Double Dozen plus One

Ok, my turn for the silly blog tagging. The idea is to write 25 things about myself. Sounds like it could become a little conceited, so I'll try to stay humble. I've actually enjoyed reading the list from others. I hope this isn't too boring! Get your coffee or a good donut and heeeeeere we go....

1. Ice cream vs chips. Ice cream, always. With nuts. Take them off of Kaisha's ice-cream and put them on mine.

2. I remember when we got a color TV when I was about 9. I was amazed at how colorful the Sesame Street muppets were!

I used to have this album!

3. I was baptized as an infant as "Brenda Maria Schnockenberg". My last name was actually Thomas. Baby Schnockenberg was the other baby being baptized that day.

4. I have been known to hide food that I want to eat, from the kids.

5. We didn't know the sex of any of our 3 kids until the moment they were born. I figure there are so few good surprises in life, why ruin one of the best!

6. Arthur is my favorite children's PBS show. I could watch it every day. Oh wait... I do!

7. Foot size before having children = 6. Foot size three children later = 7.

8. Jack and I met in college, but we didn't date then. After college, I called him up one day to see if he wanted to get together to see a movie or something. At the end of that conversation, I knew we would get married although we never spoke a word about dating.

9. I love steamer clams. Love. Them. With butter.

10. When I was about 5, I stepped on the end of a rake, causing the handle to come up and hit me square in the forehead (kind of like in a Road Runner cartoon). Standing in the yard crying, my parents rushed over to see what was wrong when I cried out, "BRETT HIT ME ON THE HEAD WITH THE RAKE!" I remember something about him being sent to his room after the wild accusation flew out of my mouth...  Sorry Brett!

11. Speaking of Brett, we used to look around our property on Lummi for evidence of Big Foot! This has nothing to do with item number 7.

12. I think it is amazing that God gave me one child with blue eyes, one with brown, and one with hazel-green. All of the colors got used on my kids!

Amanda's blue eyes

Emily's brown eyes

Thomas's hazely green eyes

13. Sometimes I like to have the heat on high in the car with the windows down. It's a nice combination of warm air and fresh air.

14. I am a night person. Probably always will be, although I'm less likely to begin painting a room at 10:30PM now than when I was in my 30s.

15. I can walk past a Milky Way or 3 Muskateers and never have a second thought about it. Snickers; that's a whole different story. That's probably the food I'm hiding from the kids on #4.

16. There was a point in time when I wondered how it was that I came to be older than Marcia Brady. She was always the older high school girl on TV. One day, she was much younger than me. Weird.

17. I have slept in my driveway. In the sunshine. If I believed in past-lives, I would think I had been a cat at some point in time.

18. I have always wanted to see a baby being born when I wasn't the one doing the pushing. I was invited to my niece Alissa's birth, but the labor went too fast and they were just lucky she wasn't born in the car.  Hmmmmm, she's a fast swimmer too. Wondering if the two are connected...

19. Love being woken up by a kiss on the cheek from Jack (the morning person in our marriage). The love deepens when I also smell coffee that he has brewed.

20. "It is Well With My Soul" is likely my favorite hymn. Jack sang it at the funeral of a former student (at her request before she died). Between that and the story of the circumstances of how it was written, it tugs at my heart whenever I hear it. Look it up if you don't know the story.

21. And while we're on the topic of Jack's voice... I love to listen to him sing. I used to dream that I had lost my voice and when it came back I could sing as well as him. Sigh- it was only a dream.

22. I once sat through 3 consecutive showings of Disney's Fantasia at the Mt. Baker Theatre in Bellingham with Mike Hagan. Seems to me that we only paid once.

23. I like to think about what kind of cute and zippy car I will get when the days of needing a van are over.

24. I was so excited when we bought our first computer: an Apple Mac LC II. It had a color monitor and everything! It was about $1500 in 1992.

Mac LC II. wow.

OK, and here is the "plus one".......

25. The nick name my parents call me to this day is Toodles.

Ta-daaaaa!