snapshots...: Friends

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I'm excited! I have been tagged by Amanda and LB to make a 100-things-about-me list. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading LB's, Scott's, and Amanda's, and I have loved learning little things about good friends that I never knew before!

So, here it goes...

1. I was born in Eustis, Florida - in Lake County
2. I am one of two girls
3. My sister Krisan is younger than me
4. Mom and dad decided to give her the smarts and the eyebrows
5. and they decided to give me the love of all things furry and the bad ankles
6. We both love our parents very much though.
7. My dad wanted me to be a boy, and he wanted to name me Scott. I think his wish paid off, as I was a bit of a tomboy growing up.
8. I got in trouble in middle school for chasing the new preacher's daughter around with a snake. The principle called my mom about it.
9. I am still a bit of a tomboy, but I don't chase people with snakes.
10. but when I started dating my husband, he had a snake, and I fed it big white rats with red eyes.
11. Enough about snakes. Let's talk about dogs. I love dogs.
12. My family dogs growing up were Happy and Reba
13. Happy was the grumpiest dog ever. Amanda can attest to this.
14. My dad didn't have any boys, but he loved camping, so he forced his girls to go
15. and we loved it. Those are some of my best memories growing up
16. I went to Eustis High School, where I spent most of my time goofing off, making mediocre grades, and playing sports
17. My highschool was very diverse
18. In fact, I was one of three whiteys (so we were called) on my highschool basketball team,
19. Thus the beginning of my interest in different cultures
20. during my quest to find myself (aka growing up), I went through some awkward stages
21. I went through a "surfer-girl" stage, where I wore board-shorts (remember those?) and carried a roxy backpack
22. then I went through a "country" stage, where I listened to Garth Brooks and wore wranglers
23. then I went through a rapper stage where I listened to Master P on big speakers in my car
24. Now, those are two genres of music that I just can't appreciate. at all.
25. I can't play musical instruments or sing, but I love good music. Some of my favorite movies are also musicals or use music in creative ways. Some that immediately come to mind are Mystic River, Rent, Moulin Rouge, Once, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
26. Lake County has approximately 1400 lakes, and we grew up on Lake Joanna
27. My most embarrassing moment was when I skiied into a dock showing off for a boy
28. My mom cried. she thought I was dead or at least badly maimed.
29. My mom probably also cried when I got four (yes, four) speeding tickets on the same road in Eustis.
30. My parents took away my car.
31. My friend Jimmy picked me up every day for school
32. and I made him an egg sandwich every morning to pay him back
33. In college, my sister stole the road sign from that road
34. it's now in her closet, and that makes me smile.
35. My favorite foods are Thai and Korean
36. as are some of my favorite people.
37. Just this weekend, though, I had to pick some purple octopus tentacles out of my Korean dinner.
38. So sometimes I just stick with a good ole' steak
39. I used to have an unusual fear of spiders
40. but Brad likes to catch them and plant them on our front porch, where they build huge webs and we feed them baby lizards and moths for entertainment
41. and we name them and bury them when they die
42. so now I'm getting over my fear of spiders.
43. Brad has an unusual sense of humor
44. he likes to play food jokes
45. one time he put corned beef in my vanilla yogurt
46. I haven't been able to eat corned beef or vanilla yogurt ever since
47. I met Brad at Auburn
48. this summer is our five-year anniversary!
49. We have no children
50. but we have two dogs and one cat - Tuco, Turk, and Sport
51. Tuco is named after "the ugly" character from the movie the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
52. Turk is named after Chris Turk from Scrubs. My friend Caroline calls him Brown Bear.
53. Brad wanted to name sport "roach" because she is black but I put my foot down and we went with gender-neutral "sport"
54. I've had many faux-pas with hair dyings, piercings, etc. Many of you remember my purple hair and our night at the tattoo parlor.
55. I've always wanted a Soli Deo Gloria tattoo or a small star tattoo and still plan to get one one day.
56. Don't worry parents, it will be inconspicuous
57. I love Auburn University
58. My favorite year was my freshman year, when I lived in the dorm and took part in many shenanigans
59. We enjoyed Sani Freeze, we sang ghetto-cowboy, we took pictures in front of the Sanford Christmas Tree
60. and Amanda almost punched me out
61. Brad and I left Auburn 2 years ago, and now we live in Gainesville, FL
62. People wear very short shorts here.
63. I'm studying linguistics and working in UF's Brain and Language Lab.
64. I work with really great people (who wear normal-length shorts) and we study how the brain processes language.
65. I had my brain scanned as part of a study last semester.
66. I learned that I get very very sleepy in MRI machines. I was worried that I might have fallen asleep and actually ruined the study.
