confessions

Good morning!  How was your weekend?  My brother-in-law spent the night with us on Friday and all day on Saturday.  He and Tommy had a great time playing soccer, checking out Tommy's classroom through the window, playing football, and driving the tractor through an obstacle course.  It was great to have him here!  

Since some of you reading this here blog probably don't know me very well (or maybe the only people reading this are close friends and family?!), I thought I would do a "get to know you" post.  So here, in no particular order, are some confessions about me that will hopefully help you to understand me and my posts a little better.

1.  If I could wear sweatpants all day every day, I absolutely would.  But here's the thing:  I hate sweatpants that say things on them like "LOVE" or "PEACE" or worst of all, "ATH DEPT."  I don't mind college sweats, but the generic Athletic Department ones really bug me for some reason.  Interestingly, I picked up a new pair of sweatpants at Target recently.  Guess what they say?

Yeah...I know.  But they're seriously comfortable, which, in this case, apparently makes up for the awful inscription (not to mention the metallic silver gaudiness).  Don't worry, they'll never see the outside of my house.

2.  I hate the word...m...moi...moist.  Ick.  

3.  As soon as the weather turns in the fall, I am almost always cold (me too, Care!).  Last winter, sick of always being freezing in my own home (even with the thermostat set at a perfectly acceptable temperature), I attempted to alleviate this problem by searching the Land's End and L.L. Bean catalogs for something that would keep me warm.  And much to the younger WeThree's dismay, I bought this:

Yes, I know it's not the most attractive, but let me tell you something:  last winter, I WAS WARM.  With my nice thick hiking socks, my sweatpants, and my awesome fleece-lined flannel shirt, I was toasty warm all winter long.  I'll never forget the first time I wore it at home and Carrie came into the kitchen and spotted me.  Not wanting to crush my fragile fashion ego right up front, my sweet sister simply said to me,  "Chels, whatcha wearin'?"  :)

4.  As if it wasn't already completely obvious, I am not into fashion.  Sometimes I make an attempt (mostly when Dane and Carrie are here to help me), but otherwise, no. 

5.  When I met my husband, it was love at first sight.  I knew he was the one for me before I even knew his name.  

6.  My dream home is an old farmhouse on  5-10 acres with a barn, chicken coop, and beehives.  

7.  When I was pregnant with Tommy I only had one craving:  hard boiled eggs.  When I attempted to make them, the smell was so overwhelming that I threw them all in the trash and didn't make them again for years.

8.  Besides being able to feel my babies tossing and turning, I did not enjoy being pregnant at all.  Having random people come up and rub my large baby-filled stomach was super creepy.  Ick.

9.  In 2006, Will and I attempted a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail.  We started at Springer Mountain in Georgia and made it almost all the way through Virginia but had to stop because I got a stress fracture in my foot.  Someday we'll try again.  (You can read our journal here.)  In 2011, we named Annabel Taylor after my great-grandmother (Mary Taylor Sommer) and the Appalachian Trail.  (And just so you know, Thomas Robert is named after Will's grandfather, Thomas Stables, and my grandfather, Robert Butler.)

10.  I make awesome meatloaf.

11.  I would love to live in Maine.  My parents let WeThree crash their anniversary trip up there one year, and it was hands down, the best vacation EVER.  We swam, we rode bikes, we ate lobstah, we laughed til we cried, we saw Anthony Edwards (it so looked like him!).  Amazing.  I totally fell in love with it.  The only thing that stands in my way is that ridiculously long winter...I'm not sure my flannel shirt would keep out the cold up there.  But I can't wait to take my kids there someday.

12.  Years ago, my mom admitted to me that she has this weird thing with odd numbers.  As in, she only likes odd numbers.  Weird, I know.  But ever since then, I only like odd numbers.  Thanks a lot, Mom.  :)

13.   When I pray, I imagine that I have this really long rope attached to me that leads straight up to God.  When the conversation is open, the rope is lit up like a light.  When the conversation is closed, it's dark.  My goal is to always keep the light on.

14.  I recently re-discovered the joy of homemade chocolate chip cookies.  My taste buds are thankful.  My waistline is not.  

15.  I love mountains.  A lot.

From our AT hike.

16.  I can actually taste a difference between a farmer's market egg and a grocery store egg.  Will thinks I'm completely full of it.

Single egg...double yolk.

17.  My first job was in a hardware store.  I was the only girl.

18.  One of the saddest memories I have of growing up is not being able to say goodbye to my best second-grade friend, Karena, because I had the chicken pox.  Her dad was in the military and they were moving to Iowa.  I had to wave to her from the car.

19.  I love to read.  I love to read classics (Pride and Prejudice!), I love to read poetry (Robert Frost!), I love to read Barbara Kingsolver (Prodigal Summer!), I love to read Harry Potter (Prisoner of Azkaban!), I love to read almost anything.  Except bad news.  And in today's newspapers, a lot of it is bad. 

20.  When Tommy started talking, he pronounced the word "something" as "sumpin."  He still says it that way even now, and I secretly wish that he will never ever learn to say it correctly.  

21.  Being a stay-at-home-mom is the best job I've ever had.  Definitely the most demanding, but by far the best.  I'm thankful to my two-job-working husband every single day.  

22. One of my goals is to make a quilt out of old baby clothes for each of my children. Guess I better learn to quilt.

23.  "You've Got Mail" is one of my all-time favorite movies.  Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are perfect together.  My favorite part is when Joe visits Kathleen with daisies (her favorite flower) to make sure she's doing ok ("I hab a terrible cowald.").  He asks her about this man that she's so in love with ("What's he like?") and she says, "You're dot going to bewieve dis, you're dot.  (Leans forward) I don't actuawy doh him! (Falls back with face in the pillow.)  LOVE!  (I also love The Avengers.  Amazing.)

24.  I hated the color pink until Annabel was born.  Now it's one of my favorites.

25.  Last year I found a great recipe for mexican chicken soup.  It's seriously amazing, and I can't wait to share it with you this winter.

26.  I got my degree from Virginia Tech in Fisheries Science.  I wrote papers about sponges and seaweed, learned the Latin names for a ton of freshwater fish, practiced electro-fishing, made a bug collection (that I still have - I think Tommy will love it someday), and spent a ton of time outside getting wet and dirty.  It was fantastic.  

27.  I love button-down shirts.

28.  In the beginning, knitting caused me great amounts of stress.  (Guess I have to start over.....AGAIN.  AHHHH!)  Now, stitch by stitch, it slowly takes it away. 

And lastly,

29.  I can't actually think of anything else right now, but I couldn't end on an even number.  (See?  It's so bad!)


So there you go.  Some interesting (or not so much) things about me. Hopefully you'll feel a little more relaxed around me now and remember to never, ever use the "m" word.  Ick.

That was kind of fun!  If you're so inclined, leave a comment and tell me something about yourself!  Happy Monday!