A-Z

A. Age: Twenty-six

B. Bed size: queen

C. Chore you dislike: folding laundry

D. Dogs: I'd rather not

E. Essential start to your day: hitting the snooze at least twice...

F. Favorite color: it changes monthly... but right now i'd probably say pink

G. Gold or silver: both!

H. Height: 5' 6"

I. Instruments you play(ed): I took piano lessons but that doesn't mean I "play" heh

J. Job title: wife, photographer, nanny

K. Kids: just the kids I've watched over the years :)

L. Live: movin to the city!

M. Mom’s name: mom. lol

N. Nicknames: stinkz, girly, wifey... wow these all sound so lame

O. Overnight hospital stays: when i got my tonsils removed... that was not a fun time let me tell you

P. Pet peeves: usually people annoy me... which sounds really mean. I guess it depends on context though... so mostly people who victimize themselves really.

Q. Quote from a movie: "I've got a bowl of chocolate pudding in my underpants!"

S. Siblings: 2 older brothers, 1 younger

T. Time you wake up: depends on the day... anywhere from 630-8

U. Underwear: Yes, I wear it.

V. Vegetables you don’t like: mushrooms

W. What makes you run late: the fact that most of my friends are late so i don't feel the need to be ontime, yep, it's true.

X. X-rays you’ve had: mouth, and my foot when i broke it :(

Y. Yummy food you make: absolute fave is the lasagna, but there is a lot of food I've made recently that I really love

Z. Zoo animal favorites: penguins

25 random things

So, I've been tagged no less than 4 times for the same meme on facebook, so i decided I would do it... and then i decided to post it on here. Besides, i'm interested to see if i actually CAN come up with 25 things about me... and still keep it mildly interesting...

1. i hate (and when I say hate, i mean LOOOOOOOOOOOOAAATTHHHEEEE!) cold weather

2. i don't feel the need to use proper punctuation, or capitalization when emailing, blogging, or anything related to the internet. i will use commas if i want, and if i don't feel like it then gosh darn it, i won't

3. im a nanny and i very often think to myself that i do not want to have kids of my own... but then i'll be putting one of em to bed and as i lay down for a little cuddling, i realize that all the whining and annoying things they can do are totally erased with a little reminder of how precious they are... i will totally be having kids one day... maybe just not one day soon :)

4. we have propane space heaters in a few rooms in my house. so instead of cranking the thermostat, i shut myself in one of the rooms and turn on the heater. last night the final resting temperature before i left for my cold bedroom was 95 degrees

5. with that said, i was born for a tropical climate

6. i always wanted to be good at playing a musical instrument... turns out i'm not

7. i like things to be in order. and if they can't be in order, then it ends up being mass chaos. i'm trying to learn how to find a middle ground

8. i have 3 brothers, 2 sister-in-laws, 3 nieces, 4 nephews, 2 parents, and no more living grandparents

9. i love getting phone calls. even from people that call me all the time

10. I've been to 4 foreign countries in the last 2 years

11. i don't know how to drive a stick and i don't care to learn

12. I have had my hair many different colors over the years, but this is the first time i have liked a color enough to actually maintain it by doing my roots EVERY 4 WEEKS! ps i do it myself because going to a salon to get it done would be KUH-RAZYYY!

13. i love eating black olives straight out of the can14. same with garbanzo beans

15. when i was little, my mom didn't trust me with chapstick because i would eat it

16. i learned how to type with a typing program when i was little but never got any good at it until i got email when i was 13

17. i like photography. but only a little bit

18. my favorite color is the rainbow

19. i hate hannah montana. but i like miley cyrus

20. i always have wished that i could have traded places with my brothers and been born first so i would have baby brothers and sisters... but then i realize i would be like 38 and i'm ok with 24 right now...

21. i love stuff that has turtles on it. but i don't so much care for actual real live turtles

22. i want to learn more about middle eastern cultures, that part of the world fascinates me

23. i've never been one to shower everyday... and i probably never will

24. i love dvr's, they save SO much time. i feel like my tv watching is far more purposeful wen i can watch a pre-recorded show... no stupid commercials!

