Fun Things on the Internet!

Well, it seems I've been tagged on Facebook! I'm not a big Facebook fan and I'm only on it because my best friend from college and two of my sister in laws have invited me to be friends. (Which I appreciate- thank you.) :) Today I was tagged twice for a 25 random things about me list which I'm posting here in lieu of Facebook. I'm much more invested in my blog than Facebook anyway, so it seems like a better place to post. (My blog is prettier than Facebook, I think.)

25 Random Things About Me:

1. I have 3 children plus my niece who is living with us while she finishes high school. (And we're all happy she's here; she's added a lot to our family.)

2. My husband and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary this past December. Yes, we were married in the 80’s, and yes, my dress had the “mutton chop” sleeves.

3. I have a very old cat that thinks I’m his mommy since we rescued him before he was weaned and we bottle fed him. We named him Fungus because we weren’t going to keep him but he grew on us like a… fungus. Ba dum bum. He’s been sick lately and I’m so worried we’re going to lose him soon, which makes me sad both because he’ll be gone and because we won’t be able to get a new pet for a long time.

4. I’m very involved in Girl Scouts; I’m a co-leader for my older daughter’s troop, a leader for my younger daughter’s troop, and a service unit volunteer recruitment manager, which is like having a job without the paycheck. (The service unit is the volunteer support network for the leaders in a given geographic area.) I think community service is vitally important and if I weren't active in Girl Scouts I would find some other way to give back. I also volunteered briefly for Big Brothers/Big Sisters after I finished college, a non-profit that promoted music education when I was a teenager, and I've sponsored children through Christian Children's Fund since I was 19 or 20. I hope to pass a belief in the importance of community service on to my children.

5. I am a family manager. Please do not call me a housewife; I don’t even really like the term “stay at home mom”, since staying at home is not often an option for my days! It’s the best gig I’ve ever had.

6. I want to go back to school to finish my Master’s degree eventually. I’ll have to start over since I’ve decided to change majors.

7. Instead of a Master’s in counseling (which is what I started working on) I want to switch to nutrition, which will also involve counseling but only about health and weight management.

8. I have a bucket list, but I didn’t call it a bucket list when I started it since it was WAY before the movie. It’s supposed to be a list of 100 things I want to do in my life. I’m only up to a list of 67 things, so one of the things on the list is to finish the list! I’ve completed a decent number of items; I’m happy with my progress so far.

9. I love to read. I read both fiction and non-fiction. I read magazines, the newspaper, novels, the internet, food labels, and cookbooks, among other things.

10. I am not picky about music and like a variety of genres: classical, cajun/zydeco, Christmas music, Latin rhythms, pop, alternative stuff my husband plays for me, oldies, African rhythms, show tunes, etc., etc., etc., but when I listen to the radio I mostly listen to NPR.

11. I am an introvert, but I’m not shy. I am somewhat awkward in social situations; my husband finds that endearing. (Which is one of the reasons I love him.)

12. I like to play games like Suduko, Tetris, FreeCell, (I once had a streak of 37 wins in a row), and a few of the on-line computer games on www.neopets.com.

13. I would love to be a writer but I’m not the storyteller my grandmother was or my daughter is. (She’ll write a bestseller someday.)

14. I am going to Europe in May, economy willing.

15. I’ve never been to Europe before. My only trips outside the U.S. were to Canada for one day, the Bahamas, and the Cayman Islands. I’ve never been west of Chicago.

16. I once heard that the average burn out rate for public school special ed teachers was 24 months. I taught elementary special ed in the public schools for 23 months. I was lousy, even though I tried really hard. That hurt.

17. I taught special ed in a private setting working with middle and high school students for 4 years. I was pretty good at it. That was healing.

18. My family keeps odd hours. My husband is nocturnal and we are all on his schedule, so please don’t call me before 1:00 p.m.!

19. One of the reasons we homeschool our kids is so they can see their nocturnal dad.

20. Oh, yeah- we homeschool our kids.

21. I only speak one language, darn it all. My kids have a Spanish tutor in hopes that they will be bilingual.

22. I took a Spanish course once and learned that I do not have an aptitude for learning new languages. (But I still made an A in the course because I worked hard.) I can count to 5 in Japanese.

23. I am an excellent student and take classes periodically to renew my teaching certificate, and for fun. I always make As in these classes.

24. I am a liberal Democrat. I believe government should protect the little guy from the big guy, whether the big guy is a terrorist, an enemy country, or a predatory corporate entity. Lead should not be in children’s toys. Cars and factories should not pollute the air we breathe or the water we drink. Individuals should not be victimized by the big and powerful. Individuals should not be forced to live by the religious beliefs of others that they do not share. Adults should be able to marry whomever they choose. Women should be able to make decisions about their own bodies and life begins at viability, not conception, even though I loved my children from the second we started trying to make them. Equal work should mean equal pay and equal opportunities for advancement. Everyone should have access to quality, affordable health care, and if that means some of us have to wait to see doctors, like in Canada, then we should train more doctors. We should pay our fair share of taxes but the taxes should also be used wisely and not wasted. I am delighted with our new, intelligent, thoughtful, wise president and I am confident he is going to do good things. But I'm worried about posting this because I don't want my conservative friends to be offended, and I understand where they are coming from and respect their views, but this is how I feel.

25. I sometimes get on soapboxes when I am passionate about things. But I still try to be respectful of other points of view.

Thanks to my friend Aimee and my sister in law Marjorie for tagging me, but I won’t be able to tag 25 people back! I don’t know that many people on Facebook. I know, umm, well, 5, and 2 of them have tagged me and 2 others have already been tagged by the 2 that tagged me. ;) I’m OK with that (see number 11 on my random things list). I’m posting this on my blog since I’m not very active on Facebook. Can I take the tag thing off Facebook and tag fellow bloggers? OK, I don’t know many fellow bloggers either since I’m new to this on-line social networking thing. Sigh…

It was fun to get tagged, though.