200

Today is the day! I have reached my 200th post!
In honor of my 200th post here is my list of 200.


1) I was born in Anchorage Alaska. That makes me a "sourdough." A sourdough is a white person born in Alaska.


2) Did you know that even though San Fransisco is the sourdough capitol it actually originated in Alaska? The gold miners developed sourdough because regular bread would not rise- it was just too cold. Instead they figured out how to get the bread to rise by fermenting it. Seriously. Which means that I am white, doughy, and full of fermented gasses. Hmm.


3) We moved to Washington State when I was 4. For my parents this was coming home.


4)I am the youngest of 6 kids.


5)I always liked living in a big family.


6) I had teen aged sisters when I was in grade school and I always loved it when their friends came over after school to hang out or to work on school projects. My sisters and their friends were so cool. I think that also explains my insane love for 80's music. Cool big sisters=cool music.

7)My brother is the oldest. He is 9 years older than me and has had some sort of a job since I can remember. The only time he stayed around the house was when he wrecked his car and was laid up for about a month. He was on crutches for Months and when we played games like baseball he would use his crutch as the bat.


8)The nice thing about him having a job and being gone all the time is that there was always good stuff to eat stashed away in his room. Stuff like sugared cereal, Red Vines, and Coke. He tried to hide it from us, but we still managed to find it.


9)I grew up on a hobby farm. Which means that even though we ate very well from our land my dad and mom still had to have "real" jobs.


10)My dad was an auto body mechanic and my mom was a bank teller.


11)We had cows, pigs, chickens, and at one point rabbits.


12)We had huge gardens, and we picked the berries that grew all over.


13)I had special hide outs, I could catch garter snakes, and I could tell just by listening if the electric fence was hot.

14)By the time I was in middle school my brother and 3 oldest sisters had moved out.


15)Instead of riding the bus home after school I would spend the afternoon at the library, walking around town, or go to one of their houses to watch CABLE.


16)As long as I was in the appointed place at the appointed time when my dad went through town on his way home this arrangement worked out just fine. I guess you could say I was a Free Range Kid.


17)When I was in middle school my dad started dying. Seriously. He was killing himself at work. It was finally determined that he had heavy metal poisoning and that if he wanted to live he better find a different line of work. Not easy for a guy who quit school after he got thrown out of his 4th district in 9th grade.


18)He got his GED and worked on his pre-recs while I was in middle school. He continued to work in the body shop as much as he could on the days he wasn't sick. This led to:

19)When I was in 9th grade we moved to Marietta, GA just outside of Atlanta. My dad went to Life Chiropractic College and worked at any job he could find. He stocked grocery shelves, he delivered pizza, and I'm sure he did other stuff I just can't remember what. What I do know is that he never went back to auto body work.


20)Georgia was fun for me. Not so much for the sister that came with us. She was miserable and returned "home" after one year. That made me the only child for the first time in my life. While it didn't mean I was spoiled by stuff it did mean that I got spoiled by having all of my parents' attention and by the fact that I was pretty much allowed to go anywhere and do anything I wanted. I wasn't one to cause my parents to worry, and the kids I hung out with were all good church kids.


21)My dad and I both graduated in 1993.


22)We moved back to Washington that year.


23)While we were in Georgia one sister had gotten married and my brother and another sister had both had kids. I had a hard time letting them call me auntie. It wasn't until I married that I felt I was old enough to bear the title.


24)I nannied for a year out on the Olympic Peninsula. It was a growing up experience for me. it was the first time I had lived away from home. I nannied for the daughter of our pastor who had been my parents' favored babysitter for overnight jobs. You know, like for anniversaries and such.


25)When I went to college at the local community college a lot of my professors recognised me because of my dad or older sisters who had had them before me. I took a P.E. class and on the first day I was early. The teacher walked in, looked at me, and said, "Oh, so you're my Ro**b**ok. I had your dad. Has he figured out how to jump rope yet?" I always took P.E. because 10-15 credits was the same price and I could always fit it into my schedule.


26)I finally graduated with my AA when my 3rd child was an infant. I kept plugging away at it after I got married. A class here, two there.


