Seven random things about me (very long, go to the bathroom first)

1. I am not a very good housekeeper. I admit, when I go to bed at night there are usually dishes in the sink. And on the counters, and left scattered in the livingroom.
The laundry is my nemesis. I have one of those great separated hampers that tells me when I need to do a load of whites or jeans. The kids have a regular hamper in their bathroom and every few days I have one of them sort their clothes into the hamper in the laundry room. It's a good system, and usually the laundry doesn't pile up too high. But sometimes it does.
Usually, on any given day, I would be mortified if someone dropped in to visit, because my house is a mess. Except LaDonia and Chris, because they love me for who I am and I don't feel judged by them.

2. Every night, when I go to bed, I flip my pillow over. It is what I do. Even if I made my bed that day, see number 1, I still feel the need to flip. And when I wake up during the night to go to the bathroom, and I always do, I flip it again. I like the cool side next to my face, and the part that meets my shoulder not to be the flattened side.

3. I LOVE to go camping. I love setting up the camper and playing house outside. I have a bunch of pink flamingo decorations that I enjoy putting out and looking at while we are camping. When we first started camping with a tent and a couple of air mattresses, I loved it. And when we started accumulating all the fun stuff to take along, I loved it more. But when we got our first pop up camper, I realized there was a whole 'nother kind of camping that I REALLY loved, because I could enjoy the fun stuff without the headache of so much packing, which I don't love.
In order to enjoy our camping trips to the fullest, I like to have the perfect weather. Not too hot during the day, and cool enough in the mornings and evenings to have a fire and roast marshmallows or have a cup of steaming hot chocolate.
But right now, we have a camper that has a great kitchen, complete with stove, oven, double sink, microwave, refrigerator, and FREEZER, that sits in the yard and never goes out because we are too broke to afford gas to drive it any distance and enjoy this thing we all LOVE.

4. I am a good cook. I almost said I am a great cook, but I don't think I fall into that category, because I have a limited repertoire of dishes I actually prepare. I am an anomally in the kitchen. I grew up in the south, but I was raised by a mid-western farm type mom, who grew up on meats and potatoes. But anything I do cook, I make very well. I have a recipe for pie crust that melts in your mouth with its flakiness. I will not share it with you, because it was my grandmother's, and it is a family secret. I have won awards for a couple of things that I cook. And since I won these awards, I do not enter into the same contests with the same foods, because it wouldn't be fair to the rest of the people. Really, it's because I wouldn't want to lose and then think my apple pie wasn't still the best dessert in all the land.

5. I don't wear much jewelry. I have a few key pieces that I wear whenever I remember to put them on. I don't even wear my wedding ring much. It's not that I don't love my husband. I just forget to put it on half the time. I'm not one of those wives who has kept on her ring since the moment it was slipped on her finger. First of all, I think that's sweet, but kind of gross. You should get it cleaned sometimes, and it's hard to wash your hands well with it in the way. I don't like the feeling that I can't dry my hands under my ring after I wash them. So I try to remember to put on my ring when I leave the house, but usually I forget. It's a good thing my hubby isn't worried.

6. I enjoy a good country motorcycle ride. I'd rather ride on a quiet, tree lined country road than a bustling city turnpike, any day. I don't enjoy the speed of the interstate, but a cool, quiet ride out to the house we're buying is delightful.
I didn't know until a few years ago that I'd like to ride. In fact, when Shawn first acquired his first motorcycle, I was not happy. He got it from a friend at work who just wanted it to go away. It came in a few boxes, because it was pretty much dismantled. Shawn put it back together at another friend's house. I didn't know what he was doing. I knew he was spending a lot of time over there, but I didn't ask him why. I figured he'd tell me when he was ready. But after a long while, I finally did speak up. I told him I didn't know what he was up to, and I wasn't asking him to tell me, but I wanted him to know that I knew he was up to something, and I expected him to tell me eventually what it was. A few days later he brought home a picture of the bike he was restoring. I'm not sure what I expected him to tell me, but that wasn't it. I was NOT happy. But after watching him ride it, and seeing how safety conscious he was, I confessed that I thought it looked like fun, and maybe I'd like to ride, too.
The next day he took me all over the city looking for the perfect bike for me. And when I realized one of my good friend's mothers was selling her V Star, we bought it for me. And I had no clue how to ride it, or even if I'd like it.
I decided to sell it a little while later, so we could buy the camper that sits in the yard. But my darling husband surprised me this year with another one just like it, because he knew how much I missed my first one.

7. I LOVE surprises. But they have to be good ones. Something that I want to happen. I remember when I was little, and my hamster died, that my sister and brother bought me another one. I was so surprised that I named him Surprise.
When I was sixteen, my sister threw me a surprise birthday party, and all of my friends were there. I loved it!
But Shawn has a hard time pulling off a real doozy. He usually gives himself away because he has to feel me out to see if it will work. Like the time he bought upper cabinets for our first house. I think it might have been an anniversary present. Our first house didn't have upper cabinets, and I whined and complained about it a lot. So when Shawn thought about getting them for our big day, he ran it by my sister, because she knows me so well, and would know if I'd like them. But a couple of days before they were coming, we saw a commercial about cabinets, and he asked me what I thought about them. It didn't take me long to put two and two together. I called Chris and told her in my most horrified voice that I thought Shawn was planning to buy me CABINETS for a gift. She broke. She told me that he had asked her if it would be okay, and that she said she thought it was a great idea, given all my whining about not having any, and he and his Dad took a day off of work to pick them up and install them while I was at work. So I bucked up, put on my happy face, and it was YEARS before he knew that I had known about them beforehand.
But this year, when he bought my motorcycle for my birthday, and I knew NOTHING about it in advance, he redeemed himself for all the times he failed to pull off a complete surprise.