The Moment You've All Been Waiting For!!

This is my 100th post!! Wow. Seems like only yesterday I wrote my first post.

In the grand tradition of blogging, I am now going to entertain you with 100 things about me. Yes, this may be a longer post than usual, but I hope you will hang in there and make it to the end.

1. I am a Christian….saved at the age of 9.

2. I have been married since 2003.

3. Buddy and I met on a blind date in 1997.

4. I have a son Quinn who is 18 months old.

5. I have a dog, Tillman, named after Tillman Hall at Clemson University.

6. I am an only child.

7. I have been to Germany and Austria as an exchange student in highschool. I lived with a family and went to their school. Their daughter also stayed with us for 6 weeks.

8. I have met one celebrity in my life....Ian Zering, the guy who played Steve Sanders on Beverly Hills 90210.

9. I am a NC certified EMT and volunteer at a local fire department..

10. I once helped perform CPR in the back of the ambulance all the way to the hospital.

11. I was in the Colorguard in highschool and was captain my Jr and Sr years.

12. My favorite Bible verse is Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord. “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”

13. I would love to one day visit places like England, Ireland, and Hawaii.

14. The house I grew up in belonged to my great-grandparents.

15. I would love to be on the show "The Amazing Race". I think I could do this!!

16. My son was the first boy born on my mom's side in 50 years. Her brother was born in 1958, all the grandkids are girls. I'm the only married or with kids so far.

17. When I was little I had a tabby cat named "Tabby"....very original, I know.

18. I do not drink soda. I never have. In my entire life.

19. I have taught 5th grade for the past 6 years.

20. One summer my church youth group went on a missions trip to Carolina Beach. I had to dress up like a clown and do skits.

21. I own all 10 seasons of FRIENDS on DVD.

22. I am a CLEMSON TIGER through and through. I went to my first football game at age 3. I am a very loyal fan of my Tigers.

23. My grandma taught me how to cross-stitch when I was little. I still like to do it, but rarely have the time.

24. My grandma also got me hooked on Days of Our Lives when I was little. She said I didn't have to take a nap if I was quiet during "her stories".

25. I love to iron. Yes, it's true. I don't know why.

26. I am peculiar about how the dishes are loaded in the dishwasher. Maybe this is why Buddy doesn’t help me as much.

27. I have a baby who lives in Heaven.

28. I once fell going UP the stairs.

29. I love taking pictures….I wish I had taken photography classes in high school.

30. 5 of the people I grew up with at church and I all got married the same summer. It started in May and ended in July, with weddings almost every weekend. It was very cool to go to all of our weddings.

31. When I was 13 I won $85 in one of those money machines at a carnival at my mom’s work. You get inside and the air cuts on and money floats around and you have to catch it. Just before the machine cut on, I saw a fifty and a twenty dollar bill sitting together. I grabbed those first.

32. I haven’t been to the beach in 12 years. Yes, I said 12!! But I’m fixing this problem in a few weeks!!

33. I have been to Disney World 3 times….all three times were school field trips! Once was in 5th grade (all the safety patrols were sent as a reward), the other two times were in high school. The marching band was chosen to march in parades during Disney Magic Music Days.

34. We went to the Poconos for our Honeymoon. We had one of those hot tubs that looks like a champagne glass in our room.

35. I have “sisters” thanks to Buddy. He has 3 older sisters, who all make me feel like I’m one of them!

36. We have 2 nieces and 5 nephews.

37. My parents and Buddy’s parents have been married over 30 years each. That’s almost a rarity these days.

38. My first job was at Wendy’s.

39. My second job was at a certain store that has a “Secret”….yes, it’s true!

40. I once got stung by swarm of yellow jackets. I had about 9-10 stings on my legs. Luckily I’m not allergic!

41. I’m old enough to remember when there weren’t things like CDs or Email, or Internet.

42. I’m young enough to remember when all these things came around!

43. I took piano lessons for 6 years when I was little.

44. I also played the clarinet.

45. I don’t play either one now…..

46. I have never broken a bone.

47. I had jaw surgery my senior year of highschool. I was wired shut for 8 weeks and could only eat liquids. This happened at Christmas time, too. My senior portrait and my graduation portrait look like different people. That’s how much the shape of my face changed. (This was medically necessary, not plastic surgery!)

48. I used to collect Beanie Babies. I’ve got some very, very old ones. Maybe I should sell them on Ebay. (Do people still buy these?)

49. I have been to Lake Erie, on the Canadian side. It was summer and the water was freezing, but I went in anyway. I was about 7 or 8 years old.

