It's All About Me! ~ NOT!

I visited a blog yesterday that I found through one of Lynette's featured bloggers. She had made this list called "100 Things About Me", which I thoroughly enjoyed reading. I mean, I felt like I knew her when I finished reading. That inspired me to do the same, which was not easy, let me tell ya'! But while I was doing it, I felt a little weird~ like who cares about all this stuff? I mean, I feel like this is all about me, which it is! I don't like to focus on ME...but when I thought about it, I decided it IS a good way for people to get to know others better. So, since yesterday's post was kind of heavy, I though I'd do this more for fun! So, I hope you enjoy...but please read this disclaimer: I truly do know it's not all about me! It's all about God!

1. I was born in Bowling Green, KY., but have lived in Nashville, TN. since I was about a year old.
2. I learned to walk in a house on Gale Ln., just off Belmont Blvd.; I ended up going to undergraduate and Grad school at Belmont University many years later.
3. My parents (now just my Mom as my dad is deceased) have taken all of our family on a vacation every year since I was born (except for the summer following my father’s death).
4. I have been in or through most states of the USA.
5. I have traveled to: Hawaii, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico, Grand Cayman Islands, St. Thomas, Guatemala, Dominican Republic
6. I have 2 sisters and no brothers.
7. I received my undergraduate degree and Masters degree in Early Childhood Education.
8. I took tap, ballet, and gymnastics as a young girl.
9. I was a high school and college cheerleader.
10. I took piano lessons for many years.
11. I taught piano lessons off and on for a few years.
12. I was church pianist for about 10 years at my former church.
13. I went on mission trips to the Appalachian Mountains of KY. as a youth and later as a youth chaperone.
14. I became a Christian in 1967.
15. My husband used to be a youth pastor, as a 2nd job, at my home church.
16. Our current pastor was a youth in my husband’s youth group!
17. I do not like to sew—it makes me nervous!
18. I don’t like to do yard work of any kind; yet, I want it to look like something out of “Southern Living”!
19. I love being creative; or, as I like to call it “Artsy-Fartsy”.
20. I watercolor paint when I take the time, and love it, though it is a very difficult medium.
21. I also enjoy doing 3-D art that I call “Funkydelic”.
22. I enjoy scrapbooking, but I don’t like to use templates that others have done~ I like to create my own, which takes so much more time!
23. I am the mother of 3, the grandmother of 2.
24. I also have a Dominican daughter (at least she calls me Mom and I call her my daughter) who is married to a dentist in Arizona and they have one baby boy, Luke. I also have a Dominican son, Amaury, who recently married Catherine, who is a full-time missionary in the DR.
25. I have 2 dogs, 2 cats, and my son has a Balled Python named “Princess”!
26. I teach a ladies Bible Study, a couples Bible Study, and I co-lead another ladies Bible Study.
27. I have 3 bridges in my mouth and multiple crowns—“Cha-Ching!”
28. I have a 1967 VW Convertible Bug, a beautiful turquoise color, which my husband gifted me, and is trying to get it in better shape for me to drive.
29. I have never been in a tornado, and hope I never am!
30. My favorite flower is the Iris, which happens to be our state flower.
31. I was raised in the Missionary Baptist Church until my teen years; then we went to the Southern Baptist Church; and now we are members of a non-denominational church (Cross Point Community Church)
32. I love to snow ski!
33. I also love to water ski, which I used to do a lot when my girls were younger.
34. In high school I bowled in a league and I played on the tennis team! FUNNY! You’d never know it if you saw me do either now!
35. I’ve been married almost 29 years!
36. My husband is from Lynchburg, TN., home of Jack Daniels Distillery, where he was working when I met him.
37. My first teaching job out of college was in Lynchburg, TN., a 90-mile drive one way from my home. A friend who also was hired to teach there, and I rode together to and from, commuting a total of 180 miles round trip, just to teach school.
