Tampilkan postingan dengan label Show. Tampilkan semua postingan
Tampilkan postingan dengan label Show. Tampilkan semua postingan
Jumat, 10 Maret 2017
Show Tell Tuesday Quirks
Today I'm linking up with Show & Tell Tuesday...we are sharing our quirks!
Well, I have a LOT of quirks, but I'll limit my list to 10 :)
{ONE}
I have a freakish memory when it comes to numbers/birthdays (good thing I am a math teacher, right?)
If you tell me your birthday, I will remember it. It is randomly stored in my brain and I don't know why, but I never forget your birthday once you tell it to me.
I have been like this my whole life...my friends call me Rain Man because of this.
{TWO}
I love color coding things.
When I was in middle school and high school, I would color code my classes.
English was purple...that meant I would write my English assignments in my planner in purple pen. My English folder was purple & I would have a purple book cover on my English books.
History was blue, Science was green, Spanish was orange & Math was pink (my favorite color & favorite subject)
Wow...I can't believe I can't believe I even remember what color I used for these subjects all these years later.
{THREE}
Speaking of color coding things, my closet is organized by color.
I have all my shirts in rainbow order, then white, grey & black (grey is in the middle of white & black because if you mixed the 2 colors together it would be grey)
{FOUR}
Speaking of clothes....starting on the first day of my freshman year in high school, I had a notebook where I wrote down what I wore to school EVERY SINGLE DAY.....all 4 years of high school.
I still have this notebook in a bin with all my high school mementos.
I wrote down my outfits (including shoes/belts) because I didn't want to wear a duplicate outfit more than once every 3 months in high school.
Side note...I grew up in California & when I was in high school the movie "Clueless" had just been released and my high school was a little bit like that.
Anyways...yeah....for 4 years I wrote down every single outfit I wore to school. Who does that?!?!
If my younger sister is reading this, I am pretty sure she started doing this also because I did. I was such a good influence.....
{FIVE}
I love even numbers. Kevin and I were married on 8-24-02 and I love that date because they are all divisible by 2. When I was pregnant with all 3 of my kids I would write down dates to see if I liked the way they "looked" With Kate I was due in January of 2007, and those are both odd numbers, so I even though I love even numbers, I wanted her to be born on an odd numbered day since January is an odd month and so is the year 2007. She was born on 1-23-07, so that worked out ;)
My younger sister is also a math teacher & also has a weird thing with dates like me, so during our pregnancies we would text each other dates that we hoped our babies would be born on.
{SIX}
I can be slightly OCD.
We didn't find out gender of our kids until they were born.
When I was pregnant with Luke, we knew that if he was a boy, his name would be Luke (it was our boy name from when I was pregnant with both girls)
When we were figuring out a girl name during his pregnancy, I really loved the name Charlotte.
BUT, I didn't want another C name because then I would have a K name & 2 C names. That seemed strange to me if I had a Kate, Claire & Charlotte and that 2 out of the 3 names started with a C. I just couldn't deal with that (I KNOW...I have issues!!!) When I was 38 weeks pregnant, Kevin called me from work one day and said...if it's a girl, it will be Emma. He liked that name better and I felt so relived that it was not a C name.
Side note....Luke ended up being born at 1:01 am on August 9th. I was really hoping he would be born on August 8, because 8-8-12 is all even numbers unlike his bday of 8-9-12.
And, to top it off, Claire is September 9th, so now I have 2 kids who were born on the 9th of the month, so I have OCD that 2 out of my 3 kids were born on the 9th of the month and not all 3.
Seriously....I told you I have issues...who can relate?!!?
{SEVEN}
During the summer my kids get a bath maybe 1 a week....or every 10 days.
I know...SO BAD.
But, here's the thing.
The past 3 years California has been in a MAJOR drought.
Last summer we were all placed on water restrictions.
We have a pool and my girls are on swim team, so they were swimming practically every day in the summer. The chlorine kills germs & cleans them, right?!?!?
