c-e-l-e-b-r-a-t-i-o-n-!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME-EEEE! yep, it's true. today is the anniversary of my birth. 23 years ago...in a blizzard...a beautifully fat baby girl was born to my parents. and now here i am, blogging for you, oh members of the blogging world.

i also just realized that i have posted to this blog over 100 times now. wow! crazy! i swear i just started blogging here.

so, since i totally missed it, happy 100th post to any of you three people that read my blog and comment on it. (i love you more than you know. seriously. i anticipate your comments! i go to bed thinking about it! i wake up and skip to the computer to read them! i continue writing hoping and waiting for the wonderful validation you give me!)

so, in honor of my 100th post (which was a few posts ago) AND MY 23RD BIRTHDAY, i'm providing you with mindless self-centered rambling. (oh wait...you get that daily. haha!)

100 random things you may not know about me:
1. i am married to the sexiest, most wonderful man in the world.
2. i know without a doubt that my calling in life is to be a mother.
3. i used to have a terrible habit of biting my fingernails, until i got to be about a senior in high school. then i just...stopped. don't really know why.
4. when i was a baby, i was so stubborn i got to the point that i'd freak out if my parents didn't let me change my own diapers.
5. i love coconut so much i eat baking coconut straight out of the bag. same for cream cheese.
6. when i was in preschool i wanted to be raphael (tmnt) for halloween really bad--but my mom said it was too masculine and i was a butterfly instead. BORING! (side note: she bought me the dvd of the latest tmnt movie for christmas this year. silly mom.)
7. i started reading shakespeare in 5th grade, after my grandma went to london and brought back a "shakespeare for kids" book. still have it, actually. i have since moved on to the real thing.
8. i am scared of nursing homes. i do much better in them now, but i had a negative experience once with an old lady and a nurse yelling at me for something i don't remember when i was about 13, volunteering there for young womens.
9. i spent two days in AP Art my freshman year of high school until the teacher realized i was a freshman and put me in honors art instead.
10. my junior year of high school, i won an award in the spring art show, and the school bought one of my pieces for $100. it is still hanging in the auditorium foyer with a gold plate with my name on it. they spelled my first name wrong originally and it took my parents three years of hounding the art teacher to get it fixed.
11. one summer in elementary school i was in a play called "the pied piper of scotland" (with kaitlyn...remember that?). they had all of us draw pictures to put in the program, mine was picked to be on the cover.
12. i TAed for the 7th grade orchestra when i was in 8th grade
13. i have read nearly every book in the babysitter's club series, and most of the ones in the babysitter's little sister series as well.
14. one of my all-time favorite tv shows is daria.
15. i love getting mail. it is one of the best things in the world, to get a letter or a package in the mail. especially if you weren't expecting it.
16. music is something i seriously can't live without--when i did something wrong, my punishment was usually having my cd player taken away. boy did my parents know what would really be hard for me!
17. when i was a baby, my mom used to put me in front of the nba games to calm me down.
18. i have no allergies.
19. i remember my mom's 29th birthday. i don't have very many memories from that period of my life, so it's kind of a random day to remember.
20. i rode my first horse when i was about 8 months old.
21. i support gay marriage--and i'm mormon. go figure. :)
22. i hate raisins. really, really, hate raisins. they stink. they squish. they leave a weird residue on your fingers. gross.
23. when i was 13, i decided i was never going to have (biological) children. my mom got me to sign a "contract" saying for every kid i have i will pay her $100. lucky for me she just gave me crap about it constantly...never forced me to pay up. (although she says she still has that "contract" somewhere.)
24. my name is a combination of my parents' names: but i'm still not going to tell you what it is, since i'm staying anonymous here. so sorry! :)
25. i got into a fight with my sixth grade teacher and was sent home for the day. (i hated her.)
26. once i bit a girl on the playground when i was in....4th? grade...and got detention for it. in my defense, she came up behind me and bear hugged me and wouldn't let go.
27. i wore tennis shoes to my first formal dance
28. i went almost two years without drinking anything carbonated in high school
29. my favorite food is spaghetti, my mom made it for me every year on my birthday, with cheesecake for dessert
30. i always wanted to live in paris. i even took french in high school and college so that when i moved there i would know some of the language.
31. two things i've always wished i could do (and never had the talent): sing and dance
32. my favorite search engine is yahoo.com. i don't like to use anything else, except google images--i don't use yahoo images. quirky, i know.
33. one of my favorite cars that i have driven is my dad's old geo metro. so old it didn't have a seatbelt in the middle seat. i learned to drive stick in that thing.
34. i never really watched the news until i met my hubby.
35. one of my pet peeves is the incorrect use of apostrophes. seriously, it is not that difficult people.
36. i hate wearing bracelets. for some reason they just really irk me. but i will wear gigantic earrings.
37. i can type between 75 and 80 wpm.
38. i am terrified of natural disasters--and fires. (i think i watched backdraft when i was too young, had nightmares about fires after that. good thing i married a pyro--i mean, fireman. haha!)
39. one of my favorite places in the whole world is a local waterfall. ironically, that's where hubby and i had our first date. but it was one of my favorite places before that.
40. when taking notes in high school, i was almost OCD about copying what was on the board/powerpoint presentation word for word. i couldn't just summarize it.
