My final 25.

1.I love stories, which has made me love and hate these 25 facts things. no one can be summed up in 25 facts, but I like getting snippets of other people's lives - I hope you enjoy my snippets :)

2.My memory is pretty horrid. So I love hearing stories even if I was there. I like remembering the happy . And I apologize ahead of time if I start telling you a story and you were there for it. oops.

3. I deleted and re-wrote a lot of this because I know some people who will judge me for the things I wanted to write. If you don't like me in the first place, don't read this.

4. As a photographer I like to put people in their best light. Until you do something to prove me otherwise - my first impression of people is usually a positive one. But I usually think people's first impressions of me are negative.

5. My dating experiences are usually pretty traumatic, especially the blind dates.( senor navel, wrinkles, fingers in my ear, general awkwardness) But I think I'm getting better at flirting and at picking the ones who don't suck at life because my last dance I went to was quite enjoyable. (the bad date/suck at life thing is not directed at JD or JW! just for clarification.)

6.I've never been kissed for explanation-see number 5.

7. My all time favorite song is "Wild one" by Faith hill.

8. I believe in angels. I believe that certain people come into your lives right when you need them. And sometimes they leave before you'd like them too - but they helped you become a part of who you are. Thank you.

9. I call the remote control a 'changer'.

10. I'm Catholic My early Church/CCD memories I have are just me being goofy and probably annoying people - but still feeling like it was okay that I was being that way. I appreciate and value Oasis, good shepherd, and most of the people that came with it (all except MM, resident suckubus, actually) and attribute a lot of who I am to being a part of that community. Thanks for accepting me. Every hyper, photo crazy part of me :)


11. I'm very proud of my family and think they are all great and interesting people. I have one living grandparent, my mom's dad (G-caw) The street Albervan is named after him (Albert Vanlerberg - he thought naming a street after him was stupid.) I'm one of his 22 grandchildren. (me and most my cousins pictured above. Kristen, Patty, and Alex aren't in the photo :( )

12. I have 2 older sisters - becka and april. I appreciate them both for very very different reasons.

13. my parents are divorced and my mom has a boyfriend, Bob, Apparently Bob and I have the exact same sense of humor.


14. I love the lake of the ozarks and that going there means I get to see family, be warm, and sit on aunt Julie's porch. To me, the lake was where I first felt like an adult in my family. I needed that summer of transition.


baby king snake, one of our many strange pets!
15. I like weird pets. not the normal kinds. I'm allergic to cats and usually don't like dogs, except clean puppies - but I've had horses, snakes, birds, frogs, a pig, turtles, chickens, a canadian goosenamed jordan and a few other more normal ones... Oh and there was the buzzard too.. and the cows - but those werent technically ours..


16. I actually live in 910. with my bop it girls.


17. I'm a proud nerdfighter, go ahead - ask me about it. I won't stop talking - EVER. :) or just watch some of the links. hillarious.


18. I like free things. Like the Cds I took from the journalism room(they get sent CDs to review) my favorite I took was The Feeling I'd never heard of them before --- I also take books from the recycling dumpster behind a used book store in OP, sign up for free stuff online, and never pass up free things - even if they are useless.

19.I have a sword, a black belt, nunchucks, and a teddy bear named curly. why yes, I am badass.

20. I had a lot of ear infections as a kid, and as a result don't hear perfectly. But my eyes are 20/20, my teeth are mostly straight without ever having braces, and my skin is almost always clear.

21. I'm an Orange Blue . My love languages are physical touch and words of affirmation. I'm a hugger.

22. The best trips I ever took were both in 2004. NCYC in TX and Spain.

23. I really like pizza sandwiches.(if you've never had a pizza sandwich, this should be fixed.)


24. My favorite flowers are probably spray roses, the dandelions that you can blow on, or those other weed flowers that you can make into necklaces and crowns.

25.I spend a lot of time online- because I'm bad at time management. It's easier to just do this than attempt to be productive when I know I will have enough time to finish everything. I like being busy. So give me a call, let's hang out. I have far too much free time.

Moments

There are always moments you want to always remember. Even if you can't remember everything about them. little tidbits of information you learn and get to use again. I like those.

Like when I was probably around 7th grade, I started giving communion at church. For me, it was great because church is as a whole, a boring hour, when you're not old enough to comprehend much of what is said. So it was a break where I got to help out and smile at some people who needed it.

And when I was learning to do communion. They taught us about how to deal with if someone sticks their tongue out to receive communion without having to touch their tongues and that we had to eat the broken bits and only put the whole hosts in the sacristy.

But my favorite thing I learned was that when you put a host in someone's hand, you place it so that your middle and pointer finger touch the palm of their hand. It's a small gesture. But as we learned,
"For some people, that's the only touch they will get all week."

Drive

just to preface: I'm okay. everyone is okay.

I've had speeding tickets. I've run into a parked car in my driveway. I got rear ended in a parking lot. the first two were my fault. All 3 times (well more than 3 if you count all the speeding tickets and that one for not stopping all the way at a stop sign... ) I was driving by myself. Whenever I have someone else in the car. I'm more careful. When given the choice - I will drive. As long as I'm not planning on drinking and even sometimes when I am drinking a bit. I trust my drunk self more than a sober someone else who may or may not stay sober.