50. Ok, halfway through = Most embarrassing Moment. It was an away football game and the band was performing the halftime show. Our colorguard uniforms that year were dresses. At some point, we did this move where you sweep the flag behind your head. The pole got caught in my dress and as I moved the flag up, my dress went over my head. So there I stand, on the 50-yard line, dress completely up, and that’s when someone shouts my name….great….

51. I was almost trampled after a Clemson football game. We had just beaten our biggest rival, the SC Gamecocks, and all the students rushed the field. I tripped and fell but some huge guy grabbed me before I could get completely down.

52. I rode a moped while at Clemson. In real-life, a moped equals a DUI conviction, but on a college campus, a moped equals never having to walk across a huge campus again!

53. (It was actually Buddy’s moped, but he picked me up and took me to class!)

54. I did not have a date for my senior prom. I went with two of my best girl friends. We got dressed up, went out to eat and had the best time!

55. I got picked for jury duty the summer I turned 20. I was Juror #2. We put a guy in jail for 25 years for manufacturing cocaine. The guy was 21. He’s not even halfway through his sentence yet….

56. It took me 3 tries to get my driver’s license.

57. The first try I backed into a mailbox. That lost me 8 points. You could only lose 5 points and pass.

58. The second try, the instructor failed me but wouldn’t tell me what I did wrong.

59. Third time was the charm….

60. My first car was an 89 Ford Tempo. I nicknamed it SPOC….Stupid Piece of Car. It was always falling apart. But it was my birthday present the year I turned 16….perks of being an only child.

61. I only have one grandparent still living: my grandmother on my mother’s side, who I’ve mentioned many times on this blog.

62. Both my grandfathers had died by the time I was 6. My mom’s dad I don’t remember at all. My dad’s dad I barely remember. I can’t wait to see them both in Heaven one day!

63. Sometimes I talk in my sleep.

64. I am not crazy about storms with lots of thunder and lightning.

65. I love to read. Always have.

66. I have been inside this castle…


67. I was crazy about New Kids on the Block back in the day. I had the posters, the bed sheets, you name it. I even went to their concert when they came to Greenville.

68. I used to be great at roller skating. I even had my own speed skates!

69. I have had 4 dogs in my lifetime. Boots (lab/shepherd mix), Desi (toy poodle), Tillman (miniature pinscher), and Brady (golden retriever).
70. Quinn was 5 days overdue.

71. I had to have an emergency c-section to get him out.

72. I have a pretty high tolerance for pain….I have had 2 surgeries in my life (jaw and c-section) and never needed pain meds.

73. I remember watching the Challenger explosion on TV when I was in first or second grade.

74. I do not like to ride roller coasters.

75. I do not like to watch scary movies.

76. I won first prize in a Halloween costume contest when I was younger. I went as a California Raisin…complete with big sunglasses and white gloves.

77. I once wanted to be an interior decorator. I used to sit with the big Sears Catalog and pick out furnishings for each room in our house. Then I would calculate the totals for each room.

78. I busted my chin open in gym class in 6th grade. I needed 6 or 7 stitches.

79. My parents and I had a favorite Chinese restaurant when I was growing up. The owners got to where they “knew” us and would start our order as soon as we walked in because we always got the same thing!

80. When I was in Germany, I toured the Nazi Concentration Camp in Dachau. It was a very sobering experience.

81. I wish I could cook without using a recipe. I’m just not that creative in the kitchen.

82. I am scared of spiders.

83. One of my most favorite movies is The Princess Bride. I bet I could almost quote the entire thing.

84. I am a morning person. Buddy is not. This is a problem sometimes.

85. There is nothing better than a nap on a rainy afternoon!

86. I have never been to any type of professional sporting event.

87. I once grew my hair almost to my waist. Thank goodness I don’t do that anymore!

88. Our house is nicknamed “the holiday house”. We found our house on Christmas Eve. We made an offer on it on New Year’s Eve. We closed on Valentine’s Day!

89. I can’t go anywhere without someone telling me “You look like _____” (Fill in the name of some random person that they know.) This even happened to me in Germany.

90. I love Mexican Food. I could eat it every day.

91. I always order a chicken quesadilla, and it must be facing a certain way on my plate before I can eat it…..weird, I know.

92. I hate it when people misuse words. Example, “This food is to hot.” Too hot. I guess that’s the teacher in me.

93. I also hate it when people use the wrong punctuation. Example “The boy’s are brothers.” Just because it ends with an s doesn’t mean it needs an apostrophe!

