It's only taken me 2 months to compose, but in honor of my 100th post, here is a list of 100 things about me:1) I was born in Chicago
2) I’ve now lived outside of Chicago as long as I lived in Chicago and that thought depresses me.
3) I went to a small private high school and with only 120 students in the whole high school.
4) My brother is 18 months older than me and used to pick on me when we were younger but I like him OK now :-)
5) I can see my house from where I’m sitting (in a conference room on the top floor of our office building downtown).
6) I might have attention deficit disorder because I couldn’t focus past four items before I got distracted looking out the window.
7) I’m not a big list person, I just wing it mostly.
8) I use the internet to de-stress and frequently cope with high stress by taking a surf-break. It can be an hour before a big deadline and for some reason I’ll go read a blog to calm myself. Like procrastinating even more is going to lower the stress level.
9) I have a degree in chemical engineering, but I can’t engineer my way out of a paper bag and my chemistry skills are poor.
10) I graduated magna cum laude with that engineering degree and still don’t know a thing.
11) I also have an MBA, which I might actually know how to use.
12) My undergrad minor was psychology and I still think someday I might go back and get my PhD in psychology. It was the only thing I ever learned without even trying because I found it so fascinating.
13) I think I might be interested in psychology because I grew up around a lot of craziness.
14) A little of the craziness rubbed off on me, but I stifle it pretty well.
15) I’m trying to go chronologically with info, but in case you don’t read all the way down, you must be told that I’m the mother of the two cutest boys alive, ages 4 and 23 months.
16) Oh yeah, I’m Sean’s wife too and he’s pretty cute as well.
17) I wouldn’t mind having another cutie to add to the posse, but I still need to do a little arm-twisting at home.
18) My friend Kate and I grew up a few blocks apart and even though I never get to see her anymore, I still think she knows me better than anyone.
19) I carry a Blackberry for my new job and have found myself typing notes while driving.
20) But never with my kids in the car.
21) I have two dogs, both poodles of some sort, adopted from shelters or families that couldn’t keep them.
22) I’ve always had at least one black poodle or poodle mix for the last 27 years of my life.
23) At one point when I was single, I had seven dogs in my apartment, but five were foster puppies that I raised until they were big enough to go out for adoption.
24) If I hadn’t gotten married, I’m pretty sure I would have ended up the freaky lady with all the dogs.
25) One of my dogs died last year and I still miss him a lot and wish we had more dogs.
26) It’s easy for me to say I want more dogs, since Sean does all the feeding and walking nowadays.
27) I’ve probably only pumped gas in my car 20 times in the six years since I’ve gotten married, because my chivalrous husband takes care of these things.
28) Pretty sure that husband is happy I’m working closer to home and only need a fill-up every two weeks instead of twice a week.
29) My current job is a category manager in charge of component purchases and co-producer sales and purchases for a lube and fuel additives company.
30) If you don’t understand anything I said in #29, you’re not alone.
31) I’ve only been working here for 4 weeks and I think I’m 6 weeks behind.
32) I miss my friends from my old job a lot, but still think I did the right thing when I quit.
33) My best friends moved to Budapest in January and I think I hear from them more now than I did when they lived here.
34) I’m afraid of change and really afraid of unknown, uncertain situations.
35) I’ve only been outside the US six times in my life: 2 Caribbean vacations, 2 times to Canada, 2 times to Mexico (once was just walking across the border and coming back 30 minutes later).
36) My travel plans this year include Paris, Budapest, and Singapore.
37) Did I mention that traveling to new places scares the crap out of me?
38) I know, you wouldn’t have guessed it since I seem so sophisticated.
39) Last year, I got my first digital camera and I haven’t put it down since.
40) Before digital, I probably shot 2-3 rolls of film a week.
41) Now I probably take at least 200 pictures a week.
42) I still always feel uneasy taking pictures of other people and get nervous they won’t like them.
43) If I spend more than 15 minutes with someone, I’ll probably end up showing them a picture of my kids.
44) My father didn’t come to my wedding and has never met either of my children.
45) I wonder how people come up with 100 things about themselves?
46) I’m still breastfeeding my 23 month old and don’t care if other people don’t approve.
47) I’m addicted to Jelly Belly sour jelly beans and just ordered 20 pounds of them last week.
48) It took me 20 days to go through 20 pounds the last time I ordered Jelly Beans.
49) There are 10 flavors in the jelly bean mix and I don’t eat the sour peach ones, so technically I probably only ate 18 pounds of jelly beans.
50) That’s still a heck of a lot of jelly beans.
51) Even if you order in bulk, the jelly beans are $5 a pound. So if I eat a pound a day, that’s more expensive than if I bought a pack a day of cigarettes.
