38 things about me

to celebrate this day which marks my 38th year of life i thought i'd tell you 38 things about me. you may or may not already know this stuff but, ya know, whatever the case...



1. i am half persian. jeremy calls me his hairy iranian. so sad but oh so true. he also calls me food nicknames - pumpkin, muffin, cupcake, buttercup.

2. i was adopted when i was two months old. the story goes that i was in foster care for two months because my biological father did not want to relinquish his paternal rights.

3. i don't know what ethnicity the other half of me is.

4. i was born in iowa city, raised in waterloo, iowa.

5. i graduate high school in 1995.

6. one time i tried unsuccessfully to find a picture of my biological father in a university of iowa yearbook. long story, but after that failed search i took it as a sign that finding my birth parents just wasn't meant to be.

7. i moved to oklahoma when i was 18 to go to college. i originally planned to go to a different university but switched at the last minute to follow a friend to bartlesville wesleyan college. (can we say co-dependent?)

8. while i moved to oklahoma my parents and brother moved to russia. (probable cause of the co-dependence)

9. i had to go to my professor's house and use his aol account and dial-up internet to email my family while they were overseas. i also baked chocolate cookies in his oven and did laundry in his washing machine.

10. although originally declaring a psychology major i switched to biology because most of my friends were science majors (again, co-dependent). i shoulda stuck with pysch.

11. i was SUCH a lost soul (not spiritually but probably in every other way...and, yeah, probably spiritually too) during my college years.

12. i dropped out of college my junior year because i was completely aimless and sad about a boy.

13. there were many people in oklahoma who adopted me as their own, gave me a family and a home. not one single day goes by that i don't think of at least one of them.

14. i used to work as a certified podiatric medical assistant, taking x-rays of feet and filing toenails.

15. i used to work as a nanny. loved it!

16. i used to work as an assistant youth pastor. those youth have now graduated college - crazy!

17. once, when asked by a questionnaire to use one word to describe myself, i thought at length about it and wrote mercurial. in many ways i think that word still suits me today. the volatility has faded but the molding to fit my environment remains.

18. i learned in therapy yesterday that adaptability does not negate authenticity. think on that one for a while.

19. i used to work in the music industry.

20. i used to work as an event planner for three wealthy commercial real estate brokers. they gifted me the most comfy rocker/glider and ottoman when i was pregnant with harrison.

21. i met my husband on eharmony.com.

22. jeremy said i love you first but i knew i would marry him first.

23. we got married in bartlesville, oklahoma in 2004, outdoors in july (sweaty!) on the porch of the most beautiful southern plantation style house (the home of the family i nannied for).

24. it was one year from our first email to our wedding day. it was nine months from our first in-person meeting to our wedding day. it was five months from our engagement day to our wedding day.

25. i love jeremy more now than i did then. truly.

26. we spent ten days in the dominican republic for our honeymoon. jeremy planned it and surprised me. i had no idea where we were going until we boarded the flight out of miami.

27. we still live in the same townhouse jeremy owned before we got married.

28. i feel content in our little townhouse but i'm ready to find our next house.

29. i have a good handful of very dear friends but i'm not sure i have ever had one all-time best friend.

30. i am just awful at keeping in touch with people. it is one of my worst flaws.

31. my favorite food is potatoes - mashed, baked, fried, roasted, hash-browned...i'll even eat them raw...but NOT scalloped!

32. i am an introvert but people find that surprising (might be due to #17).

33. if you looked in my closet you would see lots and lots of horizontal stripes. i guess i have a thing for them.

34. i prefer to have my hair pulled back out of my face.

35. i prefer not wearing make-up but i think i look better when i actually put the stuff on.

36. i prefer wearing loungewear all day every day. don't we all?

37. i love living in colorado.

38. i love jesus


and a pinch to grow an inch...

39. my favorite bible verse is probably isaiah 54:2 which says enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. if you read the previous chapters leading up to that verse the meaning is so cool! basically, the nation of israel is being compared to a barren woman and god is finally telling her listen, i'm about to bless you with so many stinkin children you're gonna have to build a bigger house to hold them all, so get busy sister!(interpretation mine)

that's how i feel on my birthday this year - so very blessed. and i know god will continue to shower his love down on me (because that's what he does) so my plan is to open my arms wide to receive it all. i love being 38 but i think the best is still yet to come.