25. i think that i would secretly like to be an interior designer

oh the joys of memes

I was tagged by Stefanie for this meme... so here I go!

1. What is your funniest childhood story? i used to think that i could get pregnant just by sleeping in the same bed with a boy... so one night my brother and i were like 6 or 7 and we had a little sleepover in my room... and i was afraid all night long that because he was in the same bed with me that i could get pregnant haha!

2. What would your dream dress look like if you could design it? a strapless deep red knee length with an angled cut at the bottom. hmmm... i have it pictured so nicely in my mind, but i don't think that the style i like is actually the kind i like best on my body!

3. What weird habit do you have? i'm not OCD most of the time, but there are times when I want to sit and relax... and I get everything ready to just go loaf... and then I remember something like that I left a bag on the kitched counter, or a door is open, or a drawer isn't shut. so i have to get up and fix it before i can truly relax... yah, that's kinda nuts, but that's me!

4. How many cookbooks are in your kitchen? i think like 4 or 5. but I don't use them often... i usually make stuff up lol!

5. Granny panties or loyal Victoria Secret girl? I really don't care where it came from as long as it's cute :)

6. My favorite memory from 2008 so far is... the months preceeding the Mexico trip and actually being down there. We had drama practices and team meetings about every other week and I looked forward to them almost every time! it was such a great way to build our team before actually going down there.

7. I secretly... want to fast forward my life 5 years to see where i would be

8. I could really go for... some olive garden shrimp fettucine alfredo

9. We are going to have a big snow storm and you will find me... cleaning off my car (again) and moaning about how cold it is because i never have time to sit on the couch and just let the weather *be*

10. I knew he was the one... ummm... ya, i didn't, and I don't!

time for a meme

Mindless blogging? hardly.

I was tagged by Stephanie for this meme that's 7 odd/random things about me.

I would consider myself a fairly creative person, but honestly, these things are hard for me!

So here goes, 7 random things you probably don't know about me... and if you do, then your name is probably Melissa.

1) I have been to public, private and homeschool. I went to public K-2, homeschooled 3-8, and then private 9-12. There are certainly good and bad aspects of all of them... but I still have yet to decide how I will handle it with my kids... at this point I am actually leaning towards public, but we'll see.

2) I have done enough wedding planning in my lifetime to decide that I would rather elope than have a wedding (and I haven't done that much planning lol) But I am a realist and understand that probably won't happen...

3) When I was like 12 I decided that when/if I ever had children, I would like a boy to be named Jonathan David... then my brother and his wife had their 4th kid and named him David Jonathan. WTH

4) If you had talked with me a year ago, and asked me to take pictures for you, I would have flat out told you no. I had little to no confidence in my picture taking abilities, and I had been brainwashed by my old boss into thinking that there was no way I would ever love it if I made it my livelihood... guess he was wrong heh

5) my first cat was named sylvester (cuz he looked like the cartoon) and he was hit by a car going over 50mph in my residential neighborhood where the posted speed was like 25. I cried harder than I'd ever cried in my life up to that point...

6) the first car I officially owned was named small wonder. Because she was just that. I got her for free... they were sending it to the junk yard. I think i paid $400 to have it cleaned up and back in working condition... and it lasted me 2 years. It would have lasted longer, but once the registration ran up I decided not to re-register. the frame was rusting apart and it was just not safe. I had consequently saved up enough money to buy another car which lasted me almost 4 years... and now I have my new one... which in retrospect I should have started saving for when I bought the second one so i could have afforded to buy it cash instead of what i'm doing now. whatever.

7) this will be #6 continued. After I was done with my first car, I wanted to get rid of it. Since I had received it for free essentially, i wanted to pass it along as such. So i gave it to my brother's friend nate who consequently paid me $20 and proceeded to DESTROY it. He ran it through fields and over jumps etc. He also had plans to upholster the interior with gorilla fur, but I'm pretty sure the car bit the dust before that plan became a reality... poor little car...