My sorority decided to go on this ski trip through a college travel agent group thingy called lifestylez. This year the trip is in Telluride. It's the furthest. It's 14 hours if you don't stop. We decided to start at 11pm and drive until 2:30 ish to get there. We didn't get here until about 6.

One of the reasons was that I drove from 11pm to 6am. I was tired. I ran out of gas and had to have mkat save me twice. But I stayed awake and on the road.

She told me it was time to switch drivers. BD had been sleeping the most because AJ had been keeping me awake by telling me her life story and listening to my boy issues.

3 hours after we switched I woke up to screaming. We were still on the road, but sliding. There was some snow on the road. There was a sign and a mile marker on the side of the road and we went directly in between them. The mile marker scratched up the car and hit off a mirror, but we didn't run into it - which is what I thought would happen in my panic. I grabbed onto my seatbelt as we flipped over. I think as we were flipping I was looking to see if AJ, asleep in the back, was okay. After we stopped moving I asked if they were both okay and they both were. so I opened the door to give a shaky thumbs up to the car that had pulled over - thinking it was mkat and her car.

It was just some good samaritans that were also going to Telluride with the college trip.

I called one of the other car in our caravan, DS didn't even talk back - they just turned around and came back to help us.

I calmed down BD, she had been driving. I should have been driving. It was my sister's car. BD was having a panic attack. great. I had to calm her down when I was anything but calm inside. I had to make myself be calm, because that's what I do. When something bad happens I'm the listener, the rock, the one that doesn't freak out until I have some privacy and time to think and cry.

I still haven't cried. I almost died. We flipped, I hadn't been wearing my seatbelt earlier. AJ wasn't wearing her seatbelt. When we squished into other cars BD didn't put on her seatbelt. I wanted to strangle her. She has no common sense. does not think its her fault at all. It is. She overcorrected. She put us in the ditch. The policeman said there hadn't been any other accidents yet that day. It's her fault. but I can't say that. because I'm nice. damn.

I'm okay. everyone is okay.

I could have died 2 days ago. and what would I have to show for it. at my funeral people would say i was nice. nerdy, sometimes smart. a good listener. never dated. never kissed. loved God, sometimes. was awkward as all get out. Didn't fit in most of the time. I like myself, I think I'm a good person. But for the most part I don't think people like me. So is that esteem? I have hi self esteem... but when it comes to relating to others - I'm insecure that I'm the one snowboarding alone this week because no one wants to wait for me.

I love my sorority - but they are annoying me so much lately. KC can't stop talking. BD is the idiot that crashed my sisters car. KR is the one who said I was being harsh when I took a brownie from a pan we thought BD had brought - and I said - She crashed my sisters car - I think I can have a brownie.

Everyone comforted BD because she was freaking. and all I got was how are you feeling - of which I answered physically, not mentally. My neck is so sore- I can't turn it to the side without it hurting really bad. Definitely can't look behind me or support my head well enough to lay down without a lot of pain. my back hurts too, I have a million knots is my upper back. my arms are a bit sore and I have a 1.5ish inch bruise there. On my upper thigh from the seatbelt I think - i have a few bigger bruises- the longest about 4 inches long.

the rest of my body hurts too - but that is probably mostly because of snowboarding.

and freaking out wise - I want a hug from the boy I took to semi formal, I want him to tell me it's okay. I texted him and let him know and he seemed worried - but I feel like an idiot for texting him because I don't feel like we're that good of friends, we're just awkward flirters.

but girls don't comfort as well as guys. I try to a lot of times. but mostly - I just listen and don't react. thats not as good as a good guy hug.

Charlie

Charlotte Ann was baptized on Sunday.

It was awesome because I got to play with this wonderful baby. she's my 4th cousin or something like that.. and being at college I never get to see my little kids.. so we played with mac photoshoot and watched her crawl around, she makes the best faces!

also if you can tell in the last 2... today is awesome b/c Charlotte got her hearing aids two weeks ago and it's miraculous how well they work!

during church:

Ashley (3yo): Why does Charlotte have those things in her ears?

Me: *struggling for an answer at first...* Well you know how some people have glasses?...

Ashley: but glasses won't help her ears!!!

Me: *laughing at her obvious correctness* Well like glasses help people who can't see all the way, those are helping Charlotte so she can hear better... Like when I whisper like this, she couldn't hear me before but now she can hear you even when you whisper! isn't that cool!



I thought I did a good job answering it.. Its such a blessing that they can catch the hearing loss early on and the technology in that tiny hearing aid is amazing... and since she's getting it before she talks, she'll have normal speech and everyone will see how perfect she is instead of just seeing her hearing aids :)

food.

Trips to costco are amazing. I still have pasta and tomatoes and pineapple and cheese and strawberries and such and that is quite enough to make many recipes. today i used some of the big pack of pasta and made this cheese sauce, it was absolutely delicious!


2 tbsp. butter

2 tbsp. flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 c. milk

Grated cheese

1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce(optional, I didn't use it)


In microwave proof bowl or 1 quart measure pitcher:
melt the butter. Stir in flour. Add salt and pepper.Stir in milk. Microwave on high until mixture comes to a boil and thickens, stir every minute. Takes about 4 to 5 minutes. Add grated cheese and Worcestershire sauce, stir