tagged again

This time by Jen:). I'm supposed to post 7 unusual facts about myself. That should be easy, since I'm kind of a weirdo, LOL, but it may take awhile for me to think of seven things. Let's see...

1. My hips turn in, causing me to walk a little "pigeon-toed", and I can deliberately point my feet so that I'm standing with my toes touching. I can even keep turning them and point them backwards a bit. (I could do that better when I was younger and more limber, LOL.) This grosses George out... ;)
2. I've broken my tail bone 3 different times... once when I purposely jumped off a big rock onto some smaller rocks when I was about 12 (smart, huh? LOL), once a year or two later when I slipped on some ice while walking to school, and once again as a teen when a hammock a friend and I were laying on collapsed and we landed on some rocks below. Ouch! I got to sit out of a lot of gym class in jr. high, which made the pain worth it for me, though, LOL.
3. I can't stand the taste (or smell) of alcohol, and avoid it (in all its various forms) like the plague. I've never been even a teeny bit drunk in my life, and have no desire to be, either.
4. I was a "beetle babysitter" for 3 summers while in college. I worked for one of my dad's good friends in the Entomology Dept. at Iowa State. Among my other duties, I was in charge of caring for hundreds of beetles, from the time they were just eggs on a leaf, through the larval stage, and on into beetlehood, when they were laying eggs themselves. They sure were stinky little critters, especially when they were larvae!
5. When I was a senior in college, I did my social work practicum at the Univ. of Iowa's Child Psychiatry Hospital. There was never a dull moment around that place, and I learned WAY more than I ever had in any of my classes. My experience there definitely helped shape my future as a social worker for severely emotionally disturbed children....
6. I don't like bare feet, and never have. Yuck. I don't wear sandals or flipflops, and when I'm walking around the house, I always have socks on unless it's super duper hot. I always wear socks to bed, too. My kids LOVE to go barefoot, all 3 of them.... I'm not really sure how they can be mine, LOL.
7. During meals, I eat things one at a time (like all of the meat, then all of the veggies, etc.), and I don't particularly like different foods touching on the plate, either ~ though I'm better about that now than when I was younger. I often save my beverage for last, too.

So, what do you think? Am I a weirdo or not? LOL

Oh, guess I should tag someone now. Hmmm... how about you, Stephanie?

randomness...

My friend KatieJ wants us to blog about something random this week. Random, hmmm.... How about favorite childhood movies? I was thinking about this last night, movies that I loved watching as a child, that I still love today. Here are a few of them:

1. My #1 favorite of all time is The Wizard of Oz. I'm a huge fan of the movie and the book, and have collected all kinds of Oz stuff over the years. When I was in college, I had one whole section of my room decorated with it! I think this may have been the first movie I ever saw in a theater... or at least, it's the first one I remember seeing. My mom had told me that the movie would be in color, unlike shows on our tv, and for the whole Kansas scene, I kept saying, "I thought this was going to be in color!" LOL I was as amazed as Dorothy when she finally arrived in colorful Oz!
2. A close second is Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which we watched with the kiddos last night, prompting this whole line of thought. As with The Wizard of Oz, I love the music, love the songs, love the characters! I used to have nightmares about the creepy "child catcher" of Vulgaria when I was little, but that never stopped me from watching it again, LOL! My favorite line from the movie: "Pardon me for protruding!" :)
3. Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. What child wouldn't love a movie about candy? LOL! Gotta love those Oompa Loompas, too....
4. The Sound of Music. This is a favorite of my parents, as well, and I remember watching it as a family every year. My favorite part as a child was the scene with the marionettes ~ I always wished I could have a stage and puppets like that!
5. Fiddler on the Roof. Another favorite of my parents. We had the soundtrack, and Christine and I always used to play the record and act out the songs, especially Matchmaker and Tevye's Dream.
6. The Empire Strikes Back. I liked all the Star Wars movies, but this was definitely my favorite ~ I saw it 13 times in the theater! I had a huge crush on both Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford, which may have had something to do with that.... ;)
7. E.T. I remember going to see this movie in the theater with my family. We all loved it, and not too long afterwards, my Grandma and Grandpa Fischer came to visit us, and we went to E.T. again, taking them with us. They weren't quite as fond of the movie as the rest of us were, LOL! "E.T. phone home...."
8. Holiday tv movies, like The Grinch, Frosty the Snowman, and The Year Without a Santa Claus ("He's Mister Green Christmas, He's Mister Sun...") I get just as excited as my kids do every year when it's time to watch these again! :)

memory lane

Jeanne tagged me the other day, to create a fun blog entry about where I was and what I was doing 10, 20, and 30 years ago. I've enjoyed seeing other friends' similar entries, and am happy to have the chance to do one myself. :) Let's see...

