25+ random facts

If any of you want to read my 25 random facts I did for Facebook (it's all the rage these days) but aren't on Facebook, here they are.

1. I love, love to read blogs. However, I think my writing, grammar, and spelling skills have deteriorated as a result.

2. If I could relive any 12 months of my life, it would without hesitation be June 1999 – May 2000. And I wouldn’t change anything except for appreciating my family more.

3. Some of my favorite people to hang out with are my family and my husband’s family, and I love living close to them (except Mark is kind of far away).

4. I get scared easily, and I don’t like coming home to an empty house, especially after dark.

5. I have discovered my love of cooking. Now if only I had a love of kitchen clean-up…

6. I love movies, books, and songs that make me cry. The first memory I have of a book that made me cry was Where the Red Fern Grows. We read it as a class in fifth grade, and I got to the sad part during in-class reading. My desk ended up all wet, and some of my classmates made fun of me. I remember having a fun fifth grade class but don’t remember everyone who was in it. Yay for fifth grade with Mrs. Honas! The last movie that made me cry was Grace is Gone, which I watched yesterday. The last song that made me cry was From the Depths in church on Sunday.

7. I cry easily.

8. My most major injury resulted in more than seventy-five stitches.

9. Remember the lawyer from Seinfeld, Jackie Chiles? Once when I was a Student Ambassador to the Newton City Council, a lawyer just like that (in looks and manner) presented to the Council.

10. I watch almost every dvd with the subtitles on.

11. I care about being a good steward of the earth, but I much prefer the way coffee tastes out of paper to-go cups than a plastic or metal travel mug and will always opt for this even though I could save ten percent using my own mug. I even buy paper to-go cups to transport coffee I make myself (I recently purchased a ceramic to-go mug, though, and have been using it instead).

12. I believe my cat to be the smartest, cutest, and softest, and I will miss her like crazy when she’s gone. If I had a lot of disposable income and felt like it would be a good use of the money (which I never could since that money could be so much more useful), I would pay the $50,000 to clone her. I would likely be disappointed, though, since the new cat could very well be nothing like the good Dr. Nibbert.

13. If I had slightly less but still significant disposable income, I would buy a full set of Wüsthof kitchen knives.

14. If I had even more disposable income, I would pay for someone to come wash and style my hair every morning. I love to get my hair cut because it is so relaxing.

15. I am very sentimental, sometimes to the point of absurdity. For a long time I had a sack of broken truck parts from when a high school boyfriend had an accident at my house. The worst thing I’ve ever saved is some Dr. Pepper from the can I was drinking the night before a boyfriend broke up with me. Those items long ago went to their proper place (trash), and I am less absurd with my sentimentality these days. I do still have the first note I got from a boy about a date, and I do still try to record in writing special conversations I have with friends/people I admire.

16. I sometimes realize I take for granted that I’m married to a human encyclopedia/history book/dictionary/current events catalog/fix-it person/knower of pretty much all things. Whenever I have a question about something, I always ask Brian, and he basically always knows the answer.

17. I love Kansas.

18. It was not without its frustrations, but I loved my job at VideoMax in high school. (Yes, that was the one with the plane sticking out of it.) Also, I’ve already had my dream job – bookkeeper at Camp Mennoscah – but there is probably another dream job waiting out there.

19. I played the violin for about six weeks prior to fifth grade. Not continuing with it and switching to the clarinet is one of my regrets. Another regret is not caring about history until after I was done with all history courses.

20. When I was two or three I could name by sight all the players of the Wichita Wings. The only names I remember today are Chico Borja and Fast Eddie.

21. I have been taken to the ER by ambulance twice.

22. Though I later found out students from the other six elementary schools called it “Stinkin’ Lincoln,” I loved my elementary school, the teachers, and the experience I got there. I do not wish I had gone anywhere else!

23. One favorite memory I have from elementary school is singing Eternal Flame by the Bangles at the top of our lungs on while swinging during recess.

24. In addition to Eternal Flame, other favorite songs of mine from my youth include: Stand by REM, End of the Innocence by Don Henley, of course some NKOTB songs, and Sara by Starship.

25. I’m surprised my parents let me do this, but Saturday mornings as a young girl I loved to sit in our Datsun in the driveway and listen to the radio. I would always try to get to stay out there long enough for Sara to come on.

BONUS!

