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05/02/2005: "101 things about Moi"

mood: la ta dee la ta da

I participate in an LDS Moms message board, which actually has a few Moms of other faiths who enjoy the company. A couple of years ago we were doing a "mom of the week" and the honoree would post 101 things about herself, and there would be some commentary on how dis/similar our lives were or what we liked about that particular Mom. If you're in need of a good nap, read on!


1. It was a dark and stormy night. My mother was struggling through a natural delivery of her first child at a Catholic medical center in Idaho. The attending nuns/nurses were trying to soothe her by telling her labor pain wasn't that bad. "How the hell would YOU know??!" She screamed at them. My father put his hand over her mouth to stop the stream of invectives. She bit his hand.

2. I guess I haven't always brought out the best in people =) I identify a lot with Alma the Younger in the Book of Mormon when I reflect on my teen years. Before I was taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ I worked very hard to lead people astray.

3. I was an atheistic zealot, you might say.

4. When word leaked out about my baptism, people were sure I was planning for an outrageous and elaborate April Fool's Day joke that started in February.

5. 2005 marks 11 years since my baptism into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I love bearing my testimony in Sacrament meeting around my 'anniversary' because there are still so many people who know me but don't know I wasn't reared in the Church.

6. An Elder Nichols from Illinois performed my baptism in Idaho Falls. I'm sure anyone who gets called to serve in such a saturated area as SE Idaho probably isn't hoping for much. Elder Nichols and the companions who rotated with him have my eternal gratitude for accepting the call to serve, and following the Spirit to find me.

7. I had lived all over Idaho but it wasn't until I moved to Oregon that I even knew the Church existed. "You're from Idaho?" people would ask me. "You must be a Mormon." "What's a Mormon?" I would inquire. Sometimes they didn't know, often they had jokes or misconceptions to share.

8. I realize now that I had a friend in first grade that was a Saint. I just thought she was Catholic and had lots of *plainclothes nuns and monks that came to her house or walked by-she was always greeting a Brother X or Sister Y.

9. I grew up attending Congregationalist Churches. I was taught that church was a nice place to meet good people, and that it didn't really matter what you believed.

10. Actually, my mother and father taught me that separately, since my mother left us when I was five. She had tried to several times before but came back for one reason or another. They had my younger sister while they were trying to make it work. Two years later my mother decided she would never find herself at home with us.

11. My mother recounts the time she tried to tell us she was moving out. "I'm leaving and I'm not going to live here anymore," she said. We look at her blankly, 5 & 2 being entirely too little to comprehend what that means. "And I'm taking the TV with me," she adds. We burst into tears. I can laugh about it now, sort of.

12. My father is the most kind, honest, gentle person I know. He loves to talk to people no matter where he is, how late he is running, or how many children are restlessly squirming. I've grown to admire that trait in my father; I think he has the ability to make everyone feel important through giving them a piece of him and genuine conversation. It helps motivate me to go beyond my comfort zone.

13. Because he's so peaceful, one of my childhood fears was mean people would attack
him and he wouldn't defend himself. I still have a terrible fear of that, but at least now I know what would happen to him if he did die.

14. My sister and I instant message each other as frequently as our computer schedules coincide. I kept in touch with her when she was in Japan for her junior year of college via IM and we've just kept up with it since then.

15. I've been reading since I was 4 years old. My parents tried to get me into Kindergarten that year to go with the girl across the street but the regulations prevented my early entry. As soon as I turned 5 they brought me into see the Kindergarten teacher, and while they were talking she invited me to try to find my friend's desk. I went around the room reading aloud everyone's name on their tables until I found hers. The teacher suggested my parents go to the first grade teacher instead.

16. They did, and I have been trying to make up on all those missed naptimes and finger-painting ever since. Plus I was always among the youngest, shortest in my class, so I was a target for bullies and had few friends. My parents had several offers to skip my sister along at various points and they turned them down.

17. I have been battling perfectionist tendencies my whole life it seems. My father had friends from ISU's psychology program who gave me IQ tests for their classes and one of them noted that when I made a mistake, I would put my head on the desk and refuse to go on. Only by invoking the desire to please my father by continuing could the tester get me to keep going. He was impressed that I scored that high even with the delays… Don't worry, I'm not going to brag about the number, after all I was only 6 =)

18. We moved to Oregon so my father could work on his doctorate in Physics. I loved Eugene. I'm still a fighting duck. The middle school I went to was wonderful-if I had a school like that for my children here and now I probably wouldn't exclusively homeschool.

19. I think my time in high school could be summed up well by the line from Paul Simon's "Kodachrome" with the exception of one teacher who I want to be like when I grow up =) I reflect on his classes when I teach my children. I want to inspire them to think, to utilize knowledge rather than memorize facts or teach to a standardized test goal. Thank you, Mr. Francis.

