100 Things.

My 100 Things.
After reading "One Half's from Stella and/or Ben" and her 100 things - I thought i'd write mine. Goodness it's not easy!!

1. I'm a photographer.
2. I'm a computer programmer.
3. I'm a wife, sister, daughter, friend, cousin, niece, honorary aunt, godmother.
4. I am taller than my husband
5. I married a guy that fit the mold that i'd "never marry" He didn't speak french (he does now!) and he was shorter than me! (i got over that part)
6. My mother tongue is french, but I grew up bilingual.
7. I understand spanish and can speak it if i have to...
8. I can't stand people who can only tolerate their "own" (such as french vs english in my area)
9. I studied spanish in Guatemala for 5 weeks - but was very sick for 1/4 of that time.
10. I have an intolerance to Asprin. I get sick.
11. I am allergic to raw onions.
12. I was married on a covered bridge.
13. When I was a teenager and had incredibly low self esteem i swore i'd never have children. Now I have plenty of self esteem and I NEED to be a mother.
14. I want 5+ children - but know that i probably will not have more than 4 and because of IVF might not even have 4.
15. I'm from a family of 4 siblings.
16. My parents grew up a mile apart and have always known each other.
17. 3 cousins from my dad side married siblings on my moms side.
18. I therefore have aunts on my mom's side that are cousins on my dad's side - and none of it is incest.
19. I think I was ment to be born in the 1900 - I would love to live everyday just working the land and raising my family.
20. I could never do without sanitary pads though - so the theory of the 1900s doesn't "really" work.
21. I could also never have had children since my dh and I are 100% infertile the natural way - so again - that theory is out.
22. I am incredibly thankful to be battling infertility in 2006... 10 or so years ago, we wouldn't even have had the possibility of having children together. I LOVE MODERN MEDICINE.
23. I used to think that in-vitro was something that the terribly unlucky people had to live... those that were sick or had obvious reasons (like no periods or something). NEVER would I have believed i'd be "one of them" when all seems perfectly normal for us (and of course i now know that MOST OF US are "normal"!!).
24. I love the smell of the darkroom chemicals even thought most would think it stinks.
25. I love the smell of celery on my hands after having cut some.
26. I hate shopping.
27. I hate chocolate - I cannot eat it (exept for some things)
28. I love coffee crips (go figure!)
29. My favorite cake is chocolate cake.
30. I come from a huge family and love it. My mom's from a family of 12, my dad of 9.
31. I have 16 uncles
32. I have 15 aunts
33. I have 40 FIRST cousins
34. I have 10 cousins that have a spouse.
35. I have 11 babies/children "cousins" from all of those cousins that are obviously not first cousins - but it's just like if they were. 7 of those were unplanned/oops/a little earlier than planned babies.... isn't that uplifting when everybody related to you seems to get pregnant THAT easy - and we're struggling so badly... :(
36. Our family parties often involve all of the above. I'm lucky that both sides of my family know each other well.
37. We've had 3 accidental deaths on my dad's side: 2 car accidents & a drowning.
38. I was in a horrific car accident that could have killed me in 1997.
39. I broke my pelvis in 5 spots and took a while to recover - but I can walk/run. I'm a lucky woman.
40. When I was at my smallest (119lbs following the accident) I thought I was fat - because I had no self esteem. Now i'm fat - and I don't feel fat because I have great self esteem.
41. That's not QUITE true - these days I sometime feels fat - but NOT like I used to at all.
42. I don't know how i'd live without the internet - but I'd LOVE to find out.
43. I have an incredibly low pain tolerance and I often feel like a loser because of it.
44. I wore braces for 4 yrs to try to get rid of my headaches. Turns out I needed glasses. BUT i would have an underbite had it not been for the braces, so in the end it was still worth it.
45. I enjoy putting color highlights in my hair for fun
46. I'm currently not putting color in my hair so that I can let it grow and then donate to locks of love.
47. I currently seriously hope to allow myself to go grey when it happens. I like colour for fun - but I do not want to "have" to color my hair. I think women going grey are beautiful and should embrace it!
48. I fully understand that between now and the time I do start going grey I might completely change my mind.
49. I'm 26 - and i've never ever seen a gray hair on my head.
50. My hair grows CRAZY fast (hence wanting to donate it to locks of love) and it's annoying since I like short hair but REFUSE to have my hair cut often. For ME - that would be money wasted.
51. We are not vegetarians but I have finally convinced my husband that vegetarian cooking is good! I could go weeks without meat!
52. I used to be allergic to milk. My older sister as well. The 2 oldest, on a dairy farm... imagine my poor parents having to buy milk substitute when they could have all the free milk they wanted.
53. I cannot stand the term "partner" in relation to my husband. We are husband and wife, and I cannot understand how that can be offensive to anybody. My MIL uses that term all the time.
54. I cannot comprehend that in today's society, in canada, we're still talking about a woman's right to chose.
55. I'm incredibly pro-choice -- could you tell? :)
56. I don't understand how so many people can get married without having discussed the basics of relationships. Divorce is SO high - and STILL people aren't asking themselves the right questions before walking down the aisle. Why?
57. I believe that we are part of an incredibly selfish population that no longer understands compromise and I hope it's a phase.
58. I know how to knit but have no patience for it.
