100 Meme Part I

I plan to post 100 things about myself but I don't want to overwhelm in one post so I am breaking it up into 5 parts. Here's Part I.

1. This is my second blog. You can check out my first here.
2. I am pregnant right now, yes right this second. This is my first son and my first child with my amazing and wonderful husband Mike.
3. I was married, became a mother, started grad school, divorced, remarried, and bought my own home all by the age of 27. Taking it slow isn't a phrase people use for me.
4. I used to love pets. Then I had kids. Now I love one of my pets (Gizmo, the cat of all cats) and tolerate the other pets (Pearl -the idiot savant of cats and Bailey's 3 gerbils).
5. I taught 2nd grade for one year. I taught 2 yr olds for one year. The difference between the two experiences was not that significant. After those two years I decided that teaching wasn't for me.
6. Now I am going to go back to school to become a nurse. I hope to start in Spring 2012.
7. I have successfully finished a sprint triathlon. I plan to successfully finish the same sprint triathlon again this October with Mike (and as many of my friends as I can bamboozle into doing it with me).
8. I met Mike online, here, of all places!
9. I have a love/hate relationship with being a Mom. I love my kids and being their Mom. I hate when they are normal kids (loud/annoying/meltdowns/tantrums/sibling rivalry/picky eaters/eye rolling/etc).
10. I just started this blog and already I am totally obsessed with it. I have an obsessive personality.
11. When I feel something very passionately (sadness, joy, relief, anger, love, etc) I cry.
12. When I was a teenager I swore I would never get married or have kids because they were both broken institutions with no hope for repair. Well they are both broken institutions (hell I have been divorced myself, as has Mike) but that doesn't mean they aren't worth doing and trying to make unbroken. I now realize that being married and having kids is one of the most rewarding/challenging things a person can do. Even harder is trying to do it with honesty, compassion, and love. P.S. married = being in a long term committed love relationship, not a piece of paper that some government gives you telling you you are legit.
13. I love the results of pampering but I hate the actual process of getting pampered (pedicures/tanning/hair styling/massages/eyebrow maintenance/etc).
14. I love exercising. I am really looking forward to getting back to running after Levi is born. Exercise makes me feel strong and healthy and I love feeling that way.
15. I hate failing. I am a sore loser too. But I try to channel both of those less than ideal sentiments into positive, proactive, and determined behaviors so that I come across as a hard working go getter.
16. I only take naps when I am pregnant or after a night of serious partying. It is really hard for me to nap under any other circumstances.
17. I love to swim. I used to be a competitive swimmer as a child. I have always loved the water and felt a strong affinity for anything water related. And the only sport that I can beat Mike at is swimming so that makes me love it even more!
18. I am a twin. I am older than Stan by 5 minutes, which I have always held over his head. It's funny how one identifies themselves by their birth order. Even though it's only 5 minutes it really does seem that I have lived up to the middle child definition. Here is one set of definitions I found: Peacemaker, Negotiator, Highly attuned to needs of others, Doesn’t like to follow authority, Creative, Independent, Peer-focused, “Chameleon”. I think I fit most of those characteristics, except "doesn't like to follow authority" I have always been afraid of authority and even when I know that the authority is wrong I have a hard time defying it (ie. bad bosses, police, stupid laws, etc).
19. I want to have another baby after Levi. There I said it. Now I will be swarmed with expectations and held to it. Actually Mike and I both want to have another baby after Levi. We both have loved this pregnancy and Levi so much already we can't imagine not doing it one more time together. And we both think that #4 will be a girl and we will name her Isabel June and we will call her Izzy. And for some reason we really like names with lots of strong vowel sounds.
20. When I am pregnant next time, about 3 yrs from now, I plan to swim throughout my entire pregnancy. I would have this time but financial/schedule constraints made it impossible til now.