(Or ten things you probably don’t need to know about me, but I have a compelling need to spew my secrets out for all of teh interwebz to read.)

If you know all of these things about me, and still want to be my fra-yand(as Lydia calls her friends)…let’s make a deal.  I won’t make fun of you, if you don’t make fun of me.  Well, I promise to at least not make fun of you often.  Or, if you’re the sensitive type, I’ll only make fun of you behind your back.  Your choice though…just let me know.

1. I never watched The George Lopez Show when it was on prime time TV.  But now if I catch it on Nick at Nite(and Marshall’s not around to make fun of me), I watch it.  And I laugh. Every. Time.

2.  I’ve had a boob job.  No, really.  Just not the way you think.  Way back in 1997(was that really 12 years ago?), I had a breast reduction.  My back thanks me, but my children will never be smart because I didn’t breastfeed them.  (Note the sarcasm there.)

3. 99% of the time I brush my teeth before I go to bed.  1% of the time I lay down and then realize I forgot that crucial part of personal hygiene.  And I debate the pros and cons of getting back up simply to brush my teeth.  Fatigue wins that one every. time. (But I do always brush in the morning!)

4. While we’re on the personal hygiene theme, I’ll admit that I don’t shower every single day either.  I start out with great aspirations each morning, but if I’m still not bathed and dressed by 4 or 5pm, is it really worth it?  Sometimes the answer is no.  Admit it: you’d do it if you could, too.  Every now and again.  (And just for the record, I don’t go into public without some sort of bath/shower.)

5. I also don’t bathe my children every day.  It’s rare for them to get more than 3 baths a week unless it’s blatantly obvious that they need it.  This is obviously harder to do in the summer with all the sweating and swimming.  But they all have eczema and the more baths they get, the drier their skin gets.   (Even though I can use that as an excuse, I know I wouldn’t do it daily if they had perfectly smooth skin. Have you seen what kind of mess they make in the bathtub?)

6.  Just so you don’t think I’m absolutely disgusting, I want to point out that I do regularly visit my dentist(where very few cavities have been discovered).  That’s not my secret, though.  This is my secret:  I love love LOVE that gritty stuff they use to “buff” your teeth at the end of the cleaning.  I don’t know what it’s called or what it’s made of…but I love the whir of the cleaner.  I love the taste of the cleaner stuff.  And I love the smooth feeling it leaves behind.

7. I voted for Obama, but I get that he is still, after all, a politician.  If I could pick someone to run the country, I’d pick the folks at Walt Disney.  They’ve built an amazing corporation.  Disney World is always clean.  They are the masters at portraying a positive image, even when things aren’t so positive.  Wouldn’t it be great if America could be “the happiest place on Earth”?

8. I have little bitty pinkie toe nails.  Teeny tiny.  And there have been times I just painted a little patch of skin to make it look like a nail.  Want to know why I had to do that?  Because I have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad habit of wearing flip flops and then kicking the wheels on shopping carts and knocking my whole toenail off.  It’s really gross, and it hurts like hang!  (Get it…hang nail.  Hee-hee.)  I could avoid this whole tragedy by not going to the store.  But it’s a risk I’m willing to take!  🙂

9. My tonsils are the size of oranges…ok well maybe more like grapes…but they’re huge.  HUGE, I tell you.  So huge that I’ve had two surgeons tell me I should have them out.  So huge that sometimes when I’m singing, my throat just randomly closes off and air momentarily ceases to flow.  It’s not good.  But I’m a wuss.  And it’s supposedly one of the most horrible and painful recoveries ever.  And I’m SO SO scared that a scalpel may slip and ruin my singing voice.  Singing is an integral part of who I am…I’m not sure what I’d be without my voice.

10. Coming up with ten secrets about myself is hard.  I’m apparently too open and honest…you all know all of my secrets already!  But since I have to come up with one more, I’ll say that my secret is this:  Lately I’ve heard several people say to me (or about me) that I come across as really confident and self-assured.  I’m not.  And I’m kind of surprized that I’m percieved that way.  It’s good, I guess.  But in all honesty I second-guess myself all the time.  My inner band nerd is always telling me how ridiculous I am.  And I’m not nearly as confident as I appear.  (Shh…don’t tell anybody!  Once there’s a chink in my armor, I’m destined to fall.)

I’m trying to pull myself out of the funk. I thought that maybe if I wrote something, I’d get some juices flowing and get back into the swing of things. I love blogging and reading blogs, and I hate it when I have nothing to say. So…here goes my writing practice. Read if if you want-but my feelings won’t be hurt if you don’t. (Plus I’ll never really know, will I?) It’s a meme-type thing that I stole from citystreams(who stole it from Bethany Actually). They’re both really great bloggers, so you should mosey on over to read theirs, too. Ok…enough procrastinating. Get started already!

Ten Things I Wish I Could Say To Ten Different People Right Now(if had the confidence to do so):
1. I feel bad about the time I said something about your hair. I never brought it up again, but I think about it sometimes and it makes me sad that I made you feel bad. I don’t know if you remember it or not, but if you do: I’m sorry.
2. It’s usually not you who deserves my yelling, fussing, complaining, etc. But I’m thankful that you usually take it so well and know that it’ll all blow over soon.
3. I can’t wait to met you IRL.
4. I love the sound of your voice, especially when you sing.
5. I miss you most when I find a great bargain and want to call someone and tell them all about it.
6. I would kill for hair like yours!
7. I wish I spent more quality time with you. It’s my own fault that I don’t, and I don’t know what keeps holding me back.
8. I know that you think I’ll never attain some of the goals I have for myself, and I will prove you wrong.
9. I’m a Democrat…most of the time. I just usually keep my mouth shut. I hope that if you ever do find out, you won’t care. But I have a feeling that you would care, and that kind of makes me sad. I wish we could all celebrate our differences.
10. I only met you once, but you left a big impression on me. I hate that I never got the chance to get to know you, and I hope that your daughter has lots of people to always remind her how wonderful a person you were.

