86 Things for 100 Posts

It’s my 100th post today. In honour of the auspicious occasion (hmmm), I have put together a list of 86 things you might not know about me (apparently it is the blogging tradition) I was going to do 100 but ran out of inspiration.  So let me know… how much do you know about me??

1. I collect platters – too many of them.
2. I still don’t always have the perfect platter for what I am cooking.
3. I don’t like spiders.
4. Or snakes.
5. Or rodents.
6. I love Christmas time.
7. I love the decorations.
8. And even the shopping!
9. I taught in UK – I didn’t really like it.
10. I am scared of heights (terrified).
11. I can talk about vomiting whilst eating dinner and don’t get grossed out.
12. Watching an operation on TV makes me feel like vomiting. It’s only the cutting of the skin I hate. Once they are in and poking about – no problem!
13. My favourite movie of all time is Love Actually. It reminds me of when we lived in the UK.
14. I can find a Simpsons quote for any occasion.
15. I have rule about skirts: a skirt should always be longer than it is wide, otherwise it is a belt (I teach high school so I have seen it all in the skirt department).
16. I am quite introverted, but the Country Boy is more introverted so I seem extroverted by comparison.
17. I enjoy scrapbooking.
18. I don’t get much time to scrapbook. I hope I will be able to do some more once we move to the farm.
19. I don’t believe your wedding should be the best day of your life. It should be a good day but if it is the best, it doesn’t give you much to look forward to after you are married.
20. I work full time and The Country Boy is a stay at home dad. We do this because it works for our family, not because of some massive feminist agenda on my part.
21. I don’t have a massive feminist agenda.
22. I became a Christian at age 7.
23. I like to be on time.
24. I think being very late with no good reason is rude.
25. I like the concept of a bath, but the reality is you sit in luke warm water and wallow in your own dirt.
26. I compulsively peel dry glue off the top of glue bottles.
27. I don’t regret calling Meg, Meghann, but I should have known better because she will spend her life explaining how to pronounce and spell it (it rhymes with Pegin ie. Not Mee gan)
28. I never chose a boys name for Hannah or Meg before they were born. I never chose a girls name for Toby before he was born either.
29. I wanted to find out the gender of our babies at the 20 week ultrasound but The Country Boy wanted a surprise.
30. I’m not very good at keeping secrets from The Country Boy.
31. I love going to garage sales and markets on Saturday mornings.
32. I feel proud of myself when I get a good bargain.
33. I hate the fact that Hannah gets homework in 1st class. But I insist that she does it anyway.
34. I have watched The West Wing (all 7 series) about 4 times – maybe more.
35. I would like to find another tv series I could watch on DVD which is just as good (suggestions please).
36. I don’t like my kids wearing visible brands on their clothes because I don’t want them to be a marketing tool for a multinational corporation.
37. I get internal conflict when I get hand-me-down clothes with visible brands because I want to use them rather than buying new clothes. I haven’t resolved this issue yet.
38. I don’t like most clothes made for girls once they hit size 7. It’s hard to find clothes that don’t make them look like a mini stripper.
39. I don’t like how unbranded boys clothing all have skulls and crossbones on them (what is wrong with trucks or tractors??).
40. I find buying clothes for my kids a hard task.
41. The Country Boy and I met at University.
42. He thought I was strange and I thought he was strange too.
43. He is still my best friend.
44. I have incredible patience with my students, but sometimes find it hard to have the same patience for my own kids.
45. I love teaching (mostly).
46. I hate marking – especially exams.
47. Sometimes I get “over” cooking. This usually occurs when I have to do a lot of cooking at work.
48. My favourite subject to teach is Food Technology – I get excited by all the chemistry and nutritional science stuff. My students think that this is weird.
49. When I was in year 10 I did 2 weeks work experience; 1 as a teacher and 1 as a food technologist. I hated both and swore I wouldn’t do either for a career!
50. Many of my students call me “mum”. 17 year old boys get embarrassed when they do this.
51. I would love to have more babies, but my body can’t take anymore pregnancies (and neither can The Country Boy).
52. I don’t feel scarred by the fact that Hannah’s birth was a nightmare, or that Meg and Toby were Caesareans – I feel grateful that I had options and choices.
53. I feel proud that I managed to breast feed Toby for 9 months (3rd time lucky).
54. I don’t believe that Hannah and Meg are going to blame all their life issues on the fact that I couldn’t successfully breastfeed them (there are probably plenty of other reasons I will give them).
55. I wish I was more organised.
56. I play the piano mostly by ear, but I can read music.
57. I taught myself to play the guitar (badly).
58. I would love to play the violin.
59. I would love my kids to learn to play musical instruments so that I can live vicariously through them, and so they can form a family band (like The Corrs or Hanson – NOT Jackson 5!!), and make heaps of money to look after me in my old age – Joking (sort of).
60. In high school I played the flute.
61. I cannot find my flute (ooops).
62. I can read books that I enjoy over and over again.
63. I have too many books.
64. My favourite author (at the moment) is probably Bill Bryson, but there are soooo many good ones!
65. I love watching my kids play – they are hilarious.
66. I sometimes wish I taught infants rather than high school.
67. I avoid eating food my students have cooked at all cost – 12 year old boys aren’t known for their hygiene!
68. I have accepted that I will never be the same size that I was when I was 22.
69. We took the girls to Malaysia and China in 2009 to visit my sister and brother in law.
70. I would like to visit them again, but this time go via Vietnam.
71. I watch Escape to the Country and laugh at all the people who want large open plan living in 16th century cottages with period features. You CANNOT have both people (rant over).
72. I hide some of my kids books when I am sick of reading them (PB Bear for 10 days in a row!)
73. I love reading the books I read as a kid to Hannah.
74. I am good at making decisions quickly.
75. I get frustrated when others are not so good at decision making.
76. Many things about country life perplex me – like how much conversation revolves around grass, weather and sheep conditions!
77. I believe parents need to take responsibility for bring up their children, and not rely on schools to do the job for them.
78. I believe kids need parents to be parents, not BFFs.
79. People always try to give me recipe books – I have so many but I never use most of them!
80. I don’t like it when people swear a lot.
81. I have lots of opinions – I don’t expect that people will agree with them.
82. I like to play Singstar with the girls. Our favourite is the 80’s. Meg can sing Uptown girl, and We built this city, word perfect. Hannah prefers Wake me up before you gogo, and Walking on sunshine.
83. I still have a lot to learn about blogging – it is a slow process!
84. I use a lot of brackets (because I can).
85. I began this blog as a way to process my thoughts about living in a rural area and to keep friends and family up to date with what I am doing.
86. I have been surprised by the amount of people who visit my blog and make time to comment. (Thanks everyone!)