One day last summer, I realized my kids hadn't had a bath in almost TWO WEEKS.
#MOMFAIL
But, I will let you know that when I got our water bill last August, we had used 46% less since
the year before.
I'm just trying to do my part for the drought.
Swimming totally counts as a bath...rights?!?! ;)
{EIGHT}
I have issues with mayonnaise.
It makes me want to barf.
I can't have it on my sandwiches.
*SHUDDER*
I do have some recipes that require mayo mixed in...I have gotten better with using it if it's mixed in, but I used to have Kevin add the mayo to a recipe because it would make me gag.
If I have a recipe that calls for mayo mixed in, I will buy the smallest jar of mayo and then after I use what we need for the recipe, I will throw away the jar of mayo. I can't even handle having it in my fridge.
I also can't handle hard boiled eggs. I love eggs....scrambled eggs, fried eggs, eggs benedict, etc.
But hard boiled eggs? NO WAY. I just can't with the texture....makes my skin crawl.
My biggest nightmare is Deviled Eggs or Egg Salad Sandwiches because they require hard boiled eggs and mayo. EWWWWW.
{NINE}
I am a sponge-a-phob.
Sponges are also known to me as "porous rectangles of germs"
Sponges give me the heeby-jeebies.
I can't even touch them. They freak me out.
They are nasty germ & dirt traps.
What is that material they are made of?
Gives me the chills.
I avoid sponges like the plague.
I do not and will not have a sponge in my kitchen sink.
For our dishes, I use a scrubber (with a handle, of course)
For our counter tops, I use Granite Wipes or I use Granite Cleaner with washcloths.
It is a great system for our kitchen.
My house is a Sponge Free Zone.
Sponges give me the heeby-jeebies.
I can't even touch them. They freak me out.
They are nasty germ & dirt traps.
What is that material they are made of?
Gives me the chills.
I avoid sponges like the plague.
I do not and will not have a sponge in my kitchen sink.
For our dishes, I use a scrubber (with a handle, of course)
For our counter tops, I use Granite Wipes or I use Granite Cleaner with washcloths.
It is a great system for our kitchen.
My house is a Sponge Free Zone.
My mother in law thinks this is hysterical and puts a new sponge in my Christmas stocking every year. I throw them away...I can't handle sponges.
{TEN}
I am not a morning person. I am a night owl.
I HATE waking up early. I also have a fear of oversleeping and being late.
If I had to get up at 4am to catch a flight, I would rather stay up all night than go to bed early and having to wake up early. It would be easier for me to just stay up until 4 am than set my alarm for 4 am. I always have dreams that I over slept and am late for school.
I set 3 alarms every morning. One alarm on my bedside clock, one alarm on my phone (in case the power goes out and my bedside clock doesn't work) and another alarm on my back up-back up battery travel alarm clock (in case the power goes out or my phone battery dies and that alarm doesn't go off)
WOW. I am going to end this right here because it is a nice list of 10 things.
I have more things I could add to this list, but I am just going to end at 10 because that is a nice even number ;)
I promise I am actually a nice, normal person despite all my quirks :)
Kamis, 12 Januari 2017
Show Tell Tuesday 9 11
Today's Show & Tell Tuesday is near and dear to my heart.
I've posted about it before, but couldn't pass up posting about it again.
September 11, 2001
September 11th
9.11.019-11Nine Eleven.A date that will never be forgotten.One Tuesday morning I will never, ever forget.
I can't believe it has been 14 years.Where were you on 9/11?
I was 22 & had graduated from college a few months before. Kevin and I had officially started dating 2 days before on 9/9/01.On Tuesday, 9/11 we had plans to meet at a local coffee shop before work like we had done for the past few weeks.Ironically, Kevin was taking the day off work because he had an interview at the local fire department to become a volunteer firefigher. What are the odds?