20. I participated in yearbook, newspaper, and the speech & debate team in high school. If we had a mock trial team I would have enjoyed that too. When we did a mock trial in Mr. Francis' class, I was the lead prosecutor accusing Harry Truman of war crimes. I didn't get a conviction, (he says no one has as long as he's been doing it) but I did get within two votes of a conviction, one shy of a deadlocked jury.

21. I officially met my husband at a debate tournament. We had already been eliminated from the national qualifiers (two downs-out) and his team got together in one of the rooms to play cards while they waited. He recalls my first words to him upon bring introduced "Do you shave your legs?" When he answered negatively, I muttered "oh no, not another albino with invisible leg hair".

22. Add to this the Feminist T-shirt I had dressed down into with a large paragraph of rantings about abortion rights and sexuality and other things best left unsaid and he found me to be a scary person. Cute, smart, sharp-tongued and scary. He had actually seen me debate earlier in the year and I was part of the reason he and his friend started doing debate as well as speech, he says.

23. What a surprise for him when we became better friends as mutual friends of a friend to find out that I had mellowed and joined the church a year or so later. I had a rule that I didn't date debaters though, so I never even considered him anything but a friend. Until well after I graduated, that is.

24. I was Idaho State Debate Champion, and later qualified for the national tournament in Kansas City. I ranked in the top 60 there. My other speech event was impromptu speaking, since I have problems with memorization this was right up my alley.

25. My husband and I have inadvertently discovered the way to not be asked to speak very often for Sacrament meeting-tell them you love to speak and are glad to do it anytime. It will either scare them so they won't ask you or they will think that others need the experience more than you. We truly enjoy speaking but I have only done it a few times in the years we've been married.

26. I'm not always known for my brevity. I am known for being quite frank. I hope that people can take me at my word.

27. I like listening to different kinds of music--highlights of A-G include: Arthur (PBS Show), barenakedladies, Chicago, Ken Burns Civil War Soundtrack, John Denver, Fiddler on the Roof, Gilbert & Sullivan collection...

28. Yes, I alphabetize my CDs and cassettes. My father still has my 8 tracks and albums with his since I don't own a player for either.

29. 8 tracks include: Fox in Socks and other Dr. Seuss stories, John Denver. LPs include The Chipmunks, Michael Jackson, Sesame Street, and Men Without Hats.

30. I prefer my DVDs and Church movies to be alphabetized too.

31. Since we moved the media to a higher shelf now, I can keep it all alphabetized.

32. I have been square dancing since age 4

33. I went to many jamborees and festivals as my dad's dance partner.

34. The nickname on my Square Dancing badge was "strawberry shortcake"

35. I have red hair and have been called every name there is for redheads.

36. A nickel for every query of where it came from would pay me handsomely.

37. I wrote a paper based on the theory that redheads were originally extraterrestrials

38. Having red-haired children has been the best proof that I don't dye mine.

39. Now the questions and comments are about how many children I have, or how they always wished to have red-haired children/grandchildren.

40. My daughter who has the most blond to her hair has the worst time tempering her anger. People still don't believe me that being feisty isn't a genetic result of red-hair. OH YEAH?? I see you laughing about this one, why don't we just step over here and discuss this some more!! ;-)

41. Fred Rogers is one of my personal heroes. Watching his show or listening to one of his CDs brightens my day.

42. General Conference would be perfect for me if it were logistically possible to have the Sacrament that day too. I really miss it during Conferences. I suppose it helps me remember how important it is to me.

43. I tend to cry during the Sacrament, so I often wear little eye make-up to church.

44. Not that I wear a great deal of make-up to begin with, usually try to cover my circles, darken my eyelashes, maybe my eyelids and add some lipstick or gloss.

45. I have been a teacher in every auxiliary, Primary, Sunday School, Relief Society and Young Women's.

46. I enjoy seeing class members make connections or applications they may not have considered before.

47. I want to graduate from Institute of Religion since I never attended Seminary. I am halfway there, but I don't know how soon I will reach my goal.

48. I earned the new Young Woman recognition award in October 2003.

49. I'm learning to play piano again. I can play the right hand parts to "Book of Mormon Stories" and "Follow the Prophet" so far. I'm working on "I Belong To The Church of Jesus Christ" and "I Believe in Christ"

50. I love bacon. If you're looking for a variation on a favorite recipe, think bacon. I make
a great Baconghetti, Baconroni. Current fave is bacon sauteed brussells sprouts.

51. I make my own Italian sodas with store brand fruit pop and whipped cream.

52. I volunteered at libraries when I was younger.

53. I loved reading Tin-Tin and Asterix books there.

54. We have more bookshelves than anything else here. We still have more books than shelf space to hold them all.

55. I'm not an Aragorn fan--Legolas is more my style. While watching Aragorn kiss Arwen in the LOTR movies, all I could think was "He needs a shave."

56. Facial hair is a fatherly thing to me, not romantic in the least. My husband has to shave for me, but his hair is so slow to grow so he develops a 48-hour shadow.