10 years ago...
In 1997, I was 29. (Gosh, that sounds young now!) I was a SAHM, like now, but only had one little kiddo to take care of! Emmalie was one and a half, and kept me very busy all day long! I hadn't begun scrapping yet, and didn't really get to do anything that was just for ME back then. George, Em, and I were living in our 2-bedroom apartment in Arlington Heights, IL. We were getting ready for Halloween ~ Christine had made an adorable ladybug costume for Em, and we traveled back to Ames for the weekend so that she could trick-or-treat at the grandparents'. This photo was taken on Thanksgiving of that year:

20 years ago...
In 1987, I was 19. I was a sophomore at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, majoring in social work. I lived alone, renting a room in a house filled with other college students. Just a few months before, I had started dating some guy named George. ;) He attended Iowa State, so we didn't get to see each other very often during the school year. I spent most of my time going to class, studying, reading, listening to music, and talking to George on the phone. This photo was taken by George, when he came to visit me one weekend:

30 years ago...
In 1977, I was 9. I lived in Ames, IA with my parents and Christine (who was only 4 at the time). I was a 4th grader at Crawford Elementary. My teacher was Mrs. Callison, and my best friends were Heidi and Inger. I spent my free time riding my bike, climbing the tree in my backyard, swinging upsidedown from our jungle gym, and reading. I was a Junior Girl Scout, too. I'm sure that at this time of year I was getting very excited about Halloween ~ I think that I dressed up as a cat that year, in a costume that used to be my mom's. This is my 4th grade picture:


And 40 years ago? Well, I was around, but would've only been about this big: __! LOL

Now it's my turn to tag someone. Hmmmm... I think I'll tag Dawn! :)

friends and scrappin'

Two great things that go great together! :) I had a wonderful time with my friends over the weekend, and got A LOT of scrapping done ~ 60 pages! Yay!

Here's a group shot, courtesy of Jodie. (I took my camera along, but didn't take ANY photos... good thing some of the others did!):

Back row: Jodie, Katie, Jeanne, and Kim. Front row: Me, Beth, Stephanie, and Pam.

I scrapped quite a few photos from 2004 (yes, I'm still waaaay behind), but also got to work on some more recent photos for Ben's album. I thought I'd share those since I haven't posted too many pictures lately:

Now that I finally have all of my layouts scanned and posted, I should probably work on putting all my stuff from the retreat (and the one at the Slammer!!) away ~ it's a little hard to scrap when your table is buried!

Our house will be a bit quieter for a few days ~ Emmalie and her class left for their 6th grade camp out in Lake Geneva, WI this morning. She was SO excited about it ~ I hope she has as much fun as she was expecting to! She'll be back home on Friday night, so it'll just be me and the boys for awhile....

fall fun

I've been a bad blogger lately, but I got 13 rolls of film developed this past week, and I thought I'd share a few pics of the fun we've been having this month. :)

At the beginning of October, the kids and I painted pumpkins for the annual Pumpkin Decorating Contest at our town's Pumpkinfest. This was Ben's first time painting a pumpkin, and his first time entering the contest... and he won first place for the 5 and under age group! (Of course, his was the only pumpkin in that group, LOL!)

Emmalie made her pumpkin into a dragon, and won 2nd place in her age group:

Nick's Loch Ness Monster pumpkin won 3rd place in his age group. The sign he made to go with it says, "Caution: No Swimming! Loch Ness Monster lurks the lake!" :) My spider pumpkin was the only entry in the adult group, so I won first place... but I also won Pick of the Patch ~ the favorite pumpkin of all the entries! I was very honored! (And very excited about my $50 prize, too!) :)
While at Pumpkinfest, Em, Nick, and I each entered the Pumpkin Pie Eating Contest. They added LOTS of whipped cream this time:

Both Nick and Em came away with blue ribbons once again! What can I say, they are the pumpkin pie eating champions, second only to their Grandpa Rick! I didn't win any ribbons for it myself, though only missed 3rd place by *this* much.
Emmalie also made out like a bandit in the Penny in the Haystack contest ~ she found almost $10 worth of coins in the hay, along with a bunch of candy! Last weekend we headed to the apple orchard. Ben was content to sit in his stroller and munch on apples while the rest of us picked!



He also loved the apple cider donuts we had before we left... mmmmmmm....
(Kinda messy for toddlers, though ~ his hands and face were COVERED in cinnamon sugar!)

I'm planning on having yet more fun this month ~ I'm heading down near Indianapolis on Friday for a scrapping weekend with friends! :) Can't wait!