I remember waking up to the alarm on my radio & hearing about the twin towers. I couldn't believe it nor did I understand the impact it would have on our country. I met Kevin at the local coffee/bagel shop we always met at and we talked with people about what was going on. Everyone was in shock. I went to work ( I was working for my dad at the time) and we were listening to the radio all day. That evening & night we went to Reid & Kelly's and our eyes were glued to the TV watching the coverage. It was surreal. I will never forget those images.
A few months after 9/11 a group of 20 people from our church had the opportunity to go on a mission trip to New York City to volunteer at St. Paul's Chapel & the NYC Salvation Army. I knew I had to go. So, I went. (My sisters also came on the trip) We got special clearance passes that we had to wear at all times:
I can't even put into words the experience I had.The words I have type won't even do it justice.I fell in love with the people of NYC, the NYPD & the FDNY.(Please excuse the quality of my pictures, I scanned them in)
I went in honor of the men, women, police officers & FDNY who lost their lives on this day. I went to serve those who were serving others. It was a trip that changed me. It was an experience that I will treasure in my heart for the rest of my life. The city of New York & the FDNY holds a special place in my heart.
My sisters & I all got to work together on the same shifts. Because we were the "younger" ones on the trip, we were signed up for the graveyard shifts on both nights.
The first night we worked from 8 pm to 8 am at St. Pauls Chapel at the edge of Ground Zero. St Paul's Chapel had become the home base for all of the NYPD, FDNY & construction workers who were clearing out the debris from the Twin Towers.
At St. Paul's Chapel the PD, FD & workers could come to the church for meals, dry clothes, showers, tolietries, a place to sleep or a place to go talk to someone or pray.
St. Pauls chapel was at the edge of the World Trade Centers & was miraculously untouched by all of the debris of the Twin Towers falling. It became a rest & relief center for the workers. The outside walls of the church became a memorial where visitors came & posted letters & American flags.
Our job was to help get food prepared &, get them supplies & be available to talk to them & keep their spirits up. The night we were there, it was mostly firefighters from FDNY who were coming to the church. As we served them food they would re-count their 9/11 stories to us. They told us what they did on 9/11, how they responded to the call & the family & friends that they had lost.
These were real stories with faces to the stories. It was heartbreaking & tragic. But there was also hope. The American spirit was alive. People were crying out to God in despair, but also looking to Him because He is the one who brings hope, peace & love in the midst of crisis.
One firefighter, Jack K (FDNY Ladder 54) poured out his heart to my and my sister. He was a firefighter who came from a family of fire fighters. The past year he had gone through a divorce. He told us of the uncle, cousin & brother that he lost on 9/11. He was so grateful to us & couldn't believe we came all the way from California to help out. (It was the LEAST I could do!) Despite all the serious conversations & tears that were shed, he was also a jokester & kept giving me a hard time about being 22 and getting married at such a young age.
Toward the end of the night, Jack told me & 2 other girls to come with him so he could give us a closer look at ground zero. He let us into the FDNY Suburban & drove us into the "pit" of ground zero so we could get an up close look at what was going on.We had to cross through all this secruity & the pit of Ground Zero was 20 stories below street level. "The pit" took up 17 acres! It was HUGE!The pit during the day:
The pit at night:
It was where the Twin Towers once stood. I couldn't believe how big it was.It was amazing & horrifying at the same time.
I know these pictures of the chain link fence don't mean anything to you, but these are the only pictures I was allowed to take when I went into the pit. (I actually wasn't supposed to take pictures, but I did anyways!) I wanted to document it so that I would remember it. Being at the bottom of "the pit" and looking up was surreal. We had to wear a mask in the pit because of all the toxins that had been released in the air from the Twin Towers falling. A few months after I got back from the trip I had a package from the NY Deptartment of Health 9/11 Registry. I have to fill out a questionnaire every year to make sure I have no "health" effects from being at Ground Zero.
The next night we had the graveyard shift at the Salvation Army Respite Center on the other edge of the WTC. The Salvation Army set up "The Bubble", which was a huge white tent. It was seriously huge, about the size of a football field, but all enclosed.