Soooo, that's it! I'm not actually going to tag anyone, because honestly, I just don't want to put the links in right now. I know, i'm pretty stinkin lazy...

But if you want to do this too, please do! It's always fun to read random stuff about friends :) Even if we do only know eachother in cyberworld!

5 random facts about moi

My fabulous blog designer Lex has tagged me for the meme. Hers however, was actually 6... I wrote 5.

as you will see though, this may count as #6 in an unconventional way. the fact is, I hate doing things in weird increments.

For example, this meme is 6 questions and not 5, that bothers me. So i made it 5.

When I am photoshopping a picture, I usually have to make sure that I adjust things in increments of 5. Sometimes I compromise for the sake of the picture... but it's gotta be an important couple of numbers. otherwise, let the rounding begin.

And for what it's worth, I've actually gotten better at *NOT* doing this recently. I'm trying to let my "gut" guide me as i photo edit, but sometimes it just has to be in fives. So here goes my 5 random factoids.

1. When my mom goes away for more than a day, I start to miss her :( if i was a guy, i think they would call me a momma's boy... but since i'm not (at least last time i checked) i'll settle for momma's girl.

2. i secretly like being overtired... because it means my life is full of things to do and (usually) happy

3. i am in love with trees. I love them... in the summer, in the winter and everything in between. in the summer i simply faint at the sight of light coming through the leaves... and in the winter when the branches are snow-laden I feel like i'm inside of a fairy tale. (i'm going to eventually write a whole post about this lol)

4. There are only 3 foods which I absolutely detest and WILL NOT EAT. EVAH.
- mushrooms
- cottage cheese
- oatmeal (my aunt once made me eat oatmeal when i was about 4 and I threw it up all over the floor. she then spanked me for "making myself puke" i can assure you however, there was nothing voluntary about it. I hate hate hate it!)

5. I love kids (no surprise there) however, I do not want to HAVE kids of my own for a very long time. I seriously don't know if i would be able to handle it. I get to go home at the end of the day... I'm sure that when I eventually DO have them, I will be fine, but right now, the mere thought sends my heartrate up and makes me feel anxious. I'm ok with not having any right now!

Well that's it... for now. I'm sure you all feel enlightened now and much more in tune with who i am. which after all, is the point... you know you love me!

And since this is a meme, and I don't do this all the time, I would like to hear some random facts about YOU. It doesn't matter who you are, if you want to post your own, go ahead and then we'll all have fun reading :)

All about I

I am... learning new things every day
I think... about my future, all the time
I know... who I am
I want... to live my life in a way that will impact my generation and the ones to come
I have... no desire to live a mediocre life
I wish... that other people would catch the fire i have burning inside of me
I hate... when people make excuses (and when I make them too)
I miss... my grandma sometimes
I fear... nothing (or I would like to think. I fear a great deal of things, but I have more trust in God than I do fear)
I feel... tired right now
I hear... the Olympics in the background
I smell... something gross and unidentified. I'm actually thinking it's my wet pants
I search... for the beauty in everything (seriously I do. it's kind of pathetic)
I wonder... about a lot of things
I regret... wasting time
I love... super saturated blue skies with clouds
I care... about people
I always... try to understand
I am not... normal
I believe... in the power of God
I dance... rarely
I sing... in my car
I don't always... floss my teeth
I write... whenever i can
I win... at everything i play. ha! not
I lose... when i don't try new things
I never... want to be ordinary
I listen... to music
I can usually be found... at the computer, in my car, reading or sleeping (that's really sad)
I'm scared of... the dark sometimes
I read... as much as i can, whenever I have time
I forget... to brush my teeth sometimes (hmm, sounds like the things i forget usually have to do with personal hygiene. i should fix that)
I just... got back from the beach
I am happy about... the pictures we just took!

tagged

by Rachel.

i've done my share of surveys over the years, but i actually liked this one... so here goes.

