100 Things

1. I was born to missionaries on a medical compound in Bangladesh.
2. I lived in Bangladesh until I was 12 years old.
3. I have dark brown hair and blue eyes.
4. I have 1 brother and 1 sister, both younger.
5. As a child, I made the decision to accept Jesus as my Savior.
6. We vacationed in Bangkok, Thailand.
7. I enjoyed visiting Amsterdam, London and Frankfurt on our layovers.
8. My favorite toys as a child were Strawberry Shortcake dolls.
9. I also liked to write poems and stories.
10. I was an avid reader as a child and still am. I enjoyed Enid Blyton’s books, the Bobbsey Twins, and the Anne of Green Gables series.
11. I started wearing glasses when I was in 3^rd grade.
12. I was baptized at the age of 9.
13. When I was 12 and we came back to the United States for furlough, we were not able to return to Bangladesh due to health concerns of my mom.
14. I lived in upstate New York during my junior high years.
15. My parents felt God leading them back to the mission field and to Kenya in particular.
16. I started wearing contacts when I was 15 years old.
17. We were homeschooled the year I was in tenth grade while we prepared to leave for Kenya.
18. I took Spanish II that year and was tutored by a neighbor who was a missionary to Peru.
19. We left for Kenya the day after I turned 16.
20. I went to an international Christian school in Nairobi for my last 2 years of high school.
21. I was able to visit and live with Kenyans as part of a cultural experience through my high school.
22. I was part of choir in high school. We toured and did concerts.
23. I sang alto for a while and then switched to tenor.
24. I graduated from high school in Nairobi, Kenya as the 2^nd in my class in 1992.
25. I returned to the States the summer after graduation with my family remaining in Kenya. I stayed at my grandma’s during the remainder of the summer.
26. I attended Baptist Bible College in Clarks Summit, PA for college.
27. I went back to Kenya to visit my family the summer after my freshman year.
28. Between my sophomore and junior years of college, I worked at the college on summer crew.
29. I also was a bridesmaid for one of my high school friends that got married that summer.
30. I got my driver’s license when I was 21.
31. I got my first car the summer between my junior and senior years. It was an Oldsmobile Omega.
32. I changed majors several times and almost transferred, but ended up graduating in 1996 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Bible, General Ministries emphasis.
33. Again, I was 2^nd in my class.
34. I took some extra Bible classes with my changing majors.
35. I also had some counseling classes for when I was a Counseling Major.
36. While at college, I dated and became engaged to a young man I met there (we’ll call him HW).
37. One of his suite-mates was a guy named Jono.
38. Jono and HW were friends, so Jono and I got to be good friends also.
39. After college graduation, HW and I broke up and I moved to an apartment with 3 other ladies in Pennsylvania.
40. The following January, Jono and I started dating long-distance while he was in Virginia and I was in Pennsylvania.
41. In April, we moved separately to Michigan and got engaged shortly afterwards.
42. In October, we got married in Lexington, KY (that’s a whole story in itself).
43. I did various temp jobs and gained experience as a secretary.
44. My contacts gave me problems living in an urban area, so I went back to wearing glasses again.
45. I started drinking coffee to help me wake up in the mornings and discovered that I love mocha (combination of coffee and hot chocolate taste).
46. My brother got married in PA and we drove out for the wedding. I saw some friends from high school that came to the wedding.
47. I got into doing jigsaw puzzles for a while and glued a lot of them together.
48. Jono and I decided not to have children.
49. We got some goldfish since we were in an apartment.
50. Later on we got some mice, which were more interesting than goldfish. We tried getting male mice to breed with our female mice, but that didn’t work too well. We ended up getting rid of all the mice but one when we moved to another city. The last mouse died after we moved.
51. My next attempt at pets was getting pet rats. I got some rats that would have been snake food and named them Grace and Butterscotch.
52. They were sweet and allowed me to pet them.
53. They would even groom me and climb on me. But they also liked to chew, so I had to get rid of them.
54. My sister got married after graduating from college and becoming a registered nurse. I was one of her bridesmaids.
55. I started working at a missions agency in the short-term missions department.
56. It gave me an opportunity to combine my secretarial skills with my missionary kid background.
57. While working there, I developed an interest in the country of Croatia.
58. Jono and I found a church home at a Southern Baptist church in our area.
59. My favorite flower is the African violet.
60. I also like white roses.
61. I started the hobby of scrapbooking in February 2002.
62. We got a digital camera.
63. I enjoy taking pictures which helps my scrapbooking hobby.
64. My first niece was born in 2002. I got to meet her that summer.
65. That fall was our 5 year anniversary.
66. We went to Cleveland, Ohio for a get-away. We stayed at a nice hotel and got room service.
67. We visited the NFL Hall of Fame and had a blast.
68. Then we visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
69. I went to Florida for the following Easter and saw a high school friend of mine.
70. I took drama classes in college, so was able to use that as a ministry at our church.
71. My favorite aspect of drama is dramatic reading.
72. I’m not really into jewelry.
73. I started a new job after a couple years at the missions agency.
74. My favorite food is Indian curry.
75. I also like Mexican food.
76. We again found ourselves without a church home.
77. Our apartment complex changed the pet rules to allow cats.
78. We adopted 2 cats.
79. They are sisters and were 6 months old when we got them.
80. We named them Storm and Mocha.
81. They became our furchildren.
82. We found a new church home at Lake Pointe Bible Church.
83. My favorite restaurant is Denny’s.
84. The amount of books that I was reading per year skyrocketed.
85. This was partly to do with Bookcrossing.
86. And also all the book groups I was part of.
87. But it also meant I accumulated a lot of books.
88. My nephew was born in August of 2005. He was born in Africa.
89. My parents were able to meet him at Christmastime.
90. I found the hobby of blogging quite fun.
91. Jono enjoyed the hobby of geocaching, which is using a GPS to find caches that people place in various places, sort of like a treasure hunt.
92. I became a notary public for my job.
93. I love the Christian music of Casting Crowns. Their lyrics are so powerful.
94. I also enjoy Rebecca St. James’ music.
95. One of my favorite movies is Armageddon.
96. I also enjoy When Harry Met Sally.
97. I collect thimbles.
98. Jono has helped me become an NFL fan. I’ve adopted the Minnesota Vikings as my team that I root for.
99. One of my favorite shows is Alias.
100. I also like the Amazing Race, Lost, and Monk.