Saturday, April 12, 2008

100 Things Part I

1. My full name (minus my last name!) is Bethany Ann Philomena Bernadette. My given names are Bethany and Ann, Philomena and Bernadette are Confirmation names.

2. I do not use my siblings' real names on this blog.

3. Nor do I use my students' real names-- for obvious reasons!

4. I never got my bachelor's degree in college, because Child Development isn't offered as a Bachelor's, only an Associates. I am fine with it, as I was ready to be out of college.

5. I was born in Maine, lived there until I was 5. I then moved to central Pennsylvania where we lived until I was 12.

6. I was homeschooled, but not until 6th grade.

7. I have never been on a date. Sad, I know.

8. I finished both high school and college a semester early, in December 2003 and 2005.

9. I used to play softball and loved it. After we began homeschooling/moved again, I stopped playing and really miss it.

10. I am signed up to play volleyball this spring-- we'll see how it goes!!

100 Things Part II

11. Even though I am not afraid of heights, I do not like roller coasters. I LOVE rides like the tilt-a-whirl, aero 360 (upside down rides).

12. I am not much of a chocolate person. I mean, I enjoy it...but I don't love it as much as most women.

13. I also HATE shopping. Okay...not hate, but it's just okay.

14. When I was in first grade, I stapled my finger.

15. Growing up, my favorite Muppets character was Fozzie Bear.

16. While traveling through Scotland on a windy, rainy day, I found a Fozzie stuffed animal in the Disney store and had to get it!

17. I visited Disney World, but not until I was 20. I was on spring break with one of my friends in Florida and we spent a day in Disney.

18. I met a guy on my mission trip to NOLA that my friend Lita thinks would be perfect for me. Unfortunately, he's dating/has a crush on another girl that was on the trip. Figures.

19. I have 399 friends on Facebook. Yes, I know them all.

20. I joined Facebook in December '05, after I was done with college.

100 Things Part III

21. I have added 30 friends in the past 2 weeks, mostly people I met on my mission trip to New Orleans.

22. There is a fundraiser for my Belize mission trip today. I am skipping it because my 17 y/o brother Sam is in a play this weekend...he is singing and dancing and well, how could I miss that?!?!

23. I do not like the color pink at all, but for some reason like the layout of this blog. I guess it's because it makes me think of my good friend Jenn, who I met while living up in MA.

24. My all time favorite author is Karen Kingsbury.

25. I did not study the Montessori method in college.

26. My college didn't/doesn't even offer a course in Montessori methods, and it doesn't mention it at all in the Education program.

27. While in college, one of the 3 Musketeers (who was a "friend" at the time) gave me a book on the Montessori method and I found it interesting.

28. After my nannying job fell apart, I was looking for a place to work and just fell into the Montessori job.

29. I love my job!

30. I miss nannying at times because I had the freedom of being a stay at home mom while getting paid.

100 Things Part IV

31. When I was about 10, I was hit in the nose by a metal baseball bat. My nose bled and bled for a LONG time and has never been the same.

32. A few nights ago, one of the little boys in our school was hit by a metal baseball bat. He has a hilarious story, which I'll have to post at some point.

33. When I was 12, I broke my right wrist.

34. I was at a Vacation Bible School at my friend's house. We were playing Sharks and Minnows, and I had flip flops on. The ground was wet, I slipped, and 2 girls fell on top of me.

35. My wrist was visibly broken but not open and bleeding. My mom got peas or corn...some vegetable! to use as ice.

36. I was supposed to ride in an ambulance from the first, smaller hospital to the larger one, but my dad wanted to drive me. It was the most painful ride of my life.

37. I was supposed to stay overnight in the hospital, but because my mom is a former nurse, they let me go home with her.

