I've been tagged

The last time I was tagged by someone, it took me so long to respond that I couldn't find her original post. Now I've been tagged twice in a week by someone else, so here's my response to the first tag.

Some things you may not know about me:

I think that most of the people who read my blog have known me for a long time, but perhaps a few of you have only known me for a short time. So I'm including some old things and some new things (hence, the longer-than-six-items list). And for those who have known me forever, sorry!


1. I have always been low-maintenance. People seem to make the assumption that it started after I became a mom or after I got married or after I went on a mission or after I started college. The fact is, Zonian girls from Panama just didn't wear make-up or do their hair on a regular basis, and I was no exception. I confess that I did go through a hairspray and make-up phase in junior high, but those habits fell by the wayside by 9th grade. To somebody who grew up with me, it's probably no surprise that, even now, I only wear make-up for dress-up occasions like church and hot dates (I did wear make-up on my wedding day). I'm just amazed that I married a guy from the States who prefers low-maintenance (in fact, he'd prefer I don't wear make-up EVER).

2. I was a cheerleader from grades 9-12. This comes as a great shock to people who meet me now (D was quite astounded to learn this tidbit when we were dating), probably due to the fact that I'm low maintenance and have a brain. I try to explain that cheerleaders in Panama are different, but people just shake their heads in disbelief. I'll try to say it again--I cheered during football season, then I played soccer, swam, paddled cayuco (a boat like a long, narrow, wooden canoe), and got good grades, and most of the other cheerleaders did the same thing--we were all jocks who did well in school, and most of us didn't wear make-up or do our hair. Oh, and the award I was granted my senior year? Not "Best Gymnast" or "Loudest Voice" or "Highest Jumper," but "SQUAD CLOWN." Ah, those were the days!

3. I served jury duty for a murder trial. It was the fall of 2003, and I was summoned with 50 or so others. I didn't think I'd get chosen for the 9-person jury (my dad and brother are both attorneys), but I really wanted the opportunity. It was truly a life-changing experience. I was able to ask the defense attorneys afterwards why they let me be chosen, and they said I had a "liberal aura" about me. It's true, I was one of the last to say he was guilty, and this was only after I was satisfied that the timing and DNA evidence (a tiny speck of blood with her DNA on his sock) indicated that he was guilty beyond doubt. If not for that DNA evidence, I couldn't have decided "guilty" (that's the scientist in me).

4. I love travel and culture, and before beginning my life as a med student wife, I traveled outside the U.S. about twice a year. I have lived in or visited the following countries: Panama, Costa Rica, Chile, United States, Peru, Easter Island, Tonga, Fiji, Thailand, Dominican Republic, Mexico, England, and Wales. I have also stepped over the border of Argentina and Haiti, but I have a hard time counting those countries since I don't have the stamp on my passport. I had the goal to completely fill my passport with stamps and get new pages added before it expired in 2006, and I accomplished it.

5. Before I got married, I was a bridesmaid 7 times. I shared this factoid with the guys at work (this was long before marriage was even a prospect) and one of them said, in all seriousness, "Do you need a hug?" I think he felt pity for me living up to "always a bridesmaid, never a bride," but honestly, I loved being single. I didn't feel a bit sad about all the opportunities I had because I waited till 28 to get married.

6. I lived in the fine arts dorm during my freshman year of college, despite having almost zero ability in music and art. My ticket in was my awesome roommate, Emily, a violin major. I was probably the only science major in the whole place, but I loved my experience there. I got to attend my friends' jazz concerts, plays, orchestra performances, and marching band galas. It was a great place to be!

7. The smell of skunk is pleasant to me. It reminds me of family vacations when we came to the States and drove cross-country--there's always a dead skunk somewhere along the way. People are always surprised when we're in a car and we catch a whiff of skunk and I say, "Mmmm, I like that smell."

8. I graduated from college with over 210 credits (semester credits, not quarter credits) on my transcript. That's with a Bachelor's degree, and it's not because I changed my major thirteen times. I happen to have the longest major at BYU (I think), and with a minor on top of that, and concurrent enrollment during high school, and testing out of some Spanish classes, well, it all just keeps adding up. If you don't think that's extraordinary, check out your own transcript. If you've got me beat, show me and I'll give you a dollar.

9. I came very close to getting a gold tooth in high school. My cheerleading friend and I thought it would be pretty funny to get caps so we could look like the chola girls. We talked about the extra sparkle we'd show as we cheered at the football games.

10. I used to be very embarrassed about even stepping inside thrift stores--I wanted nothing to do with second-hand stuff. This is especially surprising to people who know my current habits of dumpster diving or shamelessly taking furniture out of the trash piles people leave in front of their houses. I think my turning point came during my first year of college when I got into the grunge look, and the only place to find those ugly flannel shirts was the thrift store. After that, it's just been a beautiful evolution from the prissy princess to the scrounge queen. Luckily, my husband shares my fetish for making use of other peoples' junk. One of our first outings with my siblings was a dumpster diving trip.


And now, the time has come to tag others. I feel compelled to tag those who blog rarely or not at all, so Louise, June, Beasta, Katie, Shelly, Jen, Ash and anyone else who needs a little nudge to get blogging, here's your big chance!!

More photos

Imitating behavior: According to the experts, sometime around one year of age, babies start imitating their parents. Well, I was dismayed that she wasn't doing any of the "usual" imitating behaviors like talking on the phone or gesturing. Then I saw her doing this (and now she takes a swig out of my water bottle every time she can get to it)--and everyone knows how much I use my water bottle. That's my girl!

