101 Random Things

Ok, I got this idea from the fabulous Leslie Ashe to write up a list of 101 random things about myself. I had a lot of fun reading Leslie's, and it was a lot of fun to write mine! And hey, since i'm still holding out for the prospect of entering MMM and can't share layouts, I have to keep you all entertained somehow, right?? :-)

Here goes!

101 random things about me:
1. I had a dog named Keefer growing up.
2. and a cat named peaches.
3. and a hamster named Brittney.
4. she died while we were away on vacation and friends were watching her :-(
5. speaking of animals, I wanted to be a vet when I was growing up.
6. but then I decided it would be too much schooling.
7. so I decided to go into psychology instead (yeah – b/c that doesn’t require a lot of schooling, lol!)
8. I am ABD – all but dissertation
9. my real degree is an Ed.S (Educational Specialist) – it’s in between a master’s and a doctorate
10. I never really wanted to be in the doctorate program but my professor talked me into in.
11. I guess that’s why I never finished ;-)
12. I can still do private practice work without the doctorate, so it all worked out.
13. I still took the doctoral comps, though.
14. the written comp was 8 hours long.
15. the oral was 4 hours long in front of my whole committee of 6 professors.
16. that oral comp was seriously the most stressful experience of my life.
17. my GPA was much better in grad school then undergrad.
18. I think because I partied a lot more in undergrad:-)
19. that’s probably why I liked undergrad a lot better then grad school!
20. grad school was in Tucson.
21. I liked it there but really missed the east coast.
22. I surprised myself – I didn’t think I’d miss the east coast as much as I did!
23. tony and I weren’t even dating a year when we moved out to AZ together.
24. we drove each other crazy when we first started living together.
25. it was good experience for getting married and still driving each other crazy, lol.
26. planning our wedding was fun – lots of bonding time with my mom.
27. I’m very close with my mom.
28. and my dad.
29. and my brother and SIL.
30. I wish that we saw my MIL more.
31. I guess you can sum it up that family is really important to me in general!
32. My friends are incredibly important to me, too.
33. I used to have my belly button pierced.
34. and my nose.
35. and had lots and lots of holes in my ears.
36. and had one other mystery location pierced :-)
37. my mom hated all of it.
38. got one of my piercings on a trip with my friend lisa.
39. we flew into AZ and spent 3 weeks driving through Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.
40. I was reminded the other day that we rode on horses through mountains in AZ and crossed a small river.
41. we met a guy from Australia who we hung out with for a few days.
42. I miss Australia.
43. I studied abroad there my junior year of college.
44. definitely was a life changing experience for me.
45. I had an Australian boyfriend when I was there.
46. he visited me in the US the following year.
47. but I had another boyfriend then.
48. Lauren and I visited New Zealand on our spring break when we were in Australia.
49. it was the coolest thing to drive on windy roads looking at waterfall after waterfall.
50. we got stuck in a sheep crossing once and had to sit there for about 30 minutes until they all went across the street.
51. we stayed with my brother’s friend greg for a few days.
52. my brother and I fought a lot growing up.
53. we got really close, though, when he moved out of the house (good timing, huh?) when I was around 12 (he’s almost 6 years older then me).
54. I remember being really mad at him one time b/c he was supposed to help put my very first bike together and he changed his mind and wanted to sleep in.
55. I used to take my dog for walks while riding my bike.
56. that wasn’t very smart – I fell one time and hurt myself really badly.
57. there weren’t many kids my age in my n’hood – only one, actually.
58. I love that the n’hood we live in now has so many kids noah and chloe’s ages.
59. I played softball when I was younger and my dad was my coach.
60. to this day, my dad and brother make fun of my lack of athletic ability.
61. tony makes fun of my softball playing skills, too, and I don’t think he has any right to since it is all hearsay that he is going by :-)
62. my childhood best friend Marci played softball with me too.
63. we lost touch for awhile and then got close again in college.
64. we don’t talk anymore and that makes me sad
65. I also played basketball briefly when I was younger.
66. I think I am pretty good at making baskets (but that is about the extent of my athletic ability, lol).
67. I also was on a cheerleading squad (but only as a little kid).
68. and a baton twirling team (is that the right word? Are they called teams?)
69. and I was on a bowling league.
70. but I quit because I had to miss watching the smurfs on Saturday mornings.
71. but then I was pissed that I didn’t get a trophy like the other kids.
72. I also danced for about 8 years – mostly jazz.
73. I was in recitals every year.
74. tony and I took swing dancing lessons twice in the days before we got married.
75. we had a 15 piece swing band at our wedding – they were awesome!!
76. we’ve been married for 6 years now
77. I always wanted to have a boy and a girl, in that order.
78. that is what I had :-)
79. however, I also was convinced ever since I was little that I would have twins.
80. we didn’t find out the sex of either of our babies when I was pregnant with them.
81. I thought that would be super hard for me since I’m such a planner, but it was the coolest thing ever.
82. tony was completely convinced that chloe would be another boy, and he had me convinced, too.
83. If noah had been a girl, his name would have been Maya Brooke.
84. If chloe had been a boy, her name would have been Lucas Ray.
85. noah is named after my grandfather.
86. he died on September 11th, 2001.
87. yep… *the* September 11th. Horrible day for me for many reasons!
88. The Ray part of Lucas Ray would have been after Tony’s father who died back in 1998.
89. I wish the kids would have gotten a chance to meet their grandfather.
90. I have a horrible attention span.
91. and I diagnose children with ADHD all the time.
92. I can scrap for hours upon hours, though.
93. it helps keep me focused ;-)
94. I learned to crochet when I was really little from my mom’s friend.
95. I also used to dabble in cross stitch.
96. and knitting (but I was much better at crocheting).
97. I played the guitar in college.
98. my parents bought it for me for my birthday.
99. a lot of my friends played, so I learned from them (and I also took a class in college).
100. I really miss it and always say I want to get back into it – yet my poor guitar sits unplayed in a closet.
101. I thought it would be hard to come up with 101 random things about me, but I could actually keep going!!

Hope I didn't bore you to death, lol!

Speaking of MMM, I just want to thank you all for your support and encouragement. It amazes me that I didn't really enter the "online" world of scrapping until a few months ago (at least actively), and boy, was I missing out! In just a few months, I feel like I have made so many wonderful, supportive friends, and it has been so cool getting to know a lot of you through blogging, message boards, design teams, etc. And if any of you are lurking around, I'd love for you to leave me a comment some time so I can try to get to know you, too! :-)

Hope everyone is having a fantastic week!