100 Things About Me

So, I started blogging on my other blog Yarnnation in 2005, a little over seven years ago.  Crazy.  It's become a part of who I am.  I really enjoy sharing my creativity with others. 

Before I had kids there was a trend to write 100 things about yourself to help readers get to know you better.  If you've never tried it, you should.  It took a lot longer than I thought it would.

Over the years I've updated that list a few times, but have never moved it over to this blog.  I thought it was about time (I've been blogging at AHR for over two years!) So, let me "properly" introduce myself.

I'm Megan.  These are 100 facts about me.

1. I've been married to Lincoln for nearly 12 years.  We knew each other for eight years before that.  We've known each other for 20 years.  The crazy thing is that we are still learning new things about one another.

2. I am a tired and enchanted mother of two boys, John Henry (5 years) and Leo (3 years.)  John Henry is my miracle by birth, Leo is my miracle by adoption.  I adore them, I am entertained by them, and occasionally I want to send them to live at the zoo.

Being silly with my older son, John Henry.

3. I am a Latter-day Saint, and while I am far from perfect, I do my best to live my beliefs.
4. I have two dogs, Maggie, a Wire-haired fox terrier, and Logan, a Cairn terrier.  We had our dogs long before we had our kids.  They should really be re-named "Source of Guilt 1" and "Source of Guilt 2."  They get FAR less attention than they did before we had kids.  Poor pups.  We still make sure that they have a safe and happy life, and John Henry is actually getting old enough that he can play with them, which makes all of us happy.

5. I have been a student most of my life.  I am happy to no longer be a student.  In 2009 I graduated with my MBA with an emphasis in entrepreneurship.  

6. I have a BA in History- my major was Family History and Genealogy.

7. I lived for a while in the Philippines as a missionary for my church. I love the Filipino culture and I speak Tagalog.

8. I love to knit, but don't get near enough time to do it.

9. I also enjoy spinning.

10. I am inspired by color, especially bright colors.

11. My favorite color (although I love all colors) is deep red.

12. I also love to dye fiber.  Dye days are a special treat for me.  It is so exciting to me to pull the fiber from my dye pots and see what it has become.  I haven't had a chance to dye anything for more than two years.  One day. . .

13. My Grandmother taught me to knit when I was eight. I think it was the greatest gift anyone has ever given me.

14. All of the women in my family knit- both my Grandmothers, my Mom, my Sister, and my Sister-in-law.

15. I love to cook.  I'm not a very good baker though, it's too precise for me to be really good at it.

16. I live far away from my family, who all live in Utah.  I miss them, but I don't ever intend on living in Utah again.

17. I also live far away from all of my closest friends.  I miss Seattle with all my heart.  I have EVERY intention of living in Seattle again.

18. My little sister is Phoebe. She is one of the most creative people I know, I respect her very much.

19. She is also my best friend and it is hard to live so far away from her. I think she should move here.

Me and my sister, Phoebe.

20. My Mother is a very talented artist, her paintings are beautiful.

21. She always encouraged me to be creative and to express myself visually.

22. I used to paint and draw a lot (on paper.)

23. I don't currently have the quiet space in my life for those kind of artistic endeavors, so my house has become my new canvas.  I might be am a little obsessed with painting "things."

24. I don’t have the time or energy to do all of the things that my creative spirit longs to do, but I have found a way to be creative with my children, and, for now, I am content with that.

25. I love photography, it appeals strongly to my love of history.

26. I don’t sleep well, it causes me a lot of problems.

27. I am good with computers.

28. I am a very emotional person, and my emotions are very close to the surface.

29. I don’t listen to music or watch movies very often because of how easily and powerfully they manipulate my emotions.

30. I am a bit of a control freak and I don’t like having my emotions manipulated.

31. I love to read.

32. I don’t have enough time to read as much as I would like.

33. I like books of facts on interesting topics, I like books on the history of things, I like biographies of historical characters. I don’t read fiction unless it is a classic, I don’t care for fiction in general.

34. I try very hard to be organized

35. I am not very organized.

36. I have a very keen sense of smell. I am obsessed with how my house smells.

37. I have a beautiful voice. (I know that sounds vain, but I really do- I didn’t do anything to get it, it was God given.)

38. I love to sing.

39. I am trying to learn Spanish.  I've also studied Russian and ASL.

40. On day I want to live in a house with a lot of natural light.  I've somehow managed to live in a lot of fairly dark houses. 

41. “Feast” type holidays are kind of stressful for me because I can never eat any of the traditional foods.

42. I am allergic to dairy.

43. There are lots of other things I can’t eat as well- dark green veggies and crab are the ones that I run into most often.

44. I am blessed with some of the most interesting and loving people in the world as friends and I am so grateful for them.

45. I live in Forest Grove, Oregon.  I like it, but it isn't home. 

46. Some of my favorite foods are avocados, satsumas, clams, manila mangoes, and black berries.

47. I like luxury soaps a lot.

48. I love the smell of lavender.

49. I don’t like sweet smells, like vanilla.

50. I love herbal tea. I only drink herbal tea.

51. I don’t like chamomile.

52. I don’t like to wear jeans.

53. I do like to wear skirts.

54. I used to own a scooter that is actually more of a motorcycle (it's speedometer toped out at 100 mph and I often rode it on the freeway with no problem at all.) I miss riding it now that I have babies.