27)By the time Libby came along I only needed 5 humanities credits. I took Spanish. It was an accelerated course, which meant 4 weeks instead of 12, and I was already fluent. 4 years of advanced high school Spanish, baby!


28)During the first class the baby sitter called and asked me to come get the kids. She said that the boys were not a problem, but since she also had a baby the same age as Libby she couldn't handle both of them.


29)The professor said that as long as she was quiet, Libby could come to class with me. I timed it so that I would get to class early, nurse her and change her diaper, and she would sleep in her car seat in the corner for the next 2 1/2 hours.


30)I got my 2 year degree in only 7 years!

31)Someday I want to go back. I think I want to study interior design. Maybe.


32)I love my life.


33) I have a super husband and 5 (usually) great kids.


34) We really like to hang out together. We bought a white water raft so that we could play together while our kids are still young enough to think we are cool.


35)We like to hike and camp as a family.


36)I hope that as my kids get older they will want to bring their friends to hang out at our house the way we did when we were growing up.


37)I love my house. I consider it a gift from God as it came along at precisely the right moment and not a second sooner.


38)It is about 3000 square feet and we have filled each one of those square feet with kids and kid stuff.


39)We have 2 city lots. The house fills one and the yard is the other.


40)I still love driving up to the house after being gone for a day or so and being glad to be home.


41) I don't like to clean it. We have 3 bedrooms, a massive family room, living, dining, kitchen, mudroom, sun room turned "kids office" which is where they do homework and crafts and where Jesse has his school area, 4 bathrooms, and a 2 car garage- half of which houses my office ( guess why my kids call their room the kid's office).


42)I served on the MOPs steering team at Camano Chapel last year.


43)I have been going to MOPs since Jesse was 1 year old.


44)I served as a small group leader for 3 years before I became the Special Tuesday coordinator.


45)This year I am not doing anything and it feels a little weird. I hope to be asked back onto the steering team again in the future. I had to work on some other priorities this year instead, so I had to give my position up.

46)I wish I was more stylish.


47)Every day I don my uniform: jeans or denim capris, tank top and zip front sweatshirt. I guess it's alright for the glamorous life I lead, but even when I try to dress up I feel like it is all wrong somehow.


48)I am going through a frumpy phase- even if you don't think so I see it in my head.


49) My hair is starting to turn grey- and even though I refuse to color it, it still bugs me a lot.


50)I am still carrying around my "baby fat" even though my baby is 3 1/2.


52)I REFUSE to wear high heals. I have seen first hand the mangled messes that are my mother's feet from wearing high heels everyday of her life while working on her feet.

53) I met my husband when I was 20. We always seemed to be out together late at night and the only part of any given restaurant that was ever open late was the bar. I remember one night the restaurant opened one tiny table for us that was technically not in the bar- it was on the carpet- and we had to walk ALL THE WAY AROUND THE BAR to get there.


54)I was 21 for 6 months before I got pregnant. Oh well, at least I could still legally sit in the bar to have my pop.


55) I knew during our second date that I would marry Sebastian. It took him a lot longer to reach my conclusion. He was worth waiting for.


56) I only ever had one other boyfriend before I met my husband. I think that was really great because I didn't have a lot of emotional baggage coming into our marriage.


57) When we married Sebastian was not a resident of the US. I remember sitting in INS court and all i could think about was telling my mom and dad that they better figure out a way to get us back, because if he was deported I was going to go with him.


58)When the Order for Deportation was dismissed I let out a huge sob of relief. I didn't realize until I did that that I was actually holding that back.


59) We celebrated that night by going out to dinner at the space needle. that was 10 years ago, so:


60) This year we either have to renew his green card or he has to apply for citizenship.


61)He wants to maintain duel citizenship.


62)I think it would be cool to figure out a way for our kids to have duel citizenship. Does anyone out there know how this works?


63) Sebastian's parents came to visit us about 7 1/2 years ago. They stayed with us for 2 1/2 months. When they applied for their visas they had to make it clear that they would not be staying and that I would not be using them as granny-nannies.