38. I taught Special Education, grades 4-6.
39. I absolutely LOVE children and adults with Downs Syndrome!
40. My son-in-law is currently building Tim McGraw and Faith Hill’s house!
41. I have been 3 times to Ghost Ranch, NM. with my art teacher to paint; I hope to return for her last gig there in September 2009. Ghost Ranch is in Abiqui, NM, and was the site of many movies~ onewas “City Slickers”. Also, the infamous watercolorist, Georgia O’Keefe had a home there.
42. I hate Sushi, anchovies, liver, and most fish.
43. I LOVE lobster, crab, shrimp, Cajun catfish!
44. I love the mountains in the winter. I particularly love the mountains of NC and the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee (in and around Gatlinburg).
45. I’ve lived in Nashville most of my life and never been to the Grand Ole Opry.
46. I like most types of music, except heavy metal, blues, rap, and hard rock.
47. I’ve always wanted to write a book!
48. I’ve also always wanted to write a song, preferably a praise and worship song!
49. I love to read, mostly inspirational books. Occasionally, however, I like a good romance novel.
50. I used to collect children’s books, as many of them have powerful underlying messages in them.
51. I also used to collect Santas, birds and rabbits; now I collect Nativity sets.
52. I haven’t been blogging very long, and I don’t blog every day, but I hope to do better. I want my blog to be inspirational and fun, not controversial, and I want any and everything I say to be said with integrity and to honor God.
53. I do not like to cook~ my family is picky!
54. One day I will go to Africa; I have friends who are full time missionaries there: (1) in Uganda, a young single girl, Katie (Amazima Ministries) and a couple and their girls, Brenda and Gary Kean in Kenya (Kean & Co., Inc.)
55. Growing up we had cats and dogs, and they were allowed in the house. My husband will not allow our animals in the house.
56. I LOVE the beach. For the past probably 15 years my sister and I have taken my children and sometimes a friend or 2 of theirs to Destin, FL. for spring break! LOVE IT!
57. This summer I will make my 7th mission trip to Santiago, Dominican Republic. My husband and son will go as well. (through GO Ministries)
58. My middle daughter just graduated from college and is now a NICU Nurse at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital in Nashville, TN.
59. I have a 27-year old daughter, a 23-year old daughter, and a 15-year old son!
60. For years I have said I want to win a car! Still do!
61. Before I die I want to own an upscale junk/antique/thrift store, where people rent booth space. I also want to be able to purchase and sell my own things from estate/yard/garage sales, AND have a little tea room in there, AND an art studio, where I can have various art teachers come in a teach classes. Parents can bring their children to class, stay and shop, get a bite to eat, etc. Main problem is $$$$$ and location, location, location!
62. I want to learn to play the guitar!
63. If I could I would have a therapeutic massage weekly.
64. I have some type of headache nearly every day of my life and have since I was in 3rd grade; many are tension, some are migraines, AND I have 2 bulging discs in my neck, so many are caused by the way I sit at the computer, sit in a car, etc.
65. I am legally blind in my left eye (20/280) and almost perfect vision in my right eye (20/30); so even though I should wear glasses, I see very well without them.
66. I LOVE Christmas and start decorating my house the weekend following Halloween! I take it all down the day after Christmas.
67. I go to “After Christmas Sales” the day after Christmas, with a list of people in hand, and buy most of the following years’ gifts on sale! I bring them home, wrap them and label them, and store them in the attic in those large Rubbermaid containers.
68. For the last several years I have done a Christmas painting that I have scanned, shrunk and printed into our Christmas cards!
69. I love cruises – been on 2 major cruises PLUS a Hawaiian Island cruise.
70. I am blessed with some incredible girlfriends, and I so enjoy spending time with my GF’s!
71. I am a giving person, with the gift of “helps” and “hospitality”. Nothing thrills me more than to be able to help someone in whatever way they need! I receive so much blessing in return!
