You know, there is something great about being able to come on here and spill my heart out on these internet pages. I can come on here and cry about my sleep deprivation, rejoice in how God’s working in my life, post pictures of my awesome and cute daughter, share about things going on in our life, talk about my adoption story, or whatever else I please. But, what about the daily detailed stuff that gets left out? What about random things you may not know about me from just these posts?

Well, here you go! 11 things you probably wouldn’t know about me.  Why 11? Because that’s my favorite number.

1.  I rarely watch TV unless I’m completely and utterly bored with nothing else to do (or avoiding laundry!). And about the only thing I watch regularly is the reruns of King of Queens with Mark.  Because that is seriously the funniest, best show ever. It’s sad how alike we are to Doug and Carrie.

2.  I danced for about 7 years, tap, jazz and ballet.  I didn’t start ballet until my last 3 years but it’s my favorite. I even tried pointe (you know, the wooden toed shoes that allow you to stand on your toes? Ouch.).  For 2 years I competed with a dance team. We usually did pretty good, but only because it was small competition.  None-the-less, it was fun until one day the dance flame I had in me burned out and I quit in the middle of practice.

3. My thumbs are double jointed.  They look normal most of the time, but they can pop horizontal when the rest of my hand is vertical. Hard to explain.  It makes my thumb look crippled, but it’s not.  See? Normal.  Not normal. There, I said it. I’m a freak.

4.  I have moved so many times in my life, I don’t think I could count.  I haven’t lived in the same city more than 6 years in a row, and even within that time period I’ve never lived in the same house/apartment/dorm more than 2 years. I think.  No, I wasn’t a military family (Mark’s is though so he grew up with the same thing).

5. I have a complicated family. My Mom and Dad are not (and were never were) married.  I grew up most of my life (until age 13) with my single mom, visiting my dad every other weekend and holidays. I have a Step-Mom, Cyndi, who I’ve known as long as I can remember and I would say she’s one of my best friends (a long with my Mom and my husband).  I have a younger half younger brother and sister through my Dad and Cyndi, who are the cutest but most talkative little kids ever (but I love them! Their pictures are below with the wedding party)).  My mom also married, so I gained a Step-Dad and two older step-brothers. They (the brothers) are both way older than me and I’ve never lived with them, so there fore I never really got to know them. Two whole different worlds and families, plus now my own family. It gets complicated trying to visit everyone. Growing up was hard, to say the least. It was crazy being in the middle of two families and traveling so much all the time.

6.  One of my step brothers is Joey Cheek, the Olympic Speed Skater. He won the bronze in 2002 in Salt Lake City, Utah (Which, I got to go and it was the coolest thing ever to experience in person). In 2006 he won a gold and silver medal and donated ALL of his winning money to help children in the Right to Play foundation.  I never talk to him, and when he is in town I’m too shy to speak, but I am very proud of him and all that he’s accomplished.  Maybe some how he’ll find this blog and finally know that.

7. I was able to plan (with the help of my amazing family) and have a beautiful wedding with $3,000. This makes me proud.  All you see on TV and magazines are these amazingly elaborate and HUGE budgets of $25,000 or more, and I think it’s insane. If I had that kind of money, I still wouldn’t have used it on the wedding. Shouldn’t savings for the future, putting that money towards a house, or something be more important than ONE day.  I just don’t get it. But I guess when you don’t have a lot of money you value things more.

8. I can’t keep things clean and tidy. I hate it. I hate things being a wreck but I hate taking the time to clean.  My laundry from last week?  Still sitting in about 4 baskets all wrinkled up. I’m horrible. But really, when you spend all day chasing a almost 9 month old, changing diapers and trying not to get bit and, oh yea, going to school and doing homework all week long…would you want to clean in your very rare few minutes of free time?  I think not.

9. I’ve changed my ideas of what I’ve wanted to be “when I grow up” many, many times.  When I was younger I wanted to be a teacher (ask any girl and most say a teacher, at least the ones I grew up with. It was thing to do!), but then I realized that you actually had to talk in front of people and I wasn’t up for that.  Then it was Interior Design, which lasted mostly though high school.  I took a few classes in school that I loved, but it didn’t feel quite right either.  Then I became pregnant with Kaylee, I experienced adoption and I had my wonderful social worker help me through my pregnancy and years after birth, and I thought maybe I could do use my own experience to help other girls. So, I majored in social work my freshman year in college.  I love, love, love sociology and psychology courses, but they just aren’t my best grades.  And, there was still the whole, having to actually talk to people thing.  After Kaylee’s birth and adoption writing also started to take a huge place in my life, and has since grown and developed even further to my passion.  So, I prayed and talked with family and my heart feels lead to write for a living!  Eventually.

10.  As you may have noticed the trend, I’m a really shy and quiet in person. I’m a complete behind the scenes person, I like the attention but not everyone staring at me (or judging me…ah!). Unless, you are my Mom or Mark, only then you’ll see the truly dorky, weird side of me.

11. I’m really short:  4 foot 10 1/2 inches (the half is important!). You obviously can’t tell that in my writing, but that is usually the first thing people notice in person. I look like a kid. Some day I will be thankful for this when I’m 50 and only look 40. Yes! (To the right is me with my old buddies in our senior year of High School. Good grief my hair was long!)

And there you have it, a little weird and random background of the Mrs. O.