Dani tagged me to tell 10 honest things about myself. These are honest. I can't promise they're interesting. But honest? Yes.
1. I talk to myself. A lot. Like sometimes when I'm alone and thinking about things I want to talk about with someone later, I just start talking to myself like I'm rehearsing the conversation. I like to think it's the only child in me, but it may just be the craziness in me. Who knows?
2. One of my most favorite things to do ever is to step on acorn caps and hear them crunch. I don't think I can really put into words just how much I love doing this. It's like bubble wrap, but better. Nature's stress reliever. If anyone is ever wondering, "What sort of cheap, yet thoughtful gift can I get for LIa?" Just set up a butt-load of acorn caps for me to crunch. I would be in heaven.
3. I'm actually a glass half full kind of a girl. This may be hard for some to believe because I also thoroughly enjoy bitching, but deep down I'm pretty positive. I pretty much always think that everything will work itself out the way it should be.
4. I'm a teacher who semi-secretly semi-wishes to quit and home-school my children. I love the idea of getting to really run with the things that they're interested in learning about.
But it isn't going to happen for us. Max LOVES school and Ben LOVES his friends. They are both so social. Not that home-schoolers aren't social, but now that Ben is in his 5th year of school, I can't see him enjoying being at home with just me and his brother. Max would. He's social, but he's truly a homebody at heart. And a mama's boy. So the idea of spending his days at home with me are right up his alley.
It's not just about wanting to teach my children about the things they want to learn. I also really want to be a stay-at-home mom for a while. I want to take care of my house and workout and sew and craft and be stress-free for a while. I want to be able to enjoy my own kids, because right now by the time we get home at nearly 6 o'clock everyday, I'm spent. My patience is low, if it's even there at all. Every evening is spent in a whirlwind trying to get through all the things that have to be done like dinner, dishes, homework, laundry, and showers. I don't play with my kids. I say no to a lot of things. I just want to have time to do all that other crap during the day, so that the afternoons and evenings can be more about yes. Yes, we can do a craft together. Yes, we can go to the park. Yes, we can play a game, or go on a hike, or read book.
But to do this we would have to sell our house and move to a much smaller house, sell a car, and we wouldn't be saving anything for retirement. We would be setting ourselves up to be a financial burden on our kids later. I definitely don't want to do that. So I'll keep teaching. I really do like the teaching part, it's all the stress and long hours that I don't like.
5. Like Dani, I also have to have my toenails painted. I detest unpainted toenails, except for the rare perfect and lovely nude nail. However, my toenails spend a lot of time chipped. I don't keep up with the pedicures, I just leave it on forever until the next one.
6. When I was in college, I worked at Banana Republic with one of my best friends, Amy. We spent many days helping customers with what we called our "Freeway" accent. Freeway was a crazy ass movie from the late 90s with Reese Witherspoon. It's a sort of a Little Red Riding Hood tale, complete with prostitution and Kiefer Sutherland as the Big Bad Wolf. Resse's southern accent is soooo exaggerated and soooo fun to do. We would literally talk like that all day. I'm sure we were extremely annoying.
7. My biggest regret in life is that I didn't continue dancing. I stopped when I was about 16. I did go to a few classes in college. Now I'm taking ballet and tap, but it's so damn hard. Mainly because I'm out of shape and my knees are old now. I feel like if I had kept up with it, I'd be in shape and it would be easier to stay in shape because I love dancing. I don't love running.
8. I have spent 8 and a half years being unhappy with my body. I just realized it had been this long the other day. To that unhappiness, a few years ago I got to add skin problems. Wrinkles, zits, and extra pounds does not make for a happy girl.
9. I'm really quite good at lying on the spot. Like really good. I always have been. It served me well in my teens. But I don't do it anymore. Trust me.
10. I never thought my marriage would turn out to be as good as it is. We were young. There were extenuating circumstances. Going along with #3, we just sort of did it, thinking that everything would probably be fine. But, now, almost 10 years later, we truly love each other. And we enjoy each other's company. Of course we like to have time alone sometimes, probably me more than him (I am an only child after all). But we laugh together and talk to each other and value each other's opinion. We're partners. And I like it that way. Well, actually, I love it.
So now I'm going to tag Katie, my hilarious and talented cousin, and Melissa, my insanely talented jewelry-making friend. Tag, you're it.