One of my blog friends, Rachel, tagged me to share 11 things about me and then to answer 11 questions that she wrote. I really had fun reading some of the things she shared, and decided to take the challenge. If nothing else, you might learn something new about me. Be warned, this could be pretty random.

eleven things

1. there was a day when I thought 1997 was eons into the future. Now I wonder where time went…

2.  there was also a day when I hung a sign over my tiny bedroom door that said “studio”. I pulled out my old tape recorder and choreographed a tape of music and poetry with the help of my best friend and my younger sister that I am now almost too embarrassed to listen to. It was fun, anyway. ;)

3. it may be worth mentioning that this best friend and I discussed the future with many misgivings. we decided our best option would be to just marry brothers when the time came.  days passed. we grew up. and we married brothers. and someone told me that only happened in story books!

4. I have been charged by a number of moose in my days. oddly, I sort of don’t miss that part of growing up in alaska.

5. most of the time, I don’t follow a recipe when I cook something. but, I still love cookbooks dearly.

6. for being so northern as to have no idea what okra looked like, I sure love that stuff.

7. almost dixie is my fifth state of residence. sometimes I wonder where else I’ll have a chance to call my temporary home.

8. I’m really, really, really shy. I just try not to act like I am.

9. along with being shy, I am also really, really, really, really clumsy sometimes. like fall up the stairs and run into the wall randomly kind of clumsy. its embarrassing!

10. people tell me I have a wild imagination. I’m only saying things the way I see it!

11. my favorite time of the day is the moment my sweetheart gets home.

eleven questions

1. What is your favorite breakfast food?

I love fresh fruit. I could eat fresh fruit and bread every single day!

2. What is your least favorite food? 

I’m thinking winter squash. Or ripe bananas.

3. If you had to pick the worst color you could wear, what would that color be for you?

Probably a shade of yellow. I love yellow, but it doesn’t love my skin tone and makes me sad!

4. What is your favorite genre in books? 

I tend to go for history books (biography or auto biography), inspirational books or how to books. Don’t know if those have a genre.

5. What is your least favorite genre for movies?

not a huge movie fan in general, but I really don’t like horror or sci-fi!

6. When was the last time you gave someone a hug?  Who did you give it to?  :-) 

this morning. to scott just as he was leaving for work. 

7. When did you last see a sunrise? 

this morning. there is little so beautiful as waking up before those first rays burst onto the horizon so you can see it all-start to finish!

8. Can you say the alphabet backwards?

very slowly. ;)

9. Where do you live? (again, no addresses please!) 

Tennessee!

10. Are you married or do you have a special someone? 

married to my best friend!

11. Do you have any pets or wish that you did?

No pets here. I have a cat at my parents—she’s just too old to handle a big adjustment and we can’t have any at the rental anyways. wish we could, though!

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So that’s that. I’m going to skip out on the tagging part. Mostly because I don’t really know who hasn’t done this already! Instead, if you want to write a post with 11 random facts about yourself, please do and then come back and share a link with us so we can read along!

There’s something about the call of a Rooster (at every time except at sunrise), the tell-tale smell of cow pasture, and a group of hens scratching about for bugs that says “home” to us. I’ve always kind of dreamed of having a tidy little hen house and a dozen hens of my own. This dream was revived by unusual sight of five white chickens and one brown that appeared in our back yard last Friday.

I don’t know where they came from for sure, or where they go at night, but almost every day this week, I see them making their way through the bushes to scratch in our yard for a while. They take naps near the trees, and run off with their heads held high if I go out when they are digging. They make me laugh at how wildly they kick leaves, and how fast they can flatten a pile of leaves. I’m always kind of glad when I look out the window and see them.

I do wonder who is missing some healthy and fat looking leghorn (I believe?) hens, but I’m kind of enjoying our part time chickens.

Maybe one of these years, I’ll upgrade and have some full time instead. In the mean time, I think we’ might have to go owner-hunting if they keep showing up.

I must confess. I’m a little bit self conscious to post this.

My sweet friend Miss Cathie is sharing wish lists on her blog in the next few weeks. I stopped by the other day and looked at some of her wishes and it made me smile. She is always so put together and adorable…and her wishes showed her good taste. From there I had fun exploring some of the others’ wish lists and as she said, it was intriguing to catch a glimpse of the dreamer from the things that they light heartedly wished for this year. And before I knew it, I agreed to share a few of my own wishes on my blog this year. I am perfectly content with keeping wishes just that: wishes. But it is a fun way to share a few of my favorite things with you, and I hope you’ll have as much fun reading my wishes as I had reading every one else’ wishes this past week.

I wish for

an airline ticket to fly my bff and sis-in-law out to be with me for a while this winter. she’s an amazing navy wife but I wish she didn’t have to spend christmas alone again this year. I wish that we could be together instead.

I don’t think Scott and I have grown up yet. we still like playing with bugs and discovering small things in nature. Because I am a scribbler at heart, both this nature journal and this other one really caught my eye when I was browsing amazon a while back.

I love herbal tea. <3 Celestial Seasonings stopped making a few of my favorites, but they still have a lot of yummy ones that I haven’t tried yet. Plus, they are made in one state that holds a little piece of my heart—Colorado.

Because I want to one day be a queen of homemaking and I have a whole long ways to go yet. I’m not necessarily a Martha Stewart fan, but when I saw this book recently, it really caught my eye. It is probably the pretty pictures. Along those lines, I’ve got this other homemaking handbook on my wish list too.

I like digging in the dirt and watching the miracle of life as portrayed by a vegetable garden. But gardening down in almost-dixie land isn’t quite like gardening in alaska and I reckon I need some schooling in how to deal with some of the warmer-climate problems that we’ll face when we put our first garden in this spring.

saving seeds is something I’d like to study up on and start doing much more of in the near future. this book sounded like a good place to start. I’d also like to send one to my sister in the philippines. I think she’d find it much more useful than I would, even!

this sounds like I’m wishing for ways to be a little lazy, but I believe that efficiency comes with practice and I think I could learn a lot from others who have it more figured out than I do. I read a little out of this book last summer, and I’d like to read it and glean some of the principles to apply to my own life and blog.

While it isn’t exactly a wish list item, but since I can’t go and adopt a precious little one like this right now (someday…we dream of bringing home someone special like this baby) I want to support another little one who doesn’t have a solid family to love them. I’ve picked out an organization that I’ve sponsored through before, and am anxious to start again.

this is completely frivolous and I’d never spend $300 on a hair diffuser. But sometimes the curls need a little help drying sooner than 6 hours later and I think a diffuser might just do the trick.

along those lines, while my hair seems to be just as curly without this gel as with it, and I don’t even know if it is curly girl appropriate (oops!) this is probably the nicest gel I’ve used since my hair turned curled for cutting down the frizz and for definition without stickiness or clumping. they just don’t sell it around here anymore!

I don’t know why, but I really like this kind of scarf-headband. I tried one on at a house I work at the other day and sort of fell in love with it. Except it was different colors and patterns.

I kind of like a coat like this. I know someone who would appreciate it this winter.

And so there you have it. Twelve serious and silly wishes of mine. I tried very hard not to make them all books, or all fabric or sewing patterns. What are some of yours?