100 Things about me

I saw this on someone else's blog (sorry for not saying who, I don't remember!) and liked the idea. So, here are 100 things about me, to let you get to know me a little bit better!

1. I am short, a whopping 5 foot 1/2 inch. I am proud of that 1/2 inch!!
2. I was in beauty pageants as a child. I both loved and hated them at the time, and they left me with both positive and negative feelings about the experience, and about myself. No, I will never put Bug in them.
3. I have been to Europe 3 times, and have spent a total of about 15 1/2 weeks there. I have been to France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Monaco, Belgium, Holland and Austria. I would love to be an Expat, but that's not going to happen in my current job.
4. I have been friends with my best friend, C, for about 20 years. She had an oops baby at a young age, but is still the best person for me to talk to when I need to discuss our infertility. She may not understand, but follows all the rules that Resolve suggests, without even ever reading them (that I'm aware of).
5. I am a moody, moody woman. I try not to be, but sometimes I can't seem to get a grip and stop myself.
6. I am a recovered addict, and my dream is to work with addicts in some way, shape or form, to help them to get through those tough times and recover.
7. I am a type A personality.  I drive myself crazy because of it.
8. I have a hard time making the small decisions (like should I turn now and run through the DQ drive thru at lunch or eat what I brought with me?  Where should we go for dinner?), but big decisions are easy (Yep, this is the car/house to buy).
9. I don't have the best fashion sense.  I can do OK, but lets face it, when K is home he helps me shop and lets me know my outfit looks good.
10. I was a hippie back in the day.  I had a lot of fun, got in a lot of trouble, and was overall not an easy teenager to deal with.  I turned out OK though.
11. I worked, and paid my own way, through college.  It took me 8 years, but I now have an Associates degree and 2 bachelors.  I also got real life experience while doing it and it has helped me so much!
12. My degrees are in International Business and Marketing, but I work in the health insurance field negotiating physician and hospital contracts. (for a mutual company - so we only have a 2% profit margin!!!)
13. I refused to accept that we were infertile for a long time.  Now I like to think that I kinda embrace it.
14. Bug is our miracle.  We never know if we'll have another and sometimes I'm OK with that.  Still going to try though.
15. I work best under pressure.  The tighter the deadlines, the better.
16. My favorite color is purple.
17. I have two small tattoo's and one large tattoo, all on my back.  They all have very deep meanings.
18. I want one more tattoo that I can see after we try for baby number 2.  It will represent Bug and that baby.
19. Reading is my favorite past time.  I don't get to do it much.
20. I love to garden, and I love canning the vegetables I grow.
21. I have a hard time growing house plants.
22. Emms is a nickname that K gave me.  It stems from a childhood nickname from my mom, and is nowhere close to my real name.
23. I am deathly afraid of spiders.
24. I am deathly afraid of cancer taking those I love, or myself, out of this world too early (in my eyes.)
25. My parents chose not to baptize me as a baby, but to let me make my own choices as I grew up.
26. I was baptized in the Catholic Church a week and a half before my 30th birthday.  I love the structure, and the old world feel of it.  I truly feel God when I step into church.
27. While I am glad my parents did not baptize me (it would NOT have been Catholic), I WILL baptize my children.  Bug was baptized just before her 1st birthday.
28. I get worked up when things don't work out like I think they should.  It stresses me out.  I try to keep it reigned in.
29. I am outspoken.  K's first thought of me was that I was obnoxious.
30. I find myself inexplicably quiet in new situations with people I don't know.
31. My hair grows amazingly fast.  Like inches every 6 weeks to 2 months.  My hairdresser is amazed by it.
32. Sometimes I talk really fast and people have to tell me to slow down.
33. I met K in a class taught by a Ms. Love.
34. I love fast cars.  I drive a Mazda Speed 3, it has a turbo!!  But it HAS to be standard transmission.  Automatics are too boring to drive.
35. I was a competitive gymnast for 14 years.
36. I can be easily intimidated by people of 'rank' but you would never know it.
37. I wish I could write better than I think I do.
38. I LOVE French Food.  REAL French food.
39. Who am I kidding, I love all food.  Luckily I have a fast metabolism (and I'm hoping that won't change.)
40. I'm not a morning person.
41. I'm not a night person.
42. That's right, that means I'm really a middle of the day kinda gal.
43. I need lots of sleep.  That doesn't happen with Bug, but I function best on about 9 - 10 hours of sleep.
