10. Trains. I love being able to hear the train from my house. When we first moved in, I thought it would drive me insane to hear the train whistle blowing at all hours. When my boys were tiny babies, I would be so nervous that it would wake the boys after working so hard to get them to sleep. It never did. I hardly ever hear it at night, and sometimes I don't even notice it during the day. That's not to say that it's not there, but I just don't always hear it. There is something so comforting about it just being there. When life seems so crazy and you think everything is falling apart, it is grounding to know that the train is there, the world just keeps going and whatever we are going through will pass as well.
9. The beach. I know it sounds totally lame to say that, because who doesn't love the beach? I love it because it's peaceful, because I have so many memories of being there growing up, and because it reminds us that we are just one small speck in a world full of God's creation. I love to play in the waves and sand and act like a silly kid with my silly kids, but I also love to just sit there and take it in. My absolute favorite memory of Gavin is when I took him out in the ocean when he was only one year old. He just laid his head on my shoulder and we moved with the waves for probably an hour. Every beach is different. They all have their own unique aspects, but I could be happy at any of them.
7. Language. I love learning new words, using new words, and especially finding grammatical mistakes. I'm human. I make them too, but maybe that's why I love to find someone else making them. I'm a dork, I know. I'm okay with that. In fact, I might even be a little bit proud.
6. Pizza. Yep. It made the top ten, but seriously, could there be a more perfect food? You can do anything to it, and have a new food experience every time. I love a hot, fresh pizza straight out of the oven at a pizza place. I love the bubbles in the cheese when it is done just perfect. I love that you can make it as healthy or unhealthy as you feel like depending on your mood. In other words, it is a food that is okay with you being moody. What's better than that? (On a side note, this is also why I like tulips so much. Can you see that I have accepted my moodiness and even embraced it? I'm a girl
!)5. Baking. I love to bake. It is so wonderful to know that you made something from scratch and that no store-bought item can even come close to it. Some of my favorites are banana bread, peanut butter cookies, and snickerdoodles. I love sharing my baked creations with my family and friends, experimenting in the kitchen, finding new recipes and making them fun, using my vintage Betty Crocker "Cooky Book", and I LOVE when the boys help me make bake. I also love cooking, but there's just nothing like the scent of a kitchen with fresh baked goodies. No candle can truly capture it, and no amount of HFCS or the other junk they put in mass produced store-bough cookies can compare to the taste of cookies right out of the oven! It's so much fun to do, and your creations can turn out differently every single time....kind of like life!
4. Barnes & Noble...especially the kids section. I love just browsing through the shelves of book after book. I mentally add books to my wish list for my kids, my classroom, or my kindle (which is kind of ironic to be doing at a bookstore, I know). I look at books and think of how someday I will definitely be publishing my own book, because if some of those books there could get published, I've got nothing to worry about. I look through the whole children's section every time. I remember going there before I even had kids of my own. I would say I was buying things for my classroom, but really I was looking at all the books I wanted to make sure I would share with my own children someday. I also have really good memories of sitting in the coffee shop (and sometimes then in the car in the parking lot after getting kicked out aftre closing) with my closest friends and talking for hours about life and everything else that would float in and out of our conversations. It's a magical place, and if I lived in a different time, my dream would be to own a children's bookstore, but we all saw how that turned out for Kathleen Kelly and The Shop Around The Corner. (Makes me cry every time...)
3. Photography. I love to take pictures. In another life, I would have been a photographer, but then who would be there to teach my class of second graders with a smile and a healthy dose of reality everyday? I took some classes in college, but my teacher was a real, well, let's just say I'm not a fan of his. It kind of turned me off to the idea of doing it as a career, but I have taken a some senior pictures for people I know, and they have all been happy with them, so I guess that means I'm pretty decent. I love photographing my kids, and I am that parent that posts too many pictures on facebook, but oh well. I love it.
2. My family. Another generic answer I know, but my family is my life. I don't know where I'd be without them. They are my people, my light, my source for smiles, sadness, and tender moments. I don't say this to mean that I see them as a burden. It's quite the opposite. Because they are so intertwined in my heart, what they feel, I feel. I love my husband with all my heart. We have the most precious gifts in the world, and no matter what we go through, as long as we're together, we are blessed. I cannot say enough about them, so I'll stop...or maybe not. No, I will.
And drumroll, please.....
1. Jesus. Obviously, without Him, I wouldn't have all the other things I love. He gives us new life every morning, and He teaches me to rely on Him when I'm not able to do it all on my own (and who would want to, anyway). He blesses us in the biggest and smallest ways each day, and I can only hope that I am a good example of His love for my children. I'm not perfect, and I'm certainly not going to preach, but I am thankful for a source of strength that will NEVER fail me.
There you go. I know this was a long one, and now that it's over, the other posts won't be so long. Now you know a little bit about me, and from now on, I can give you a glimpse of what it's like for me to live my life.
Erin
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