38. When I got my wisdom teeth removed, they all fell into my sinus cavity and I couldn't eat real food for 3 weeks.

39. I lost over 20 lbs. and the day I could begin eating again was the day I moved onto campus at college.

40. A week or so after my teeth had been removed, I wasn't allowed outdoors except to walk from the car to the house/church etc. When we went to church in town one weekday, I snuck away to visit my co-workers. We were all custodians and I wanted to see them...I got in SO much trouble for being in the cold and around dust.

100 Things Part V

41. I was born in Maine. We moved from there to a rural town in central Pennsylvania.

42. Many of our neighbors were Amish people and one of my fondest summer memories is of Amish boys pulling a red wagon piled with sweet corn up and down the road, selling it- delicious!!]

43. When I was in college, I joined an ultimate frisbee team. I just remember being really out of breath from running so much...haha!

44. I would love to have 10 kids.

45. I dream of adopting at least a few children, but not necessarily as infants.

46. If I am not married by 28/30 I plan to adopt as a single parent.

47. I believe that it is better for a child to have one awesome parent than to float from foster home to foster home for their whole life.

48. I would be willing and SO excited to be able to adopt a child with Down's Syndrome.

49. I enjoy most vegetables, especially corn and tomatoes.

50. My blog template comes from Final Sense...isn't it beautiful?

100 Things Part VI

51. I once went Trick or Treating at Stephen King's house-- when we lived in Maine.

52. Stephen King's family went to the same church as my family attended. He has three children who are a bit older than me.

53. In my immediate family, we have three birthdays in February, one in March, one in April, one in May, one in June, and then Sam and Bryan are September and October.

54. I am good with computers, and fixing minor problems related to them-- internet issues, printer hookups, etc.

55. Actually, that is how I met my friend Jess- it was her first semester of college and she was having trouble connecting to the internet. I helped her out and we've been good friends ever since!

56. Another one of my friends, Anna, is coming to town next week and I cannot wait to see her! I think the last time I saw her was in May, when she graduated from college.

57. For the first time in many years, I will not be attending the graduation at my college-- there is no one that I know well who is graduating!

58. I love photography-- mostly snapping pictures of scenery or nature. I have a lot of "favorite" pictures... the rose in my profile picture is one of them.

59. One of my lifetime goals is to visit all 50 states. So far I have been to 26 of them-- Alabama, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Louiiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virgnia, and West Virginia.

60. I have also visited 14 countries outside the USA- Canada, Mexico, Austria, Hungary, France, Germonay, Ireland, Scotland, England, Switzerland, Italy, Vatican City, Poland, and Czech Republic.

100 Things Part VII

61. I am not an animal person-- at ALL. I don't like cats or dogs.

62. I love fish and frogs though-- I'm more of an ocean girl!

63. We've had many pets over the years though-- Dogs: Misty, Star, Rose, Hunter...Cats: Mak, Stormy, Serenity, Bubbles, Diamond, Allie and a million kittens... Fish: Rainbow, Cain, and ton of unnamed ones...Frog: Fruit Loops (he was albino, LOL!)...bunnies: Sally and Muffy...Hamster: Tanner...and we've taken care of a lizard or two, which I thought was awesome.

64. Growing up, I always wanted to own an iguana. My parents got me Tanner the Hamster instead.

65. I always thought that by the time I was 23, I'd be married with 2 or 3 kids.

66. I graduated from high school and college in December.

67. While on my mission trip to New Mexico/Juarez, Mexico a few years ago, I couldn't believe the vast difference between the US and Mexico. If you have never been there, you can see a virtual line where the US and Mexico divide.

68. While on my mission trip to New Orleans last month, I was extremely surprised at how desolate most of the city was. It was truthfully like a ghost town.

69. I am deathly afraid of two things: appendicitis and driving on snowy/icy roads.

70. The best concert I have ever attended was a Michael W. Smith one in August '04. It was just a week or so before my move to Austria, and it was SO powerful!!

100 Things Part VIII

71. If I live with my parents this summer, which I am leaning towards, I will probably go back to be a custodian.

72. I just found out that my friend Hope may also be working custodial this summer...which would make it that much more AWESOME!!

