Tagged

Okay, so I’ve never done one of these “tagged” things, but I’m going to try it out. It’s a rainy day here on the sunshine coast and so it’s a good day to spend indoors. Here goes…

10 Years ago…
I was a freshman in high school, a scrawny fifteen-year-old. This particular year was one I wouldn’t care much to forget. It wasn’t as if anything bad happened, it just was a year of awkwardness & insecurity. My sophomore year was huge in terms of gaining confidence, building better friendships, getting the drivers license, and eventually meeting my future husband (at the end of that year – woah!)….yeah, I’d prefer to recall my sophomore year and the ones after them than my freshman year.

Things on my to-do list today:
*Call the Australia business bureau in order to file an Aussie tax return
*Finish collecting addresses to send Jonathan’s graduation party/moving from CO invitations
*Start a slideshow/powerpoint to show my 4th grade kiddos when we return
*Work on Sydney plans (we leave in two weeks)
*Plan Jonathan’s bday weekend
*Work on job applications (yuck)
*Grab sushi at the Sunshine plaza
*Make lasagna, spinach salad + bruschetta for tonight’s dinner w/ Martin & Romana and their friends who will be visiting
(sadly, yesterday my “to dos” involved simply “beach” – can you tell it’s an “inside day”)

What would I do if I became loaded:
I know this sounds totally lame, but I am terrified at the thought of this. I have been spending a lot of time thinking about money and how we will actually have a paycheck (hopefully two if I can get a job!) for the first time upon our return. It’s not as if we haven’t had paychecks in the past (I did teach for 2.5 years, of course), we just have been forced to live simply because one/both of us have always been in school full-time. The thought of being a good steward of just this small thing makes the thought of being “loaded” quite overwhelmingJ. Here are a few things I’d likely do though…
1. Pay back all our student loans!
2. Meet with an investment person
3. Give money to Krochet Kids International (http://www.krochetkidsinternational.com/) + buy plane tickets to visit my sister in Uganda next year:)
4. Buy a scooter for us to use in the states (and, I suppose, a house too!)

Three of my bad habits:
*Coffee, coffee, coffee! I seriously have a problem. When we moved here, I said “why don’t I try to give up coffee while we’re in Australia, just to see if I can do it”. That lasted about a day. Actually it might have been two days. Even with our freeze-dried rubbish situation, I still drank a cup (or two) every morning. I don’t know what I’ll do if I ever get pregnant.
*I make “to do” lists way too much! Not only do I like the whole organizing myself part, but I find way too much satisfaction checking things off my list. Now, you may be thinking that it’s not too bad of a habit. The problem is that I can get way overboard! Sometimes I end up with so many lists going at the same time (all under different categories “school things”, “errands”, “other important things”) that I end up making a list to organize my lists. Here in Oz I have had to let go a bit too, as I had a list that looked like this:
1. go to the beach
2. read a book
3. get coffee
4. smile at a few strangers
Yeah, I realized right away that I should put my pen & paper away for a while and just relax!
*I have an over-active imagination when I’m worried. I am really not that much of a “worrier”, but when I start, I always think of the worst possible scenario. Example: Jonathan will be late from work. I won’t even think about worrying for over an hour, and then once I start thinking about it, I’ll convince myself he’s been hit by a hydroplaning semi-truck, has been discovered dead on the side of the road, and the police will call any minute. Morbid, I know. Horrible. It’s just how my mind works sometimes.

Five Jobs I've had:
*Cleaning lady in Oz resorts
*3rd & 4th grade teacher
*Starbucks barista
*Volleyball coach (x5)
*Whitworth “Campus Visit Coordinator”

5 Things people don't know about me:
*I always have a song stuck in my head. At all times (almost). When it gets inside, I have a hard time getting it out and it usually can only be replaced by another song. Jonathan is kind of like me and one of us will hum a song, we’ll have a conversation for ten minutes, and a few minutes later the other will start singing the same song, while the other will say – “how did you know I was singing that same song in my head”. Weird.
*Along those same lines…I grew up in a musical family. I can’t tell you how many times we had to do some sort of kid singing thing in church. I guess we were never “forced”, yet my dad said things like, “it would just mean so much to your mom if you, Dev & Leah could sing at church for Mother’s Day…” and that’s how it would happen. It didn’t help that our last name was Vaughn (we got all kinds of “VonTrapp Family Singer” jokes). As a side note, I am sandwiched in between an amazingly musical brother, Devin, who writes songs & plays the guitar, and an amazingly talented little sister, Leah, who plays the guitar as well and sings beautifully. This has always made me feel pretty pathetic, though I love my talented siblings!
*I have a small scar on my forehead from four stitches I received as a child (I think I was eight or nine?). My mom went out of town for the weekend and my dad decided to set up a miniature golf course in our backyard. It was a bad idea. My little sister, having only seen real golf swings on TV, took a huge wind-up and clubbed me in the forehead (on accident, I think) as I stood behind her. My poor father had such good intentions:). (Sorry for another embarrassing one, Leah)
*I have never missed a meal in my life. Seriously. Some people can get busy and “oops” they just missed lunch. Not me. I have to eat breakfast within about a half-hour of waking up or I feel like I’ll puke. I try to blame this phenomenon on my roommate from college (the beloved Andrea McDivitt, who kept hundreds of snacks under her bed for moments she felt she might “keel over and die”), but it’s probably just part of my nature too. This last fall I had to get my blood drawn and therefore had to restrain from eating until 2pm one day. I had to teach that morning and my class kept asking, “Mrs. Hook, are you okay?” – they knew the gravity of the situation:).
*I have really long toes. I think one of my mom’s first words when I was born was “oh my, she has toes as long as fingers”. I think I could probably grip a tennis ball with them and fling it across the room!

Well, there it is! I responded to my first “tagging”. I know it has nothing to do with our time here in Oz really, but there you have it. I am going to tag: Rachel, Janelle, Katie Ryan, Kristen, and Jessica Chase. I dare you.

(Side note: There are many of you I would tag IF you had a blog – and you don’t. So, I hope you feel really left out – and that it motivates you to get your act together)