32 Lesser-Known Things About Me

In honor of my 32nd birthday (which is tomorrow), I've decided to share 32 of the lesser-know tidbits about my life (at least to some of you!).
1. I share my birthday with Martin Luther King Jr. and when I was very little, we got the actual day off from school--not the closest Monday after the 15th, like it is now.
2. By the time I was 18, I had visited eight foreign countries. (Canada, England, France, Spain, Honduras twice, Mexico, Italy, and Greece) Since then, I've only revisited Canada and Mexico and that was ten and eleven years ago!
3. From the time I was five until I was fifteen, I Scottish highland danced competitively.
4. I'm the youngest of four and my siblings are 12, 11, and 8 years older than I am. My mom insists I was the planned one. (Apparently, that's what she tells each of us when we're alone with her. She'll deny it if we bring it up around each other.) I've always had a hard time believing that, considering how many years there are between my brother and me. Also, she was 32! So old! Wait, how old am I again?
5. My parents still live in the house they lived in when I was born.
6. I wore glasses all the time from age 3 until 12. At that point, I no longer needed them.
7. I live in my hometown.
8. My summer job after high school graduation was at the Jessup Region jails in the medical records department. I can't believe my parents let me do it.
9. I wanted to marry my husband shortly after I met him in 1995. We didn't start dating until more than two years later and we got married five years after we initially met.
10. I believe I am married to the best man on the planet. He's incredible in so many ways.
11. I went to West Virginia University. Let's Go! Mountaineers! (Whatever. I wasn't even into football while I was there. It just isn't my thing.)
12. My degree is in elementary education with specializations in science and Spanish. (Those specialization won me a summer study in Mexico and an extra semester of school.)
13. I came to a true faith in Christ while I was in college. Consequently, my college years were some of the hardest and most glorious times in my life thus far.
14. The Lord used the three summers I worked at Pine Springs to solidify my faith in Christ. I haven't looked back since the summer of 1995.
15. I believe Jesus when he said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6). To think that Jesus is just A way isn't the truth. If that were the case, you'd have to call Jesus a liar, based on his words quoted above.
16. I've been driving a car for half of my life! What a crazy thought!
17. I HATE flying mostly because of the irrational anxiety from which I suffer.
18. My girls were born in the same hospital where I was born.
19. Amelie is going to the same pre-school that I attended.
20. I lived with the same college roommates for four years. (One was the roommate they assigned to me freshman year and the other lived on our floor freshman year.)
21. My freshman year of college, I lived on a co-ed floor. It was a blast. I look to that year as one of the most fun in my life. What could be more fun than playing Backgammon at 3 am or watching 90210 in the lounge with 30 other people every week? (We didn't have cable in our rooms that year, just in the lounge.)
22. Despite my feelings recorded above, I can't imagine allowing my children to live on a co-ed floor in college!!
23. I've taught a total of three and half years since graduating college. One year I taught 5th and 6th grade math at a private school. The other two and a half years, I taught middle school Spanish at a public school. I don't think I'll ever choose to teach in the traditional classroom setting again.
24. I was a Girl Scout for 12 years. Two highlights were being a congressional aide for John McCain and traveling to the world center in Mexico--Our Cabana.
25. The year after we were married, I worked for the Girl Scouts in Central PA and was totally disillusioned by the organization.
26. I am very squeamish about all things medical, but my experience this past August desensitized me a wee bit.
27. In a lot of ways, I still feel like a teenager.
28. I was born on my dad's mother's birthday and my brother was born on my mom's father's birthday.
29. I was baptized in a Lutheran church and when I was about four, my parents joined an Episcopal church.
30. My husband was the only serious boyfriend I had.
31. Last year was the hardest year of my life, to date.
32. I look forward to the challenges that come this year, believing the God I serve is far bigger than any problems of this life!