Me and my giant "baby," Leo.

55. I love the ocean, but I hate to get wet, so living in the PNW is perfect for me. The water is too cold to get in, but it’s still there to smell, listen too, and enjoy.

56. I love flowers, ranunculus are one of my favorites (but I have a lot of favorites.)

57. I have a very strong fascination with maps.

58. I used to have four piercings in one ear and three in the other. Now I have one in each ear and often don't wear earrings at all.

59. I love to be outdoors, but I do not like to camp.

60. I like to rollerblade.

61. My sons think it is hysterical to see their mom roller blade.  It makes me laugh.

62. I have strong opinions regarding a few very large businesses.  I go out of my way to avoid going to those large businesses.  

63. I try to support local businesses when ever I can.

64. Community support and development are very important to me.

65. I want to own a few alpacas one day and raise them and my children together. I hope they will provide many opportunities to teach my children about responsibility and life (in addition to providing me with lovely fiber to spin, knit, and teach my children to spin and knit with.)

66. I have naturally curly hair. I like it that way.

I have curly hair and need a haircut!

67. I never-ever paint my fingernails.

68. I am a prolific journal writer. I keep several different journals for different reasons and I have kept a journal from the time I was a young teenager.

69. For all the writing, I still can’t spell well at all. Learning Tagalog made it worse, as there is no standardized spelling in the language, everything is phonetic. If it sounds right when it’s said out loud, it is spelled properly.

70. I have a pretty short attention span, and I am happiest when there is variety in my daily activities.

71. I love to travel. I wish I could travel more.

72. I love my first house, it made me very happy. The Duke and I had to completely remodel it, and we truly made it our home.  I have lived in rentals for the past two years.  I miss my house a great deal.

73. I am intrigued by how egocentric we are as humans. When I consider how insignificant we, as individuals, are in the grand scheme of things, I find our self importance very humorous.

74. When I consider how complex and delicate we are as humans, I am amazed.

75. My pregnancy with John Henry nearly killed me.  I was warned that I should never become pregnant again.  I didn't have to be told twice.  The funny thing is that my pregnancy corrected or relieved a couple of other annoying health problems I had previous to that.  Despite how horrible being pregnant was, I am grateful for that.

76. I have back slant hand writing and people always thing I am left handed, but I'm not.

77. I am always overextending myself, and I don’t know how to say “no” very well.

78. Impressionism is my favorite artistic period, my mother taught me to love Monet, Manet, Cassette, Degas, Van Gogh, and many others. I can spend hours looking at their paintings.

79. I consider myself very fortunate to have a husband who also loves art as well as the theatre.

80. I love the theatre. When I was younger I was in several productions. The theatre is the perfect escape for me. It is the only kind of fiction I truly enjoy.

81. I don’t know if I have a favorite play, but I love both Evita and 1776, go figure, historical.

82. I can use nearly any power tool. I learned to use them building sets.

83. I find philosophy intriguing. I am very much a philosophy novice, but I am especially interested in Rene Descartes and his Cartesian experiment, as well as Plato’s cave. I am currently interested in the philosophies of pre-mortal existance.

84. I find comfort and strength in the structure of logic. My minor was in logic.

85. Sometimes I wish people were logical, and sometimes I am glad they are not.

86. I have always felt older than I really am. I find it frustrating.

87. I think I am a very capable person, but not always reliable. I want to change that.

88. I am an ENFP type. If that doesn’t mean anything to you, look up Myers-Briggs.

89. I don’t like to drive.

90. I have always been a very social person, and I still am, but I find that as I get older, or perhaps as I take on more stress in my life, I need more time by myself.

91. I drink a lot of water. It is my favorite drink

92. I've worked as a pharmacy technician in four different pharmacies, a POS system manager in two places and a shipping and receiving manager in one. 
93.  I like to can and preserve food.  I NEVER in a million years thought I would love doing it so much.  I LOVE hearing the ping, ping, ping of the cans as they seal.
94.  I love gardening.  It is the best stress reliever.  We have a large plot at our local community garden.
95.  I detest folding laundry.  I'd way rather clean a bathroom.
96.  I used to play the piano.  I haven't owned a piano for over a decade.  It is not like riding a bike.  You forget.
97.  I love smoothies.  I even drink them in the middle of winter.  I always put spinach in them.  We go through a ton of spinach here.

98. I only have white sheets for our bed.  I used to have beautiful yellow sheets but they wore out (I still use the pillow cases) and I wanted super soft sheets, so I settled for white so I could buy ones with a high thread count.  I'm considering dying them.

I love naps and pretty pillowcases.

99. I would like to learn to play the hammered dulcimer.

100. If I could have any super power it would be to never have to sleep. Do you think I would have enough time to do everything I want to do then?