100 things

I got this idea from Terica's website - I thought it was a cute idea. I defintiely learned a lot by doing this on myself!

1. I lived in Nauvoo, IL for 5 years – I used to go to the restored houses as a kid every day in the summertime – mostly then for the air conditioning and free gingerbread cookies.

2. I have lived in 6 different places in the past 6 years – 8 in 7 years if I include the last part of my mission.

3. I served a mission in Antofagasta, Chile. The driest place on earth – Calama, Chile was in my mission. In the morning it is 0^◦ F, and by noon it is 110^◦ F – and then by evening – back down to 0^◦ F. There has never been recorded rainfall there. No missionary liked going to that city much.

4. I love 60 – 72% dark chocolate with a passion – much darker and its overwhelming, less dark and its to watered down.

5. I get super silly giggle attacks – still.

6. I love organization.

7. I love a good closet with lots of hooks, boxes, shelves, and compartments – AHHH!

8. I LOVE health food and anything and everything that is healthy.

9. The only temple I didn’t want to get married in was the Chicago Temple – but when I did I was ok with it.

10. I can play my nose like an instrument.

11. I went to Oprah 4 times in 3 months – it began to feel like a part time job – and it became exahausting. But it was AWESOME!! I got to shake Magic Johnson AND Oprah’s hand.

12. I went to BYU Young Ambassador’s camp as a junior in high school– it was hard for me to “belt” then and it is hard for me to “belt” now. I prefer classical or classical broadway style of singing for my voice.

13. I was in the City of Joseph Pageant for 4 or 5 years –two of them being on the dance team. I broke my foot dancing one year because I lost a contact and had no depth perception.

14. Brian and I were in the “Joseph Smith Movie” that is in all the visitor’s centers right now. I got to play “Lucy Mack Smith’s” body double in Alvin’s funeral the first day on set. After that I was two different background people. There is a not very cute Close-Up of me during a singing scene.

15. I went on 50 dates my first semester at BYU…partly because of a challenge from my dad.

16. I took voice lessons after graduating BYU from an awesome vocal coach who played “Carlotta” in Phantom of the Oprah on Broadway for many years.

17. I always knew I would marry Brian once I met him.

18. I was engaged to someone else while Brian was on a mission. I had lots of “warning dreams” telling me not to marry that “other” guy – boy did THEY do the trick!!

19. I was a runner up for being a performing missionary in Nauvoo – I initially thought that would “count” as a mission that I felt I was supposed to serve. Nope.

20. I had “warning dreams” of what would happen if I drank or smoked or wasn’t good in other ways – they scared the living daylights out of me and those things were not ever a temptation for me when I was a teenager (or ever)

21. I love gourmet food.

22. I love to listen to Rush Limbaugh and Shaun Hannity – they are awesome!

23. I am totally mesmerized and fascinated by Mitt Romney – I totally want him to blow everyone away with the Presidential Debates coming up.

24. I was in the National and International Piano Guild Competitions for 10 years. The tenth year I was doing the international level where you had to memorize 15 songs and play them, and all scales and arpeggios in front of a judge. I was a junior in high school and I totally blanked because of the stress I was under. I never could remember the rest of the songs and I spent 20 minutes crying. My piano teacher wanted me to go back and continue playing for the judge because if I completed it I would be in some piano magazine. I kind of regret not going back in, but not that much.

25. I got to go to an American Medical Association Conference on Nutrition Last year in New Mexico – I learned SOOO much and LOVED it and wonder if I shouldn’t have been a nutritionist.

26. I seriously considered being a dental hygienist for awhile.

27. I have dental assisted almost every year, excluding my mission, since I was 12. That is 15 years.

28. I was told when I was 12 I would have to pay for my own clothes, with the exception of socks and underwear. It held mostly true.

29. I am mildly obsessed with “Lost.”

30. I really loved YW girls camp when I was younger – those are some of the fondest memories I have.

40. My senior year I want crazy with extracurricular activities since I was at a new school. I did Viking Television News Anchor, Choir, Special Senior Recital, Art Club, Student Government, and National Honor Society.

