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1. What are some of your family traditions?
We have a lot, and none of them big. But I like our traditions and I really don’t want to grow up, leave home, and have to deal with making new ones. (That scares me. A lot.) Anyway, when my brother and I were growing up, we started a tradition of sleeping in the same room and trying to stay up all night. My mom let us open presents at 6am so we tried our hardest to stay awake. We were allowed to get our stockings after midnight, which was always like the precursor to Christmas. My brother moved out in 2006 and now I actually get some sleep on Christmas Eve! As a side note, we only managed to stay awake one Christmas and it was because we stayed over at my uncle’s house and had his plethora of movies to watch during the night. (But I ended up crashing at 8am the next day.)

Anyway, our Thanksgiving tradition is Mom and I waking up at the crack of dawn to participate in the Turkey Trot. This will be our fourth year and we’re trying out the 10K. My mom is running it and I’m trying the walk/run. (I’m not excited about this. Sorry, Mom!) After breakfast at IHOP and a shower, we head over to my grandma’s. The guys and I watch football while my mom and my grandma and my grandfather cook. Dinner is at 3pm but we never eat until 4pm or later. We eat dinner, have lots of laughs, and then my mom usually cleans up the kitchen. The rest of us laze around, watching football.

Christmas is done similarly. My mom and I wake up whenever and open presents. My brother comes over to open presents and give us his gifts. And then in the late afternoon, Mom and I head over to my grandma’s for a repeat of Thanksgiving. We open more gifts, eat a lot of good food. The only problem with Christmas is a.) Christmas season is over and b.) no football!

And this was an extremely long answer. I applaud anyone who read this whole thing. I’ll eat one of my extra-special Christmas cookies for you.

2. Do you know how to change a flat tire?
No, I don’t. I would like to learn, only because I have major anxiety when it comes to having something go wrong with a car. When I was younger, my mom, brother, and I were driving back to our apartment from my grandma’s house when our tire blew out. It was horrible, on a super-busy road and we had to walk home. People kept stopping us to give us a ride but my mom declined every time, showing us not to hitch rides with strangers! She also bribed us with the offer of an ice-cold Coca-Cola when we got home. (Back in the day when Kool-Aid or milk were our only drink options.)

3. Do you subscribe to any magazines? What are your favorites?
The only magazine I subscribe to is Shape and I love this magazine to pieces. It is chock full of healthy living advice, beauty advice, awesome success stories, and great workout ideas. I do enjoy reading Us Weekly because it’s nice to sit back and read some great gossip. It’s a nice relaxer. But that’s about it.

4. What are your top three favorite office supply items? (If you don’t share the love of office supplies with me or if you are male, you may skip this question.)

Well, I do love office supplies so I will participate.

First off, I’d start with a pen. My current favorite is the Pilt EasyTouch Retractable Ballpoint Pen in clear. It writes so well and smoothly. I love it.

Post-Its! Of course! Who doesn’t love Post-Its? I don’t use them as much as I did but I love the Post-It Flags, for marking my spot in a book. I’m not big on bookmarks or dog-earing so these Post-Its work great! (And I, too, love when I finish a dispenser and have a new color to look forward to!)

Page protectors. I use them for school, mainly to hold my syllabi for classes. My eighth-grade English teacher was a big fan of these and totally turned me onto this amazing office supply. I always make sure I have them in stock for any necessary emergency.

5. Are you a good public speaker?
No, I’m awful. I make a lot of awkward pauses, say “um” a lot, and get the shakes. I quickly get a dry throat and I hate every aspect of it. I lose my train of thought, as well. I think this is a major reason why I failed at teaching.

6. How do you feel about acronyms?
Acronyms? I have no feeling about them whatsoever. Kind of like asking how I feel about Sweden.

7. What’s the most creative things you’ve ever done? (Bloggers, feel free to include pictures!)
Oh man. This is going to be hard. I’m not a creative person at all. I just write well. I have no answer for this. I’m just too boring.

8. I’d rather jam a pen in my eye than…
…read about vampires or witchcraft. I don’t get the buzz about Harry Potter or Twilight. I tried getting into Harry Potter but I honestly couldn’t stand the books. They annoyed me. I haven’t “tried” Twilight yet but have no urge to go out and buy the book. None at all.

