Keeping up with the blog tradition I have included 100 things about me:

1. I was born on June 11, 1974

2. My parents were young and still in college at the time.

3. My dad turned 21 four days before I was born.

4. My mom turned 19 two days after I was born. In fact my mom accidentally put that she was 19 on my birth certificate because she was when she filled it out, but not when I was born.

5. My parents divorced when I was five. I was devastated.

6. I lived with my dad because my mom traveled a lot with her job.

7. But I saw mom at holidays, Spring Break and for long visits in the summer. Plus we talked on the phone almost daily.

8. We still talk almost daily.

9. I’m very close to both of my parents.

10. When I was around 10 years old, my dad remarried.

11. My stepmom wasn’t a very good stepmom.

12. She wasn’t mean or abusive, but she often made me feel left out of the family. Especially after my brother and sister were born.

13. I have a [half] brother who was born when I was in seventh grade.

14. I have a [half] sister who was born when I was a junior in high school.

15. There were pictures of my brother and sister all over the house, but very, very few pictures of me.

16. When I was a senior in high school, my stepmom told me I would be disowned if I ever got pregnant. [I assume she meant while I was still young and unmarried, but who knows.]

17. I was not pregnant at the time, but I did have my first child just a month and a half after my 20th birthday.

18. And I was not married.

19. And I was not disowned.

20. My dad and stepmom separated in February 1999 and the divorce was final around my birthday in 2003.

21. I live about 45 minutes away from the city I was born in.

22. The farthest I’ve moved is two hours away.

23. But I have traveled to both coasts to visit my mom.

24. I have been to Disney World twice. Once when I was in junior high. Then again in November 1998.

25. I have been to Disneyland once. It was in 1988 when my mom lived in the San Francisco area.

26. That was the year the Olympics were in Los Angeles and the guy with the torch ran right in front of our hotel.

27. My mom took me a on a Carribean cruise. That was the same vacation when we went to Disney World.

28. The summer before my senior year in high school, my mom took me to Cancun, Mexico.

29. In the summer of 2005, my mom took me and my son, Keaton to London, England.

30. My mom had lived in London for a few years prior to this trip and she wanted to go back to see her friends.

31. I was extremely shy as a child.

32. In fact my third grade teacher’s comments on my report card said “When Christine speaks it’s kind of like E.F. Hutton. When she talks everybody listens because it’s so rare.”

33. I peed my pants in class in first grade and fourth grade. Because I was too shy to tell the teacher I needed to go to the bathroom.

34. My husband, Lee, and I were introduced by mutual friends in 1993.

35. Lee and I got married in Las Vegas in 1997.

36. We renewed our vows in our hometown on our first wedding anniversary.

37. Our two oldest boys, Justis and Keaton, were the ring bearers. They walked down the aisle holding hands. It was so cute.

38. Lee is four years older then me.

39. Lee was abandoned by his father shortly after conception and abandoned by his mother at birth.

40. He was raised by his grandmother. And she helped him become the wonderful man he is today.

41. He has four siblings he didn’t meet until he was an adult.

42. Two sisters on his mom’s side; one we’ve met and one we haven’t met.

43. We met Lee’s sister and her husband in 1998.

44. And we’ve been talking ever since.

45. She was even a bridesmaid when we renewed our vows.

46. Lee also has a brother and a sister on his dad side who we he didn’t meet until his dad’s funeral in 2001.

47. Lee and I have five children.

48. Our oldest, Justis, was born in 1992. He is my stepson.

49. We have primary custody of Justis, but he visits his mom on holidays and for six weeks in the summer.

50. Next is Keaton. He was born in 1994.

51. Keaton is a goofball, but also very smart.

52. Then we had boy/girl twins in 1999.

53. Our girl is Skyler.

54. Skyler is a girlie-girl. She loves to wear dresses, paint her nails and put bows in her hair.

55. Our boy is Spencer.

56. Spencer is a sensitive tough guy. He loves to run and wrestle, but his feelings are easily hurt.

57. We had our final child, Caleb, in 2002.

58. Caleb was born on Mother’s Day.

59. He was born with a ¾ unilateral cleft lip.

60. He has had two surgeries to correct his lip.

61. I’m a little OCD. Ok, a lot.

62. And a tad bit ADD.

63. I’m working in the corporate world. But my heart is really in the creative world.

64. I love to work on my website, but have little time to actually do it.

65. I love to write, but don’t force myself to sit down and do it.

66. I also love to draw, but, again, find little time to do it.

67. I have been a college student for 15 years.

68. I started out as a Biology major.

69. My goal was to be either a microbiologist [genetics] or a geriatrician.

70. I dropped out of state college after only a month.

71. The next year I went back and got my Certified Nurses Aide certificate at the local community college.

72. Working for pennies as a CNA with wonderful, but often extremely uncooperative residents, let me know that medicine was not my field.

73. Working as a cashier at Wendy’s [the fast food restaurant] reminded me how important college is.

74. I got my Associates Degree in Business Administration in 1998.

75. I’ve been studying [on and off] for my Bachelor’s degree ever since.

76. I am currently in my junior year [almost a senior year] majoring in Marketing.

77. I was going to double major in Journalism, but then I found out I’d have to take two years of foreign language so I decided not to.

78. I took German in high school, but remember very little of it.

79. My husband is a stay-at-home dad. And he’s very good at it.

80. I’m so jealous.

81. He is also a part-time college student.

82. He is majoring in LAN Management.

83. I drive a minivan.

84. So does Lee.

85. In fact our cars are essentially the same.

86. I drive a blue Caravan.

87. He drives a green Voyager.

88. There have been times when I get in to his van by accident and don’t realize it until I try to start the engine.

89. I can’t cook to save my life.

90. I once had to call my aunt to ask her how to boil eggs. I didn’t know if you were supposed to boil first and then put the eggs in our put the eggs in and then bring the water to a boil. Plus how long do you leave them in?

91. And I read the directions every time I make Kool-aid.

92. But my kids are good sports about it.

93. My husband was a cook at a restaurant once.

94. But he still hardly ever makes dinner.

95. But he does do all of the grocery shopping.

96. I am a democrat.

97. And extremely liberal.

98. I am presbyterian.

99. And just recently began attending church again.

100. And now I’m even a Shepard in Sunday School.

Whew…finally at the end. That’s not as easy as it looks.