Saturday, September 19, 2009

All About Me

I'm in a mood tonight, and I should be in bed, but I feel very talkative. So, I'll share about something someone I know very well: ME!
And since I like lists, I thought I'd do one of those 100 things about me lists. I don't know if I'll make it all the way to 100, but I'll give it a go. Oh, and I will be adding pictures as I go along.

1. I consider myself to be a very shy, painfully, awkwardly shy person. But I don't think people who know me would say the same thing.
2. Once you get to know me, I never shut up. I can talk and talk and talk and talk, well, you get the picture.
3. I love my hubby dearly, but he can annoy me more than anyone I know.
4. I can remember the first moment I ever laid eyes on Hub.
5. We worked together at JCPenney. He was sitting in the break room. He was wearing khaki pants, a light blue shirt, and a navy blue jacket.
6. I pursued him.
7. We were friends for several months before I finally got him to ask me out on a date.
8. We went to dinner at Applebee's and saw "The Santa Clause".
9. Why, yes, we started dating close to Christmas. Why do you ask?
10. I am a goofball.


11. I also don't lie. I am really a goofball. But a shy one.
12. I will act silly for my kids and close friends and some family, but I tend to keep more to myself when around large groups or people I don't know very well.
13. But I am willing, however, to make a complete idiot online. Just ask my APTCH friends.
14. They are my girls, my bff's. We met online when we were all pregnant. Me with Monkey; them, well, not with Monkey. With their little ones.
15. Back to Hub. We dated for several months and then moved in together.
16. Looking back now, not one of our better choices.
17. And in keeping with not a better choice, I should have put God up higher on this list.
18. I am a Jesus loving, literal Bible believing, creationist, daughter of the Most High King, so thankful to be saved, every day sinner, but most joyful to be washed by the blood Christian!!
19. That should have been number 1.
20. Hub and I lived together before we got married though we both knew it was wrong.
21. Did I mention I am a sinner?
22. And a goofball?

23. I bought my own engagement ring. Sorta.
24. I still worked at JCPenney. Diamonds were on sale. A flyer came in the mail. I told Hub that with my discount and the huge sale, it would be a good time to buy a diamond. So we bought one that night, April 18, 1997.
25. Then Hub went and asked my parents for my hand in marriage. He's old fashioned like that.
26. We got married about 6 months later, almost exactly three years after our first date. It was a beautiful day. The leaves had turned such a pretty color and there was snow on the mountaintops.
27. My father performed the ceremony.


28. Did I mention he's a Methodist minister? He graduated from seminary when I was 6 weeks old.
29. I'm not entirely sure he's really saved.
30. And there's too much history there for me to get into tonight.
31. After Hub and I were married, I decided what I wanted to be when I grew up.
32. I got a two year degree from the local community college.
33. Then decided I wanted to get my bachelor's degree.
34. So we moved back home for me. Or close to back home. Where all my parents lived at the time.
35. My mom and dad divorced when I was 2. Well, they split up then anyway. My mom was pregnant with my brother at the time.
36. I do not recommend growing up in a divorced household. There is not one good thing about it.
37. Even though I got good step-parents, I still wish I'd never had to have gone through that.
38. Hub came from a non-divorced home. It was a big hurdle for us to overcome. Me coming from a divorced home, that is.
39. I went to school to become an accountant.
40. Something my mother told me to do when I was 18.
41. I waited until I was 29.

