Tagged x 2 + 1

Okay, so lately I have been a really bad blogger buddy. I was tagged by Mindy back in January and the kiddos were tagged by Aiden/Christina last month. Finally I am going to post the information and I am going to start a new line. So, here it goes:

7 weird/unknown things about me, Beckie:
(courtesy of Mindy at http://theousleyfamily.blogspot.com/)

1. I have a "freakishly" accurate memory. Seriously, I can recall conversations verbatim that happened years ago, as well as the most minute details of the scene. Friends laugh, but for some it is the only way that they have any memory of our misadventures.
2. Some of my best friends today have been my best friends since first grade or earlier. Growing up in a small town we spent a lot of time together and when I am visiting there seeing them is still my favorite thing to do. In fact this past summer I looked up a friend that I haven't spoken to since freshman year of college and we fell right back into old routines. It really is true that old friends are the ones who know you best.
3. I am constantly reading. I love books -- right now I'm in a British mystery phase (Elizabeth George, P.D. James), but almost any genre will do as long as it is a good story.
4. I have been in love with Washington, DC since I was in 2nd grade. Don't ask me why, but that city has always had a draw for me.
5. I am a shopaholic. I have curbed the addiction the last year or so, but I seriously have problems with retail therapy.
6. Those of you who read this blog regularly know that I love to cook, but do you know how many hours a week I devote to Yahoo!foods site or perusing cookbooks to try out new recipes? We've had very few redos on meals in this house because I always want to try out something new -- like the lamb I made for Easter or the Guatemalan meals I've been tinkering with. Plus, now that I am cooking on a regular basis I've started tinkering with recipes to make my own. Kind of like a mad scientist in the kitchen. If my kids are any indication, I must be cooking a lot because they are always cooking in their "cookin" aka kitchen.
7. I love the ocean. I have lived my whole life within 30 minutes or so from the beach. I don't think I could live anywhere else. There is something about hearing the surf break, smelling the sea that is peaceful and reinvigorating at the same time. I'm growing to like the Pacific, but the rocky Maine coast will always have my heart and be the measure of what the sea can be.

Okay, enough about me -- onto the kiddos. Here are 10 random facts about the little 'uns -- 5 apiece since I have two. (Courtesy of Aiden/Christina at http://aidencsworld.blogspot.com/)

1. Elena thinks bubble juice is delicious. She loves nothing more than to pull the wand out of the bucket and suck it before dipping again. Garrett thinks bubbles are yummy too, but he prefers trying to catch them floating in the air to sucking the juice.
2. Garrett is in his cars phase right now. He loves everything and anything that has to do with automobiles. Chris thinks that he only needs so many Matchbox toys -- then he realized that with more cars the world is less likely to end if one is missing for a day or two.
3. Elena loves to clean. Give the girl a Swiffer and she'll literally be happy for hours. That is behavior I know that she didn't learn from me. Hmm, maybe she's trying to say something?
4. Garrett's new thing to do is shriek like a banshee whenever our cats come into the room and then cry when they leave. Seriously, dude, can you not realize the cause and effect relationship here?
5. Elena has taken to calling herself "Princess." If she wants a book, "Princess see." If she wants to be held "Princess up" or "Princess lap". I guess the nickname has stuck.
6. Garrett loves the swings at the park. He sits on a "big boy" swing and asks to be pushed higher and higher still. After a few flying landings, he has learned to hold on with both hands which does Mommy's heart good.
7. Elena woke up the other morning singing the Little Einsteins theme. I walked into her room and up she popped saying "Trip, Momma, favrite rocketship." What is the best is to hear her shout "shake yur bdy, shake it all ower" in the middle of the night when she is all alone in her room and we think that she is sleeping. Keeps us giggling.
8. Garrett loves starfall.com to practice his ABCs. Whenever I am on the computer he'll get all excited and ask, "Cs Momma, please?" with the biggest smile. Who could resist such cuteness wanting to get smarter?
9. Elena has decided that she is a tree monkey. I'm not sure the exact species, Gibbon, Siamang, or some other. However, she loves to hang from branches in a tree, climb trees, and swing from branches that she can grab from the ground. So my little girly-girl still has a tom-boy spirit. I think I can handle that.
10. Garrett loves flowers, and thinks that I should wear his pickings in my hair. Several times a day he'll bring me a flower he's picked from the garden/yard/street. "Umm, flower smell good" is promptly followed by "Hair Momma." I then have to put the flower in my hair. He'll then either go pick me another flower or literally climb up me to smell the flower again. So glad I am here to entertain my children.

Okay, so that catches me up on tags. Since everyone I know has pretty much been tagged for the above two, I'm going to start a new one -- the 5 bravest things you have ever done. If you are tagged, link your post to the blog that tagged you then tag five new blogs. Have fun!

The 5 bravest things I've ever done (in not particular order):

1. Adopt my children -- giving up control to God and other people to bring home my beautiful babes one of the most difficult things that I have ever done, and one that renewed my sense of faith. You can't make it through this process without faith -- faith that your babies will come home, faith that the process will work in the babies and parents best interests, faith, faith, faith.
2. Marry my husband -- I married my hubby while I was still in college and I stayed in DC to graduate while he worked his way through the beginner program at flight school in Florida. We only saw each other once ever 4-6 weeks. We've moved countless times, especially the first few years we were married. Over the years he's been deployed 4 times (2 9 mo deployments and 2 7 months), attended 2 double-cax in California for 2 months while I stayed in NC, as well as been gone for numerous work-ups, exercises, training missions, and conferences. This summer we celebrate our 10 year anniversary but joke that he's only been married for 5. Knowing that this man was to be the father of my children and my husband from the first moment I saw him has helped me stay sane and centered through this leg of the journey.
3. Attending college in DC -- I grew up in a small, rural town in Maine and decided to attend college 10 hours away in one of the country's biggest cities. At the time it had a high murder rate, but I felt fine walking across the city at 4 am by myself. I stayed in college, exposed to people who had grown up so different from myself all four years while many of my friends from high school who went away to school went back home. I'm thankful for those years in the city, but I don't think I'll ever live there again.
4. Stop working to stay at home with my children -- I am not a stay-at-home type. I don't begrudge those that are (though for years I couldn't understand choosing that life); it's just not for me. I have had to realize that these first few years that my children are home are so much more important than my personal satisfaction from working. With all the changes in their lives I get to be the one constant. There are times that it is a struggle for me to remember that, but I know that it is worth the short-term sacrifice in the end.
5. Changing my profession -- this sort-of goes hand-in-hand with marrying my hubby. Entering college and through most of high school I wanted to be in politics, work behind the scenes, manage campaigns, even run for office. Marrying a Marine makes that extremely difficult with the moves, living in a area where I have no historical connection. So I changed by career to ... Yeah, for the first several years after graduation I floated aimlessly. Then I decided to give up a paycheck to get my teaching certification. Then came the day that I stood in front of students, students whose first teacher ha died from a heart attack in front of the class. Let's just say it was a humbling experience to realize how little I knew and one that required my chutzpah to stay and learn from.

Okay, so that's my five. I'm tagging:

Angel at http://thevoiceofadventure.blogspot.com/

JuJu at http://thejujucrew.blogspot.com/

Cynthia at http://mommavia.blogspot.com/gspot.com/

Kelly C. at http://dillondaysdoings.blogspot.com/

and Kim at http://dillondaysdoings.blogspot.com/

Can't wait to learn more about the rest of you!