a house for a year or so.
23. We built our second house in Riverton, Utah. This one had a huge family room above the garage with dormers built in. I loved it!
24. We put the house on the market after living in it for 3 months and it sold the first week.
25. We moved to an 800 square foot home in West Bountiful, Utah. The house was renovated, but was extremely old. It was originally the house for the overseer of the church farm that used to be in West Bountiful. We lived there 2 years.
26. As a kid, I took piano lessons for 11 years; I was pretty darn good.
27. I have not regularly played or practiced piano for 17 years; and I am not so good anymore.
28. I played the clarinet for 5 years and in junior high when the band leader wouldn’t move my friend and I up to first chair (he assigned chairs by grade level, not necessarily ability), I organized a coup and convinced all the second chair clarinetists to quit the band.
29. I have never played the clarinet since.
30. I competed in public speaking in my senior year of high school; I did oratory.
31. I made it to state for oratory, but narrowly missed placing for nationals.
32. I always loved acting and am still secretly convinced that I would be fabulous in plays.
33. I never tried out for plays in high school because they were mostly musicals and I cannot sing.
34. I always wished I could sing.
35. The first play I tried out for was a play at BYU.
36. I made it to final call backs for the lead character, but flubbed the audition when they asked me to improv.
37. I am terrible at improvisation. I’m usually only clever and convincing if I have thought something through first.
38. I have not tried out for a play since.
39. I believe that teaching is part theater; it fulfills that entertainer itch I have.
40. I love school. I love taking classes and taking tests and getting grades.
41. I take standardized tests for fun.
42. I’ve given standardized tests to my girls for fun.
43. I graduated from high school in 1991.
44. I was not valedictorian and was really bugged about it because I wanted to speak at graduation.
45. I did get to speak at Baccalaureate.
46. I did not apply to any other schools except BYU.
47. I received a full ride academic scholarship to BYU.
48. I graduated from BYU in mathematics education in 1995.
49. I did not walk in the main graduation ceremony because it looked like too much trouble.
50. I did watch a portion of the main graduation ceremony from the seats in the auditorium.
51. My least favorite professor, who was a complete misogynist, ended up being the one handing me my diploma in my math program’s graduation ceremony
52. He mispronounced my name.
53. I graduated from WGU in 2004 with my Masters in Math Education.
54. I worked at WGU for the next 2 ½ years.
55. Since 1998, I have always had an active gym membership.
56. Barring pregnancy complications and post-surgery, I have regularly gone to the gym 5 days a week.
57. I hate dieting and would rather work out to get or stay in shape than give up food.
58. I like eating dry brownie mix, especially the kind with the chocolate chunks in it.
59. I don’t really like cake.
60. I do like chocolate and also tart candies and desserts.
61. I make, but do not eat, banana bread.
62. I met Mark on a blind date.
63. Before Mark, I made a point of only dating guys who were 6 feet or taller.
64. I initially bonded with Mark because we both like Clive Cussler books.
65. I still pick out books for Mark to read; he depends on me to always have books on hand.
66. I read between 2-3 books a week.
67. Mark was the first date I had gone on in 1 ½ years where I felt some “chemistry”.
68. I dated as much as I could at BYU to help stretch my food budget.
69. I was impressed by Mark because he had his own car. It was a blue Toyota truck.
70. I was impressed by Mark because he had a job and would take me out to eat and would buy me gifts.
71. At age 20, I was clearly impressed by the deeper things in life.
72. I hated the typical BYU coed stereotype, but I did have a missionary.
73. I dear john-ed the guy after getting engaged to Mark.
74. I got married in the Portland, Oregon temple even though my family was living in Seattle at the time.
75. At age 16, I got to volunteer in the Portland Temple during the open house and decided then that I would be married there.
76. The day I was married (April 28, 1994); it was 70 degrees and clear blue sky, an absolute miracle in Portland for that time of year.
77. I have three girls, Madelin, Megan, and Jane.
78. I waited 7 years, did 5 IUI’s, had 6 surgeries, and did 4 IVF’s before having Jane.
79. I had over 300 injections during the IVF cycles. Mark did about half, I administered the rest.
80. I am no longer afraid of needles.
81. I’ve had all my girls via c-section.
82. I’ve loved being a ‘first-time mom’ all over again and have been just as paranoid as the first time around.
83. I will be 51 years old when Janie graduates from high school. Ugh!
84. I like going to bed at 10:30 pm.
85. I usually take a bath every night.
86. I always read in the tub.
87. I have a bad habit of leaving wet towels on the floor.
88. I enjoy spending time on the computer, playing with Photoshop, and blogging.
89. I did not have internet in my house until 1999.
90. Now I cannot imagine living without it.
91. I like buying makeup, but I never buy it at department stores. I am a drugstore makeup junkie.
92. I absolutely love lip gloss and have a hard time resisting buying another tube each time I go to Target.
93. Target and Costco are two of my favorite stores.
94. Mark and I go to Costco for entertainment; I enjoy wasting an afternoon wandering the aisles of Costco and eating samples.
95. My favorite date is dinner and a movie; with the exception of when we have a new baby, we usually have a hard time finding videos to rent because we have seen everything.
96. I prefer Mexican and Chinese food, but I haven’t found a Chinese restaurant that I absolutely love here in St. George. I still dream about the Mandarin in Bountiful. Yum.
97. I don’t drive nice cars because I don’t take care of them very well.
98. I love playing Dr. Mario—an old school Nintendo game. Mark and I still challenge each other to Dr. Mario competitions.
99. I always want clean countertops in my kitchen. I hate piles.
100. I think furniture polish makes almost everything look better—countertops, refrigerator, sinks, bathroom fixtures, tables, baseboards, you name it.