What I was doing ten years ago: I was 13 and in 8th grade... I was still wearing a different color t shirt each day of the week and had actually graduated from wearing matching cotton stretch pants to possibly jeans. oh and it was the last year of 6 years of homeschooling for me.

Five things on my to-do list today: Take sydney and claudia to school, go to preschool with andy, stay late at work and make dinner, clean the house since my parents are coming home tonight AHHH!!! (as an aside, my brother decided to move into the kitchen the day my parents left last week. guitar, amp, all his laundry, and the feeding frenzy never ended...) send out some update emails

Things I would do if I were a billionaire: oh my goodness, i'd have to think a lot about it, but i know for sure that i would save a whole ton of it to give away to different people... for mission work and other philanthropic endeavors. BUY A HOUSE! I would do some serious travelling, hopefully with the intent of missionary, but it wouldn't have to be. I would definitely get lasik (which i'm thinking about anyways) buy a few random things i've been wanting for awhile... oh and definitely invest a ton of it.

Three of my bad habits: i'm a night owl so definitely staying up too late, hitting the snooze button several times more than I intended, seeing a mess that would take 2.8 seconds to pick up and just leaving it there to get worse... and then i just keep looking at it and thinking about it...

Five places I've lived: Rushville, NY. Avon, NY. Henrietta, NY. Mt Morris, NY. and technically that's it... so i guess i could really just say western NY but i had to make it sound slightly more exciting.

Five jobs I've had: production supervisor at a photography studio (this was my favorite title lol) nanny, preschool teacher, job coordinator at ADT, camp counselor

Five people I want to know more about: Anyone really :) but let's see, i'm going to tag Melissa, Alicia, Michelle, Courtney and Becky

what color are you?

I am WHITE today

You are the color of purity and truth. While you may often be considered naive, you know what is truly important in this world and are morally steadfast. While it could only take tiny interaction from another color to spoil your perfection, chances are you are going to remain pure and beautiful forever.

Sooo... what color are you?

you must read the one in red

What’s your biggest dream?
to eventually become financially stable enough to be able to leave the country for a month at a time a few times a year doing missionary work in different countries.

Do you know who you are?
yes... i am amanda. need i say more?

Favorite childhood game?
dan and i decided to share a bedroom for about 6 months when we were around 7 and 9. we wanted to have an actual playroom, so we converted my room into the playroom (which consequently never got played in) and we put the bunk beds together in his room. we made up this elaborate story about a man and his son that were traveling from the florida keys to idaho in a tractor trailer truck... it got way more in depth than that, but i won't go into further details. i'll never forget that game!

What do you like most about your friends?
i like that they love me for who i am... and that i can be crazy around them

Favorite dessert?
oh my goodness, who knows... i seriously love dessert. right now, i would say that it would be peanut butter chocolate ice cream with peanut butter chocolate shell on top.

How do you handle arguments/disagreements with other people?
depends on the person. usually though i will try to figure out a way to smooth it over without getting into any kind of confrontation... and if that doesn't work then i run like hell. HA! well it's not too far from the truth... i need to work on that.

Last thing you dreamed about?
i can't remember... but i dream about the stupidest things every night and unless they are exceptionally stupid i don't remember them for long.

Where were you when 9/11 happened?
i was in my creative writing class

What is the largest amount of popsicles that you have eaten on one day?
maybe like 5 or 6

Would you ever consider living abroad? Where?
absolutely! i would totally love it, and i wouldn't care where... actually that's not entirely true. i wouldn't want to live somewhere colder than here... which isn't hard to do!

Favorite quote:
a man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling "darkness" on the wall of his cell... - CS Lewis

Do you look more like your mom or dad?
mom

Most missed memory:
summers before i was a teenager

Most over asked question on a survey?
questions about favorites

Have you ever done something really stupid that you still laugh at today?
yes... the time that i fell out of my bed and broke my foot.

What color is your mailbox?
white

Ever hit a deer?
nope, but i had a deer run along side my car the other night. it was so scary.

