8 Random Things About Me

I have been putting off this meme, but now I have been tagged by both 911 Doc and Mayberry Mom so I feel like I need to actually do it.

The rules of the meme are as follows:
You simply list eight random facts/habits about yourself. And feel free to write a little bit about those things if you'd like.

1. I was put ahead a year when I started school. I graduated from high school a year early just after I turned 16, and then graduated from college just a few days after I turned 20. I got married just months after that. I had my first baby at 22. Someone should have told me life is a marathon, and not a sprint! But if I hadn't done my accelerated trip through my younger years, I would probably not have any kids, or at least definitely not as many due to the hysterectomy last year.

2. It takes a lot to make me mad. I almost never get angry with anyone, but once I do, it takes a lot to make me forgive. I am pretty easygoing, and rarely have a problem with anyone. My younger daughter is just like me, in that she never thinks to question things, and just takes things as they come. I sometimes wish she would think to ask for what she wants, but she doesn't even know what she wants because she is perfectly content wherever she is...just like me. It is both a curse and a blessing.

3. I am a good problem solver. When I was in college, and broke, instead of worrying about what the hell I was going to do like all my friends were doing, I got a second job. After my cancer, when we had so many medical bills that I thought I was drowning, I didn't sit and wonder what to do or complain about the unfairness of it all, I got a job. I have very little patience for people who don't work to solve their problems and just complain/talk about them over and over and over. Talking is great, but you eventually need to make some progress towards solving something. I am almost always the one my friends come to when they can not figure out how to fix a situation. This is not to say that I have all the answers, but most likely before I tell you about a problem, I will already have worked through (at least in my own head) how to fix it or what steps to take towards making it better. People often tell me I think like a man because of the problem solving and a bunch of other stuff.

4. If I feel like I have to do something, I will resent it. No matter what it is. If you told me I had to eat a piece of cake, I would probably do it but not want to. If you told me I could not eat the cake, I would eat it anyway because I am also rebellious. I am not great at working jobs that make me feel trapped or scheduled. I always feel like I might miss something by being stuck wherever I am. That is probably a sign of immaturity on my part. I do suck it up and do all the crap grown-ups have to do but don't want to, but my feelings about it all don't change. I believe that is a sign of my maturity.

5. My least favorite time of day is when my 3 older kids get home from school. That rush of everyone telling me things at once, me trying to go through their backpacks, homework, and trying really hard not to forget anything is really stressful for me. Now that it is nice out, I try to have them stay outside to play after they drop their backpacks inside so I can check it all out and then talk to each of them one at a time. If I put snacks outside for them it is very likely that my own kids will stay outside to play AND a bunch of their friends will come over to play too, thus making it less stressful for me and assuring me that I will get to talk to each kid one at a time so they can tell me all their "stuff". I still start feeling stressed about 20 minutes before the bus comes to drop them off.

6. When someone apologizes, I feel it is meaningless to simply say "I'm sorry." That doesn't explain what you are sorry for, or what you are going to do to have whatever it was not happen again. Since they were born, I have been teaching my kids to say I am sorry for (and then whatever they are sorry for), followed immediately with "next time I will..." so that they take responsibility for making it actually happen. My kids are awesome at this, and give great apologies. My husband still sucks at it, and makes my blood boil when he just simply says "I'm sorry." I do stifle the urge to "correct" him though, because that would be more rude than him apologizing in a way that does not make me happy. After all, as much as I think it, I am just not the queen bee of the universe.

7. There are a lot of things that you are not "supposed to" talk about. I write about most of them on my blog anyway. People tell me I am going to regret things that I say, but I feel like as long as I am honest and not hurtful, it is ok. My husband and I are having a hard time getting past how he treated me during the cancer stuff. Most people would just not mention it to other people. I feel like it is important to talk about it and let other people know that it is ok to be really angry at your spouse, but still love them. It doesn't mean our marriage is doomed, it just means I am angry. If more people talked about their real stuff, and didn't struggle so hard to make themselves look good, maybe people like me wouldn't feel so alone with this. Because I know I am not. A lot of people have major problems with their spouses, and maybe if we all just were more open about it, it wouldn't feel like such a major issue. As soon as I started to tell people about what a hard time I am having forgiving him, people opened up and I realized that not many people have a perfect marriage. A lot of people have major issues going on behind closed doors. Perhaps if we all started telling it like it is, it would actually be easier and there would be less divorces when things get rough because we would all know that rough times in a marriage are sometimes normal.

8. When we lived in a two bedroom apartment after we sold our old house, but our new house wasn't all the way built yet, I was the happiest I have ever been. I felt free, and not tied down. My husband hated the apartment, and how crammed in we all were, but I loved it. The only thing I did not love was the upstairs neighbors stomping around all the time, and trying to keep my kids somewhat quiet. Now we have a big house and everything is harder. It takes a million years to clean it, but since my son has asthma it always needs to be actually clean and not half ass clean like I would normally do it. I miss that apartment every day. I made a ton of friends, and like college, they all lived right there. There was always someone around, the apartment took maybe a second to get all the way clean, and we didn't have so much stuff. My dad always calls me a "crazy hippie" because I used to talk about how I don't want a bunch of "stuff", I would rather only have what I could pack in my car. Obviously with 4 kids, that just isn't possible anymore, but if I could I would still live in that tiny apartment.

I'm not sure how many people I am supposed to tag, and since most people have already done this one, I won't tag anyone. If you want to do it, please do. I love to read these. Let me know if you do it!