41. my favorite teachers were the ones that pushed the hardest, graded the hardest, had the hardest curriculum, and all-around were HARD. i liked that i was challenged.
42. i ADORE roller coasters, but can't do anything that spins in circles. makes me want to puke.
43. i didn't see my first firefly until i was 18.
44. i loooove heights; i've never been afraid of them.
45. once i tried to do a backflip of of a diving board. i didn't jump far enough out and hit my head on the bottom of the board.
46. ponytail holders are one of the greatest inventions known to man.
47. my parents were originally going to name me "tiamo" which means "i love you" in italian. (my dad served his mission in italy.) apparently when i was born i looked nothing like an italian baby so that got nixed.
48. my favorite book is "beauty" by robin mckinley.
49. i used to hide under my blankets with a flashlight and read all night long.
50. i love fruit. all fruit.
51. i didn't get my first cell phone until i was 19 and a sophomore in college. my youngest sister just got one for her 16th birthday. har har, thanks mom and dad.
52. i once got thrown off of a four wheeler and cracked my head open on a rock.
53. i HATE the smell of coffee. it is one of the worst smells in the world. alcohol, too.
54. i didn't start wearing pink of my own free will and choice until i was 18.
55. i talk really loud sometimes and don't realize i'm doing it. i'm just a loud person.
56. i always draw pictures on the calendar when we get a new one.
57. i use smiley faces a lot when i type. :)
58. i really, really, really stink at video games.
59. i love those vanilla bean frappucino things (no coffee in them, i hate the smell of it, remember) from starbucks.
60. i don't like using phone books. what's the point when it's faster to use the internet?
61. my favorite flowers are daffodils and tulips
62. i can't drive and talk on my cell phone at the same time. i do better with a hands-free headset but still...not so great.
63. i don't really like spoons. i only use them when necessary (like for soup and cereal). i even prefer to eat my ice cream with a fork.
64. i love cats. if i could be a cat, i would be. i also like monkeys. but i wouldn't be a monkey.
65. i HATE diet stuff. and sugar-free, and lite, etc. i can taste a difference and it makes me want to gag.
66. i am stickler on having things organized...although i don't usually follow through with it. things always end up a mess again.
67. i don't like to capitalize when i type (as you can see) because i think it is a waste of time and effort where my pinky is concerned.
68. i spent two summers in san diego working as a graphic design assistant, which is what i used to want to be when i grew up.
69. i never actually applied for the art school in college, which i regret immensely. i decided that i would never get accepted anyway so i never turned in my application. i still think i wouldn't have been accepted, but it would be nice to know for sure.
70. i was a roadie for the high school band my freshman year, lugging around colorguard flags and water bottles so i could spend more time with my friends who were in the colorguard.
71. my favorite toy when i was little was a blue tractor. i still have it. my mom kept it for me to let my kids play with. she gave it back to me last year, when i was pregnant with little buddy.
72. i used to get up at the crack of dawn and go to the day-after-christmas sales with my mom every year.
73. i love crossword puzzles.
74. i have been pulled over three times but have only gotten one ticket. (all three times i was in high school.)
75. i am very nearly obsessed with modern art.
76. i always hated it when people bought art to match their furniture/decor. you should buy furniture to match your art.
77. i cry at art museums.
78. one year i had my birthday party in july because i wanted a pool party. i got fed up with the fact that my birthday is in december and you can't have pool parties in december.
79. in my single days i would spend $100 on a pair of jeans that were long enough without really blinking. (more than twice.) now i choke on even thinking about spending that much money on an item of clothing.
80. i hate shaving my legs.
81. one of my favorite things in the world is driving around (somewhat recklessly haha) with the windows down, blaring music and singing at the top of my lungs. i don't do that as much anymore though...something about growing up. :)
82. i played joseph in a nativity play once when i was little.
83. i used to hate that i didn't have a middle name, so i made one up once. it was jane.
84. i still watch sesame street, mr. roger's neighborhood, and lamb chop's play along for fun.
85. one of my favorite fair/carnival/amusement park rides are the ones that take you to the top of a really high tower then let you drop. but i've never been on the tower of terror.
86. some of my favorite disney movies are beauty and the beast, lilo and stich, and finding nemo.
87. i used to be a really good swimmer. (used to be = key words)
88. i love fall, and rain, and everything that comes with fall.
89. i was pretty mean to my siblings growing up. and i really regret that now.
90. i've noticed that time passes much more quickly as an adult.
91. i'm really good with directions. if i've been somewhere once, i can find it again without a problem.
92. i don't really like writing with black ink. i prefer blue ink. i think it's easier to read.
93. i can change a tire by myself without a problem. i also know how to change the oil in a car by myself.
94. i am not a morning person. at all. but i can stay up all night long.
95. i'm really bad at remembering things. i forget stuff all the time. drove my parents nuts, and drives my husband nuts. i don't blame them. it's obnoxious for me, too.
96. i hate it when someone tells me they'll call me and then they don't.
97. if i could move back to the town i grew up in i'd do it in a heartbeat.
98. i knew a great-great grandmother, two great-grandfathers, and three great-grandmothers--one of which is still living.
99. i love colored sharpies.
100. i used to do a little dance every weekend in jr high and high school when i could turn off my morning alarm.

well that's 100. and it took a long time. and if you made it this far...you must be really bored, because i'm not that interesting. :)

so tell me a random tidbit about yourself!