44. I fell in love with cookies.... AFTER Bug was born.  Now I'm a good old cookie monster.
45. I want to go back to school for my masters.
46. I have a HUGE collection of glass/ceramic horses and unicorns from when I was a little girl.  I hope Bug likes them :-)
47. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I love the food and the gathering of family.  I host it every chance I can.
48. I'm glad K is a pilot, and I look forward to alone time when he's gone, but I wish he was home more often.
49. I feel blessed in my life, but am not always the best at showing my thankfulness.
50. I love to camp and hike!
51. I love to cook but am not creative about it.
52. I don't watch much TV but when I do it is either food network or a crime show.
53. My favorite Author right now is Jodi Piccoult.
54. I have a Nook and I love it, but I still love reading a real book, feeling the pages, smelling them, etc.
55. I love Orchids but have killed 3 of them. :-(
56. I love getting dressed up.
57. We designed my wedding band.  A friend of mine loved it so much that she found one that has some similarities to mine. 
58. My desk at work is organized chaos.  I know where everything is on said desk.
59. I love seafood, but am not the best at cooking it.
60. I love dogs, but am not so sure that I want another one.
61. I can't wait to own a home.... again.  Well, except for the one that we rent out back home.
62. I have to make a conscious effort to make small talk with my employees.
63. Bug is my life, and sometimes I feel inadequate at being a mommy.
64. I would have a hard time being a stay at home mom.  I love being in the work force too much.
65. My mom drives me crazy, but is one of my best friends.
66. I wish I had more friends in my 'new' home.  Sometimes I'm lonely, especially when K is gone.
67. We finally left Bug with a babysitter for the first time 3 days before her first birthday (other than daycare).  It was hell.
68. I have recently started scrapbooking, but don't have much time to do it. 
69. I'm working on decluttering.  Our recent move has helped - now it's all in boxes just waiting to get pitched :-)
70. I love to exercise, once I'm in the habit.  Right now I make excuses that I don't have time because of Bugs age, routine, and K being gone.  Lazy.
71. When I need to budget and save I'm great at it... when I don't need to I tend to be flippant about it.
72. I'm anal retentive, almost OCD, in just a few ways.  (double check that the door is locked right after I took the key out kind of things).
73. Stepping on anything on the hard floor in my bare feet annoys me.
74. I hate it when people say 'ax' instead of 'ask.' 
75. I don't like feet.
76. I love lemon in my water.
77. I love wine, and have recently realized that I like a good dark beer (but not Guinness dark) too.
78. I have horrible knees.
79. I hate cold weather.  Winter can suck it.
80. Sometimes I wish I could just lay on the beach and read and sleep for days on end.  But I think I'd be bored in just a few hours.
81. I love K with all my heart.  This would have been 1, but when I realized that I never put it down I didn't feel like renumbering the other 80 random thoughts.
82. I'm not really sure if I believe in Aliens.
83. I never thought I would advocate extended breastfeeding, but as it turns out, I am doing it.
84. I never give up.
85. I crack my knuckles.  And my knees.  And my ankles.
86. My hips are uneven.
87. I hate one piece bathing suits.
88. I make lists.  Otherwise I forget things.
89. I'm not a real creative person, but wish that I were.
90. I love dark chocolate.  But it has to be good dark chocolate.
91. I love having a fire on a cool night.
92. I love thunderstorms.  I want to dance in the rain at least once in my life.
93. I used to have a sailor mouth.  I've gotten much much better since I found out I was pregnant, and now only cuss when I'm really worked up.
94. I love my back, I think it is a great part of my body.
95. I think one of the most sexy parts of a man is his shoulders and back. 
96. I hate being late.  Even if it's no big deal.
97. I have a brother who is 4 years older than me, but still acts like he's 19.  I worry about him a lot.
98. I loved pregnancy and delivery so much that I would be a gestational carrier if I could. 
99. I pay attention to detail.  Usually.  I tend to be posting with just a few minutes to do so that I tend to forget to do spell check, and it ticks me off at myself.
100. I hope that we are successful in raising Bug to be a caring, loving, kind woman that lives with no regrets.  I also hope that she does not get my addictive genes and is able to learn from her mistakes and move on.  I worry that I will not do my best for her, but I'm sure going to try my hardest!!

It was really hard for me to come up with all these things!!!  I hope you enjoyed getting to know random facts about me and my life.  I hope you stick around for more!