33 Things About Me

My birthday is this weekend and so following in the tradition of Annette at Live, Learn, Love, I thought I'd share 33 things about me. Thirty-three is my new number. ;)

Without further ado, things you may or may not know about me:

1. I had to think about how old I was going to be this year. I quit keeping track after turning 30. I'm actually a year older than I thought I was. This does not bother me at all.
2. I am older than my husband, Jonathan, by 3 1/2 years. This also does not bother me. Or him. I guess that's all that matters.
3. We have three children. One is adopted. We frequently forget this fact. When I was pregnant and had to give my pregnancy history to my health care provider, I had to consciously think about the fact that I had only birthed one child. I kept telling them I had had two children previously. Had to think about that!
4. I always knew I wanted to be a wife and a mother growing up. I just don't recall feeling comfortable admitting that at the time. I did, however, have a hope chest growing up that ended up being quite laughable when it actually came time to putting the items inside of it to good use!
5. I went through 1 1/2 years of law school but I did not finish it. I decided that I didn't want to give my life to the law, so I worked as a legal assistant/paralegal instead. I enjoyed that. For the most part.
6. I very much love the law and love the legal world. For awhile, when I was in law school, I interned at a District Attorney's office. It was not a paid internship and I begged them to extend the internship (which they did) because I enjoyed it so thoroughly. Hands down best work experience in the whole wide world.
7. While I'm particularly fond of criminal law and the justice system, I do not like reading legal thrillers. Sometimes they hit too close to home and I'm reminded of people and stories that I know and cases that I worked on. Especially now that I'm a mother, I dislike reading stories involving murder. For me, it's very real.
8. I was born in Oklahoma but I grew up in Texas. I moved from Texas to Idaho when I was 24 and from there I moved to Oregon where I met and married Jonathan. Before I moved to Oregon, mutual friends had told me about Jonathan and I told them I was absolutely not at all interested. And I wasn't. For a few years anyway.
9. We had a wedding but I didn't want one. I dislike being the forced center of attention. I don't mind being the center of attention - sometimes - in ways which allow me to be somewhat in control of the situation. Weddings are hard to control. I would have happily eloped.
10. Despite the fact that I despised my own wedding, Jonathan and I became wedding photographers. We've shot weddings for over six years now and if I had it to do all over again, there are definitely some things I would have done to be able to enjoy my own wedding.
11. I want to have a "re-commitment" ceremony on our 10th anniversary. Maybe not a re-commitment ceremony as much as a celebration of marriage generally. (Again with that whole "center of attention" bit . . . ) I have some ideas brewing in my head.
12. It saddens me to think that my dad and Jonathan's mom won't be able to attend such a celebratory event, as we lost them both to cancer within the first 4 years of our marriage. We miss them. Very much.
13. My dad and Jonathan's mom both attended the same college at the same time, both in the music department. They never met but they had mutual friends. (That was cool to discover when we got married!)
14. Within the first 6 years of marriage we . . . bought and sold a house, rented another while building a log cabin on family property, suffered three life changing deaths in the family (two parents, one brother), took care of Jonathan's two younger sisters for a time, had three children of our own, have started three businesses and maintain two of them, and never did manage to make it to Europe as planned.
15. In my life time I have been a part of Presbyterian, Reformed Episcopal, non-denominational and charismatic churches. (Currently Orthodox Presbyterian.) I like liturgy and order a great deal. I find comfort and freedom in both. I also like exuberant worship. I dislike emotionalism. I dislike extremes of any sort and snicker at them. I care a great deal about worship. Theology is important. I feel suspect towards signs and wonders because unfortunately I haven't witnessed changed lives accompanying said signs and wonders. I rather wish people wouldn't pursue some of the signs and wonders that they do these days. I don't feel all are appropriate. I also like modern worship and wish more people felt comfortable singing (theologically solid) contemporary songs.
16. I consider my church family always to be an expansion of my own family. One of our sons is named after two of my/our former pastors.
17. Both boys are also named after C.S. Lewis in some form or fashion. Our daughter is named after a character in a Lucy Maud Montgomery book. You may now feign shock and surprise.
18. We live in the aforementioned log cabin. I always wanted to live in a house with character in a land that is green and beautiful. ("This is the first dream that has ever come true for me.") Well. Living in the green and beautiful land was perhaps the first dream that ever came true for me. However, many dreams have come to pass since then (i.e., Jonathan and our children, etc.) I count myself incredibly blessed!