64) We had a lot of fun showing them around our state- which is about as big as their country.


65) We went to Romania 6 1/2 years ago and stayed for a month. It was really neat to see the things my husband had told me stories of. My very favorite was to see the Black Sea.


66)If I ever get back there in the summer I want to stay at the Black Sea for a week. I may even pay a gypsy girl to give me a mud wrap. The gypsies walk up and down the beach selling absolutely everything. You never have to leave your towel if you don't want to.


67) I took our 5 children to Romania in February. 30 hours and 4 international airports in 3 countries and they were as good as gold!


68) Austrian Airlines ROCKS! My kids were SO spoiled by the flight attendants.


69)Sebastian's parents had never met our 2 youngest children and they hadn't seen Elizabeth since she was 6 months old.


70) I hope we get to see them at least once more.


71) One year Sebastian was working in Eastern Washington. He left for work at 4 am on Monday morning and got home at 9 pm on Friday night.


72)I guess those weekends were long enough. I found out that year that I was pregnant with Jonah.


73)It was also the year I painted my bedroom pink. It was my room. He was just a guest in it!

74) my favorite color is red. It makes me happy. I should wear it more often, but I have a closet full of red's sweet little sister, pink. I even have pink Converse.


75) Since I married Euro I have done away with the top sheet on all our beds. Top sheets are just a pain in the butt!


76)My kids all have blankets small enough to throw in our monstrously huge washer. And, since they are kids, we do wash them a lot.


77)We have a down comforter and a couple of duvet covers. I found some modified suspender or mitten clips that hold the comforter in place and make it so I can get the thing inside and straight all by myself.

78) Since I have lived in this house I have never had a reliable dishwasher. I spent a lot of time hand washing. Now that I have a new kitchen I sometimes start hand washing the dishes and get about half way done before I have that "DOH" moment and load the rest in the dishwasher.


79) I like to wear make up- for about 2 hours. Then I start touching my face and it all goes to pot and I have to wash my face.


80) I was 28 the first time I got my eyebrows waxed. I wonder how I lived that long...It hurts to high heaven, too.


81)And I just don't get it- I gave birth 5 times without an epidural, 4 of those times without any pain medication at all, and I cry when i get my eyebrows waxed.


82)My theory is this: When you give birth you have no choice but to GET IT OUT. Waxing your eyebrows is purely optional. Oh, and I'm deathly afraid of needles.


83) I'm deathly afraid of needles. I can get a blood draw OK, but then I cry when it's done and I have to sit a while so I don't pass out. Shots? Hold me down!


84) I am totally immunized and up to date on my tetanus shot.


85) I drink Coke. And coffee. If I wasn't deathly afraid of needles I think I would have a caffeine drip running all day. Water is strictly for bathing. And boiling pasta.


86)I am a good cook. But I hate to do it.

87) Jesse is a good cook and he loves to do it. I love to let him.


88)I bought a bottle of Liz Claiborne perfume before Jonah was born. He says I smell like Mommy when I wear it, which is nearly every day.


89) Caleb eats with his eyes. if it looks weird- fugeddaboudit. I eat with my nose. Actually smell is very important to me in a lot of things.


90)I make judgements about food, people, and how clean my house is based on smell.


91) My favorite is to go for a walk in the evening- especially on a fall evening- and count how many people are doing their laundry. I can smell it if the dryer is venting.


92) I love to stand close to my husband and smell him. He doesn't smell like cologne or laundry, just himself. Every once in a while he smells the way he did when I met him.


93) When I'm alone I can run every appliance, the TV, and a radio or two- but add a kid or five to the mix and I need to turn everything else off.


94) I am a night owl.


95) See #85.


96) I dream sometimes that my childhood house is for sale and we buy it and we move in- just so my kids can experience my childhood. In my dream the house is not furnished with things from my childhood. We bring our own stuff. Anybody care to psychoanalyze me?


97) I love to paint walls. It's gratifying. You can take dingy and dirty and turn it into "WOW" and no one can come along and "unpaint" it in an hour.

98) I like to sew.


99)I need to finish some face cradle covers for my sister's massage table.