Nine Things About Myself:
1. I love Diet Coke.
2. I really love pasta.
3. I love kisses from my kids even more than coke or pasta.
4. I’m pretty crafty(in an arts and crafts kind of way), when I put my mind to it.
5. I wish I had more time to be craftier.
6. I am a Christian, but I really strive to be aware and sensitive to other’s beliefs and ideals.
7. Music moves me in ways that nothing else can. 
8. I love to read mindless “chick lit“.
9. I am getting really excited about our new house!

Eight Ways To Win My Heart:
1. Make me laugh.
2. Make a lemonade cake just for me.
3. Clean my house.
4. Babysit.
5. Massage my shoulders, head and neck.
6. Give me moo-lah!
7. Take me on a shopping spree! Whee!
8. Be excited about something I’m excited about!

Seven Things That Cross My Mind A Lot:
1. I hope I never run over a child(mine or somebody else’s) with my car.  It’s one of my biggest fears in life, and I think about it almost every time I turn on my car.
2. Man, Marshall is really good to me!
3. I (heart) my munchkins!
4. I really wish I could not throw up today.
5. I wish Target was a little closer.
6. How cute is that??
7. I wish I were more patient…

Six Things That I Do Before I Fall Asleep:
1. Check my email.
2. Brush my teeth.
3. Take my meds.
4. Brush my hair.
5. Silence my cell phone.
6. Often, read.

Five People Who Mean A Lot:
(Seriously?? Only five??)
1. Marshall
2. Tucker
3. Emmie
4. #3A, who doesn’t yet have a name
5. You (Did you really think that I could name one more without getting in trouble with somebody?)

Four Things I Am Wearing Right Now:
1. Uncomfortable maternity jeans
2. An uncharacteristically pink shirt
3. Not one, but two barrettes. I hate when my hair is in my face!
4. My go-to black necklace with an I-have-no-clue-what-it-means Chinese symbol on it

Three Songs That I Listen To Often(currently):
1. Glory, Glory to Old Georgia
2. Edelweiss
3. The More We Get Together

Two Things I Want To Do Before I Die:
1. Become a doctor
2. Take Marshall to Europe

One Confession:
1. I wish I was a better mother. It may be conceited of me to say, but I’m really good with other people’s kids. I have much more patience with them than with mine. I plan more and do more activities as a babysitter than as a mother. I don’t yell at other people’s kids. I don’t put them off just so I can read or watch something on TV or make a phone call.  I wish I would be better at managing and maximizing my time with the kids.  And I have to admit that there are many times when I wonder whether or not I would appreciate them more-and they me-if I worked outside the home.  If we had less time together, would I be better about spending quality time with them when I was home?

My friend over at CityStreams tagged me for a meme. Now, I’m not very blog-savvy yet, but if you’ve even read a few blogs you’ve probably heard of a meme. But I was curious; what exactly is a “meme” (rhymes with “cream” or “dream”)? According to Wikipedia (which, of course is alwaysright), a meme “consists of any unit of cultural information, such as a practice or idea, that gets transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another”.  So, online at least, it pretty much means a chain letter-type questionnaire that you fill out and post.  I’m not one of those people who usually does the ones you get via email that ask you what your favorite type of ice cream is or what your middle name is.  You change all the answers and forward it to 10 friends.  Just not my thing, really.  But I’m considering making this blog public and joining a blog group, so I thought this might be a way for people to find out a little bit about me.  I probably won’t “tag” 5 others, but you’ll at least get to see my responses.  So…here it goes:

What were you doing ten years ago?
1998…I was a music therapy major at Georgia College, and I worked at a monogram store.

What are five things on your to-do list?
Um…only 5??
1. Clean up, clean up everybody everywhere.  Clean up, clean up everybody do your share.
      (Is it even possible to have a on-the-market house “show-ready” while 2 adults, 2 kids and
       2 dogs live there??)
2. Make sure T-man pees in the pot and not in his big-boy underwear(this is a never ending “to-do”)
3. Go to the bank
4. Cook dinner
5. Take a shower
      (You know you’re a SAHM if you have to actually put “take a shower” on your to-do list!)

What are five snacks you enjoy?
Hummus with pretzel chips, Snickers, Toblerone, chips with any kind of dip, milkshakes

Name some things you would do if you were a millionaire.
I guess the responsible answer would be pay off all our debt(med school is not good on the credit), but since I don’t really have a million dollars, I’m gonna go a different direction:
Build one tree house for my kids, and then one for myself!
Build a theater in my basement.
Build a fun-stocked youth building at my home church: Big screen TVs, comfy couches, game room, prayer room, worship room with full media.

Name some places you have lived.
With the infamous “Kat” at Georgia College, with Courtney in Athens, GA…and now with Marsh.

Name some bad habits you have.
I don’t have any bad habits.
Seriously…saying “seriously” all the time.
Saying “Oh my GOD!” (That doesn’t sound so bad until you hear a 3 year old repeat it!)
Retail therapy.

Name some jobs you have had.
Monogrammer, photo printer at Eckerd’s, medical office assistant(big name for “person who files”), nanny, mommy