25 random things about me...take 3

 25 random things about me was a fad that started on facebook back in 2009. i re-visited my list in 2013 which you can see here on my blog and i just came across that post today, so i thought i'd re-visit it a 3rd time since it's now been 12 years since i orginally wrote it and 8 years since i followed up. time flies! 

so much has changed in my life since those days. i had another child, i moved to seattle, i lost my dad to cancer. i've been living through a pandemic for almost a year. and to think i always assumed my life would just keep chugging on the way it was.

25 Random things about me... 
 

1. I am left handed and so are roughly half the people I work with. still a lefty and still at the same company ;) the company i work for now is down to 5 employees, but i'm pretty sure 3/5 of us are left handed. pretty cool!

 

2. I have been to 34 states and 4 countries (England, Italy, Mexico, and Canada). I'd love to visit more! the country part has not changed, unfortunately. hopefully someday! but i'm pretty sure my states count is closer to 38 now. i would love to make it to all of them in my lifetime.

3. I lived with my roommate Heidi for all 4 years of college. i'm happy to report heidi (and my other roommates sarah and kaylee) and i have kept in touch. in june 2019 we even got to have a girl's weekend in our college town (duluth, mn). it was such a blast and i can't wait until the next time we can all be together again. 

 

4. I drink, but I've never taken a shot before. this still holds true! ok, i think i've sipped a shot a couple times, but that's the closest i've gotten. haha!

 

5. I biked 40 miles in Florida this week. oh how i used to take for granted going to florida every winter :( i've only been once since 2015 (in 2019) and i miss it so much. thankfully my mom is still able to live down there in the winters, though she delayed going down this year because of the pandemic.

6. I am in bed by 10 most nights (even weekends). yep, still the case! i occasionally stay up later than this, but i'm usually just too tired by the end of the day.

 

7. I've seen every episode of Full House (and have most of them memorized). i haven't watched full house in many years now, but i did watch the follow up series fuller house on netflix. it was realllly bad, but i just had to watch it for nostalgia sake ;)

 

8. I played volleyball for 7 years, danced for 5, and did karate for 4 growing up. i'm thankful for all of these experiences, even though i didn't love them all at the time (i'm looking at you karate). azalea has played soccer for 2-3 years and taken some sport classes. ashford hasn't done any activities yet, but hopefully some day. 

 

9. My dad's whole family lives in New Jersey. they still do, though my grandma died a few years ago now. i was able to visit my aunts, uncles, and cousins back in 2016 and my aunt and cousins came to seattle in 2018, which was so fun. i'm hoping to go again sometime in the next year. 

 

 

10. My husband is the only guy I ever dated. still true! haha. i think i made a pretty good choice :)

11. I think I work for one of the coolest companies in the world. this june i will celebrate 15 years working at thedatabank, gbc. wowwwwwww. i started as an intern, had various roles in marketing, and since 2014 i have been the bookkeeper/admin. i even took my job to seattle with me. what a ride!

 

12. I sometimes regret that I stopped learning Spanish after my freshmen year of college. i would love to learn another language. maybe i'll just have to live vicariously through my kids learning one someday.

 

13. Thatcher and I both have grandpas with the same names (Norman and George). i love this fun fact. sadly all our grandpas have now died. but i still have my bonus grandpa bob in minnesota who is 96.

 

15. My dad retired last summer at 53 and I would love to do the same at that age (yeah right!). it breaks my heart that he didn't get to enjoy more of his retirement that he worked so hard for all those years. but i guess it's a good reminder that we are not guaranteed a long life and to make the most of the days we do get. i think he did a great job of that. 

16. I played with Barbies and dolls until an embarrassingly old age. some of my best memories from childhood were my best friend kelli's and my epic barbie playing sessions. azalea owns some barbies and other dolls, but she never took to them like i did. she and ashford sure love their stuffed animals though! 

17. i love holding sleeping babies (or any baby that isn't screaming). i orginally wrote this before i had kids. i loved holding them as babies while they slept too, but it feels like a million years ago now and like it was so short. thankfully some of my friends are still having babies, so i can get an occasional fix ;) 

18. i've developed more fears than ever in the last few years (flying, alligators, etc). anxiety is something that will always be with me, but i feel like i manage it pretty well. now i mostly worry about losing the people i love the most. the pandemic has ironically made me worry less about natural disasters and other big scale things. having a taste of it makes it less myterious, i guess.

 

19. i've known my best friend kelli since we were babies. i don't get to see kelli as often as i would like to these days (she lives in california), but we were both in minnesota last summer and i got to meet her new daughter addison, which made me so happy. i hope we always keep in touch, because she has been such a special part of my life.  

 

 

20. i love celebrity gossip (perez hilton, etc). i'm happy to report i no longer read celebrity gossip blogs or magazines. i think i outgrew it (or just ran out of time for it?). either way, i don't miss it in my life.  

 

21. i've always wished i had curly hair. this has evolved from wishing i had curly hair to wishing i had the skills (and time) to curl my own hair. azalea has wavy hair and we are figuring it out together :)  

 

22. i have so many dreams for our house, but worry we'll never have the money to do them. i think the biggest shocker here is that not only do we not live in that house any more, but we are renters in a totally different state. a perfect example of something i never expected. we always thought we would add onto that house or buy a larger one (when we could afford it), but life is full of surprises. we do hope to be homeowners again some day. 

 

23. my wedding dress only cost $210 and i'm damn proud of that.  still proud...especially when i see a blogger or influencer link to a regular dress that's something like $300 or $400. insanity!  

 

24. the first concert i ever went to was christina aguilera at the minnesota state fair. i love this memory! i went to a fair amount of concerts from 2002-2015, but have hardly been to any since we moved to seattle (not to mention the pandemic). it's something i look forward to doing again some day because nothing beats live music. 

 

25. i HATE running. this still rings true. though i love exercising at the gym (elliptical, etc) and i can't wait to go back when it's safe again.  

 

if i'm still blogging in another 5-8 years, i'll revist this again. that was fun!