100)Then I need to shorten my girls' curtains.

101) THEN I need to finish the roman shades I started for the kids' office.

102) Lastly I need to finish the double wedding ring quilt I started 9 years ago.

103)I want to figure out a way to earn some money. I am thinking about trying my hand at some custom bows and barrettes. I have built in hair models.


104) I am a closet design freak. See #31.

105)Blogging takes up way too much of my time, but I LOVE IT.

106) I can fix a lot of things around my house. I have 2 glass window panes calling out to me right now.

107) I plan to pick all the Italian prunes off our tree next week and dehydrate them. Our second favorite way to eat them- right after fresh.

108) I also plan to make apple sauce from the apples on the tree in our yard.

109) I told my husband I wanted to try to write a book this year. I have a really good idea swimming around in my head.

110) I take picture and my family says, "Are you gonna blog about this?" I do take pictures just for my blog, but I have way more that never make it out of my Kodak program!

111) I like to read but I hardly ever afford myself that luxury because once I have a book in my hand I can't put it down until it is done. The world could burn down around me for all I care....


112) The 2 best books I read this year were A Thousand Splendid Suns and Created To Be His Helpmeet- for very different reasons.

113) I don't think it is fair to have grey hair and the beginning of wrinkles, and still be getting zits.


114)I looked at my chin yesterday and I saw my grandma!

115) Ditto for my hands- except she doesn't bite her nails to the bloody stump.


116) Elizabeth and my grandma have the same birthday 80 years apart.

117)They have celebrated together every year since Libby was born except for this year, because we were in Romania.


118)My grandma still hasn't quite forgiven me for not naming Libby after her. In fact she calls her "Mary Elizabeth".


119)I need a week in the Caribean with my family, and 5 nannies.


120) It will never happen.


121) I wear glasses.


122) I got my first pair when I was 18 months old.

123) I burried a pair in the back yard because I didn't want to wear them.

124) My parents dug and dug and they never could find them.

125) Mom, I burried them right off the slab from the back door of the garage. I can't remember if it was to the right or the left.

126) I'm sorry.

127) I have tried wearing contacts. Several times. I hate them.

128) Praise the Lord for high index lenses! No more Coke bottles for me.

129) I am legally blind in my left eye.

130) I am secretly afraid that something will happen to my right eye in some kind of freak accident and I will go blind.

131) Speaking of afraid: I was almost sideswiped today when a lady changed lanes into my front quarter panel.


132) I reacted fast enough to avoid an accident.


133) She never knew. My horn doesn't work.


134) I was almost sorry I didn't let her hit me so I could get a new car.


135) Then I looked over at Jesse and re-thought that. He was sitting in the front passenger seat.


136) I am trying to be thankful for the car that I own. I have no car payment.


137) I can't wait until Jesse can drive some people around for me!


138) I would rather be cold than hot. you can always put more clothes on, but there is a limit to what you can take off!


139)I hate to wear socks.


140) I bought socks for myself this year for the first time in 5 years.


141) I will take comfy undergarments over sexy ones any day. It doesn't matter much anyway....


142) My favorite dinner is taco salad- but it has to be made with Doritos and topped with 1000 Island dressing and Ketsup.


143) I only like Heinz ketsup.


144) I only like Campbell's cream soups.


145) I only like Best Foods mayonaise.


146) Mustard is mustard is mustard.


147) I do not eat bell peppers. I can taste them when my mom tries to pick them out of stuff to trick me. I can taste them if food is left uncovered in the refrigerator.


148) I do not eat any kind of peppers. Period. For any amount of money.


149) When my husband was a teenager, his uncle dared him to chew and swallow a super hot, super tiny pepper. For $100 US.


150) Sebastian made $100 that day.


151) He was sorry the next day.


152) Even though it is still 5 years away, I am torn about going to my 20 year class reunion. Will I even matter there?


153) I try not to run my kids around too much, but...

154) All the kids go to church on Tuesday night. Jesse goes to youth group at one church and the other kids go to AWANA at our church.

155) Jesse is going to be taking a cooking class for the next 6 Wednesdays.

