100th Post

My 100th post and I gather it is a tradition to make a list of 100 random things about yourself so here is my list of 100 random things :

1. I have a strong faith in God which is how I survive everyday
   
2. God has blessed me with a wonderful, crazy family
   
3. I could never have imagined how wonderful being a Grandmother (Gram) is until I became one
   
4. God has blessed me with many dear friends
   
5. My favorite colors are blue and purple
   
6. My favorite flower is a tulip
   
7. But I also love iris, columbines, hollyhocks, cosmos, sunflowers, zinnias - I love flowers
   
8. My favorite meal is fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy and green beans (very seldom eat it anymore because it is fried and see #9)
   
9. I cannot make fried chicken to match my mother's
   
10. I am the youngest of 5 - I have 2 brothers and 2 sisters; my husband is the oldest of 5 - he has 3 brothers and 1 sister
    
11. Although I was never told, I was an unplanned child - my closest sibling is 12 years and 1 day older than I am
    
12. My mother turned 43 the day after I was born
    
13. I have 2 nieces who are 15 months younger than I am - they never called me Aunt
    
14. I was named after my paternal grandmother
    
15. I love being in my garden - flowers and vegetables
    
16. I find pulling weeds relaxing
    
17. Easter is my favorite holiday
    
18. Spring is my favorite season
    
19. I do not like bananas or raw tomatoes
    
20. I do eat raw tomatoes on a BLT - go figure
    
21. I am not fond of peanut butter, pineapple or lamb
    
22. When I was pregnant I craved peanut butter - go figure
    
23. I like my hot dogs cooked black on the grill
    
24. I don't like anything else burned - go figure
    
25. The joy of seeing Kaiden born was indescribable
    
26. Giving birth is easier than watching someone you love give birth (I can't imagine how hard it was for her mother)
    
27. I love black licorice
    
28. I have never been out of Colorado for more than 2 weeks at a time in my whole life
    
29. That fact won me a door prize as the most unusual fact at a church gathering
    
30. I have used an ATM machine only once and that was an emergency and with my son's card
    
31. I am hooked on Dancing With The Stars
    
32. My family sang songs all the time - while camping, in the car, while working
    
33. I was an adult before I knew most of us are tone deaf
    
34. I tried out for solos in choir all the time
    
35. I was always made narrator
    
36. I want to be able to sing beautiful notes - like my friends Suzanne and Yvonne


37. I broke my arm when I was 8 doing something I wasn't supposes to do. I didn't tell anyone and walked around with a broken arm for almost 2 weeks because I didn't want to get into trouble. I got into trouble anyway!
    
38. My high school graduation class had 33 people
    
39. I took a trip the year I turned 50 with 2 of my girlfriends from high school - we had a blast
    
40. We tried to recreate some of the things we did when we were 18 - we decided not to do a Chinese Fire Drill - traffic lights aren't as long as they used to be!
    
41. My first college class had more people than was in our entire school K-12
    
42. I believe life is too short for bad coffee
    
43. My husband is addicted to Starbucks, but will drink gas station coffee, or warmed over coffee and yet turns his nose up at my iced coffee - go figure
    
44. Our faith in God, our friends and a wonderful caring doctor brought us through my husbands cancer operations and the following chemo
    
45. I truly believe our life is better now - God had this plan for us
    
46. David has been cancer free for 3 years
    
47. It was very hard for me to move from our old house - I loved my gardens
    
48. I am having a good time planting new gardens at our new home
    
49. I enjoy playing Bunco once a month with a great group of women
    
50. I enjoy our Women's Group at church - we always have a good time
    
51. I enjoy Martinis - gin
    
52. I enjoy having dinner with John & Janice, Gary & Vivien and playing games afterwards - especially Mexican Train
    
53. I enjoy the laughing we always do when we get together
    
54. I enjoy playing games of all kinds
    
55. I enjoy sewing
    
56. I learned to sew on a treadle sewing machine - the only machine my mother ever had - I have it now but do not use it
    
57. I enjoy knitting
    
58. I enjoy crocheting
    
59. I love to read - especially mystery novels
    
60. I love the Jan Karon's Mitford series
    
61. I read the last Harry Potter book in a day
    
62. I do not like to drink water, I would rather drink Diet Coke or coffee
    
63. I especially like vanilla Diet Cokes or Diet Coke with fresh lime
    
64. I like to hang my laundry outside to dry - especially the sheets
    
65. I went to Pioneer Girl summer camp every year from 3rd grade to 8th grade
    
66. I won scholarships to go every year by completing Sunday School lessons, memorizing scripture, songs and extra credit assignments
    
67. I always signed up for extra credit assignments - in Sunday School and at school
    
68. I am somewhat of an over achiever (my friends are laughing) (Note to Janice and Vivien - I wrote this before we went to Estes)
    
69. I do not like to be wrong (my family is nodding in agreement)
    
70. I do not like to lose
    
71. Most people I know would find this hard to believe, but I am basically shy - but not as much as I used to be
    
72. I do not like surprises
    
73. I like to plan surprises
    
74. I have never been surprised by a birthday party - several have been planned, but I have always known about them before
    
75. I am not nosy, I am observant - there is a difference
    
76. I am also very curious
    
77. I like word puzzles (crosswords, cryptograms, etc)
    
78. I like jigsaw puzzles
    
79. I can add numbers quickly in my head
    
80. This is probably why I am usually the scorekeeper when we play games
    
81. I love tea towels and am tempted to buy all the cute ones I see - so I have too many
    
82. I love note cards and thank you cards and am tempted to buy all the cute ones I see - so I have too many
    
83. I like to send thank you cards and love to receive them
    
84. I keep most of my thank you cards - they make me smile
    
85. I am not good at sending other kinds of cards - birthday, anniversary, get well, etc.
    
86. I have always had a love/hate relationship with my hair - I love the color, but fight the natural curl
    
87. I do not like talking on the phone
    
88. My least favorite household chore is vacuuming
    
89. I do not have the vacuum very much anymore since David retired - he cleans!
    
90. I do like cleaning closets
    
91. I do not like to drive
    
92. I like dragonflies
    
93. I always use cloth napkins, even on a picnic, even for a cookout on the patio
    
94. I never use paper plates or cups or plastic silverware
    
95. I have been bitten by dogs 3 times in my life
    
96. My mother initials before she was married and her 3 siblings initials spelled words - HOT, GET, ANT and RAT - I always found this fascinating
    
97. I am strange like that
    
98. I never knew my grandparents - 3 of them died before I was born and 1 died when I was 2


99. My son only had one grandparent - 3 of them died before he was born
    
100. I love lists - I make them just to be able to cross things off - I save certain lists as reminders of events in my life (see #97)