Since it is my birthday I thought I would write a few things about myself. Most of you know me, but some of these things may surprise you. I am trying to keep them just about me, not my parenting or being a wife :)
1. I was in 4-H growing up. I raised pigs and sold them every year to make money. Sold them to people who liked to eat Ham. I grew attached to the pigs, but I never had a problem selling them because I knew what I got into when I started.
2. Speaking of pigs... The money I saved while raising pigs I used to buy my car when I turned 16. I drive that car to work every single day. It almost has 200,000 miles on it. It does not have hubcaps because they made an annoying noise because they were loose so my husband took them all off. It is ghetto.
3. My favorite candy of all time is tropical flavored starbursts. I will eat other candy of course but forever this will be my favorite candy.
4. I have the biggest sweet tooth I know. Seriously. Try to prove me wrong. I dare you.
5. I wrote in my journal every single day of middle school and high school. People can't see how I can blog almost every day, but this is not new to me. I essentially am just keeping my journal every day- plus adding a few pictures.
6. Those journals have just about every boys name in it that I went to middle school and high school with. To say I was boy crazy is an understatement. It would really be embarrassing if I wrote them all out. Rich thinks it is awesome because out of all those boys I had crushes on, I chose him.
7. My job at church is the substitute primary teacher. BEST JOB EVER! I can say no, I get to be the fun teacher every week, and I am never with the kids long enough to get annoyed of them.
8. I try to wash my hair every 3 days. I love dry shampoo and I hate blow drying my hair. Enough said.
9. I hate shaving my legs. During high school I spent an entire basketball season without shaving my legs. I pretended it was for basketball, but really I just hated shaving. Obviously my hatred for shaving was greater than my boy craziness... and now all those boys who are thinking they missed out are happy Rich got me ;)
10. #9 is another reason why I LOVE tights. Tights are the coolest thing out there. I love purple ones and silver ones and grey ones and footless ones and I do not have enough tights.
11. I don't wear heals very often. It used to be because Rich is so close in height that I didn't want to be a lot taller than him, but now it is because I am just too clumsy to walk in them.
12. I am a certified nurse midwife. Basically I am a nurse practitioner in an OBGYN office who delivers babies as well. I write prescriptions, give orders in the hospital, and manage low risk patients. I deliver the babies and a doctor is not there with me. (gasp! That is the most frequent question I get- "when does the doctor show up?")
13. I cry. A lot. It is in my genes. I cry probably almost every day. I cry when I am happy and sad and I cry with patients sometimes before they even start crying.
14. My favorite holiday is Halloween.
15. I love hearing birth stories. I love women telling me about their wonderful experiences and how they brought their children into the world. I don't care if it was a c-section. I want to know how it felt and how amazed you were and I am honored when women share these things with me.
16. I am honored when I am invited to a birth. Any birth, but especially the birth of a friend. Some people think it is weird, but being there as a doula or a sister or friend or a midwife is so amazing. Birth is such a sacred place and to be invited there to serve that woman is amazing. I am not asking to be invited- I know that isn't anything I would push on anyone, but truly each life I have been blessed to witness enter this world has connected me with such a love that I couldn't deny that it is my calling in life to serve women in this capacity.
17. I didn't cut my hair until I was in the 5th or 6th grade. I wore it in a braid down my back almost every single day and I had to put my hair over my shoulder in order to go to the bathroom. Talk about rapunzel.
18. Growing up I had imaginary friends. Lots of them. I had imaginary horses too... except they were bikes that I would tie a shoelace to the handle bars and pretend I was riding my horse.
19. I love to exercise. I hike or run at least 5 days a week. I like to tell myself it is because I want to stay healthy, but really it is because I want to be able to eat all the candy I want without having to worry about getting fat.
20. I was my senior class president and now I have to plan my class reunion. Thankfully I have an awesome group of people who are willing to help me- cause seriously I have a lot of stinkin things on my plate and I can't seem to whittle away at them all.
21. I LOVE being pregnant (even though I gained 55lbs with Cara). I LOVE giving birth. If it weren't for the child and the money and the potty training and that I had to work, I would have babies every single year.
22. I am a super fast reader. No joke. I get sucked into a book and BAM it is done. However, rarely if ever will I stay up late to read. Reading after midnight? Absolutely NOT! I enjoy my sleep way to much.
23. My running shoes are almost over 5 years old. They give me blisters if I walk in them and they give me blisters if I run more than 3 miles in them. I just bought new ones (really cheap ones) and I am trying to break those in before I toss my old ones.
24. I have a horrible memory. I think that is why I blog/ journal. I don't remember what happened a couple days ago, I don't remember dates, meetings, birthdays, or what patient I saw 5 minutes ago.
25. I have horrible depth perception. If there is a pothole on the road and I am trying to miss it, I will 100% certain hit it. I have stopped trying to avoid these because I know that I will miss it more often if I just ignore it.
26. I love "special" dates or times. Like when the clock reads 11:11, I think that is awesome. When the date of the year is 9-10-11 I think that is awesome as well. I also have a really cool friend who likes these things as well and we have stayed in touch since middle school because of these dates. In fact- I got an awesome package in the mail from her for my birthday (THANKS!~)
27. I love baking but I don't like cooking. I hardly ever have the right ingredients for cooking so I use substitutions all the time. I will have to say it used to scare Rich for a long time but now he is totally used to it and is always very impressed when I cook a meal. And when I bake he knows it will be amazing- and if it isn't then I eat it all anyway, so no worries.
28. I understand almost all medical Spanish. I have worked for a year and a half where all of my employees are Mexican and their first language is Spanish. I am finally, this year, starting to speak to my patients in Spanish because I know I need to get over it and just do it.
And that is it folks. I am off to watch a movie and cuddle on the couch with my husband. Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes.
Now I know where Ryann gets all her amazing faces from... her dad taught her how to NOT smile at a camera.