9. What company has the best advertising?
I love Microsoft’s response to the Mac ads. I hate the Mac ads. And they are so stereotypical, it’s just wrong. I love, love, love Coor’s Light ads, with the press conferences. They are my absolute favorite!

10. When is your birthday?
My birthday is on the 28th of this month. Am I excited? You betcha! It falls the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Mom and I are still deciding whether to venture up to Orlando for the weekend or not. But I love my birthday and celebrate it all month long. I’m also have 3 birthday celebrations, ha! One with my brother and nephew, one with my family on Thanksgiving, and a third with just my mom and me. I. Can’t. Wait!

Oh, my new favorite! Chelsea has a Mr. Linky going on at Roots & Rings so head on over there if you do this as well!

1. What gift are you most proud of giving?
My mom has always gone all out for my brother and me for Christmas. Even when we struggled for money, she always seemed to deliver and give us the best Christmas experience every year. And she barely ever got anything. My dad never got her much (if anything) for Christmas. (Or her birthday or their anniversary…) So one year, when I was in middle school, I made her a “If I Had a Million Dollars…” book where I cut out pictures of houses, cars, pets, etc. Things I would buy her if I had some money. A little silly but sweet. That’s me in a nutshell.

2. What’s the best gift you ever received?
I can’t really say what the best was but one of my favorites was tickets to see some kind of gymnastics meet. It was Christmas 1996, after the girls’ had taken gold at the Olympics and I was obsessed with them. I bought all their biography books and was convinced that I would become a world-famous gymnast by the time I was fourteen. (I was nine at the time.) I had never been to a sporting event in my life so it was so much fun. I couldn’t believe I was in the same building as Bela Karolyi and Dominique Moceanu!

3. In honor of my husband: What’s the worst injury you’ve ever had?
I’ve never broken a bone, gotten stitches, or even sprained my ankle. I did have my tonsils removed when I was four. But other than that, probably the worst injury was when I hurt my back while watching a movie in 10th grade. Yep, you heard me right. I was lying on my bed one afternoon, watching a movie, and when I got up after the movie was over, my lower back hurt so much. I don’t know what I did and never went to the doctor about it. I even had to compete in a cheerleading competition with it! (And my pain tolerance is about a -5.) So, I still don’t even know what was wrong but it hasn’t come back!

4. They say everyone gets 15 minutes of fame. Who’s 15 minutes has gone on far too long? (The Gosselins are not acceptable answers, be more creative.)
Kourtney Kardashian! Ever since she got pregnant, it seems like she’s being featured in a new magazine every month! First there was the announcement, then there was her featured with Kendra Wilkinson, and now I think she’s on a new magazine! How many feature stories can they write on her? (And she also comes off as extremely immature in her interviews.) I think I liked her a lot better before she got pregnant.

5. You have 20 minutes and $1000. What do you buy?
Well, obviously, I’m at Kohl’s. And I would get some “professional” clothes since I have barely any that fit me. Actually, I have probably 20+ items in my closet that could be deemed “professional clothes” but sit in my “Hopefully Someday” section of my closet. I bought them when I was 120ish pounds and student teaching and I can’t wait to wear them again!

6. Tell me three blogs that I need to read.
Sure thing: Samantha, Amy, and Ashley!

7. Would you rather go without pizza or ice cream for the rest of your life?
Definitely ice cream. It’s really not something I ever crave or gorge on when it’s in the house. (Now, put a bag of Hershey kisses or a pan of brownies in my house and I can’t control anything I do.) I crave pizza at least once a week and I’m salivating right now. Sometimes, I crave good pizza (like Pizza Hut) and sometimes crap (like frozen pizza). But a lifetime without pizza? That’s just wrong.

8. Would you rather go to a beach or a snowy mountain?
A snowy mountain, of course! I’ve spent my entire life surrounded by beaches and really, they’re not very exciting. I’m not a big fan of the beach and go maybe two or three times a year, even though I like 20 minutes from the beach. I’ve been to the mountains once, when I was twelve. I loved it and fell in love with skiing. (As much as a twelve-year-old snow bunny can!) I’d love to spend a Christmas in the mountains and actually experience a white Christmas, instead of the 80-degree crap I have to put up with here.

