I have had a blast reading 100 Things About Me that many people put up on their blogs. So I decided to do my own.

1. I was born and grew up in San Jose, California
2. I live near Seattle Washington now.
3. I probably will always live in Wa.
4. And when the rain has been around too long that fact bothers me.
5. But when it is sunny I can’t imagine being happy anywhere else.
6. We will be moving to a more rural place within the next three years.
7. Because I have always wanted to homestead
8. And my boys need room to run and ride bikes and build forts and treehouses.
9. My favorite color is forest green.
10. I am afraid of extreme weather, especially tornados and lightning storms
11. The Pacific Northwest is forest green and has no extreme weather save the occasional lightning, which is why I will probably stay here.
12. I am perfectly content to live in an earthquake zone.
13. I have lived through three largish earthquakes: a 5 point something when I was in the fifth grade,  the 7.1 Loma Prieta quake of 1989and  a 6.8 quake here in the Seattle area in 2001.
14. During the Loma Prieta Quake I discovered that driving during an earthquake feels like your tires suddenly blew while you were driving in quicksand.
15. During the Seattle quake I ushered my kids into the hallway then went to get my cell phone so I could call my mom and let her know we were going to be fine (it was still shaking.)
16. If you wait till after an earthquake is over you get the “All circuits are busy” message when you try to make a call, which is why I didn’t wait.
17. The western side of the Cascades has no poisonous snakes, which I am also afraid of.
18. I have helped catch garden snakes for my kids. Twice. Against all the instincts to RUN!!
19. I also don’t like spiders but have become brave enough to kill my own.
20. I only kill spiders that are in my house, I leave the ones in my garden.
21. I warn the garden spiders they better stay there if they want to continue in my good graces.
22. I have mousy brown hair.
23. But when I was born and for a few weeks after I had “shockingly red” hair according to my mother.
24. My husband says that explains a lot.
25. I think I will always be a redhead at heart.
26. I have one sibling. He is four years younger than me.
27. My dad says that when I was about 12 I told him I was going to be a high powered career woman who would have a nanny raise her trophy kids.
28. I am so glad I didn’t become that poor sad woman.
29. He was very glad when I finally realized that what I really wanted to be the stay at home mom of a mob.
30. After I figured that out I used to want 6 kids: three boys and three girls
31. Four boys later, I am not sure a girl would fit in very well.
32. I was such the girly girl as a child - so having boys is a whole new outlook on life for me.
33. Although I always had at least a 3.5 GPA I always hated school.
34. When I was in Jr. High School I heard about Independent studies
35. You had to be really sick to be put on Ind. Studies, so I spent the entire rest of my school career wishing I would come down with something horrible.
36. I told you I really hated school.
37. My first college major was Interior Design.
38. You have to some artistic ability to be an Interior Designer.
39. I don’t. Can’t draw my way out of a paper bag.
40. I lived in San Francisco after high school for six months and worked there for two years.
41. Big city living was an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world.
42. And would never ever want to do again.
43. I did a tandem skydive once.
44. I used to enjoy riding motorcycles.
45. I have become a big sissy since becoming a mom so I will probably never skydive or ride motorcycles again.
46. But since I do have boys, I have become amazingly accustomed to the sight of injuries.
47. Its amazing because the sight of blood used to nauseate me.
48. I drove the Al-Can Highway from San Jose California to Wasilla, Alaska.
49. In about four days
50. In the middle of January.
51. Because when it comes to getting somewhere, my father is the insane only stop-for-gas kind of guy and I was following him.
52. I only lived in Alaska for four months.
53. I went back to Ca. because of the idiot I was dating at the time.
54. I kicked myself for leaving for a couple years afterward.
55. The return trip was accomplished in two days.
56. I took the Cassiars route back.
57. That is an amazingly gorgeous drive.
58. I would like to drive that route with my husband and kids some day.
59. But we are boycotting Canada because it is socialist.
60. (Shhh- I actually think Canada is gorgeous and would love to live there if it weren’t for socialism)
61. Come to think of it- I will probably never again leave the USA.
62. I love ethnic cooking- that was the only reason I would have liked to travel anyways.
63. I hope the USA doesn’t sink into socialism because there really isn’t anywhere else to go.
64. I love traveling by car (without my dad.)
65. I once thought I would spend my retirement years RVing around the country.
66. But I would rather my kids settle close by so I can help raise my grandkids.
67. My second college major was Early Childhood Education. I wanted to run a family daycare out of my home someday.
68. I currently have too many kids of my own to run a daycare.
69. But that’s okay- because I like my kids best anyways.
70. I have learned to loathe living in the suburbs.
71. I currently live within 10 minutes of 3 Wal-Marts and a Sam’s Club
72. That is not why I hate the suburbs- I actually like Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club.
73. When we move I am going to have to learn to live without Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club so close by.
74. That learning curve is likely to cost us a lot in gas money.
75. I always knew I never wanted my kids to go to school.
76. But I didn’t know there was such a thing as homeschooling till I was about 20.
77. One of the reasons I dated my husband was because he thought homeschooling sounded like a great idea.
78. And he was a libertarian leaning republican like me.
79. We met on the internet, when many people didn’t even know what the internet was.
80. We met in an IRC room called BigCouch- for fans of the TV show Friends.
81. I wasted way too many hours of my youth on NBC Thursday night.
82. But I did get a husband out of it.
83. We were married about a year after meeting.
84. We have been married just over 11 years now.
85. I had accepted Jesus Christ just before I met my husband.
86. He accepted Jesus just after we were married.
87. It took us a long time to find a church we liked.
88. We are independent fundamentalist Baptist. (That’s a mouthful to say)
89. And  KJV.
90. My most favorite sound in the whole world is the laughter of my babies.
91. I am convinced it is the music that will fill heaven.
92. My second most favorite sound is the older ones breaking out into spontaneous hymn singing.
93. I love congregational singing of hymns and wouldn’t attend a church that didn’t do it.
94. Even though I, a member of the congregation, can’t sing a lick.
95. I currently subscribe to Mother Earth News, Backwoods Home and Countryside magazines.
96. My favorite brick and mortar store is Half-Price Books.
97. I own about four times as many books as I have bookcases to put them on.
98. If we build our house it will have a library for all my books and magazines.
99. And a real schoolroom.
100. Which is why I am really leaning towards building our  own.