42. I wish I had listened to my mother.
43. I listen to her much better now.
44. My first born son changed my life.
45. While trying to get pregnant with him, Hub and I decided that we had been idiots and quit running from God.
46. We started going to church together a few months before conceiving Dino.
47. No surprise to me now that we had been trying for almost 2 years, but just a short three months after we got back into church I got pregnant.
48. My fall semester of school started in August 2002 and I was almost 8 months pregnant. I really thought I could finish the semester.
49. I dropped out a week later.
50. Dino was born a week after that; 4 weeks early.
51. He had to stay in the NICU for 6 days. The day I left the hospital without my baby was one of the hardest days of my life.
52. The other two were the day I left Frog at the hospital after he was born and had to be in the NICU. And the day I had a miscarriage.
53. I took a semester off school when Dino was born and started back when he was 5 months old.
54. Hub and I decided to try to have another baby before I graduated so that when I went to get a job I wouldn't have to immediately go on maternity leave.
55. That expression "Know how to make God laugh? Make plans." or something like that. Well, it's so true.
56. By the time I was pregnant with Frog, when Dino was about 16 months old, I had decided to be a SAHM and homeschool.
57. But I finished school anyway.
58. I graduated in May, six months pregnant, with a Bachelor's degree in Accounting. I had a Distinction in Accounting and graduated Cum Laude.
59. Not too shabby.
60. I really love accounting.
61. If I could just go to school all the time, it would be a great career for me.
62. But being a mom is what God wanted me to be.
63. Hub was asked to resign from his teaching job a month after I graduated from school.
64. And for those keeping track, I was 7 months pregnant with Frog at the time.
65. God knows what He's doing even when we don't. Hub was never meant to be a teacher. Unfortunately it took him 8 years to figure it out.
66. We moved in with my mom and step-dad two days before Frog was born.
67. I do not recommend moving at almost 9 months pregnant.
68. Frog stopped moving the day he was born.
69. I panicked but the nurse on the helpline said everything was probably fine.
70. She was wrong.
71. But I listened to my intuition (God's actually) and went to the doctor's office anyway.
72. Frog ended up being fine, but he was sick, and needed to be born that day.
73. Loved being a mama to my two boys. But it was hard at first cause Hub had no job.
74. Took a ton of faith to not run out and find the first accounting job a newly graduated, high honors student could find.
75. But God had bigger plans. My job is to be a mother to my boys. And their teacher.
76. Hub eventually found work. Even now, still not what we would like, but he supports his family well.
77. Still wanted more babies even while living with my parents. Had a miscarriage, and then welcomed Monkey into our lives.
78. Did NOT enjoy the last month of Monkey's pregnancy.
79. Gained 20 pounds in 2 weeks and bought a one way ticket to the hospital.
80. False alarm. Not pre-eclampsia, but close, and closely watched for the rest of the pregnancy, which ended up being only two weeks,
81. Was contracting for a few days; went for a check-up; scheduled my c-section for two weeks later even though I told the doc (a newbie) that I was  might be in labor. She just smiled and told me I was 3 cm.
82. Had a NST and another doc said I needed to go to the hospital since I'd had 2 c-sections already and it looked like I might be in labor.
83. Went to the hospital and the doc who had examined me earlier and declared me not in labor, examined me again and said I was 5 cm and "in labor."
84. Even through the contractions, while waiting for Hub to get to the hospital, and being prepped for the section, I played Sudoku. I love numbers.

85. This is more fun than I thought it would be. But it's 12:30 and I should be in bed.
86. At 9 pounds 10 ounces, and three weeks early, Monkey was my biggest newborn.
87. But he's my tiniest little fella now. Dino and Frog are always at the top and off the charts for height and weight since they were around a year old. Monkey has consistently been 25% for weight and just now got to 50% for height.
88. Frog takes after me, dontcha think?


89. So, now we live in a three bedroom house with me, Hub, our three boys, and my parents. Oh, and I forgot to mention, my step-brother.
90. He lives in the shed.
91. No, really. It's a huge shed and one end has been made into a bedroom. Fully insulated and wired for electricity. We even have wireless so Bro can play his RPGs in his room.
92. We aren't your typical family.
93. Be we love each other and we love the Lord. Still praying that Bro will eventually see that he needs God, but he sees the love we have everyday.
94. Since I had kids, I have started to have a passion for Jesus and being the best witness I can.
95. I hope I'm successful.
96. But time and time again, God has made it clear that the number one mission field I work with, and my number one priority, is sitting right in my house.

97. Golly, I sure love these guys!!
98. And I love being a stay at home, homeschooling mom!!
99. And I do love to talk!
100. Whew! I'm exhausted!

2 comments:

Michelle said...

Mae - I got most of the way through that list. I'm going to come back and try again! :)

I love the pictures, though...I feel like it gave me a glimpse of a side of you that I would never have, otherwise. Very cool.

But I am definitely coming back for the post. I just can't finish it right now!

Erica said...

Great post, Mae :-)

Also, thanks for the necklace idea. It was too much money for me but I e-mailed my friend the saying that went with it. It is a great saying!