8 Things

Well, Jennifer tagged me last week to do an 8 things about me blog. Given that the 5K was last weekend, I pushed this assignment to the side, vowing to complete when I had a moment. The 5K is now over and was so much fun (I'll defer you to the HFC Blog for Tracey's post about the event). Big love to "my girls" for their incredible support on race day. It made me swell with pride to see all of you front and center during the balloon release. How did I get so lucky to have such wonderful friends?

OK, so 8 things. You know, this is a challenging assignment for me. 8 whole things about me? Can't I just take the route dear Amy did? No, Deb, told me, I need to do it the right way. So, last night, we started brainstorming, and wouldn't you know that Debbie was giving me my things to write! She knows me all too well. She wasn't tagged, or we would have done each others instead!

Enough proscrastinating, here goes....

1) It has taken me years, and I mean YEARS, to be willing to walk around barefoot. I prefer "stocking feet," as my mother called them. And God forbid if I walk outside barefoot--no way! Because you know, "you can step on a bee!!" Yes, you can thank Sharon Lawson, my sweet mother, for that piece of wisdom. Because you see, at around five years old, little Sharon stepped on a bee in her backyard and vowed a hatred so intense for bees from that day forward. So bad that it instilled a deep fear into young little Jenny Lawson that couldn't wane even into adulthood. If only you could my husband's eye rolls at this statement.

2) Most already know that I have one older brother, Jeremy. But few know that I actually have an older half sister named Lisa as well. She is my father's daughter who was not raised by us. In fact, I met her when I was seven and she was eighteen. Not great chances for a longlasting bonding relationship. Lisa lives in Indiana with her family and I haven't seen her since my father's funeral. She called around the time Allie was born, talked all about herself and her kids for 45 minutes, and never called again. Nice.

3) I have an issue with public pools. Yuck!!! I can't stand going--they completely gross me out. I have been willing to compromise this in the past few months with Maggie and have actually been in a public pool three times this summer. Three times too many, if you ask me.

4) Between the ages of 18--26, I traveled to Europe seven times. I love France and Europe in general, and if I was a rich woman, I would be going every single year for vacations. One of my favorite trips was when Andrew and I went to Rome. We decided to walk the entire city, going from the Vatican all the way to the Colosseum. Stupid! We were hurting the next day, big time, but we had such a great time. My favorite moment was our taxi ride from the airport with our crazy taxi driver. He was weaving in and out of traffic and then almost hit a pedestrian. So, his initial reaction was to yell "Hey Provolone!!! I KILL you tomorrow!!!" Yes, my taxi driver called someone "Cheese." Classic. Andrew and I were quoting that line for years afterwards.

5) I raised lambs and rabbits in high school. I love animals and was excited to be apart of the Agriculture classes starting in the ninth grade. Resisting the idea of her city girl raising a lamb or pig (what I really wanted to do!), my mom allowed me to get two rabbits. I wasn't very good keeping up with them. Not at all. And rabbit pee smells really bad! One of my rabbits lived until college. His name was J.J--Jerry Junior as he was born on my dad's birthday. JJ got sick when I was gone in college and I told my dad to take him to the vet and that I understood if he had to be put down. My dad, with all the tact he was famously known for (note the sarcasm in my tone please) left a message on my voicemail in college saying, "Jenny, had to do what you told me to do. Rabbit's dead. Call me."

In 10th and 11th grade, I got what I wanted and raised lambs. I had Stewart my first year and Trouble my second. Trouble most definitely lived up to his name and was a giant pain in the rear!! Eventually, while I loved Ag class and raising the animals, I hated the people in Ag group. I never fit in with them and never felt very welcomed. I was most definitely an outsider with that group and finally completely dropped out my senior year of high school.

6) I love desserts, but don't like pie. Anything with a filling grosses me out. It's a consistency issue, I'm sure. Don't like pudding, jello, pie filling, and then my big one that I really don't like--PEAS--just nasty, y'all. It's definitely a texture thing-the mushiness? Yuck. Now, the one exception to my dislike of pies is my mother-in-law Frances' homemade apple pie. Now, that is a slice of heaven.

7) In the past four years, I have been on six or seven diets. I yo-yo bad and have major food eating issues. I overeat and I have no control. Instead of one item, I eat three, maybe four. I do really well on a diet (as I am currently on Weight Watchers and working out at the gym three times a week), but when I fall of the wagon, I fall bad. Many, many food issues.

8) I have a tendency to cuss WAY too much! My dad was a drill seargent in the Army who enjoyed a good cuss word, so he of course passed the habit on to me. From a young age, I can remember one of Jeremy's friends saying, "Man, you're dad cusses a lot!" Jer and I's reaction was, "Doesn't yours??" We thought it was commonplace. So, the words slip out often and if I am angry--watch out!! Those words just start a flyin' all around. Is it bad that my not even two year old said "shit" the other day? Yes, very bad mama! But, really, when you are raised by a man whose favorite saying was the following, you'll understand. My dad told us when we were teenagers that there were "Three nevers in life--#1 Never piss in the wind. #2 Never sand paper a tiger's ass #3. Never, upon ever, F**K with Dad!!!" Now you get it.

So now you know that I am a neurotic cussing traveling freak that doesn't eat pie. Aren't you glad you read this blog?

I am supposed to tag more people to do this, but the people I would tag have already been tagged and I promised to have mercy on the pregnant girl! So, like my friend Saint Richard, I am choosing NOT to tag anyone. You're such a trendstarter, Rich!!