156) The girls are taking ballet on Thursday nights.

157) Jesse goes to co-op on Thursdays.

158) And Jonah goes to daycare on Thursdays so I can work.

159) Poor Caleb needs an activity.

160) I spent all day cleaning my office. Yeah, it was that bad.

161) I have people coming over tomorrow.

162) I'm not ready for them....

163) We bought a bond tonight. In 12 years it will have more than doubled in value.

164) We've already decided that we want to buy more bonds.

165) We have severe fruit fly issues today. I also had a severly rotten apple in my fruit bowl along with some very ripe bananas.

166) In order to get rid of fruit flies clean your kitchen and remove all food from your countertops. Put a few inches of apple cider vinegar in a quart jar. White vinegar will not work. make a paper cone with a very small hole at the bottom. tape it so it will stay and drop it into the jar. The cone should not touch the vinegar. Trim the cone to be an inch or so taller than the jar. Cut flaps from the top of the cone to the rim of the jar and fold them over so that they lap over to the outside of the jar. Screw the screw band in place over the inverted cone. The fruit flies will be drawn to the smell of the jar, will walk down the cone and not be able to get back out. Many will gorge themselves on the vinegar and drown. When you have gotten rid of your infestation, swirl the jar to drown the rest.

167) I won't have a fruit fly problem by this time tomorrow.

168) I chew my finger nails badly.

169) When my nails are to short to bite off I peel them.

170) When I can't peel them amy more I bite the skin around them.

171) It's ugly and I hate it and I need to stop.

172) I want to finish painting my kitchen this weekend, but I don't know if I will have the time.

173) There is never enough time.

174) I also need to make the curtains for my dining room- but I don't have the time.

175) Lately I have been having the baby twinge. I am hoping it will go away. Until it does, please keep your infant far away from me.

176) This is the first year in 11 years that I haven't had a baby in diapers.

177) We didn't have any birthday parties for our kids last year. I decided that I really like to make thier birthdays special and I really missed the parties. I think this year we will have parties, but keep them low key.

178) I like to watch movies. I don't really care what kind as long as it is not horror.

179) Horror movies give me terrible nightmares- the kind where I wake up in a cold sweat, sitting straight up in bed, and unable to breathe.

180) I don't really like chick flicks as well as I like a good comedy. Like Hitch- or just about anything with Will Smith.

181) I think Ed Harris is really good looking- for an old guy.

182) I haven't washed my windows in over a year. I keep thinking that we will replace them and so they wouldn't be worth the wor.

183) I should wash my windows this weekend.

184) See #173

185) I don't like chocolate.

186) Or Ice cream.

187) Or yougurt.

188) I will eat them, but they're not my first choice.

189) I really like candy like hot tamales, bottle caps, or licorice. And I like Orange Sherbet the best. Any brand will do. There's nothing I like in place of yougurt. I can eat a lemon yoplait- but even then I start to gag before I finish. I think it's the thickness in the back of my throat.

190) I love storage boxes. I have a clear storage tote fettish. Brand is not of uttermost importance, but right now I am loving the newest rubbermade totes in all thier sizes.

191) I am super organized. I just can't keep up with every one else to be organized for them, too.

192) My favorite stores are: Target and Office Depot.

193) If I go into a store and I am not greeted (like a clothing store at the mall) I will turn around and leave and not buy anything. I'll go find what I am after somewhere else.

194) I hate bad customer service. There is no excuse for being rude or lazy.

195) I will always leave a 20% tip when I take my kids to a restaurant. They're a lot of work and I am so glad that someone else is doing it. We have taught our children to ask to have thier needs met. They can keep a waitress running!

196) I am giving away some Starbucks goodness in honor of my 200th post. Starbucks has some really good non-coffee drinks, Mom. Don't be afraid to enter.

197) To enter my give away you have to leave me some comment love.

198) You get a second entry if you tell me something you learned about me- especially if you have known me my entire life.

199) You get a third entry if I am on your blog roll.

200) I will draw a winner on Monday, September 21st.

I hope you managed to read the whole post and not just skim through it with your eyes glazed over. :)
Happy 200 to me!