What aspect of your personality do you like best?
my ability to laugh

What are some things about you that might annoy people?
i am too outspoken sometimes... i say what i am thinking a little too often.

Who has had the greatest impact on your life?
Jesus

What song reflects your current mood?
i have been listening to the song just another day in paradise by phil vassar all day... i don't think it reflects a mood necessarily but it makes me feel good.

What happened the last time you were completely speechless?
usually when you are speechless you don't have anything to say... not a whole lot you can do from there.

Favorite year of school?
my junior year in high school... the year of beka and rebekah and i... it was amazing.

Ever been bitten by a dog?
probably, but nothing that was worth remembering.

Whats the movie you could watch over and over again?
how to lose a guy in 10 days

What is your most embarrassing childhood memory?
well it's not so embarassing now, but then it totally was. i was about 8 and i called my friend but i forgot that she was in school all day (i was homeschooled) i was going to just leave a message but her dad picked up the phone. i panicked and didn't know what to do so i just said that i had the wrong number... and her dad was like "hi amanda" when i asked him how he knew it was me, he said that it was my number on the caller id... i almost died... and really thinking back on it, it wasn't even bad lol

Did you go to preschool?
nopers

Do you consider yourself creative?
totally. i love to make things that are artsy and even fartsy. i like to write too and i think that is creative.

What kind of shampoo do you use?
literally whatever is in the shower... i have been trying different ones to see if i can make my hair less greasy... i hate the word greasy by the way... it just sounds soo, well... greasy.

summation of 2007

The year is almost over and i thought this would be a fun way to remember some of the things I did this year!

01) Where did you begin 2007? with my most wonderfullest cadre!

02) What was your status by Valentine’s Day? single...

03) Were you in school (anytime this year)? yes... all this fall... and i'm glad for the break!

04) How did you earn your money? i worked at a nursery school, sold a ton of jewelry and nannied for three GREAT kids!

06) Did you have any encounters with the police? I got a ticket for talking on the phone while I was driving... painful

07) Where did you go on holidays? this is actually harder than i thought! ok for Easter we stayed home. Fourth of July I in India. Thanksgiving my brother and his family came and i also left for Brazil. Christmas hasn’t happened yet … but it's going to be at home with my other brother and his family.

08) What did you purchase that was over $1000? my plane ticked to India

09) Did you know anybody who got married? no, but next year i will :)

10) Did you know anyone that passed away? not personally

11) Did you know anyone who had a baby? yes a few people but noone in my family or close friends ya know

12) Did you move? No. I thought about it, but then I decided to start saving money for a house.

13) What concerts/shows did you go to? i don't recall going to any... so if i did they must not have been that good if i can't remember!

14) Are you registered to vote? i thought i was but i found a voter registration form in my enormous pile of unopened mail today and realized that i must not be... can that kind of thing expire? cuz i've definitely been voting lol!

15) Who did you want to win Big Brother? i DO NOT watch that show haha!

16) Where do you live now? with the rents... although there isn't any rent going on lol!!!

17) Describe your birthday. i worked all day... then went to small group, then we watched a bills game, which i never do but i felt like i needed to do something exciting because it was my birthday... and the royally lost.

18) What’s one thing you thought you’d never do, but did in 2007? went to brazil!

19) What has been your favorite moment? being able to be a part of the kids i take care of lives'

20) What’s something you learned about yourself? i'm actually figuring out that i've learned a thing or two from the mistakes i've made... which makes me feel better about where i am today

21) Any new additions to your family? the mole that sophie brought into my bed and then promptly disposed of... so i have been to a funeral this year. oops!

22) What was your best month? definitely end of june and beginning of july (getting ready to go to India and then being there)

23) What was your worst month? goodness knows... january maybe

24.) What music will you remember 2007 by? breaking my fall by jeremy camp

26) Who has been your best drinking buddy? ummm i don't go out drinking... and when i drink coffee, it's usually by myself :)

27) Made new friends? Yes. I have made a lot of new friends! I hope that never stops.

28) Lost Friends? no thankfully