Kicking off the Challenge

Day One- A Recent Picture and 15 interesting things about you.

I am not sure I can come up with 15 interesting things that you don't already know. I asked Seth for 15 interesting things about me last night and he rattled off one after the next for two hours, silly insignificant stories from when I was a kid even. It led me to ask two questions.

1-You've been listening all these years?
2-Do I ever shut up?

Seriously, what a tortured life that man must live. So here are 15 things that you probably already, but might not, know about me. I only included 3 of Seth's many contributions.

1- I am legally blind. I have only met two people in my life with a higher contact lens prescription than mine (sorry Katelin and Emma).
2- I don't sing. On my mission I had to sing and it was torture. I got laughed at every day in the MTC by my district. Sometimes they laughed so hard they cried. The first week in the mission we sang for President Hinckley and during practice the choir director called me out and made me come up front and try to match the notes on the piano with my voice. I don't even know what that means. She finally dismissed me and told me to just sit out or mouth the words. I sang anyway. Then I had companions who always wanted to sing to the people we were teaching, just two of us sitting there singing. It made me sick. Imagine I had asked them to dance naked in the streets because that is how I felt every time. I was made fun of the whole 18 months and when I came home I never sang in front of people anymore. I feel silly when everyone else is singing and guilty that I am not setting a better example for the Primary kids but it is not something that I see changing anytime soon, probably ever.
3- I love the smell of cleaning supplies. I have talked about Pinesol before but I also really like Clorox Cleanup with Bleach and Clorox wipes. I also like the smell of markers, nail polish, nail polish remover...you get the point.
4- I don't like ice cream. Gross!
5- I was typically a good student but my Junior Year of High School I had a 0.6 GPA. I told you I was all or nothing. I had to go to Summer school and then take night classes on top of my daytime classes my Senior Year in order to make up that year and graduate. (Seth's contribution)
6- I dream of living in a high rise apartment in NY or Chicago.
7- I was a vegetarian for 6 years, but I was the worst vegetarian ever since I hate vegetables. I lived on pizza, bean burritos, veggie subs (easy on the veggies) and cookies.
8- When I started working at Discover Card, right after I got married, I failed my background check because I had a warrant out for my arrest for two unpaid registration tickets. I was a dumb kid (okay, so I was 20...but still dumb) when I got the tickets and thought that paying to get my car registered was the same as paying the tickets. I had unknowingly served my whole mission as a wanted woman. (Seth's contribution)
9- I am not a kid person. Kids used to make me incredibly uncomfortable and a little grossed out. I hated to babysit growing up, and would offer to watch my little brothers and sisters for free to get out of other babysitting jobs. Even after I had my own kids, I still couldn't handle other people's kids. For the first few years that I lived here whenever people would ask me to watch their kids I would say yes but then nervously watch the clock the whole time. The first time neighbor kids knocked on the door to play with my kids, I almost had a panic attack. I seriously wondered why I had kids and was sure I could never give them a normal childhood because I could never get used to alien children walking around in my house. I have come a long way. I eventually started to get attached to some of my friends kids, and willingly participated in play groups. And then of course I love those little Primary kiddos of mine, but I am still a bit slow to warm and if someone has to pick up one of the kids or put them on their lap, I would rather it not be me. But I love to talk to them and when ever one of them runs up to see me I am happy as a clown, and they can even hug me, as long as they make it quick. But, I still stand by the claim that I am not, by nature, a kid person.
10- I once had the ambulance called because I had to pee. We were driving to Yosemite and my grandpa kept bragging about what good time we were making and I knew it would ruffle his feathers if we had to stop. Even though I had to pee, I held it, until I didn't even feel it anymore. About an hour later I was in the most pain I had ever felt (in my 10 year old life) and tried to cry silently in the backseat until my brother ratted me out. We stopped in a po-dunk town (10 points for anyone who knows this story and can name the town) and the gas station attendants called 911 as soon as they saw me. I went and peed and then felt totally fine. (Seth's contribution)
11- I am allergic to something. We don't know what, something in some soaps, but it even landed me in the hospital once with hives on every inch of my body, my lips swollen like duck lips and my throat swelling shut. I am right now, in the middle of an allergic reaction which started last Friday. This time I know what caused it, fabric softener. We have learned the hard way not to buy April Fresh Downy, but the other scents are okay. Last week I ran out of softener and grabbed another one off the shelf, not realizing that it was April Fresh. We must not have thrown it away after the ER trip. I have been trying to re-wash everything but this stupid stuff has contaminated my whole house so everything I touch causes me to flare up again. I am mostly over it now, only still suffering from itchy feet and palms and lips. Thank goodness for Benadryl, although I can not wake up in the morning when I take Benadryl. Still, it keeps me breathing and out of the ER so hooray for that.
12- I was born two months premature with a hole in my heart.
13- I don't drink. I am not talking about alcohol, although I don't drink that either. I don't drink anything. I am rarely thirsty and I don't have a drink with my meals, unless I am at a restaurant because they ask me what I want to drink. I know it is not healthy but there are days when I am getting ready for bed and realize I didn't drink anything all day.
14- I pray before I drive. Old mission habit, and I can't seem to pull out of the garage until it's done.
15- I am a born blond and an accidental brunette. Through the years my blond hair turned darker and more ashy, so I did what all blonds do. I bleached and highlighted to try to hang on to the blond, although I occasionally went red which I love and my mom hates. When we moved here we lived in the county for a couple months and had well water. It turned my hair bright orange. No amount of bleaching was fixing it and even made it look peach. I went to the Salon and told them to dye it dark brown. Hours later the stylists were all standing around confused because no matter how long they left it on it wouldn't take. It came out light brown with a slight hint of orange still remaining. I was fed up with the orange so I went to the store and bought "almost black" dye. That did the trick and to my surprise I liked it. I now wish that I had always had dark brown hair. What's funny though is that in my mind I still picture myself as a blond and sometimes my reflection startles me.

Oh...and a picture....UGH! Okay, I just posted recent pictures of me. In fact I even changed my profile picture to the one of me and Seth at that country concert so it is now attached to every comment I make, so there you go...you have already seen a recent picture of me.