Dragonfli

UPDATE (3/2/09): I apologize to the two that have swap coming from me that are late. I have had some monetary dilemmas, but they will be out in the mail on the 12th. I snet PM's to each person this affects. Please message me befroe rating me or if you have any questions. Thank you! In November I will have been married to my high school sweetheart for 10 years. I was a young bride at 19. We have four furry children: 2 cats (Hope, 7 & Minnie, 1) and 2 English bulldogs (Miss, 3 & Gus, 3). Our dogs have special needs and are smaller than most Enlgish bulldogs, but they are the most fun and loving dogs. We'd love to get a French Bulldog at some time. Naturally, I love all cats and dogs-Bulldogs and persians are my favorites. I love dragonflies, butterflies, ladybugs and hummingbirds.

I collect sea turtles and angels. I absolutely love my sea turtles and would love to have one of my own. I'm an absolute animal lover. If my husband would let me, I'd rescue every animal I could.

I'm a former Army spouse and very proud of it. My husband is medically retired now but still works with for Army as an instructor in communications. I love still being a part of that world. I have a passion for education and learning. I finally finished my Bachelor of Science degree with plans to continue on to my Master's of Education--in a few years. I even want my Ph.D. My ultimate dream is to teach (elementary age) and I'm taking the time now to study and get my certification while I work from home as an office assistant.

I love being with my family, any chance I get, especially since most are out of state. I can't wait until we are finally blessed with children.

I have a lot of different likes in design and decor. Most rooms in my home have themes, floral guest room, blue/brown bathroom, island room, pool/billards room, wilderness room, burgandy/beige floral bathroom, gerber daisy bathroom with main colors of orange, yellow and lime green. Of course I have my craft room which has no theme.

I love all flowers, but my favorites: peonies, lilies, magnolias and triliums. My favorite color is blue and I have had a fascination with blue and brown the last year. I enjoy nature and really miss home, which is Oregon, the Columbia River Gorge area.

I love to travel and have been to Australia, Japan and Okinawa, Saipan, Mexico and lived on Guam for 2 years. I would love to visit every continent and further more every country. In the states, I've been to CA, HI, UT, OR, WA,IL, NY, PA, ID and NJ. I would love to visit each of our great states, too. I'm very proud to be an American and very patriotic.

My husband and I enjoy NASCAR. I can't sit through televised ones, but you take me to an actual race and I really get into it and have a blast. Our driver is #88 Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

I love to write and have an inspiration journal in addition to my normal journal. I have been brainstorming a children's book,too.

I'm really a mixed bag of everything. I love classical music, especially piano, country, alternative, soft rock, oldies, love songs, and pop/rock.

Some of my favorite artists: Carrie Underwood, Chris Daughtry, Nickelback, Jack Johnson, Audioslave, Kellie Clarkson, Hillary Duff, Police, Martina McBride, Journey, Pink Floyd, Enya, 3 Days Grace, Michael Buble, Fergie, Jack Ingram, Bucky Covington, Lifehouse, One Republic, Ashton Shepard, John Mayer, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Soundscapes/Earth sounds.

My favorite author is Debbie Macomber, and I have all her books. I love Jane Austen, the Brontes-Emily, Charlotte and Anne. I have all the Jane Austen books except Lady Susan, The Watsons and Sandition. Harry Potter is definitely a favorite. Other than that I don't have any particular one category or author. I love a little mystery/suspense, funny, love.

I'm currently reading Souvenir and have a dozen other books waiting for me to break their bindings (Sepulchre, The Last Lecture, Home, Orange Mint & Honey, Marley & Me, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, Mansfield Park, The Complete Stories & Poems of Edgar Allen Poe, 8 Sandpiper Way). I'd love to receive and read: Firefly Lane, The Opposite of Love, the Opposite of Music, A LOng Way Gone, Gardens of Water, The Kite Runner,A Thousand Splendid Suns, Water for Elephants, 3 Cups of Tea:One Man's Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time and Call Me Hope...anything by Charlotte, Emily or Anne Bronte and the last three Jane Austen books I don't have, mentioned above.

Oh, my goodness. We LOVE movies in our house. We have over 500 DVDs. There are a number in every category-even a few westerns. I love Janet Oke's Love Come Softly series and just bought the most recent one a couple months ago. I also enjoy the Christy series and still have yet to find the third one in the series. Comedies are probably my favorite, but I love romantic comedies, action/adventure, suspense, military, etc.