59. I do however have patience to work for HOURS on ONE photograph in the darkroom.
60. I kept my maiden name and my children will only have by dh's last name.
61. My mom kept her maiden name as well, and she and my dad have the same initials.
62. I finally gave up coffee, although I drink tea like it's going out of style.
63. I pray for 2 sets of twins (2 pregnancies) everyday.
64. I wish I could travel all the time. I love home, I wouldn't move - but I'd like to be able to afford travelling.
65. I'm almost always cold and i hate being cold. But worse than being cold, i hate being hot.
66. I love thai food.
67. I believe that I am incredibly lucky to have been born where I was born, to the family I was born into. I keep saying that I DO NOT want to come back as somebody else - because it could never be this good. Sure, parts suck - such as infertility - I wish I didn't have to deal with that - but my life, as a whole, is a lucky one filled with amazing things that I'm blessed to have.
68. I love my culture - I think that I belong to a unique culture (QC) but I wish our culture was more colourful and had more tranditional dancing. (like indian for example!)
69. Dunnottar Castle, near Stonehaven in Scotland is my favorite place in the whole wide world. We had "wedding photos" done there a year after our wedding!
70. I LOVE rollercosters.
71. I'm terrified of heights - more than anybody else I know (unfortunately...)
72. I have a phobia of people touching my feet - anybody. I SCREAM. It actually hurts.
73. No guns will be allowed in my home - in any form - not even toys. (I grew up that way also)
74. My husband strongly believes that our "boys" that we don't have yet can make the NHL. Ha!
75. I keep everything. It's horrible really. My office is a mess, my computer is a mess.
76. I wear socks, really, because I live in Canada. If I could wear sandalls everyday - I'd be happy.
77. I LOVE winter. (even if i have to wear socks!)
78. I am completely in love with Winnie the Pooh. I will shock almost everybody I know when I do NOT put Winnie the pooh in the nursery.
79. I will use cloth diapers. I'm not a tree hugger - but disposable diapers I have issues with for some reason.
80. Nobody believes me when I say I will use cloth diapers, so at the very least - now i have to prove them wrong so they shut up. ha!HA!
81. I have zero friends from highschool left - and that makes me happy. I have INCREDIBLE friends now, friends that i've now known for almost 10 yrs.
82. I will NOT attend ANY high school reunion.
83. I love the Gilmore Girls!!
84. I hate bad parenting, and worse - I hate the assumption that because i do not have children I have no thoughts on parenting.
85. I CANNOT stand the expression "you just wait and see...." I used to hear it before I was married - like I had NO idea what married life would be like, cause i wasn't married?! And I hear it all the time about having children too... a couple of "friends" of ours have completely different parenting techniques than I would EVER use and everytime he says "you just wait and see..." to me or my dh we always want to reply "No, YOU wait and see, and we'll show you that having children is A GOOD THING." ARh.
86. I went from shooting film, to digital and back to film - professionaly. I LOVE FILM. I LOVE GRAIN.
87. Besides portrait photography - if I could do ANYTHING in the world that I want - I would be a wildlife photographer.
88. I hate the phone. I hate making phone calls, I hate leaving voice mails, I hate answering the phone. Not a good thing when you have a business.
89. We are semi planning a 2-3 month trip for after we have our last baby. Probably on the ocean, maybe in newfoundland - rent a cottage and spend time as a family. If we keep it "local" we can bring the dog!! (local being driving distance <30>
90. I'm a dog person. My dh is a cat person. We have one of each. (beagle & cat) We'd love another dog - but we like to take off too much, not that we often do anymore - but i could NOT impose 2 dogs on my family when they dog sit... they take our "over the top excited" dog without problem right now!
91. I hope to be able to raise my children trilingual.
92. My one living grandparent (my grandmother) has led such an amazing life - she SHOULD write a book about it. Her latest is having a full mastectomy for breast cancer after finding a lump while travelling in less than ideal conditions in Cuba. She had the lumb removed here though.
93. I believe that my journey here has been drawn out, that there's a path - a destiny... but I believe that you must work hard to accomplish the building blocks of that journey to get to where you're supposed to be. To be lazy about it, in my opinion, does not allow you to live life to YOUR full potential.
94. I believe it takes a village to raise children. I believe in community & family.
95. I have never ever done drugs (although with all the injections these days it sure feels like i'm an addict.) my husband has also never done drugs. We've never even tried.
96. I have NEVER smoked a cigarette... I would have I'm guessing, but my self esteem was SO low - i was terrified of choking to death and embarassing myself. Imagine?
97. I have a goal to be a minimalist parent. I believe that babies are PEOPLE and do NOT need a million things to survive. We've got enough "stuff" as it is - I will aim to make the baby stuff be as little as possible.
98. I have a best friend - the kind you only dream about when you're little... the kind that remind you of Anne of Green gables... The kind that is there through anything.
99. I'm not scared of spiders. I do not like them - but i'm not scared of them. (kind of like needles!) BUT... I HATE/am terrified of mice and snakes.
100. I am currently living in the house I will raise my children in and retire. My goal is to NEVER move again.

wow... and now you know 100 [mostly boring] things about me. Now.... write yours! :)