6 Random Things About Me

My friend Erin tagged me for this and I know I'm not doing the whole thing right, but here goes...here are six random things about me:

1. I was raised in a house full of 7 kids total, but I now actually have (counting all of my half & step brothers/sisters) 9 brothers & 9 sisters. I've never met my oldest half brother, Kevin, but all the rest I know and love!

2. My brothers & sisters and I had great imaginations. One of my favorite games we'd play was "drive-thru". The closest drive-thru order place we had was a McDonald's that was over an hour away, so we thought it was pretty fun. We had two smaller windows in our living room that opened up to our deck so we'd ride our trikes down the deck, stop at the first window and place our order, then ride down to the second window and pick up our food. It was usually a PBJ or some top ramen that we'd make for each other...the wait times at that drive thru could get kinda long, but good times.

3. I've only ever stolen one thing in my life. It was a piece of ninja turtle gum from the Curlew Store when I was in 6th grade. My friend Barbara and I thought it would be fun to try so we went in, stole a few pieces, and then ran out and walked down the railroad tracks back to her place with our hearts racing. I felt so guilty about it over the years that when I was in college I mailed a letter and a $5 bill to the store owner. The store owner, Don Longfellow, then went up to the school where my Dad still worked and told him in all the years he'd owned that store and had kids steal from him, mine was the only apology he'd ever received. I'm so glad I sent that letter!

4. When I was a little over one year old, a teenage girl (friend of the family) accidentally dropped me out of a swing. That night my Mom discovered one of my legs was broken. I had to wear a cast from my hips down for a little over a month; there was a hole for diaper changing and a metal bar in between my knees. Fun fun. I'll have to scan a picture of me in my cast and add it later.

5. I graduated in May 2001 from Utah State University with a bachelor's degree in Nutrition & Food Science. (My older brother, Brad, and I actually had our graduation ceremonies on the same day! He'd taken a two year break to serve a mission to Portugal.) My emphasis was in Culinary Arts and my Minor was Human Resource Management. I changed my major several times: first History, then Elementary Education (where I discovered I enjoyed running a classroom more than I did teaching the kids), then I switched to Finance, and finally Culinary Arts.

6. I absolutely loved my childhood! My Mom always made us home-cooked dinners, and sometimes breakfasts. She always washed our clothes and kept a clean house. She sewed lots of clothes and crafts for us. My Dad was a great provider and also grew a HUGE garden in the summers. My brothers & sisters and I always had to pick berries or beans or peas on summer mornings (my Dad picked everything else, including the weeds) and then we always helped to preserve whatever we'd picked. We had to wash, snap, shell, shuck, freeze & can. We had to shovel snow off our long driveway in the winters. We liked making a big pile of snow under the deck and then we'd take turns jumping off into it. We had a pond below our house where we'd catch tadpoles in the summer and ice skate in the winter. We had mountains above our house where we'd hike. We had lots of room to run and play and lots of fun times together! I could go on about this for pages...

K-I tag anyone else who wants to do this one!