19. Although I grew up in (South) Texas, I have no abiding love for the state. My memories of it are of being hot all the time and it being very brown and ugly. This opinion horrifies friends and family alike. (All of whom still live in Texas, I might add.) I feel sorry for people when they say that they are moving to Texas. Although, I would prefer for Texas politics to transfer to Oregon. I am pretty staunchly opposed to the ruling powers and laws that are here. But other than the politics and the available Chick fil A, I don't miss very much about Texas!
20. Because the place that I grew up was always so brown and hot, I have no problems with the cold and rain of Oregon. Although I do confess that at least one solid month of sun during the year would be particularly enjoyed (so long as the temp never goes higher than 85.) I HATE being hot.
21. I really loved drinking Coke Icees when I was growing up. I drank a 64 oz. Icee every single day of the week when I lived in Texas. Jonathan was horrified by this discovery when I told him about it. I'm horrified by it myself! How does one drink 64 oz. of pure sugar every single day!?!? I wouldn't do it now. But I did it then. And I enjoyed it.
22. I like Jillian Michaels. I know her personality is brash and in-your-face but she produces results. She's not working the 64 oz. daily Icees off of me, but she does help with baby weight. I recommend her 30-Day Shred to everyone looking for a good workout. In part, I recommend it because I know it works. The other part of me recommends it because everyone else to hurt as much as I do after a good workout. Ahhh, me.
23. When I was young I wanted to be a Zookeeper. I was insistent about this point for a long time. I don't really remember wanting to be anything else until making a decision to be a lawyer.
24. When I was young I wanted to name my future daughter Polly. This was my favorite name. I'm not sure why. At any rate, with all due respect to anyone out there named Polly, I named my pet guinea pig Polly and worked the name out of my system. My mother remains thankful to this day. Of course, Polly wouldn't have flown very far with Jonathan anyway so . . .
25. I had a pet snake named Smitty when I was growing up. Smitty was named after Michael W. Smith (favorite singer at the time) and the snake didn't actually live for very long. (Again with the grateful mother bit.) I fed it a goldfish as instructed and it swallowed it, ate the skin off, and spit the innards back out. I was horrified and disgusted. I held the snake until it relieved itself on me once and after that I completely lost interest in it. Since it wouldn't eat (seriously) it died. I saw it pounding its head into the rocks in the aquarium home and then it was dead. Snake suicide. My father disposed of its remains. I was glad to see it go.
26. I liked my pet hamsters better. They were cute.
27. I really like the idea of a dog but I don't like actually owning one. I'm an incredible fan of puppies and kittens and find it mildly unfortunately that they have to grow up.
28. I'm very glad that children do grow up. Bookworm3 has been a delightfully easy baby but I so love it when children start talking and communicating. So far I LOVE the toddler years when they have enough vocabulary to share their thoughts on the world with you. I have a book in which I keep a record of the things my boys say. I think they are funny. Plus they potty train easier (with conversation) and smell better than animals.
29. I really have a passionate dislike of romance novels. I think they effect emotions in negative ways. I speak both from experience and observation. Young ladies who spend a lot of time reading romance novels seem to lose their heads and hearts in the pursuit of imaginary romance. I don't mind romance IN a story but if the entire point of the book is to speak of fluffy love, I'm particularly not interested.
30. I am an extremely loyal person. Extremely. This works both for and against me. Because I am so loyal, I expect it from other people. This frequently leads to hurt which I am consciously carefully aware of now. If I say that I am your friend, I mean that most intensely and I'll stand by you through thick and thin. I refer to very few people as FRIENDS as a result. I have a lot of acquaintances and people that I would like to know better. But I'm more of the "bosom friend" variety of person. I like sharing everything with the people that I love best and there's truly only so much energy to go around. Jonathan gets first dibs. Some of my most wonderful friends I made in law school. I think that the best blessing of law school was the friends-for-life that I made there, truly.
31. My love language is time. I really value the time and focused attention that people that I love offer to me. Whether it's a movie night, or a good long e-mail, a heart-to-heart conversation or sometimes just the, "Hey, I was thinking about you today..." can go a long way with me.
32. I am always 100% sincere and try to be excruciatingly obvious when I'm being sarcastic or when I'm making fun of something. I get confused easily when people are always flippant and nonchalant in the way that they approach me. I never know if they mean the words coming out of their mouth or if I should dismiss them outright all the time.
33. I've recently changed my mind about Facebook. It IS fun and useful. Most of the time.

Speaking of time, I think I've probably taken up enough of yours for the day! =) Thanks for bearing with me!

In the meantime, I hope you all have a fabulously wonderful holiday weekend! I mean that sincerely. ;)