an interview with myself

I saw these questions floating around instagram and since I've been floundering for blogging material, I decided to answer them here.

I grew up... in the same bedroom, in the same house, on the same street, in the same state, attending the same church, from the day I was born until the day I got married.

Someone who has influenced me... my grandma. I lived next to her for 21 years and saw her almost every day. I hate being so far away from her now. I don't know if I didn't realize it when I was younger or if she's always been like this, but she is so so funny. We laugh so hard every time we're together we usually end up crying. I think that's why she's lived to be 91; they say laughter makes you live longer. When mom had the twins, Grandma took months off from her weekly card club so she could help out. She would do our grocery shopping and take one of us big kids with her every week. We'd do the shopping then stop at McDonalds for lunch. We'd always get Grandpa an apple pie while we were there because she adored him and knew he loved the pies. She taught me how to play rummy and told me that it's important to always have a deck of cards handy. Just last week I was out with a friend and I pulled a deck of cards out of my purse when she mentioned teaching me a card game. 

A thing that changed my world view... This isn't change so much as an adjustment. I've always been anti abortion but it wasn't until I was pregnant that I started to understand why some women might feel it's their only option. I was SO SO sick the entire time and the only way for me to have physically felt better would have been for the baby to no longer be there. I wouldn't have gotten an abortion to feel better, but those 272 days (but who's counting) gave me more sympathy for others. For the record, if you're thinking of having an abortion because you don't think you can care for the baby, please give it to me. I will take all the babies I don't have to carry inside me.

I am strangely good at... catching flies with my hand. I used to swat at them with towels, clothes, anything that had a good snap to it. I've learned the best way to catch them is approach them slowly then capture them in your fingers. They see the towel coming and they're outta there. A hand catches them off guard. It's not an exaggeration to say I've caught about 10 flies with my hand this summer. I've also been known to pet bees. I have so many talents. 

A defining moment in my life was when... It took me a while to come up with an answer for this one. Seeing Josh Groban was one of the greatest moments of my life but it wasn't defining. The best I could come up with was when I first felt bonded to Annabelle. I liked her when she was born and would have said I loved her, but it wasn't any different than how I loved the children I babysat. I always felt like she was someone else's child who was left at my house and the mother never came back. When she was about 6 weeks old I was singing You are My Sunshine and she smiled at me. It was the first time she reacted like that to something I did and it sealed the deal on our relationship. We've been mutual fans of each other ever since.

Recent discovery I can't stop talking about when... Walmart grocery pickup. They always give me a bottle of cold water like I've been the one doing all the hard work. All I have to do is order online, show up, and have the groceries put in my car. It's magical. 

Something I'm struggling with right now is... my weight. I've been exercising and eating all the right foods without one bit of improvement. I weigh the same now as I did the day I had Annabelle. I lost all my pregnancy weight by my 6 week appointment but here we are. I am so self conscious about it. I generally keep things light and breezy around here but sometimes the heavy topics (lolz) come up.

My magical reset button is... a walk on the beach or a good nap. Unfortunately we don't live near the beach and my sweet child doesn't provide many opportunities for naps.

In 3 months, ask me about... how my diet/exercise routine is going. Bring klondike bars in case it hasn't been going well.