Happy Thanksgiving and a Birthday Note

Here is a much younger and toothless version of myself. Today I stop teetering at the top of the mountain of life and begin my journey over the other side. In honor of turning 51, here are 51 trivial facts that you may or may not be interested in knowing.

1. My favorite color is green. Especially khaki green.

2. I’ve been known to wear an all green outfit. i.e. green pants, green shirt, green socks, green jacket and not have any idea that might be too much green.

3. For twelve consecutive years I was the president of some organization in the Church.

4. I had braces on my teeth when I was in my thirties.

5. I play the piano fairly well even though I only took lessons for six months when I was in first grade.

6. I was almost named Edna. Thanks Mom for vetoing that one!

7. I have EXTREMELY naturally curly hair and I hate it.

8. I set a goal to read 50 books this year.

9. So far I’ve read 45

10. I used to wish I was named Carolyn and that Carri was my nickname so I would have an elegant name to grow in to.

11. I played the clarinet through Junior High, High School and two years of college and never owned a clarinet.

12. When I was in 7^th grade I could outrun the entire 8^th grade boys PE class.

13. My favorite sport to play is softball.

14. My favorite sport to watch is football.

15. When Dave and I became engaged I had to write Dear John letters to two missionaries

16. I have a hard time shutting my mind down at night in order to fall asleep, so I watch West Wing episodes.

17. If I had had one more daughter I would have named her Carri Joe and called her Josie.

18. If I had had one more son I would have named him Gabren and called him Gabe.

19. I love to learn. If I lived near a college I would take classes all the time just for fun.

20. I am a shoe person. I love shoes

21. I have always struggled with keeping my house clean, but am getting better!

22. I save all my old shoes in case I have to walk back to Nauvoo. And because I love shoes

23. I love to prepare church lessons. Sometimes I prepare them just for fun even if I’m not supposed to be teaching anything.

24. I’m a home body. I love being at home.

25. I never thought I would love anything more than being a Mom, so I am surprised at how much I love being a Gramma.

26. I used to like the taste of paper. My mom told me she could always tell which books I’d read because the corners were chewed off all the pages.

27. I have pursued but never finished degrees in Home Ec. Ed., Elementary Ed., and Business Management.

28. I have gone to college a total of six years and still don’t have a degree

29. When I go back to school it will be to major in History or English.

30. I’ve always wanted to learn to speak Latin

31. I’ve always wanted to go to New Zealand. And now, France.

32. I hate being late for things. It really bugs me and causes internal turmoil (and external sharp remarks to those who are making me late).

33. I don’t like carmel or anything with carmel in it.

34. I want to be buried at the cabin so I won’t ever have to miss out on all the fun.

35. I only want to work part time so work three part time jobs

36. I played the organ for the Monticello temple dedication.

37. Also at the Monticello Temple dedication President Hinckley spoke my name.

38. I drove all the way to Salt Lake once a month to watch Aiden while Jill worked, and then once every two weeks to watch Chase while Kimbrey went to school.

39. I like to sew. I made all my girl’s prom, homecoming, and pageant dresses.

40. My biggest crafting mistake was making all of Jill wedding announcements. Not that they weren’t cute, it just took a LONNNGGG time.

41. I drove our Landcruiser the entire length of Hole in the Rock trail.

42. I knew Stewart Peterson (Against A Crooked Sky, Where the Red Fern Grows) He was in my ward for a few months in Moab when I was 17, and then was in my ward again at BYU.

43. I, with Dave’s persuasion, thought vacations should be educationally based, so would never take my kids to Disneyland, but went to Disneyworld by myself as an adult.

44. I dated Dave for two weeks before we got engaged, and we were married 2 ½ months later.

45. For three summers running I played China in the Moab based play, The Song Inside of Me.

46. My favorite restaurant is Sizzler

47. My biggest vice is drinking Pepsi.

48. My Dad thought watching TV was such a waste of time we didn’t have TV most of my life and now they have a TV in just about every room of their house. (He also thought string games were a waste of time and gave us work to do if he caught us playing them.)

49. Following in Dad’s footsteps, I didn’t let MY kids have TV most of THEIR lives, however, we always had our TV hooked up for the Olympics.

50. My Mom always told me I was born on Thanksgiving. I found out when I was in college that I was really born the day BEFORE Thanksgiving.

51. I had seven siblings and they were born boy, girl, boy, girl, boy, girl, boy.