Some favorites: The Notebook, Empire Records, Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy, Bourne Ultimatum, The Wedding Date, Band of Brothers, The Italian Job, Nanny McPhee, Lady & the Tramp, Sabrina with Audrey Hepburn, Much Ado About Nothing, Tin Man, National Treasure 1 &2, Freedom Writers, Wizard of Oz, Secondhand Lions, Harry Potter (all), Fast & the Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Fast & the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Jeff Dunham: Spark of Insanity and Because I Said So.

We DVR a lot of shows and we watch them when we get down time, usually catching up on the weekends while we work around the house.

Favorites: Desperate Housewives, The Starter Wife, Big Brother, CSI, NCIS, Cops, America's Most Wanted, Cashmere Mafia, Women's Murder Club, Notes from the Under Belly, Bachelor, Ace of Cakes, Project Runway, Next Food Network Star, Next Design Star, Supernanny, Miss Guided, Samantha Who?, Big Shots, just about any wedding shows, I'm curious to see the new 90210 (I grew up with the original), The Hills, Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune.

I guess I just enjoy doing a lot. I dabble a little in each of the following categories: quilting, embroidery, cross-stitch, beading, card making, scrapbooking, stamping, cooking and baking.

I bought a couple books to try and teach myself to knit again and to crochet. I knew how to knit way back when I was in 4-H, but I don't remember how to start it. Other than that I remember the one basic stitch I was taught. I really want to learn to crochet, because I love all the doilies and things my grandma and Aunt have made me. The last thing my grandma crocheted for me was a heart shaped doily that she put around a small frame and embellished with beads and ribbon from my wedding color and it has a small picture of my husband and me just before we got married. I love it and would love to learn to crochet and make things like that. I even want to crochet a big nice table cloth of sorts to put on our dining table. I could change out the fabric each season or holiday that would go underneath it or just have it on our table alone. These are all things I would love to pass on to my children too.

I love quilts and would love to receive one made just for me. I have two heirloom quilts-one from my grandma on my dad's side and one from my great-grandma on my mom's side. It is very delicate and some of the fabric is so old and thing that you can actually see the batting. I need to try and repair it with similar fabrics.

My favorite color is blue and I've really been into blue and brown together, but really I love all colors. Just look at all the colors and themes in my home. :o)

My favorite ice cream: I love Ben & Jerry's. So far, Chunky Monkey, Strawberry Cheesecake, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Mint Chocolate Cookie and S'mores.

I love chocolate. Chocolate with caramel, nuts, peanut butter, nougat, flavorings, etc. Just NO with coconut. I love Dots and the original Starbursts and Tootsie Rolls. Tootsie Rolls are hard to keep away from me around Halloween.

Desserts: Dutch Apple Pie, Claim Jumper Chocolate Silk pie, angel food cake, Boston Cream Pie, donuts, chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal raisin with extra cinnamon, kiss cookies, turtle cookies, cheesecake (YUMMY!), cupcakes, cake (not german chocolate or carrot). Girl Scout Tagalongs and Thin Mints.

I love apples-my favorite fruit,(I can usually covince my husband to go up to Apple Hill for an afternoon each fall) but I enjoy cantaloupe, honeydew melon, cucumbers, bananas, mango, fresh pineapple, strawberries, red seedless grapes and the occasional orange.

Veggies-celery, baby carrots, lettuce, cabbage, bok choy, sprouts, eggplant(sauteed with lots of garlic), green beans, sugarsnap peas, and snow peas. Everything else is on the yuck list. I am a very picky eater.

I love kettle chips, rice chips by RiceWorks or Lundeberg. Baked Lays are good too. I enjoy granola bars, pretzels, 100 calorie snack packs and Stacy's Pita Chips.

I drink 1-2 Diet Pepsi's a day and 8-10 servings of water. I also enjoy Dr. Pepper, Cherry Coke, 7Up, Sprite, Henry Weinhard's Orange Cream and Root Beer. Sometimes I add a Crystal Light packet to my bottle of water or make a pitcher. My favorites: Green Tea Honey Lemon, Green Tea Raspberry, Raspberry Lemonade & Fruit Punch. My favorite Starbucks drink is the double chocolate chip creme or frappacino. My favorite Jamba juice drink is the Caribbean Passion and Chocolate Moo'd. I love to enjoy Celestial Seasoning Herbal teas, gourmet hot chocolate and General Foods Internation Coffees; so far my favorite is the Sugar Free Swiss Mocha.

I love to shop at Target, Bath & Body Works and JoAnn's Fabrics.