67. I grow a mustache when I go in the sun (not a real one, people, a sunspot one).
68. So now I always have to wear hats at the beach.
69. I found out it also happens to pregnant people. But I'm not pregnant.
70. In fact, I don't ever want to be pregnant or to have a baby,
71. but I want a big family,
72. so that's a problem.
73. I have a big extended family, including 7 little cousins or nephews - Jonah, Baylen, Macy, Madie, Collin, Brooklyn, and Noah
74. I really love creative kid names, and I think of new ones all the time. In fact, I have a list on my computer right now that I've been keeping for a long time.
75. Brad thinks that's weird, considering I have no kids
76. Brad and I disagree about things like that, though
77. We also disagree about silly things like whether modern country music singers actually have any talent at all, but that's another story entirely
78. we agree on the fact that Florida is an excellent place to live from October-June but it's the worst place on earth during the month of August. The other months are still up for debate.
79. Brad truly is my best friend. We have many hobbies we enjoy doing together - we cook, we work out, we run, we puddle chase, we search for good films, we have breakfast together...
80. and we realized early in our marriage the power of praying together. That's one "hobby" we try to keep up on a nightly basis.
81. I just finished taking tennis lessons with a friend.
82. I asked her to play with me because I hate playing tennis with Brad. He likes to hit and spin the ball in obnoxious ways that keep the volley from continuing.
83. I always tell him that I want to play tennis together but only after he grows up.
84. The women in Brad's family are all under the height of 5.4. Our first meeting was very scary, because Brad told me that his grandmother would be watching my manners, and then, while standing in the kitchen with the beautiful, small, petite Chappell women, I was asked if I played basketball in highschool. My worst nightmare came to pass - I was the giant in the room.
85. After that scary meeting, I learned that I absolutely adore the Chappell women, and that they adore tall people.
86. Because I often feel tall in groups of people, I will hunch down in pictures to fit in. When the picture comes out, though, I'm often sticking out my rear. It's awful.
87. I love taking pictures, and I'm trying to get better so I can take pictures of my kids and animals, and I'd like to take pictures of other peoples' kids and animals eventually
88. I'd like to one day have a place with a big yard so I could have, like, 6 dogs.
89. This summer I cat-sat and dog-sat for people in Haile Plantation, the area where we live.
90. We live in this great little community in West Gainesville with 10 miles of running trails, adorable shops, and great restaurants. It's very dog-friendly, and so we take our dogs with us everywhere - to walk, to eat, to shop.
91. I worked in a bakery and restaurant in downtown Haile this summer, and I loved it. I rode my bike to work.
92. I think that's when I got into cooking and baking more seriously.
93. I make killer cinnamon-raisin bread and vegan banana bread. It's a favorite at department get-togethers!
94. My mom makes a killer german chocolate cake. I'd like to learn that one next.
95. My personality is lion-otter. This means I get energy from people but I also like to boss them around.
96. This drives my husband crazy. (He's a beaver-lion.)
97. But it works out well for teaching. And, I'm very excited because this summer I'm teaching my first "non-core" class for linguistics majors at UF.
98. My favorite clothing store is Urban Outfitters. My favorite everything store is Target.
99. I struggle with managing my time wisely, and I have a massive planner with everything I need to do written down and highlighted 14 times. My mom used to say I'd lose my head if it wasn't tied down.
100. I used to be a night owl, but now I'm a morning person. So, folks, it's time for bed!

Okay, now I get to do the tagging!! I tag Shannon, a friend from Creekside who has a blog about adopting her sweet son Asher. I also tag both of my Melissas- my sweet ADPi friend and my sister-in-law! Finally, I just made a new blog friend, Ashley Gentry, so I'll tag her so I can learn more about her.

Just to give you an update, our Disney Half-Marathon packets came in the mail! Exactly 6 weeks from now, we will be finished with the race and will be riding Space Mountain and eating churros. Here's the course route that came in the packet.

The full marathon course is much more impressive as it goes through all the parks. A few of the guys are bravely attempting this one.

So far, this experience has been fun and challenging.

It has been challenging because I never know what to expect from my body. Some days, I feel great and barely break a sweat. Other days, I feel like puking and collapsing in the road. Brad has had the same experience.

It has been fun because the good days feel great. And, we have gotten to train with friends from church and through the process have gotten to know them better. Today, the girls (Sarah, Betsy, Kendra) and I ran seven miles. We left Sarah's house, ran the trails up to Betsy's, grabbed water, and ran back. We ran slowly, but it felt great. I wouldn't have been able to do these runs without friends to push me.

Anyway, 6 weeks and counting... wish us luck!