73. A few months ago, I tried to order the magazine "Popular Science" and ended up ordering "Popular Mechanics"...for TWO years....crap.

74. Ironically, I did NOT like science in school, ever. But I find PS magazine really cool!

75. I had a biology teacher in high school that I did like...but we didn't get to dissect anything because my teacher and his son were squeamish. LOL.

76. I still think about the 3 Musketeers a lot...I am continually working on cutting them permanently out of my life.

77. I have already picked a few of my children's names out-- Abigail Kathleen Mailee, Dominic Elias, Audrey Mariah Grace, Liam Gabriel. Elias and Kathleen are after my parents' names.

78. I went to the college I did because I felt unable to live with my parents anymore and was only17. The way I remember it, they said it was "this college or wait until you are 18 and go where you want"...that's not quite how they probably said it. ;)

79. I was a strong willed, bossy child. Definitely one of my parents' harder children...and Rachael is following suit at the end of the kid line-up.

80. My mom wants me to try speed dating. I am considering it...but I am not sure I would like to go alone.

100 Things Part IX

81. My boss thinks that I am confident, not scared of anything...it's so not true, but nice to hear. People always have a different opinion of me than I have of myself.

82. When I was about 14/15/16 and last summer, I was depressed. I probably should have been on medication.

83. I used to be a pessimist, but work daily at turning that around and the last few years, have been SO much happier with the glass half full!

84. When I quit my nanny job last summer, I felt like a failure-- after all, I had only been there two months before giving 30 days notice.

85. This is because I am a hard worker and determined to finish important jobs.

86. However, I do NOT regret leaving that job. I was miserable and it was the best decision for me and my mental health. LOL.

87. At my summer nanny job last year, I had a very inconsiderate boss. When I asked to have a meeting with both him and his wife, he crossed the line and called me while at a business meeting to interrogate me. I was so humiliated.

88. I used to write a family "newsletter" when I was about 10. It had a crossword puzzle, news of what was going on in the family, etc.

89. I have been inside a few jails.

90. But not for anything illegal. I was on a mission trip and was ministering to them...it was a bit scary though!

100 Things Part X

91. My first car was a '92 Honda Accord. I bought it on my birthday in '05 (no, not a birthday present) and owned it for only 20 months. I felt ripped off because it was definitely a lemon.

92. My dad tried to teach me to drive on a stick shift car. I protested enough and was a moody teenager...sooo I still don't know how to drive stick shift.

93. My dad HATES when my mom, sisters and I drive barefoot. He says, "What if a rock/bee flies in the window and you don't have shoes on? That's very dangerous!" LOL...Still, we all do it during the spring/summer/fall...

94. Sometimes I feel closer to my mom's best friends than my own friends.

95. I have known one of my friends for about 12 years, we were really close until she began having sex with her boyfriend, got pregnant, and didn't tell me she was pregnant until she was 1/2 way through the pregnancy. We are getting closer again lately, and for that I'm thankful...but she lives 7 hours away.

96. The first night my current roommate and I lived together, the electricity went out for about three hours, so we lit candles and played cards-- it was actually pretty fun and a great ice breaker.

97. I saw Pope John Paul II three times- once in 2002 at World Youth Day in Toronto, Canada, and twice in Rome, Italy-- at a Rosary outside his window one Sunday and then at the Wednesday audience.

98. I am an easy person to get to know on the surface, but to dig deeper you'd have to spend more time with me.

99. I used AAA the other day for the 2nd time in my life. A woman at Meijer was parked right next to me and she locked her purse, keys, and cell phone in her trunk. We talked for the 45 minutes or so that it took AAA to get there, and it was cool to get to know her!

100. I was watching my brother's girlfriend at the play this afternoon. I was thinking about the fact that one day, hopefully not too far away, my family will expand to include brother- and sister-in-laws. Even though Sam (my bro Sam's gf) is quiet, she's a sweet girl and I think she'd fit in well with crazy, amazing family.