41. Sometimes I eat peanut butter out of the jar with a spoon.

42. My favorite cheese is called “Boursin.”

43. I figured that Brian and I roughly fight about 1 time per year…although I can only remember 2 fights specifically.

44. I can’t imagine Brian and I yelling at each other.

45. When I was 7 or 8, I would pray every day for curly hair. I watched too much of Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea. When I got curly hair when I was 12 I was really happy. Since I have been 24 I have straightened it almost every day.

46. My first non Disney movie in a movie theatre was “The Awakenings” when I was 14.

47. I have measured the diastisis of over 150 women so far upon teaching the Mommy Tummy class. I have learned that many women have a very thin rectus abdominus, and the majority have a 2 to 4 fingerwidth diastisis in at least one of the three possible places.

48. I am extremely entrepreneurial minded. I do about 6 business type things right now partly to bring in extra money, but mostly because its fun and I love the challenge. It’s a GREAT outlet for me. Right now I do Nutritional and Weight loss counseling with Herbalife, Surveys, the Mommy Tummy Class, Mini Day Care, sometimes Voice Lessons, Ebay, Amazon, and I in my spare moments I sometimes think about what I could invent – just for fun.

49. I graduated in Vocal Music from BYU.

50. I love to go on walks everyday.

51. I usually need to be doing something if I watch TV – my favorites are folding clothes, exercises, and eating.

52. I love painting and drawing.

53. I love mountain climbing and hiking. I really really wished I lived near mountains – there is nothing quite like being up in the mountains.

54. I had a really lucky year last year – I won a trip to Cancun, Brian won $890 on the radio – both, we won tickets to a movie screening, and to a Christmas Hor-Dervre things with Radio People. Brian says since he won something last, and now its my turn to win something. He would prefer a trip. I am working on it.

55. I really really love shoes – especially tall shoes.

56. I am thankful each day that I married Brian.

57. Brian and I think 4 – 5 kids would be just about right.

58. I love “The Cheesecake Factory” “Grand Lux” and ESPECIALLY “The Melting Pot” Restaurants if I REALLY REALLY have a good excuse to treat myself to an exquisite meal and date night.

59. I am growing “Chocolate Mint” in my garden – it’s the best ever.

60. I love chocolate –which is partially why I put cocoa bean mulch all over my garden. It makes everything smell like chocolate, apart from being great for the plants. It also helps that my brother-in-law works for Blommers Chocolate and they produce that kind of mulch.

61. It would be really hard for me to live without my sister nearby.

62. It would be really hard for me not to live by one of the kids grandparents –they LOVE it and WE love it!

63. I have two reoccurring dreams – 1) that I am in a tornado 2) that I am back on my mission. (Brian’s BYU Climatology teacher said his two reoccurring dreams were EXACTLY the same as mine. I thought it was kind of freaky, but I was also glad to know I’m not alone).

64. My favorite ice cream is REAL guava ice cream.

65. I gained a lot of weight on my mission. I never knew how much because it was in kilos. I never really wanted to compute it.

66. Being in Chile ruined me on eating bread and rice and pasta – I had them all everyday, and they made me gain a ton of weight – and I was always given huge portions and expected to eat all of it so as not to offend. I have revulsions to them – which I am fine with.

67. I LOVE decorating the house. I would love to be a “Nate Berkus” type of person – but I bet it would be exhausting.

68. I hate going to bed with the house a mess…or coming back from a trip with the house a mess..

69. If red peppers are on sale, I buy between 20 and 25 and then figure out what I am going to do with them.

70. I love to eat Quinoa – the most amazing and healthy and easy to make grain there is.

71. I am fascinated by crazy things – human oddities (like Ripley believe it or not), Hollow Earth Theory (as mentioned by a couple BYU profs), Politics (they can get a little crazy) and Omega 3 fatty acids (they are SO important),etc, Large Spiders, Tornadoes and Hurricanes, Highly Classified Mysteries, the 7 Wonders of the World, Macchu Piccu, Mayan Ruins, Greenland, Volcanoes, Magnetic Anomolies on the Earth, Astronomy, Ancient Egypt stuff, etc.

