25 Things about me-Dam Facebook

Since my friend strong armed me into doing this for Facebook, I thought I would share here as well.

1. I had three babies in three years. The only thing that could have been harder would have been triplets. On second thought, I could have had twins with my third baby. Considering my prayers were answered, we have three beautiful individual children and I owe God a really big favor now.
2. I struggle daily with the balance of my family, work and myself. Oh yeah and time with my husband (Sorry Sweetie). I’m almost absolutely sure I wouldn’t change it for the world.
3. I love my husband more than the day I married him because children change everything. And because he will kick my butt when no one else will. Motivation comes from mysterious outlets.
4. After I had my three wonderful babies, I had a life time goal of completing a triathlon before I was thirty. I didn’t actually make the before part, but I completed my first triathlon one month after I turned thirty. Now it has become an annual event for me.
5. Which leads me into my love hate relationship with working out, I use to love to run and now I hate it. Running 8 miles was not something I had to even think about, now I’m struggling to enjoy completing 4 miles. But I love the results of how I feel afterwards so I will continue my love hate relationship.
6. I love the circle of friends I have. They are extremely understanding to all my faults. They are the best.
7. I think sometimes I was born without the filter that keeps you from sticking your foot in your mouth. Social diarrhea seems to be a constant in my social life. Sorry Ang about the pecans comment last Monday.
8. Vacations would fall right behind my first favorite past time, which entails weekends with my kids and my husband. If I had my choice of future vacation, I would love to visit Europe. Italy, Ireland, France, England, Spain in that order.
9. For past Vacations, my all time favorite would have to be our honeymoon to Hawaii. We visited Maui, The Big Island and Kaui. We saw a lot of humpback whales up close and, of course, enjoyed a lot of Daiquiris. Each island holds something special to me, but my favorite was Maui.
10. I climbed Mount St. Helens when I was twenty with my dad. After we reached the top, looking down into the crater was extremely exhilarating. Our ease of climbing to the top made us feel a little adventurous so we veered off the trail path and decided to follow an old lava chute down. Needless to say it took us twice as long to get down the mountain as it did to get up the mountain. Lesson learned. Stick to the trail.
11. I would love to climb Mt. Rainer someday.
12. I’ve held many obsessive hobbies over the years including making beaded jewelry, knitting blankets and now currently reading books. I should probably join a book club.
13. A friend talked me into reading the Twilight series and I read the whole series in two weeks. Now you can see where the obsessive behavior falls.
14. I love reading about conspiracy theories. Secretly sometimes I believe them.
15. Ironically between my brothers and me, I was probably the most likely to move out of the State of Wisconsin first, but I’m still here and my older brother lives right outside of Washington DC and my younger brother lives in St. Paul, MN. Well at least they don’t live in any warmer climate than what Wisconsin has to offer. Heehee.
16. My ultimate dream car would be a ’73 Barracuda convertible. I wouldn’t mind a ’69 Mustang convertible either. Along with a 2008 Dodge Charger. Okay so I am a little materialistic, but it only exists in my fantasy world. The three vehicles we own now are a far cry from my dream ones.
17. If I had unlimited amount of funds, I would have a house in San Francisco (love this city). This obviously goes along with that fantasy world thing.
18. I would love to move back to the west coast when my youngest turns eighteen or sooner if possible.
19. As a freshman in high school, I went to nationals to compete in the 500 yd swim. Even though I was at the bottom of the food chain, I still enjoyed the experience.
20. I still feel 24 even if the mirror reminds me I’m 31.
21. I wish I had more patience.
22. I love the Blackberry Martini at the restaurant Coast. Maybe a little too much.
23. Dreams change as your life experience changes. Erin, this one is for your Philosophy class.
24. I am a firm believer in everything happens for a reason. Good or bad.
25. The only thing I regret is not taking off after high school and backpacking through Europe. Other than that, I have no regrets.

Mutiny

Ugh! I thought the terrible twos were over. Or maybe it just has to do with three children of the same gender becoming sneaky, naughty and defiant together. I'm not sure what is going on in my house hold, but a mutiny has begun. The parents against the children and of course, we are now out number. The day ended with the normal evening routine, preparing the kids for bed. Book, teeth and individual talk time with me. I just finished putting them to bed when James came home. He quickly went into their room to say goodnight to all of them before they fell asleep. Good thing too. All three are being very quiet, which is unusual because they tend to spend about thirty minutes talking to each other before they actually fall asleep. James goes to kiss our youngest, Child #3, goodnight and he finds her chewing on something. He's trying not to laugh because she is trying so hard to say nothing without opening her mouth. He asks her again "What's in your mouth?" She finally shows him. This is where I have to explain that my parents had stopped over earlier in the day and dropped off a bucket of salt-water taffy that they had brought back from GA. So anyway, Child #3 had salt-water taffy in her mouth. We made her get up and brush her teeth again and obviously never to do that again. Child #2 and Child #1 are pretending to be falling asleep during this whole episode, which I find unsual because the fact that Child #3 got to eat one piece of candy and they didn't. Normally they would be complaining that wasn't fair. It occurs to me. Child #3probably has more somewhere in her bed. So James and I both ask Child #3 if she has more taffy. With no remorse, Child #3 simply says "Yes." I ask "Where." She responds "under my pillow." I proceed to ask the other two if they have taffy under their pillows. They both say in unison "NO." I lift up their pillows and they have a boat load of candy under there too. James and I were trying to keep straight faces while scolding them for lying and harboring candy. We quickly get in the hallway to let out our chuckles. I say "we are in so much trouble. They are already ganging up on us." Then my oldest yells at us that it was mommy's fault because she left the bucket of candy on the counter. They all agreed that Child #3 was the instigator in the situation. James and I couldn't stop laughing. The Hansen household has been turned upside down.

What is up with revolving doors?

What is the point of revolving doors anyway? They are heavy and clumsy and just freakin ridiculous. Yes I am talking literally about revolving doors. And what would possess a restaurant ever to install revolving doors in the main entranceway? Don't they want people to come into their restaurant? Isn't there a rule that only hotels have revolving doors? Well anyway. We were heading out to a new restaurant with friends and guess what? They had revolving doors. I always feel that tiny bit of hesitancy before pushing through a revolving door kind of like when you were a kid playing jump rope, trying to find the right timing to jump into the rope. So my husband went in front of me to push the door first. I had two options. One to jump in right behind me or two to wait and push the door myself. Of course, my last minute split decision was to jump in right behind him that way I wouldn't have to actually control the door. I'm not sure if it was my slight distracted focus on my husband nicely shaped rear or just a lapse in judgement, but the door stopped moving. We were stuck. My husband is trying to push forward and I can't figure out what keeps pulling my arm back. My eyes follow my arm down to my hand to find that the gift bag that I was carrying to give to my friend for her birthday was holding the door in place. I finally tug the bag free and we toppled into the restaurant and I let out a full out barrel laugh. All eyes on us due to my loud laugh. I think I might have scared a few people. According to my husband, these things can only happen to me. At least these things make for a good story. I hadn't even had a drink yet.