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The Lord has so far blessed my husband and I with four wonderful children of the male variety. It is quite an adventure for a former girly girl like myself. At this point I don't even know what I would do with a girl. I think I have adjusted well. I enjoy getting to relive the wonderful newness childhood offers from an entirely different perspective.

I don't think boys get a fair shake all the time. It seems everyone always expects the worst out of them just due to their chromosome makeup. I think the problem stems from the fact that this day in age we seem to forget that we aren't raising children to be children;  we are raising them to be adults. When we treat them like children , they act like children. When they know we have higher expectations for them, they try to live up to them. When those children are boys the little balls of energy can be left  to destruction or directed toward construction.

I want my boys to grow to be mighty warriors for God's army. They need to be strong, brave, and  honorable.  They can't be afraid of a little pain, or a little strife. They have to be willing to take charge when a leader is required. They have to realize that the very best leaders serve while nurturing the leadership qualities of others.

The 10 year old, The Bookworm,  is my scholar. "Momma, I want to know everything." He consumes books like they're air.

My 8yo, The Rabbit, is fearless. He climbs trees like they are his second home and runs like he is riding the wind.

The Force (to be reckoned with), my 5yo is curious; while describing him as a cat may be cliche, it is true. He is also my right hand these days, glorying in finally being a big brother.

The Baby, 8 months, is the sunshine in all our lives. He wants to be anywhere his brothers are.

These are my future men. I hope you enjoy sharing our journey.

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