72. I am amused by my kids at least 30 times a day.

73. I love watching Brooke during Sharing Time – she cracks me up.

74. I love being a mom.

75. I can only play one video game well – Guitar Hero.

76. I can’t drink milk plain – it gives me bad chills.

77. I have a skin disease called gutate psoriasis – which affects 2% of the 2% that have psoriasis–little bumps everywear. My junior year of college it was so bad it covered every inch of my body except for my face, oddly enough. The thing that cures it – UVA rays. Since my mission to the driest desert on earth I have been virtually cured of psoriasis. If they pop up – I am supposed to go tanning to “zap” them. I haven't needed to go in 5 years.

78. I can’t watch people brushing their teeth – it gives me the shivers.

79. I have been to the highest lake in the world – Lago Chungara.

80. I hiked Timp - it was awesome.

81. When I was 4 I fell off monkey bars and got gravel in my forehead – and many stitches. It took 20 years for my scar to fade.

82. My sister is the only person who has ever punched me.

83. I was famous my sophomore year for slapping a football player bully jerk who went off on me for something or other.

84. I LOVE BYU Football games.

85. I often times miss Utah – I really loved it there.

86. I worked as an early morning custodian for BYU - I learned that waking up at 4 am is not my favorite thing to do. My classmates wondered how I ever learned anything as they saw me sleeping in every single class, including Women’s Chorus sometimes.

87. I felt the gift of tongues while on my mission and at the MTC as promised.

88. My ancestors on Both sides were pioneers – Brigham Young is my great great great great Uncle. Trumann Angell is also my great great great great uncle. My great grandfather’s stories – Orlando Barrus – are in my church books – his story on how he INSTANTLY got the gift of tongues is amazing – as are other miracles that happened to him.

89. In the end I really love girly chic-flick movies.

90. I don’t know what I would do without a Chi Straightener – even though it has damaged my hair a little.

91. I love growing a garden – but I don’t know why I plant so many tomatoes

92. I sang for President Hinckly several times while at BYU- including General Conference, Dedication of the HBL Library at BYU, and a couple BYU Devotionals while in BYU Women's Chorus. During the Dedication – he was sitting 4 feet away from me – I was intimidated but sang my heart out.

93. I had the same companion 2 different times during my mission.

94. When I worked at the BYU Creamery I unknowlingly served Russel M. Nelson and Ice cream Sundae and asked him in front of a line of many people “How I knew him” and told him that “he seemed very familiar.” He looked embarrassed and said awkwardly and softly, “I’m Brother Nelson.” I always thought that was such a humble response.

95. I was almost named “Leah.”

96. Brian and I decided against doing all B names for our kids, but oddly, the B names are usually the ones I like the best.

97. I would never be able NOT to find out the gender of a baby – I have to mentally be prepared so I can get the nursery made and decorated.

98. I LOVE thunderstorms during the day, but not at night.

99. It was always important to me to marry a tall man so our kids would have a chance at height.

100. I love not having neighbors wall to wall with us – I love having our own home, painting and decorating how we want, planting what we want, and all that stuff.

101. Brian and I got engaged 4 days after I got home from my mission – TOTALLY unplanned and NEVER mentioned EVER in letters. I felt like no time had ever passed by when we saw each other.

102. Brian and I picked 50 lbs of blueberries last year – which lasted us roughly 8 months.

103. I was in a local commercial for Formal Wear and Prom Dresses and also modeled dresses from the same company in a couple of shows when I was 15.

104. I formed a singing ensemble with two of my really good friends growing up – Rachel Moore and Nancy Schofield – we gave a personal concert to Kenneth Cope when we were 16.