57. I scrapbook, but I'm technically not addicted to it, so it's okay.

58. My husband likes to scrap with me; he just doesn't always have the time.

59. I like riding my bike. When we were in Eugene, we didn't own a car so we biked everywhere. I would bike down to the local bakery all the time.

60. Now I have a bike trailer and a child's bike seat on my bike.

61. Times have changed. So have my thighs.

62. I still love Challah though. I found a recipe for a bread machine variety that I'm going to try out.

63. My largest baby was 6 lbs 14 oz, my smallest 5 lbs 15 oz. My OB says I just make small babies.

64. I'm excited that she will deliver her fourth of our five children this fall, and that she wants our whole family to be there when she does!

65. My current shopping obsession is flannel backed vinyl tablecloths. I like to buy them to correspond to the seasons/holidays. I also get some large enough for when we put all the leaves in the table.

66. I like to do big projects--rearranging furniture, anything I can use our power tools for.

67. My favorite comfort meal right now is Spinach-Bacon quiche. Beyond bacon I love pie crusts!

68. I love driving-I feel it's one of my talents. I have driven between Phoenix and ID/WA more times than I can count.

69. I have taken road trips to California 3 times as well.

70. I am a person who does a lot of things

71. When I was on bed rest, it was really hard to stay home and lie around

72. My husband would get home and ask if I had done anything

73. I would just tell him "I don't do anything." (If I had my shoes on, he knew my definition of anything wouldn't have matched his)

74. I've never been to Greenland

75. I've stayed in Denver, and my sister and her husband live by the temple.

76. I've never buried treasure (or anything else) in St. Louis or St. Paul

77. I've been to Moscow, Idaho

78. I've never been to Tampa, anywhere.

79. I've never been to Boston in the fall

80. I have been sailing with my Grandfather on various bodies of water in Idaho on the sailboat he built himself

81. I've never walked the gangplank but I did fall into the Aberdeen Reservoir when I was 6 years old. I was collecting rocks off a cement wall near a dock. I remember bending over the water and I guess all those rocks threw off my balance and SPLASH! My little sister (3) watching from the land was in shock-I surfaced twice before I screamed and she was still speechless. My Grandfather, down on the boat hooking it up to the dock, took off his life-jacket and outran everyone else who was closer to me (and a fair bit younger) to dive in for the rescue.

82. I've never owned a parrot.

83. I've never plucked a rooster. We did live next to a farm for a time and I remember our neighbors leaving us a bag of live chickens on our porch as a gift. I think my father would have done the plucking then.

84. I'm okay at ping-pong, billiards and foosball

85. My children have thrown mashed potatoes against the wall and all over while they ate, mostly as babies. I'm a long-time potato pearl fan!

86. I've never kissed a chipmunk, unless you count stuffed versions of Alvin, Simon and Theodore. I have hand fed some chipmunks before.

87. I've never gotten head lice.

88. I've never licked (or changed) a spark plug

89. I've never sniffed a stink bug

90. I've never painted daisies on a big red rubber ball, although playing with playground balls was one of my frequent group activities as a child and later as a young adult. I was part of a group that nearly kept someone from going on a mission when we were found after hours on elementary school grounds getting balls off the roof so we could play with them-being apprehended by the police the night before he was supposed to leave would have not been good for a timely MTC arrival! The police could see we weren't really looking to cause mischief and warned us to stay off the roof and that was that.

91. I've never bathed in yogurt. The last flavor we bought was peach, I think. We ate plain yogurt only growing up, so I think I always buy a flavored version now that it's my choice.

92. I don't know how I look in leggings. I would have to buy some and strut around querying passersby on how leggings affect my appearance.

93. This portion of my 101 brought to you by Veggie Tales. Veggie Tales: Sunday Morning Values, Saturday Morning Fun, now in a 101 list near you.

94. I enjoy playing games indoors and out--always have.

95. I am reigning champ of scattergories, taboo, and games like that.

96. When the weather cooperates, you can find me cavorting on the lawn with my children, doing tumbling, playing ball, or playing with our parachute.

97. I don't think of myself as athletic though…

98. Je parle français, un peu.

99. Hablo español, no mas.

100. ::::motioning of hands to indicate some ASL is known:::::

101. I love being a woman, a wife and a mother. I love being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am blessed beyond all numerical notations

Replies: 1 Comment

on Saturday, June 4th, mamacita said

well, well. lots of stuff about me leaving but nothing about me getting fired from a good job because they found out I was looking for other work (daytime) so I could take you girls back as you wanted me to.

I was working a 3-11pm job and not able to have you kids with me.

Once I got a daytime job, you lived with me in poverty from the summer you turned 12 until after you graduated.

I also have values, and I value yours because they mean a lot to you.

I love you, I believe you are a wonderful person and mother. Thanks for sharing.

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