94. I love to watch reality shows---Amazing Race, Survivor, and American Idol are three of my favorites.

95. I would love to have a British accent. It would be brilliant. ;-)

96. I once told my students that I really did have eyes in the back of my head. They believed me! Hee hee

97. I graduated college magna cum laude, with a GPA of 3.7. Not trying to brag, but I worked really hard for that!

98. I have never been farther west than Birmingham, Alabama.

99. I hate to scrub the shower. I’ll do it, but I hate to do it.

100. I have an obsession with pens. I love pens. If you have one that writes great, don’t let me borrow it or I’ll probably want to keep it.

There. I’m done. This was a really hard thing to do. Some of these I was struggling with. I know this was a long post, and I appreciate you sticking with me. I hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about me. Feel free to comment on anything you found interesting.

Go West, Young Man!

Buddy had his first official business trip this week. He's gone out of town to check on projects, but this was his first time to go somewhere for meetings, seminars, etc. Unfortunately, for him, this trip involved flying....which he HATES to do. But he did get to go to a state he's never been to before, and it was farther west than he's ever been, as well.

Quinn and I drove him to the airport on Thursday mid-morning. He got to his location later in the day. Friday he was in a class all day and then he and his co-workers barely made it to the airport in time to make their flight back home. Apparently the airport was on the smaller side, and the last flight out was shortly after the class ended. He got back super early this morning, like 1 am.

Buddy asked if I wanted him to bring me back a "sursy." Now a "sursy", for those of you who don't know, is a special surprise that you bring someone back when you go out of town and they don't. Particularly if the person leaving is a parent, and the person staying behind is the child. My mom and dad would always bring me a "sursy" if they had to go somewhere. I've taught the word to Buddy (or maybe he knew it before me), and he asked what I wanted. He wasn't going to a big city, and I knew he would be in class all day. So I told him all I wanted was a picture of the Mississippi River, because I knew his flight would require him to go over this river.

So, here's my "sursy" from Buddy's first business trip. Doesn't look like the "Mighty Mississippi" from 30,000 feet, does it? Buddy says the white splotches in the middle of the river are barges. And look, you can see the top of clouds. All in all, it's a really cool picture. Thank goodness for window seats and cell-phones with cameras!

Hodge Family Update--June 2009

This is my monthly update on my friends, The Hodge Family.

June was an exciting month for the Hodges, mainly because some family was able to fly down to Costa Rica for a visit. Michael's mother and grandmother made the trip and they all spent several days together. They went to the Sarapiqui River and also did a tour through a rain forest. Sounds like fun to me! His mother also brought some fun treats from the USA, like Reese's Pieces, no-bake cheesecake, and Bisquick! I'm sure when you are in a country where these things aren't common-place, it's easy to get excited about them.

Michael and Amanda continue to take Spanish classes and endure the dreaded tests, while Alexis and Jerret go to a more laid-back summertime Spanish class, which is more like day-camp than school.

Here are their prayer requests for this month.
1. Language acquisition and retention of what they are learning.

2. Safety as they walk to and from school each day.

3. That they will continue to grow in their knowledge and love of the Word.

4. Efficiency of time management. While they have their homework from language school, they each also have assignments to complete from their mentors.

5. For the International Mission Board to be good stewards of the funds they received in 2009 from the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. (The IMB is the group that has sent them out as missionaries).

As always, the Hodge Family appreciates your prayers. You can link to their blog from my list, or just click here.

What a sight!

This is what I saw in the sky behind my house last Wednesday night after I got home from church.

Isn't this beautiful? When I saw this, my mind went immediately to some special Bible verses.

"For the Lord Himself will come down from Heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever." I Thessalonians 4:16-17

"At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other." Matthew 24:30-31

Wow! Isn't that powerful. When I saw that beautiful cloud, I started watching the sky, wondering to myself, could this be the day that the Lord returns? Of course, it was not, but when I see big, beautiful clouds in the sky, I am reminded of these verses, and, like my pastor often says, "Even so, come Lord Jesus!"

Going to Kid's Planet

Hi there, it's Quinn, writing my last post about my vacation.

Grandma and Grandpa took me to a park called Kid's Planet. It was built after Mommy was too big to play on slides and swings, so Grandma and Grandpa had never been there before. There was a lot of fun things to do, but I am too little to do a lot of the stuff they have there. Maybe next summer I can do more.

One thing that was cool to play with was this sand table. I played on a sand table at Claire's house when we went for the Easter Egg Hunt, so I knew what to do. Grandpa and I had fun playing with the sand sifter and getting our hands dirty!

