25 Things

We were both tagged on Facebook this week, and we were asked to list 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about ourselves. You think you know someone after ten years, but no! Anyway, we thought we'd share, and if you're reading, we'd love to see your list too!

Hallie:

1. We got rid of the cable t.v. about 5 months ago and I miss it sometimes.

2. We don't own a home phone. We have three cell phones.

3. I served a mission for my church. 18 months in Eastern Canada.

4. We lived in Argentina for 2 months.

5. I love watching tv shows on the Internet. My favorites are The Office, Scrubs, and The Bachelor.

6. We get to travel a lot this year and I am so excited to spend time in California lots of time!

7. When living in Salt Lake City I won tickets to the medal cremony where we saw Train perform. That was awesome!

8. I am a foodie! Give me good food and I am happy.

9. I love all four season but I am really sick of winter right now.

10. I don't really know where "home" is yet.

11. I love to go shopping too bad I don't have a ton of money.

12. I want to be able to help all of the people I see here that are suffering in D-Town. Even when they don't help themselves.

13. I wish so badly that I could keep my house clean on a daily basis. Having a 1 yr old is overwhelming sometimes.

14. I look forward to getting my hair done. It is the day it looks the best.

15. I am not a big animal person.

16. I am in enjoyment mode when Landon is asleep. And that is not right now :(

17. My favorite movie is comedies. I love to laugh.

18. I desire to do great photography. I want great pictures of Landon but for now they are just okay.

19. Can't wair for Mike to get tenure to know that we are out of the woods, for a while.

20. My favorite music group is the Great Big Sea.

21. I love it when people leave comments on my blog. It gets me excited.

22. One of my favorite authors is Nicholas Sparks.

23. I am a recipe addict. I don't cook a ton but I have a ton of recipes.

24. We are starting the adoption process again. Yeah!

25. I have a manicuring license.

Mike:

1. I still write secret notes with a cipher I made up in junior high.

2. I can remember an early dream that I thought for years was my first memory (I was flying down to my house when I was two-ish).

3. I have only ever had two nightmares—both relating to clowns. I have woken up in a cold sweat thinking about real problems many a time, however.

4. I hate spending money.

5. I speak, read, and write passably fluent Spanish.

6. I served an LDS mission in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

7. I love and miss Argentine food and culture. I enjoy tango and rock argentino, I love empanadas, milanesas, asado, and alfajores, and I routinely drink mate (South American herb tea) spiked with mint and chamomile in a mate (gourd) from a metal bombilla (strainer straw).

8. I was born on Friday the 13th and know the recurring pattern for when my next Friday the 13th birthday will be (6, 5, 6, 11, and 2012). This recurring pattern works for anyone’s birthday.

9. I am left-handed. It’s a big part of my identity. I am convinced that being a lefty is a small symptom of a much larger set of quirky traits wired into my brain that sometimes leave me feeling alienated from most people and sometimes leave me feeling happily unique.

10. I am tongue-tied, which makes trilling my R’s (among other things) a real pain.

11. I taught elementary school for four years, Spanish-speaking bilingual transition. In that time, I taught students in grades 1-5 (I kept getting bounced around from year to year).

12. I moved once as a kid, at age 3. My folks still live in the same house I grew up in, and my sisters still live in our hometown. I am our family’s only vagabond.

13. I ride the bus to work. By choice. I would walk or ride my bike if I could.

14. I love to drive for leisure (road trip, anyone?). I hate to commute.

15. I did not learn to ride a bike until I was 19 (as a missionary), and I didn’t get my driver’s license until I was 22 (yeah, so I’m a loser).

16. I love my iPod and have an extensive and varied collection of eclectic tunes and podcasts.

17. I grew up listening to a local comedy radio station (AM 850 KMDY, Thousand Oaks) where I heard all the greats in their prime: Bill Cosby, Weird Al, Allen Sherman, George Carlin, Stan Freiberg, Robin Williams, and so on. I would fall to sleep at night listening to the KNX Drama hour with old time radio greats like Jack Benny, Burns and Allen, Arch Obler, the Lone Ranger, and Sergeant Preston of the Yukon.

18. I collected Lego bricks growing up, and I still have an extensive collection in boxes waiting for the time Landon is old enough to inherit the whole lot.

19. I earned a PhD in educational leadership (whatever that means).

20. I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up and am more than a little concerned I missed the point of getting all those good grades, achievements, and scholarships.

21. My faith is my own, and I find myself embracing a fair number of incompatible truths, appreciating nuance, and questioning dogma.

22. Growing up, my favorite color was blue, but lately I have been leaning toward red.

23. I love soft chewy cookies: chocolate chip, molasses, snickerdoodle . . . yummy!

24. I love to read, but mostly junk-food reading . . . although I just reread The Screwtape Letters.

25. My favorite time of day is in the morning when Landon toddles in to our bedroom and the three of us visit together in our cushy bed.