10 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Me

We are on full-on baby watch around here. Laundry is finished and the room is almost ready, but at the end of the day, the baby comes when the baby comes and you figure out the rest as you go right?

Nesting has left my brain all electrical-sparky but not exactly in the way I’m used to. For example, I’m not used to being fixated on curating my children’s wardrobes, school supply lists, or toys all at the exact same time.

So I thought we’d try something fun this week.

 

10 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Me

1. I speak 3 languages. English. Obv. French. And what I like to call “survival Spanish” as in I can communicate my needs and that’s about it. I taught HS French before becoming a mom and I really loved it. Yes, I’m teaching my kids French but it’s not as easy as I hoped since we don’t have a bilingual household. They did do book reports in French this past Spring and it was so precious and I had a lot of feelings. And in case you’re wondering “Why French” (as most people do) it’s because I wanted to be different than everyone else in my family and I fell in love with it.

2. I have been to 7 countries – which is not a super lot, but it’s more than my husband (we have a friendly competition about this – he thinks he should get to count international airports and I don’t…). The United Kingdom, France, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, Mexico and South Africa. I lived in France for about 10 weeks for language school, visiting the UK, Italy, and Switzerland as school excursions. Then I studied for a month in Mexico. Then I went back to Italy for a guided school trip. Canada – Niagara Falls are beautiful. And we spent 5 weeks in South Africa for our honeymoon/mission trip. For the record, I cried when I saw the Parisian skyline, having wanted to go to France since I was about 7. But my favorite city in the world is Cape Town.

3. I lived in the same town my entire life until I was 16 but then in the last 14 years I’ve moved something like 11 times. My dad went to seminary when I was in 8th grade and we moved for his internship and first church. And then his second church. Around the same time I went to college. While they moved houses and I moved dorm rooms and……you get the idea. I ended up living all over the Buckeye state but now I’m a Vol and I love it here.

4. I can’t choose a favorite ice cream flavor. One time I chose this as a security question and I had NO idea what I would have answered. Moose tracks? Mint chocolate chip? Chocolate brownie? Salty caramel? I don’t know! I love them all.

5. Volleyball is my sport of choice. In 2nd grade, I went to volleyball camp for the first time. I played every summer until 7th grade when I could join the school team and then all the way through high school and college. Then I coached for 3 years and I’m itching for my oldest to be old enough to play so I can coach again. Ironically enough, I always figured I would play basketball and even thought I would give up volleyball to make a real “go” at basketball. But after a couple seasons of mostly sitting the bench in basketball, I gave it up.

6. I’m just reading Anne of Green Gables and Little House on the Prairie for the first time in my life. At my school we had something called Accelerated Reader and it was meant to encourage us to read books. Read books, take quizzes, get points, win prizes. What it encouraged in lil’ole me was a competitive streak with another girl in my grade. I could not beat her, try as I might, so mostly I went for high point value books and missed out on tons of great books. So I’m circling back around and reading them myself or as read-alouds for my kids (or both!).

7. I didn’t start drinking coffee (again) until our honeymoon. I had given up caffeine cold turkey during college after some panic or anxiety type attacks. Yep, I pulled college all-nighters with sour apples slushies, Gardetto’s, and Reese cups. But in South Africa, it was winter and cold and socially, everyone drank coffee, and lots of it, to help keep warm. So I started drinking it again. I try to keep it to one (sometimes big) cup a day at the most, but have given it up again during 2 of 4 pregnancies.

8.  I geek over school supply season. When it is back to school season and all the school supplies line the aisles, I get all Kathleen Kelly and bouquets of newly sharpened pencils. I cannot even. 100 boxes of markers? Obv. A million pack of Sharpies? Totes. 19 cent spiral notebooks? Get in my cart. Thank goodness I homeschool so I still have an excuse to geek over the sales every year.

9. When I was 9, I wanted to be a writer. My mom was the school’s reading teacher and she had these write-your-own-books and I remember wanting one so bad. So I wrote stories all the time until I felt like I had one good enough to put into a book. Then later that year, I signed up to go to a Young Author’s conference and I spent the day brainstorming and working through technique and all kinds of things. I love that this has come full circle in my life.

10. My go-to Pandora station is Broadway Showtunes. I love singing along to my favorite musicals and soundtracks. I spent a large part of my childhood doing musicals with my family in the summer and I think it’s so fun to sing along and belt out tunes.

Alright, I gotta ask, what from this list surprised you the most?

-Leah