Of course I had to play on the slide. Mommy has mentioned before how much I love slides, so of course I had to take a few turns. Grandma was proud that I could slide down without help. She was at the bottom to catch me, though!

This musical pipe tower was fun. Do you see all the numbers? Each number represents a musical note. Each pipe is a different length, so when you raise the gold ball and let it bang on the pipe, it sounds like a music note. On the top of the tower, it tells you which notes to play in which order to play different songs. In this picture Grandpa is trying to play one of the songs, and I am helping.

Finally, I had fun driving this wooden train.

I can't wait to go back to Kid's Planet because there was a bunch of fun things to do but I need to be bigger.

Grandma and Grandpa, I had so much fun at your house. I hope I can come back every summer! (And next time, Grandpa needs to take pictures so Grandma can be in the pictures!!) Thanks for letting me come to stay. I love you! Love, Quinn

In Grandpa's Garden

Hi everyone. It's Quinn again, here to tell you more about my trip to SC.

My grandpa has a big garden. In fact, he has two gardens. One is big, and the other one is even bigger! He grows all kinds of vegetables in this garden, and he also grows grapes called Muscadines. While I was at his house, he showed me his gardens.

Here we are in the small garden. This is where all the green beans are planted.

This is another shot of the small garden, and the green beans. The two rows where we are standing already have green beans big enough to pick. The two rows behind us are more green beans. Grandpa grew them at different times so they wouldn't all come in at once. Pretty smart, huh? The big bushes on the right side of the picture are the tomatoes. Do you see the grassy area near the tomatoes? On the other side of the grass is the bigger garden. And behind that are the grape vines.

Now we are in the bigger garden. This is where the squash are planted. I got to eat some squash one night for supper. It sure tasted fresh! We even found some squash to pick while we took the pictures. Grandpa even tucked one into his shirt pocket!

Here are the cucumber plants. I didn't get to try any of these, but Grandma said they were good. Do you see the tomato in my hand? That also came from the garden too. I was so proud of this tomato that I carried it in my hand the whole time. Grandma is just glad I didn't squeeze it and make a mess!!

(Do you see the dog in the picture? That is Mommy's dog. She is a poodle and her name is Desi. Mommy got her for her 16th birthday. Desi turned 14 last week! She's an old dog.)

Well, that's the end of the tour of Grandpa's garden. We took a bunch of pictures, but some didn't turn out like we hoped. Oh well, Mommy says that happens sometimes.

This last picture is of me swinging on the big swing. Do you see the white house behind me? That's the house that Mommy grew up in. She moved there when she was 5 or 6 years old. That house belonged to my Great-Great-Grandparents! Do you see the big tree in front of the house? Mommy remembers when her dad planted that tree!

That's all for now. I still have to tell you about the park we went to. Thanks for reading! Love, Quinn

Please Welcome a Special Guest....

Hi everyone. This is Quinn. Mommy let me take over her blog today so I could tell you about my trip to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Last week, Grandma and Grandpa came to our house. After lunch I got in their car and went for a long ride to their house in South Carolina. The ride down was pretty boring, so I took a nap in the car. When we finally got to their house, I got right down to having fun.

First I had to unpack my toys. I brought some of my favorites...my Clemson Football, my Pooh Bear telephone, my big monster fire truck, and my magnet farm for the fridge.

This is my Great-Grandma. Mommy told me how she used to read stories to her when she was little, so I brought some books and hoped she would read them to me. It was funny because she didn't know that when I back up to your lap, it means I want to sit in your lap and hear a story. Finally she figured out what I meant and picked me up and read some stories to me. She is a good reader, just like Mommy said!!

Later I showed Grandpa my magnetic farm, only we played with it on the floor. I showed him how you could match up the animals. The barn part plays music and tells you if you made a match or not. I like this toy a lot.

One morning, when I got up, Grandpa went out to his garden and picked green beans. I watched Great-Grandma break the beans.

I decided it looked like fun, so I helped.

One day I even went to see where Grandma works. Mommy worked there too when she was in college, so everybody there knew who Mommy was too. But they had never met me before. Everyone said I was soooo cute. There were other things we wanted to do, but some days it was too hot. It was a lot of fun just being in a new place. I missed Mommy and Daddy, but they called me on the phone sometimes to check on me.

It was a lot of fun to go on vacation. I have more to tell you, but I am going to play for a little while. Later I will tell you about my Grandpa's garden, and also about a trip to a park.