It is "Me" Day

Today is my Birthday!

Since it's my birthday I figured I'd share more about myself that you may not already know and things you may not want to know.

1. I grew up a cop's kid.
2. I was born and raised in the same house.
3. My earliest memory is going to get chest x-rays as a child. I remember holding my moms hand as we walked in the building, the color of the carpet, the basic layout of the room. I remember having to hold the cold metal "box" against my chest and looking at my mom as if to ask, "Am I ok?" (When I asked my mom about this she said I was 18 mos. old.)
   
4. I remember as a very young child begging Jesus to come into my heart so I could go to heaven. I was later baptized, by my Grandpa Jo, on Easter Sunday of my fourth grade year. I was 10 years old.
   
5. The top two people who had the most impact on my spiritual life is 1) My mom. 2) Greg Smith, my youth pastor.
6. I was a VERY fearful child. I was mainly scared of dying. Anything could lead to death, ie. the "poison" on a flea collar, your heart stopping when you sneezed, any various form of cancer, especially from my grandma's cigarette smoke (there were visits where I would always have my shirt over my mouth and nose except when grandma could see me), AIDS and Toxic Shock Syndrome (even though it was absolutely impossible for me to have either of those.), forgetting to breathe. Yes, those were all things I feared as a child.
7. I hated shots! My older sister got Hepatitis A when we were kids and all of us girls and all the babysitting kids had to go and get shots in the be-hind. I remember holding onto the the lobby chair for dear life and them trying to pull me off and the chair dragging with me. There was a lot of screaming. (Mom shares that when it came to the actual shot, I didn't even realize when they gave it.)
8. My favorite things to play with as a child was Little People, by Fisher Price, and Paperdolls. (I think Brandie, my best friend, and I were in jr. high before we quit playing with them.)
9. A rule for dating (there were 3 of us girls): The guy had to meet my parents three times before we could go out with them. This wasn't just a "Hi, nice to meet you." It was come over and have dinner and spend the evening with the family.
10. That rule really helped me "weed out" guys. I was asked out a decent amount of times by different guys but the question I always asked was, "Is this guy worth the embarrassment and the hassle of having him meet my parents?"
11. There were only two guys that I thought "maybe" they were worth it, the first wasn't worth it after the first time.
    
12. When I grew up, I wanted to be a wife and a mother. If I had to have a "career" I thought I would be a child psychologist or social worker who worked with abused children.
13. My junior and part of my senior year, I rode to school with my dad as he went to work. I think we left the house around 6:30-6:45 in the morning. My school was in the City Hall on the 9th floor, and dad had to check in on the 4th or 5th floor. Fire drills were killer...running down 10 flights of stairs and back up one to get outside. I think it had to be done in less then 90 seconds.
    
14. Because my school was downtown in the City Hall, we really didn't have a sufficient library so we walked several blocks to the public library. My friend Stephanie and I, throughout our two years at that school walked through every sky-walk in downtown Wichita, when we were suppose to be at the library.
15. I was always an average student. My attitude was, "just get it done". Hardly ever did homework.
    
16. I can still remember the very first time I met Jeff at college and how I thought he was "cute".
17. I mentioned that my eye was on him to Theresa and Matt, who was also attending MCC, and Matt said, "Hmmm...he's a good guy."
18. The nicknames I've only really had is Jules, that was mainly used by Greg, see #5, and Lulu, that my niece Brooke called me when she couldn't say Aunt Julie.
19. I was one who "freaked" during the whole Y2K scare. The good that came out of it... I had saved enough cash that once the new year was passed, we were able to be a whole month ahead on our budget.
20. I just might be slightly addicted to Facebook.
21. A Bible story that I can parallel my life to is The Prodigal Son. I used to be the "oldest brother", but I believe I now parallel more with "the father". Read it here.

There is much more to share about myself, but I will stop at #21 since I was born on the 21st.