20 Things About Me....

Okay, there's this little email floating around and it keeps getting forwarded to me...I hate forwarding emails like this so, I'll just post it here and everyone can read it so if any of my 'ah hem' friends were thinking of sending this to me AGAIN...here are your answers.....

20 Things You Might Not Know About Me...

1. I am not a night owl. I never have been - not even in college. In fact, since we've had our daughter, my regular bedtime is around 8:30 p.m. - usually nothing gets done from me after this time unless I'm just super busy. I don't answer the phones, emails or really anything but head to bed after this time. Even my parents know that they don't call our house after 9 p.m. unless it's an emergency. Now I don't have a problem calling you at 5:45 a.m. because I AM a morning person!

2. I collect wines. I do drink wine on a few occassions, but really about 4 times a year. Shawn and I don't buy a lot of t-shirts when we go visit a new place, but love to buy local wines - especially the ones in a neat bottle. We never drink them, but they're cool to have.

3. I love Italian food. Pastas, sauces, garlic I'm all about that. That has to be my favorite type of food to eat. I can't handle spicey foods though - anything with lots of peppers or chili in it will send my stomach into a tailspin.

4. My daughter is my best friend. Yes, I know that means that my best friend is nearly 5, but I love being around her. She makes me laugh and sometimes want to pull my hair out, but it's a relationship I truly treasure - I'm crossing my fingers that we'll feel the same way about each other in 10 years!

5. I'm adopted. Actually, my brother and I both are. I get the best kick out of when people say that my mom and I look alike - I certainly know we ACT alike!!

6. I have to have multiple creative outlets. That's why I love photography because every client presents a new way to be creative, new, fresh and different. However, because I know somedays I'm ADHD, I have to try new creative things all the time like painting pottery, jewlery making, gardening, cooking, etc.

7. I am a GREAT multitaskter - I don't think I really know how to just do one thing at a time. I really don't - right now, I have a picture file open to work on, my blog, anwering emails and fielding phone calls - and that's really a light work load for me! Shawn makes fun of me all the time because I can't even sit and watch TV without doing something else. I have to fold laundry, work on the computer or SOMETHING to feel I'm being productive with my time. Mom always told me "Smart people don't get bored" and I rarely do!

8. My daughter is named after my best friend - Sue Ann. She meant the world to me from the time we were about 1 until she died just exactly 1 week before my 26th birthday. We were so close, some people thought we were sisters (even though I was a brunette and she was a red head). I still cry when I think about her and it's been 6 years ago. I also visit her grave at least once a month and tell Kallie stories about her all the time.

9. I believe that things in my world should be just, fair and equal.

10. I hate to clean house. REALLY hate to clean house. Frankly, my excuse is that I don't have time to clean house because I have so many other things going on in my life, that it's not really a priority.

11. I am the most UN-graceful person you'll ever meet. If there is a way for me to hurt myself, I'll do it. I'm really surprised at this point in life, I've never had to have stitches or had a broken bone! I've knocked myself out opening a kitchen cabinet door, shut my nose in my car door and there's a whole raft of other embarassing moments I won't name....

12. During college, I think I can honestly count 5 times I went out to a bar or a party. (See #1). However, I DID make several late night trips to a bar to pick up friends who needed rides home because, well, they didn't need to be on the road and I'm a good friend.

13. I love email! I remember being in college and (yes, this will really make me sound old) getting the internet in my apartment. An old high school ex-boyfriend helped me to set up my new computer and modem and I thought he'd broken it when I heard this weird sound. He laughed and had to explain it was the modem 'talking' to the internet. Oh....okay. (on a similar side note, I also remember when I got call waiting - that same year in college - and I had to call the phone company to find out why the phone kept 'beeping' at me while I was talking to someone).

14. I love to travel. I've been just about everywhere in the US - slept in the St. Louis airport once (fun - not), lived in DC for a brief time, Mexico and Jamaica (where Shawn and I got married). Still on my 'to visit' list is - Italy, Ireland, Spain and England.

15. I'm cheap (that's why my 'to visit' list is so short). I don't usually buy a lot of things for me - clothes, shoes, etc. except for when I NEED something and even then, well, I'm cheap. I get that from my dad. He's SUPER cheap sometimes! I have no problem spending money on other people, but when it comes to me, my 'me' purchases are few and far between.

16. In my lifetime, I've held several jobs - I raised a truck garden in high school (over a couple of acres of tomatoes actually - thus why I don't eat them - except in sauces), professional motivational speaker, gift shop employee, graphic designer, customer service person, newspaper editor, national magazine editor, photographer, reporter, radio DJ, home health representative and was also for a brief time, a pre-need planner for a funeral home.

17. I consider myself to be a very patient person. It takes a lot to get me mad, but I do have a temper once I've reached that boiling point. I don't let a lot of things bother me nearly as much as they used to. I figure life is way too short to worry about things that are either out of my control or frankly don't matter that much in the whole grand scheme of things in life.

18. I don't scare easily. The only thing that can really get me is snakes. Petrified of snakes! But bugs, mice, whatever, they don't bother me. They may startle me because I wasn't expecting them, but I figure I'm usually bigger so why should I be afraid.

19. I love learning new things. Right now my newest project is learning how to texture a wall. I've been saying I was going to remodel our guest bathroom for over 6 years now - never have. Finally, I just sucked it up and decided. Now's the time. Stripped the wallpaper from HE** off the walls, sanded, prepped, painted, and now texturing. I actually did stay up late past my bedtime last night to work on this because I was so excited that it was turning out so well. My work has had to be pieced together over a several day time period because of other things I've had going on, but I'm very excited to finish!! (and get the mess out of my hall way).

20. I love small towns. I grew up in a small town and went to school with all of the same people. I love going home now - especially to the church I grew up in - and seeing everyone. My old preacher is now retired, but still is there and every time I see him, I feel like I'm 5 again. After church, he would hunt down Sue Ann and me and stand us both together side by side and he'd get me on one face cheek and her on the other and give us a good natured pinch. He'll still do that too! We cry every time we see each other now because I usually have my daughter with me and I'll introduce her to him every time as 'Kallie Suanne'. We cry and smile.

BONUS:
21. I cry easily too! (had to write that as I sit here and wrote #20 and started tearing up).