9. Are you a night owl or a morning person?
Neither. I wouldn’t consider myself a night owl by far. Around 10 p.m., I start winding down and getting tired. I’m not a big fan of staying up late. I like to go to sleep at a decent hour. (Yes, I’m a 70-year-old.) But I also don’t like waking up early. My alarm goes off at 5 a.m. every day during the week. And I feel like my Saturday is wasted if I wake up before 10 a.m. I just like to sleep! I would say I’m more of an afternoon person.

10. What word do you always misspell?
Turquoise! I love the color and it’s one of my favorites but I can never seem to spell it right. I’m trying to teach myself.

I recently discovered an awesome blog called Roots & Rings by an awesome blogger named Chelsea. And every Tuesday, she hosts a “Ten on Tuesday” segment where she asks 10 questions and we answer them! It sounded like fun (and a good way to get a blog in!) so I decided to participate!

1. What animal should cease to exist? (Not including bugs. That’s too obvious.)

I guess I can’t take the PC way and say, “None! All animals are special!” So, I’ll say I could do without turtles. Really, what good are turtles? Sure, they’re cute but they aren’t cuddly or kissable. They’re just there. And they kind of annoy me.

2. What was your favorite thing about the beach?

To be honest, I’m a born-and-bred Florida girl who does not like the beach. Saltwater is no fun to swim in, I’m always afraid I’m going to be attacked by a stingray, sand gets everywhere, and I’m always way too hot to be comfortable. Blunt enough for you?

3. If scientists found a way to allow dogs to talk, do you think we should implement it? Or should we just keep them quiet?

If scientists allowed my dog to talk, I’m pretty sure he’d have a potty mouth. I think we should keep dogs silent. Scientists should focus on curing cancer and healing sick people. Not teaching pets to talk. And, really, how is that going to further society?

4. How do you order your Starbucks?

I always (ALWAYS!) order a grande mocha frappuccino. No whipped cream, not because I’m trying to be healthy but because I don’t like whipped cream. I don’t order regular coffee drinks and I never veer away from my “normal.”

5. What’s worse? People who don’t know the difference between your and you’re OR people who smack their food?

I’m confused by this question. “Smack their food?” Since I have no idea what that means, I’ll go with the first one! That bugs me a lot, too. And “to, too, and two.” And also “there, they’re, and their.” It’s really not that hard.

6. What CD can you listen to over and over?

Francesca Battistelli – My Paper Heart. I love this CD because it’s cute and catchy but also has some really deep worship songs that make you think. I once had it on repeat for an entire month and I could do it for another month.

7. What was the most surprising thing about college?

That it’s nothing like it’s portrayed in the movies. Right now, I’m going to a serious commuter college. We have one dorm on campus and it’s not even “on campus” but around the college. I did live on campus my first year at college at the main campus but even then, it was so not like I imagined it would be. It’s definitely way less partying than it shows.

8. What’s the best deal you ever got? (Biggest sale item.)

A Tommy Hilfiger dress for $8 at a thrift shop. Brand-spanking new. It was worn maybe once. And since I never, ever find good finds like that, I was stoked. It was a really cute dress, too!

9. Who is your role model? Why?

Hands down, my mom. She managed to break herself out of an awful relationship with my dad, even though she loved him. She knew she had to show my brother and me that marriage was way different than they portrayed it. She raised us and we struggled a lot but we have turned out awesome, thanks for her. And in 2006, she started Weight Watchers where she lost 80 pounds and is now training for a half-marathon. She’s such an inspiration to me and if I could be one-half the mother she is, I’ll be happy with that.

10. What movie would you like to see that is in theaters right now? Why?

I really want to see Couples Retreat. First of all, I love Vince Vaughn. I adore his acting style. And it looks like a really funny, laugh-out-loud movie. All the other movies don’t interest me (sorry, I’m not into a Michael Jackson tribute) or scare me to death (No way I’ll ever see Saw IV). Hopefully, Mom and I can make it to the movie theatre for this SOON!