My husband and I have been really enjoying our Wii with Wii Sports, MarioKart and WiiFit. The sports and Fit are great workouts and we do it together each night. It is so great because we are each other's cheerleaders and keep each other going to get fit and lose weight. I'm even using the running on the Fit to get me conditioned to start running again outside. I was never in better shape than when I ran track. We also enjoy our Nintendo DS's and playing Brain Age. I have 1 and he has 2.

Sudoku is a good game for us and we enjoy cribbage and doing puzzles together that we glue and frame when we are done.

Our favorite winery is the Charles Spinetta Winery. We are still wine newbies. I love all their sweet wines-Chenin Blanc, Zinetta and White Zinfandel. I also enjoy thier two dessert wines the Orange Muscat and the Black Muscat. We are not fans of the dry wines which are usually the red wines. We enjoy margaritas, and other sweet and/or fruity mixed drinks.

I read and have magazine subscriptions for: Cosmopolitan, Us Weekly, People, Martha Stewart Living, Harper's Bazaar, Smithonian, Everyday Food, All You, Entertainment Weekly, Hallmark, Cottage Living, JPG, Diabetes Forecast (not me but many family and friends have disease),Prevention, Redbook, U.S.News & World Report.

I'm a MySpace-r and Facebook-er, Blog Spot-er and Shelfari-er.

I've already started sketching up the design for our Christmas cards and thinking about running a side business making desserts and treats made-to-order for people for parties, birthdays, etc.

I love fun pens and pencils and Salt City and PartyLite candles. I also enjoy the oils from Bath and Body Works for my little burner and their WallFlowers. I have so many favorite scents:Midnight Pomegranite, Fresh Pineapple, Japanese Cherry Blossom, Magnolia Blossom, White Cherry Blossom, Cherry Blossom,Cucumber Melon, Dancing Waters, Black Raspberry Vanilla, Warm Vanilla Sugar, Tropical Colada, Pomegranite Martini, Frozen Daiquiri, Tropical Passionfruit, Mango Mandarin, Pink Grapefruit, Coconut Lime Verbana, Moonlight Path, Wild Honeysuckle, Enchanted Orchid, Freshwater Cucumber, Rainkissed Leaves, Sunset Mango and the new Fall scents-leaves and pumpkin.

I love Eeyore (absolute favorite), Goofy, Tazmanian Devil, Smurfs, Rainbow Bright, Strawberry Shortcake and CareBears.

I have a collection of seashells from all the beaches I've been too.

I love holidays. Any reason to entertain. My favorites are Halloween because of all the cute kids in their costumes. Thanksgiving is another favorite because it is the one time each year that just about everyone if not everyone on my Dad's side can come together and visit and create more memories. (This year we will actually celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary on Thanksgiving day.) Christmas is another, but I'm horrible about keeping things secret this time of year. I just get so excited! I usually end up giving my husband most of his gifts before Christmas because I'm so excited and can't wait to give them to him. I also find fun stuff for our "kids"-toys and treats and brushes. This is also a time I go all-out with my baking- making 10-12 different kinds of treats. It is also the time to celebrate friendship, giving and our Savior Jesus Christ.

New Year's Eve is always special because it is my Dad's birthday--even if we do go to an early dinner and stay home the rest of the night. We are not much for all the New Year's Eve craziness.

4th of July is special to us becuase we are very patriotic and love to celebrate our country-as is Memorial and Veteran's Days when we can honor our military those that are here or have passed on.

Valentine's Day is another extra special day because is marks the anniversary of when my husband and I started to date back in 1997. St. Patrick's Day is just fun and Easter is not just a religious holiday for us but another fun one too.

Some of my favorite restaurants: Olive Garden, Outback, TGI Friday's, In & Out Burger, Mongolian BBQ, Subway and Red Robin. We really enjoy chinese and mexican too. Our favorites are little holes in the wall, but they are the best-Gordito Burrito and Rose Palace.

I'm passionate about giving to the Humane Society and animal recues, the World Wildlife Federation, Susan G. Komen, our local foodbank and Disabled Veteran's. It may only be $5-10, but I try to give something to the things I feel passionate about. I recycle almost everything these days and really try to do whatever I can to help the environment. I buy items at www.gearthatgives.com that supports various charities and the word thing at www.freerice.com.

Jewelry...I can wear any kind of bracelets and necklaces and rings, but my ears are very sensitive like my grandmother's were and I can only wear pure gold earring posts. My ring size is 5.5-6. I have small wrists.