72. Last year I slept in a tree house in the rain forest in Guatemala with no electricity; my roommate was a friend who though I was insane when I volunteered us to sleep in it! It was definitely an adventure.
73. I do not like anything Sci-Fi; I don’t get into movies or books like “Harry Potter”.
74. I don’t like to fly; I used to until I had children; then I started being afraid. However, I think I would like to be a flight attendant, but only on Southwest, my favorite airline!
75. Garage sales/yard sales are a favorite past time! I absolutely love getting a bargain!
76. I stay with a 97-year old bedridden adorable lady in her home on Tuesday evenings for 4-hours; then on Wednesday evening I go in at 5 and stay until Thursday morning at 7 AM. I LOVE older people!
77. I have spent every Christmas Eve of my life in my parent’s home (and we live on the same property; yet I still want to spend Christmas Eve at their home!) In other words, I like tradition!
78. I do not like change-period!
79. Winter is my favorite season, though Tennessee winters are no longer like they were when I was growing up. We used to have several deep snowfalls every year, lots of days out of school, and tons of fun. My children have never known that, and that saddens me!
80. I had my tonsils and adenoids taken out at age 3 and I can still vividly see the room I was in, the OR room, and feel the sore throat I felt in my mind’s eye, as if it were yesterday!
81. I am a frou-frou kind of lady!
82. I love color! My living room and dining room walls are a deep red; my den walls are terra cotta stucco; my kitchen walls are butter yellow!
83. My favorite books include: The Bible; The Shack (William P. Young); Redeeming Love (Francine Rivers); The Screwtape Letters (C.S. Lewis); Blue Like Jazz (Donald Miller); Heart of the Artist (Rory Noland)
84. I don’t watch much TV; when I do I just watch bits and pieces most of the time, like: Dr. Phil, Today, Anderson Cooper, The Bachelor/Bachelorette, American Idol, Dancing With the Stars
85. The car I’m driving is a 1996 Mercury Villager Van, which we purchased new; it has 250,000+ miles on it.
86. I’ve had my hair several different colors, but not necessarily always by choice.
87. I’ve worn my hair in many different styles, long and short. My husband once made a photo album entitled: “The Many Hairstyles of Lisa”---NOT FUNNY!
88. I have broken my right arm, my right ankle; I have had several surgeries, none serious, praise the Lord!
89. I have a shoe-fetish! My husband says he will have to have a separate casket to bury my shoes in. So, I guess he believes I’m going to die first. But, it IS true that I cannot wear the same pair of shoes in Heaven everyday. I mean, seriously! 
90. I love turquoise jewelry—really turquoise anything!
91. I love Native American Indian history, artifacts, jewelry…and enjoying going to the NAIA Pow-Wow in Nashville every October.
92. The only type of pottery I really like is Raku, and one day I want to learn how to make it.
93. I would enjoy traveling much more often than I am able to. I would like to visit Australia, Sweden, Scotland, Alaska, back to Switzerland and Austria, and more cruises would be fine, too.
94. I do not like the fragrance of rose except on real roses.
95. My birthstone is the Opal, but I do also love diamonds! Image that!
96. Most of my really nice jewelry is yellow gold. Years ago, my dear friend, who only really wore Sterling Silver, stayed on me for a long time to begin wearing Sterling. I did not want to. However, after a long time I agreed to wear a little of it. Well, guess what! I never wear yellow gold now! In fact, I recently sold much of my gold, as gold is at an all time high.
97. One day I’m going to start exercising regularly (after I stop procrastinating!) I want to do it to the point that I crave it, so I won’t have to force myself to get up and walk or work out!
98. I’m a huggy, touch, feely person, as is most of my family!
99. It’s hard for me to relax and not be busy doing something. For example, if I’m watching TV, I’m usually doing something else, as well. I find it hard to “stop and smell the roses!”
100. I’m bored writing about me, and my hat’s off to you if you took the time to read all of this! If so, please leave a comment!