52) I’m a vegetarian, but I still don’t eat very healthy.
53) I started this list almost two months ago and never finished it so some of the comments above are out of date.
54) I told myself my next blog post would be this list, so I’ve neglected my blog for a long time.
55) I don’t think I’ve ever met a Canadian I didn’t like.
56) I’ve met lots of Americans I don’t like.
57) I’m pregnant.
58) The thought of having a third child kind of scares me, but I was sure I’d regret it if I stopped at two.
59) I figure that since having the first one scared me and I survived that, this can’t be too bad.
60) I hate that people think I’m having this baby just to have a girl.
61) At this point, I feel like I know what I’m doing with boys and will be a little scared if it turns out to be a girl.
62) I regret that I didn’t do something to keep up my Spanish skills after high school.
63) Mostly because I can’t seem to find a babysitter that speaks English and I really want to go out once in a while.
64) I feel like we’ve gotten to a point in our lives where we don’t NEED anything.
65) But I still WANT a lot more camera equipment.
66) Making decisions on expensive purchases absolutely paralyzes me and I return things all the time.
67) I think we’ll be living in our townhouse forever (with kids living in closets) because I can’t make a decision on where else to live.
68) Besides which, I absolutely HATE packing.
69) And how could you have your house ready to show people when you have 3 kids and 2 dogs?
70) So we’ll live in the too-small house forever.
71) Hiring a nanny was one of the best decisions we ever made.
72) Although it was good to try day care first so you understood how much better the nanny was by comparison.
73) When I retire, I’d like to have a house in Vermont to live in part of the year, definitely in the fall.
74) I think Sean would be content to live in Houston forever.
75) I looked at #71 and decided I should mention that my real best decision ever was to marry Sean and have his babies.
76) Trevor has me wrapped around his finger and can melt me with a “Please Mommy”.
77) I wonder if I can come up with 100 things.
78) I don’t think I’ll ever have too many pictures of my kids.
79) It makes me really angry that I’m 35 years old and still have acne.
80) Even if I didn’t work outside the home, I’d still want someone else to clean my house.
81) But I would cook more if I didn’t work.
82) I think my biggest failing as a parent is that we don’t make the kids eat healthy.
83) But they run around a lot and aren’t overweight so it isn’t too bad so far.
84) I find a distinct pleasure in lighting things on fire and smashing things.
85) I don’t think this is cause for worry.
86) If I could make a living surfing the internet, I would sign up immediately.
87) Come to think of it, at my last job I spent 75% of my day surfing the internet and they still paid me. Why did I quit?
88) Oh yeah, because I worked for a boss who infinitely multiplied my desire to burn and smash things.
89) So I don’t get to surf the internet now, but I’m more at peace.
90) I don’t really like to meet new people and am uncomfortable at parties where I don’t know people.
91) My ideal vacation is a bed and breakfast somewhere in the mountains in the fall.
92) I am not a beach person at all and on my last 3 trips to Hawaii didn’t set foot on a beach.
93) I drink occasionally (not while pregnant), used to smoke socially, but have never done any illegal drugs.
94) I had to give myself insulin injections when I was pregnant with Trevor and found it surprisingly easy.
95) Remember that guy who got his hand caught rock climbing and cut it off (with a dull pocket knife) to free himself? I spend a lot of time thinking about whether I could do that.
96) I haven’t reached a conclusion on cutting the hand off. I’d at least give it a shot.
97) I saw The Police in concert last week so I can cross that off my Things to Do Before I Die list.
98) Not that I really have a Things to Do Before I Die list, but that would have been on it.
99) I have never jumped out of a plane or gotten a tattoo and don’t think I ever will.
100) If I had one wish, it would be that my kids still want to spend time with me when they get older.
Posts
The week to week pictures never look any different, but alas, I will continue to degrade my dignity by posting these whale images. It's funny because generally I think of myself as the palest girl alive, but next to Trevor I look tan. So maybe I ought to pose with the kids more.
I actually have a whole series from pregnancy #1 and #2, but that was in the pre-digital days. On pregnancy #1 (Hayden), I made Sean cut my head off in all the pictures because I couldn't be bothered to comb my hair or put on makeup once a week. Seems strange in retrospect, all these pictures of my beheaded enormous body. So you're getting everything but the feet this time around.
Oh, and if I lost you in the middle of my 100 things list, you might want to look below for the key news contained in the prior posting!
Finally, I'm feeling some real mom-guilt for not sharing any pictures from Trevor's 2nd birthday so I must post at least one.
OK, I need to post a second one, but that's really it for now. I've got to pack for a trip to Connecticut tomorrow. Nevermind, that's a lie. If you read the 100 things you'd know I never pack till the day of the trip, but I'm tired and want to go to bed.
