Tag, your it!

W&M:Well we've been tagged by our friend Ms. Cherie but we'll let mom have a guest appearance and share a few interesting things about herself.

I guess the instructions are to share 8 interesting things you may or may not know about me. Here it goes-

1. I grew up as the only girl with 5 brothers (it was amazing I survived!) Luckily I was the second oldest so I could hold my own most of the time. They were always jealous that I got my own room and they didn't. My older brother even resorted to sleeping in the closet under the stairs so he could have his own "room" if you want to call it that. I'm also lucky to have gained a lot of great sisters through my marriage to my husband and the spouses of my brothers.

2. After completing my college education, I took on the illustrious job of being a ski instructor. Really put that college education to good use! It didn't pay great monetarily but you can't beat doing what you love for work. There were also the great added benefits of season passes for my spouse and I and the fact that you rarely missed a powder day.

3. I met my husband while sitting in a hot tub. Actually the story is that he met me while sitting in the hot tub but since I took little notice of him that day, I didn't actually "meet" him until our first date. He knew he needed to plan a date to really catch my attention since his glowing white skin hadn't done the trick in the hot tub so he took me ice skating for our first date. This allowed him to lure me in with all of us skating finesse (he played college hockey).

4. I lived in Japan for 10 years. My dad was in the Air Force so we lived at three different bases there. The first three years were just after I was born and then we were there from the time I started 6th grade until I graduated from high school. For awhile it was where I had lived the longest with the nomadic lifestyle the military brings but people really would look at me funny when I would try to tell them I was from Japan!

5. I'm both a certified PE teacher (k-12, adapted and regular) and athletic trainer. I worked in both fields for awhile but now I have a much better and harder job of being a stay at home mom!

6. I love all things outdoors whether it is hiking and climbing the high peaks, kayaking the waterways, biking the roads and hills, or playing in a game of soccer. In fact, I even prefer doing the outside chores over the inside ones.

7. I'm a avid follower of list therapy. Each week I make my lists of things to do, meals to cook, items to buy. I feel a great sense of accomplishment each time I scratch something off my list. It also helps me to remember what I need to do because if it doesn't get written down it is often forgotten. If I'm having trouble getting motivated to do a certain task I'll break it down into parts and list each separately so I can see the progress that is happening and continue to the end.

8. I taught my husband how to replace the brakes on our car. When I was in high school I took auto mechanics and also did a semester as a teacher's aide in the auto mechanics class. It is been very handy to have some basic repair skills. One of Jim's reasons for wanting to go to medical school was so that he could afford to pay somebody to repair his car for him. However we're still too cheap to take it in for basic maintenance we can do ourselves.

We tag the Silcox, Baker, and Remke families!