25 Things

I was tagged to write 25 random things about myself on facebook. I figured that since I had taken the time to come up with all of them, I'd put them here as well for your reading pleasure.  

1. I have never been tagged for anything before, which has secretly been making me bitter, but at the same time I am afraid that if I tag other people, they will be annoyed (like sending obnoxious chain letters), which is why I didn't tag you. Feel bitter if you want.  

2. Taking showers at night when Hugh is gone makes me nervous. However, I don't let this stop me. I shower all of the time when Asher is in bed and Hugh is still at the library doing homework. I just peek around the shower curtain now and then to make sure that nobody is there. You're just so vulnerable in the shower.  

3. I love children's picture books... but only good ones. I am often disgusted by some of the dismal excuses for stories that have somehow been published. I could certainly do better than many picture books out there. One day I intend to. A few of my favorites are The Paper Bag Princess, Fanny's Dream, and Consider Love.  

4. I love to clean. This is not only because I like to have a clean house, but also because cleaning is one of my best stress relievers.  

5. I love fall but don't really like winter. You'd think that one day I would realize that the one leads to the other.  

6. Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love Halloween decorations, and Halloween treats, and Halloween smells, and Halloween costumes, and Halloween clothes and socks. Halloween is just so much fun. It is the anything holiday.  

7. I have a secret desire to fix people's hair. When I see people who have dull, or limp or fly-away hair, I just want to make it all better. Everybody should get to have happy, healthy-looking hair.  

8. I had gaps in my teeth growing up and I hated them. I started begging my mother for braces when I was in the sixth grade but she didn't think that I needed them. She finally let me get them during my senior year of high school. I both graduated from high school and started college with braces, but it was so worth it. I still look at my teeth in the mirror and smile because those darn gaps are gone.  

9. If I could be any Harry Potter character, I would be professor McGonagall.  

10. When I started at BYU I desperately wanted to be a flute performance major. I practiced my brains out and tried out three times and got onto the waiting list before finally deciding that it wasn't for me after all.  

11. I love taking pictures, and consequently I am often the photographer in our family. However, I am always disappointed when I look through the pictures later and realize that I'm not in many of them.  

12. I love looking at fish. Aquariums are some of my favorite places to go. When Hugh and I were living in China, one of my favorite things was the giant goldfish that people had in pools and ponds everywhere. Those fish got me through some of the hard days.  

13. When I was growing up I wished that I had dark brown hair like my mother. Sometimes I still do.  

14. I don't own a Kitchenaid but I do own a big wooden spoon. It gives me extra satisfaction to have mixed baking ingredients together by hand.  

15. I think that orange and mint are two of the best scents/flavors in the universe.  

16. I think that boy baby clothes are a lot cuter than girl baby clothes. So many of the girl clothes are too cutesy and frilly for me.  

17. I love stripes--striped socks, striped sweaters, striped sheets, striped tights, you name it.  

18. One day I want a pumpkin-colored car. I don't care what kind it is so long as it is pumpkin-colored.  

19. I love the beach. I'm pretty sure that I could live in a very small apartment my whole life if it meant that I could go to the beach every day.  

20. I love cottage cheese. I have loved it all of my life and it is still one of my favorite foods. It is especially good with tomatoes, cucumbers, avocados, and freshly ground pepper, but I also love it with fruit, or just by itself.  

21. One of my favorite things to cook is soup. I love eating soup, but it's also fun to cook because you can do anything you want to it.  

22. If my sister Carina and I were somehow stuck on an otherwise deserted island together we could probably communicate everything that we needed to say for the rest of our lives using only movie quotes.  

23. I go through my clothes multiple times a year and either donate or throw away things that I don't wear. I get almost as much joy out of this as out of buying or receiving new clothes.  

24. I love playing board games and card games but I get very grouchy when I'm losing. It's something that I'm trying to work on.  

25. I can type very quickly, but if I'm typing anything that I'm not just copying over from something else, it takes me a very long time to write anything. I get very deep into my thoughts when I write and I am often surprised at how long I spent composing something.