Who ever thought that straight hair could be so cute??

Fancy wig party: We were trying to figure out which wig would work best for the Nacho Libre costume. My beautiful brothers were happy to model.

Squeak even modeled the one D ended up using

"Shoes!": Another imitating behavior--she loves trying on my shoes and walking around in them. My dad tells me that I used to do the same thing.

Some old summer photos

As always, Squeak loves to ham it up for the camera

We took canoes down the Provo River. Squeak was NOT a fan of the life jacket, but I distracted her with some graham crackers and she was a happy camper.

Here we are, D, my dad, me, and Squeak on the lovely Provo River

We went on a raspberry hunt at D's uncles house and discovered that Squeak loves raspberries. I unfortunately let her have as many as she wanted and ended up reaping the reward of diarrhea diapers for about a week afterwards. Now I let her enjoy raspberries in moderation!

There's my favorite cheesy grin--my little munchkin sure loves cheese!

I get pregnant, and I get behind on stuff. Actually, pregnancy is no excuse. I'm just really good at getting behind on stuff. This year I'm working on being a finisher--more to come on that topic later, but for now, I thought I'd post some summer photos since I spent all of summer not posting anything.

Adventures With La Squeak

One of the perks of having a husband in med school is that I get to find ways to entertain myself. That always involves my little sidekick, Squeak.

For Free Museum Day, Squeak and I visited the Desert Botanical Gardens. Of course, the rainforest flora is my favorite, but the desert does have its own kind of beauty.

I don't think I dressed us both in green on purpose, but here we are in our green outfits in front of the tree with the green trunk. It should've been Earth Day!

I had to keep her on the leash so she wouldn't run into any cactus plants. I was surprised that she didn't really go after the spines though--she just loved playing with the rocks!

St. Earth Walking
This cool sculpture was in the herb garden

An interesting form of desert art, but I thought they were pretty cool.

Just to give you an idea of how large they are, here's Squeak inside one.



We also went on the ward campout together. Arriving after dark complicated things a wee bit, but I was miraculously able to find a good spot where I could use the headlights to light my way as I set up the tent. Squeak was so thrilled to be out of the carseat after the long drive that she didn't even wander (that's very atypical). We had a lot of fun together on that outing. One thing I learned is that next time I go camping when I'm six months pregnant, I'll be bringing something softer than a sleeping bag to sleep on! Oh, life's little lessons...

My smiling beauty

Look at that hair!

It rained during the night and the next morning (this was up north where it actually rains). I had been sorely disappointed by the lack of rain in Phoenix during the month of August, because everyone around here claimed it rains for like two weeks straight (they call it monsoon). August passed, no rain. And not a drop of rain in September either. I was SO THRILLED that I finally got to witness some rain (for those who don't know, I love rain, especially when it's good and hard). Apparently, Squeak takes after me in that respect as well. We have this awesome backpack with a rainshield to keep her dry, but all she wanted to do was stick her head out and feel the rain. That's my girl!


Sunset hike

This was one of those rare occasions (during the semester) when we all went out together. We love this hike, and we love having this backpack for Squeak!!

NACHOOOOOOOOOO!

D worked on the Nacho mustache for two weeks. He also worked on the mockery for the photo--mocking my maternity photo on the wall behind him. Ha ha ha.

D doesn't have Nacho's potbelly (either Squeak or I would've made a better Nacho in that respect), so I had to make some really big wrestling pantalones which he stuffed. Almost as good as a seven-month fetus. (I should add that when I tried the pantalones on, they fit quite nicely over my growing gut.)

"I have a dream," said D to me over the phone a few weeks ago when I was in Utah watching my sister's kids while she took a trip to France and Spain (lucky girl!). "Oh?" "I was thinking I'd like to be Nacho Libre for Halloween." I thought it was such a great idea that I volunteered to be Seester Encarnacion. It seemed so much more exciting than my original idea to be a family of ghosts for Halloween (Squeak has been really good at putting things over her head and saying, "Boo!"--like "peek-a-boo"). The only catch was that I had to assemble the costumes for cheap or free. After searching through my fabric stash, borrowing a wig from my mom, and receiving a spandex donation from my mother-in-law, I was able to outfit the whole family for Halloween for about $10 (it would've been $5 but I couldn't find that red dye I had laying around so I had to buy some). I sewed furiously for about three days--this is because I'm not very good or fast at sewing--and voila--we are the sequel to, "...we could break our vows, we could break our vows, we could break our vows together... but only if you want to."

D: So, let's get down to de neety greety. Who ees dees Encarnacion?
T: Well, my favoreet color ees light tan. I like poopies, volibol, and I reely like serving de Lord.
D: No way! All of dos tings you said, dey are my favorite tings to do every day!

I didn't get a chance to make Nacho's mask--that'll be a project for another year.

This was originally a ghost costume, with a long-sleeved onesie underneath and a pillowcase to pull over her head. Squeak wore it for the church trunk-or-treat, but she wasn't really into it, and it was too hot. So I removed the onesie and pillowcase and added sandals and basil leaves for her hair and she became THE TOGA QUEEN, aka Hermana Jungleprincess Sept. 1996. Sorry, I wasn't blogging back then, but I know someone who could recount the event.