Recycling

For those of you not on Facebook and for those of you who never check it, I thought I'd post the 25 random things note that I wrote today.

Here it is:
25 random things you may (or may not) want to know-

1. I almost always have to rip the little notecard tabs out of magazines before I start reading. I don't like the page before the tab going up when I read it.

2. My sister, Laura, is going to have her first child, a boy, in April (hopefully). He'll be my first nephew-make that first anything!

3. I used to live in Mankato, MN. I lived there for 13 years and am so excited to go back in May and see my childhood house!

4. I've only been to Country Jam once-to see Bon Jovi. I probably will never go again unless they have someone like John Mayer or Coldplay (highly unlikely).

5. Three people in my immediate family have birthdays in March. Chad's mom's birthday is also in March. I eat a lot of cake in March. Then I have 3 (almost 4) birthdays in April (Chad, Kyle, Eli). We consume a lot of cake in these two months.

6. I've traveled all around the country with my family (and also with Tour Choir for four years) and have been to many states. The states I have not been to include: California, Alaska, Hawaii, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Jersey, and Delaware.

7. I used to hate potato salad...I'd never eat it. Then, one day Jane made me try her potato salad. Now I have a deep love affair with it-but only her's.

8. I love the Brewers. I used to hate watching baseball. I think it's because in the summer, my dad used to work for MAYBA and would also ump and my mom and I would go to all the games. Not too exciting for a 7-year-old. Now, I am going to (at least) one Brewer games this summer.

9. My siblings and I all have middle names that start with "E". Kyle Elton, Laura Eileen, Amanda Ellen, Hannah Evelyn.

10. I love having pictures in frames. I think it dresses a room up. That is always a fail-proof gift for me.

11. I really like eating locally and shopping locally. Eau Claire has an abundance of local foods and shopping. It's hard to just shop locally when I see that Old Navy is having a sale on T-shirts. I don't think I can get by on 100% locally, I'm just trying to find a good balance.

12. My mom is a huge supporter of being friendly to the environment. She uses a steel water bottle. She and my dad walk everywhere besides church (since it's on the other side of town). She uses unbleached paper napkins. Our recycling bin always has something in it. She bought a front loader washer. Yeah, the list goes on and on.

13. I am studying to be a kindergarten teacher. I love it. I honestly think this is the profession that God wants me to be in. I will hopefully graduate in 3 years. I have one more year at the Tech, then getting married, then going to Stout and graduating with an teaching degree. That's the big plan.

14. I wish we had a community college in Eau Claire. Then I could learn all sorts of cool things like salsa dancing, making my own soap and shampoo, cooking organically, quilting, and developing my own pictures-among many other interests.

15. I don't really like shopping. I'll rephrase that: I don't like shopping aimlessly. I have to have a purpose and a list. I'm not one of those women you'll find in the mall just browsing. I go in, find what I want, and that's it. The only exception to that rule is this Thanksgiving when I went with Jane and Sara to the After-Thanksgiving sales. That was fun because those ladies are fabulous. I learned so much that day: only pay with cash (credit cards take too long), don't wear a jacket (too bulky), work out a plan of attack. I'll definitely follow the Hestekin rules of shopping when we go this year.

16. I really don't know how to cook. I can do simple things like boil water and add noodles, make pancakes (the add water kind), and brown meat. That's pretty much it so far. We both really like foods with very few ingredients in them. We're always looking for organic foods Chad is an excellent cook and he enjoys it. I think he'll be the main cook at our house.

17. I've never been to an airport or been on an airplane. Well, I went to take a tour of an airport in 7th grade, but I've never been to an airport to actually do airport related things.

18. My favorite concerts I've been to (so far) are a tie between Coldplay and Death Cab For Cutie. Chad and I are going to see Keane this May. I do have to give Honorable Mention of Concert Awesomeness to Bon Iver's in Eau Claire. That show was amazing-so heartfelt and intimate.

19. My favorite football team is the Colts. I heart them. Ever since about 9 seasons ago, I sat down and watched a game-that's all it took. Every player is near and dear to my heart. What stinks about being a Colts fan in WI? Not being able to watch hardly any of the games.
At my house we've worked out a system: If more than two people are fans of one game we watch that game on our bigger TV. (Almost always, Chad gets to watch the Packers on the big TV. For two reasons: A-The Colts and Vikings (my parents' fave) aren't on or B: We love him. The other game has to be watched on the little 12" TV that we have above our big TV. (That's usually the one that has the Vikings game). I'm usually stuck "watching" my game on the laptop (even though I can't actually see the action). To sum things up, during football season, between the hours of 12-3 we have 2 TV's and at least 3 laptops all absorbing football. Does that make sense?

20. I'm uber-sensitive and emotional when I watch movies. Like, really bad. I get so into the story and I cry like a baby. Whenever we're at the movie theater, Chad always knows when I'm crying. He's pretty used to it by now.

21. I've had the same pair of Adidas shoes since I was 13. I bought them for basketball and have loved them ever since. I'm wearing them right now.

22. I have a love affair with scarves. I just bought a beautiful green one from Target two days ago. I think women (and men if you want to) need to embrace the scarf more.

23. I've never had a whole drink of alcohol. I've had a couple sips of beer (that I've hated) of Chad's beers that he's tried but never one of my own. I just have not allowed alcohol to be a part of my life. I don't support underage drinking and that's what I am-underage. I'll be 21 in 4 and a half months, so then it'll be nice to have a glass of wine with dinner. It'll also be nice to not have to drop Chad off at a bar so that he can hang out with his friends and then I just go home.

24. I hate ham. The smell. The taste. The essence. The existence of it. I think the hatred comes from having to eat it every time I'd visit my grandparents. We'd have it every Sunday and my mom and grandma would make me eat at least one slice of it before I'd get dessert (of course I wanted dessert). Then one day when I was older I just said enough and refused to eat it. I hated it so much when I was a kid, when we'd have it at my grandma's, I'd purposefully eat downstairs with all the other cousins and then go into her laundry room and throw the whole slice in the garbage. Sorry, grandma, I don't know if you knew that! All those slices of ham you found in your garbage on Monday morning when you did the laundry came from me. I just really hate it.

25. I've never been truly camping-with a tent, and all that. I've had bonfires and cooked stuff on fires, but I've never been outside all night and slept on the ground. Maybe I'll have to do that this summer. I did, after all, get my first fishing license this year-my brother-in-law, Eli, was so shocked and proud of me.