We served hot meals here & beds were set up for the workers. The Bubble was mostly for the construction workers & clean up crew. I honestly don't remember much about this night because I was so delirious from lack of sleep, we had only gotten 3 hours of sleep in 48 hours. I remember serving food & clearing people's plates. At that point, I was emotionally & physically overwhelmed. This is Becks & I on the subway back to the hotel after our 2nd shift. So exhausted!
Below is a picture I took of the Miracle Cross. On 9/11 when the Twin Towers collapsed, a Cross of steel girders was somehow left standing, torn away from the rubble and destruction of the Twin Towers. Henceforth the Miracle Cross. It is a reminder to all that with our faith and prayer in God we will overcome what was brought upon us that day.
The cross still stands today, a silent testament to the power of hope. It has become a destination for visitors to ground zero, and is part of the memorial for the WTC.
It was a mission trip I will never forget. I have been on several mission trips before. In high school I went to Mexico 3 times to build houses & work at an orphanage for a week. In the spring of 2006 I went to build houses for Hurricane Katrina relief, but this mission trip to NYC has still impacted me big time, almost 8 years later. I am thankful for the opportunity I had to go & serve in that capacity.
9.11.019-11Nine Eleven.A date that will never be forgotten.One Tuesday morning I will never, ever forget.
I can't believe it has been 14 years.Where were you on 9/11?
I was 22 & had graduated from college a few months before. Kevin and I had officially started dating 2 days before on 9/9/01.On Tuesday, 9/11 we had plans to meet at a local coffee shop before work like we had done for the past few weeks.Ironically, Kevin was taking the day off work because he had an interview at the local fire department to become a volunteer firefigher. What are the odds?I remember waking up to the alarm on my radio & hearing about the twin towers. I couldn't believe it nor did I understand the impact it would have on our country. I met Kevin at the local coffee/bagel shop we always met at and we talked with people about what was going on. Everyone was in shock. I went to work ( I was working for my dad at the time) and we were listening to the radio all day. That evening & night we went to Reid & Kelly's and our eyes were glued to the TV watching the coverage. It was surreal. I will never forget those images.A few months after 9/11 a group of 20 people from our church had the opportunity to go on a mission trip to New York City to volunteer at St. Paul's Chapel & the NYC Salvation Army. I knew I had to go. So, I went. (My sisters also came on the trip) We got special clearance passes that we had to wear at all times:I can't even put into words the experience I had.The words I have type won't even do it justice.I fell in love with the people of NYC, the NYPD & the FDNY.(Please excuse the quality of my pictures, I scanned them in)I went in honor of the men, women, police officers & FDNY who lost their lives on this day. I went to serve those who were serving others. It was a trip that changed me. It was an experience that I will treasure in my heart for the rest of my life. The city of New York & the FDNY holds a special place in my heart.My sisters & I all got to work together on the same shifts. Because we were the "younger" ones on the trip, we were signed up for the graveyard shifts on both nights.The first night we worked from 8 pm to 8 am at St. Pauls Chapel at the edge of Ground Zero. St Paul's Chapel had become the home base for all of the NYPD, FDNY & construction workers who were clearing out the debris from the Twin Towers.At St. Paul's Chapel the PD, FD & workers could come to the church for meals, dry clothes, showers, tolietries, a place to sleep or a place to go talk to someone or pray.St. Pauls chapel was at the edge of the World Trade Centers & was miraculously untouched by all of the debris of the Twin Towers falling. It became a rest & relief center for the workers. The outside walls of the church became a memorial where visitors came & posted letters & American flags.Our job was to help get food prepared &, get them supplies & be available to talk to them & keep their spirits up. The night we were there, it was mostly firefighters from FDNY who were coming to the church. As we served them food they would re-count their 9/11 stories to us. They told us what they did on 9/11, how they responded to the call & the family & friends that they had lost.These were real stories with faces to the stories. It was heartbreaking & tragic. But there was also hope. The