26. I've had the same hairdresser my entire life.

27. I always romanticized farm life and wished I had grown up on a farm (though I probably wouldn't have enjoyed all the work and being tied there and all the stress that comes with being farmers). I'm glad I married someone who grew up on a farm and whose parents still farm so I can get a taste of it. Steering the tractor and combine for like 30 yards still excites me. I still think it might be fun to farm someday and I definitely still want a horse.

sewer squirrel

We had some interesting times over the break. What follows is one of them. Monday morning of the week after Christmas, Brian headed out the front door, and I went into the bathroom to look in the mirror. Once in there, I heard some scratching/gnawing sounds. I wondered if Brian might be working on something on the house, perhaps trimming back some of the vines that threaten to cover the entire exterior. However, I could kind of trigger the scratching/gnawing by walking around on the bathroom floor. It pretty much sounded like it was coming from right behind our sink. But I held on to hope. Brian came inside, and I inquired about any possible exterior work. Nope. So I led him to the bathroom to investigate. Brian agreed that it was either in the pipes or in the wall. He informed me that there are pipe vents on roofs and the squirrel (or whatever) likely fell in that way. Just a question -- Why wouldn't those vents have mesh coverings on them? So there we were. What can you do? It's not like you can start taking apart pipes -- who wants a wild sewer squirrel running around their house? We hoped he might find his way through our pipes and find an escape route once he cleared our house. A while later the sounds ceased. Things seemed to be going okay until evening when I flushed the toilet (which contained nothing clog-worthy) and it started to back up. I quickly turned off the water and avoided a mess. Everything upstairs still seemed to be working fine. I wondered whether this was because it was actually on a different system of pipes or simply because there was more length of pipe to fill. Tuesday morning I showered and then Brian showered (upstairs). Partway through his, I noticed water on the floor of the main floor bathroom. And by the time he was finished, the floor was quite covered and there was some nasty backup in the tub there. It also smelled horrible. I promptly called StarDrain. They said someone would be out that afternoon. Fifteen minutes later, out of nowhere, the tub drained and the toilet flushed. Problem solved! Apparently all the pressure in the pipes and from the tub filling finally pushed the little guy out. Of course we were still cursed with a lot of cleanup, but we were pleased to be able to get out of the house -- and away from the smell -- to meet some friends for lunch.

christmas: gifts

If you are curious about what I got Brian that I was excited about, it's in the comment section of this post. He got me a sweet single-cup coffee brewer that makes it directly into your mug. I love it. The gift I wanted to highlight in this post, however, is one we got from Brian's brother and his wife. Really, it is a gift for Nibbert. The packaging said: Size: Medium, Style: Evening Wear. She really does look stunning in her tux vest.

christmas: goodies

I was successful in my Christmas treat making! There was only one planned item I did not get around to (Sorry, Em, it was the monster cookies. But I have all of the stuff, and once things aren't so crazy, I will make them!). So the list, some of which is pictured below, is: cinnamon popcorn, caramel popcorn (really, Brian did this, on two separate occasions, and most likely after 1 am so I could go to bed), zweiback, cinnamon rolls (all on my own from my grandma's zweiback recipe the day after the lesson), wild rice and corn casserole, butternut squash puree, butternut squash bisque, chocolate candy cane cookies (which I, oddly enough, really liked despite my usual aversion to mint chocolate), and cutout sugar cookies (which I can really take little credit for since my mom gave me the dough as a present to accompany new cookie cutters and Brian made the frosting, which is almost not pictured here because I forgot to take pictures until we were basically down to the unfrosted last ones). Whew. It was fun. And yummy. And fairly unhealthy.

a lesson in baking

My dad's side of the family has traditionally done a soup potluck for Christmas for a number of years now. Growing up, my grandma's (dad's mom) zweiback were the best! She hasn't baked for a few years now, but I thought it would be fun to have some of "her" zweiback at the reunion. My dad's cousin's wife makes my grandma's recipe, so I asked her if she would consider making some for hire. She had a better idea -- I could come over for a lesson and bring grandma too. It was great! I got a wonderful lesson, fun times, and tasty zweiback. I'm so glad this happened. Thanks, Mary!

I should have scanned in some of the photos that Mary took and printed for me, but here are some from my camera. Hm, no evidence of baking here...

christmas: friends

The holidays were blessed with getting to see many friends. I failed to photograph all friend encounters, but I got to see all of the mod who were in Kansas (unless there's someone I don't know about); Beth, who I hadn't seen since high school; and Pete and Andrea. I missed out on a lunch I planned with some others due to car trouble, but Brian, Kate, Mark, and I did manage to squeeze in annual Home Alone. I hope I'm not forgetting anything else...

christmas: tree

Oops. We never got around to taking a picture of our first real Christmas tree, and it was put out for pick-up earlier this week. However, pictured here is a portion of our Christmas tree, decorated in the same colors as our tree but without the colored lights. Yes, the bird was terrified of it, as expected. You may also take this moment to notice my incredibly gimpy free-handed cut star.