American spirit was alive. People were crying out to God in despair, but also looking to Him because He is the one who brings hope, peace & love in the midst of crisis.One firefighter, Jack K (FDNY Ladder 54) poured out his heart to my and my sister. He was a firefighter who came from a family of fire fighters. The past year he had gone through a divorce. He told us of the uncle, cousin & brother that he lost on 9/11. He was so grateful to us & couldn't believe we came all the way from California to help out. (It was the LEAST I could do!) Despite all the serious conversations & tears that were shed, he was also a jokester & kept giving me a hard time about being 22 and getting married at such a young age.Toward the end of the night, Jack told me & 2 other girls to come with him so he could give us a closer look at ground zero. He let us into the FDNY Suburban & drove us into the "pit" of ground zero so we could get an up close look at what was going on.We had to cross through all this secruity & the pit of Ground Zero was 20 stories below street level. "The pit" took up 17 acres! It was HUGE!The pit during the day:The pit at night:It was where the Twin Towers once stood. I couldn't believe how big it was.It was amazing & horrifying at the same time.I know these pictures of the chain link fence don't mean anything to you, but these are the only pictures I was allowed to take when I went into the pit. (I actually wasn't supposed to take pictures, but I did anyways!) I wanted to document it so that I would remember it. Being at the bottom of "the pit" and looking up was surreal. We had to wear a mask in the pit because of all the toxins that had been released in the air from the Twin Towers falling. A few months after I got back from the trip I had a package from the NY Deptartment of Health 9/11 Registry. I have to fill out a questionnaire every year to make sure I have no "health" effects from being at Ground Zero.The next night we had the graveyard shift at the Salvation Army Respite Center on the other edge of the WTC. The Salvation Army set up "The Bubble", which was a huge white tent. It was seriously huge, about the size of a football field, but all enclosed.We served hot meals here & beds were set up for the workers. The Bubble was mostly for the construction workers & clean up crew. I honestly don't remember much about this night because I was so delirious from lack of sleep, we had only gotten 3 hours of sleep in 48 hours. I remember serving food & clearing people's plates. At that point, I was emotionally & physically overwhelmed. This is Becks & I on the subway back to the hotel after our 2nd shift. So exhausted!Below is a picture I took of the Miracle Cross. On 9/11 when the Twin Towers collapsed, a Cross of steel girders was somehow left standing, torn away from the rubble and destruction of the Twin Towers. Henceforth the Miracle Cross. It is a reminder to all that with our faith and prayer in God we will overcome what was brought upon us that day.The cross still stands today, a silent testament to the power of hope. It has become a destination for visitors to ground zero, and is part of the memorial for the WTC.It was a mission trip I will never forget. I have been on several mission trips before. In high school I went to Mexico 3 times to build houses & work at an orphanage for a week. In the spring of 2006 I went to build houses for Hurricane Katrina relief, but this mission trip to NYC has still impacted me big time, almost 8 years later. I am thankful for the opportunity I had to go & serve in that capacity.
View of the NY skyline with the Twin Towers missing:
To the Heroes who responded on that day, you will never be forgotten.To those who lost loved ones on 9/11, may they never be forgotten.
Thank you to all of the men and women in our town, county, state and country who choose to serve to protect our freedom and insure our safety.Whenever I think of New York City, I think of my time volunteering there.
NYC holds a special place in my heart.
Because I volunteered at the Pit & where the Twin Towers were, there was paper work I had to fill out when we volunteered. Every 6 months since I volunteered I get a letter/questionnaire from the New York Health Registry asking about my health & if I have any breathing complications or other complications from helping near the destruction. (I don't have any side effects, but I think it is amazing that 14 years later, they still check on my health & I was just a volunteer.) They also call once a year to ask more questions & check in.
9/11/01....I will never forget.
Where were you on 9/11?
It is a day I will never forget.
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