20 Random Things You Didn’t Know About Me

Today’s post is one I wrote a little while ago, in anticipation of baby girl’s arrival!
I totally LOVE reading “about me” posts on others’ blogs, so I decided to do one of my own this time. 🙂 I hope you enjoy getting to know me a little bit better through these random facts!

20 Random Things You Didn’t Know About Me:

The music that calms me the most is the song “Far Over The Misty Mountains Cold” from The Hobbit. 🙂 I’m not even super obsessed with all of the Lord of the Rings movies (although I do like them!), but this song has just always calmed me way down whenever I’ve needed to rest. I played it almost every night to help me fall asleep back when I had morning sickness!

(Other music that calms me most includes songs from Riverdance like this one, or pretty much any choral music by Eric Whitacre – I especially love “The Seal Lullaby!”) Yes, these are all on my labor playlist. 🙂

^^ Dusty, the dog I grew up with. We got him when I was in third grade, and he passed away in 2013 when I was teaching third grade. He’s the dog I love most! ^^

I’m not a cat person. I do think certain kittens are cute, but I’m really a dog person at heart. I don’t feel like cats “get me,” haha. Or that I understand them? I actually did love cats when I was a little kid – enough to have cat stationery! My sister and I had a petsitting business for several years when we got older, and I stopped liking cats then, I think. I’ve just encountered way too many crazy ones. (I mean, one second you’re petting them and then the next, they’re biting your leg through your jeans? No thanks…) All my growing up years involved us having a dog in the house, which I loved! I’m also allergic to cats – boy, do they make me sneeze! – which makes sense as to why I don’t totally love spending time with them. Sorry to everyone who is a cat lover. I’m just not a fan. 🙂

I wrote letters to my future husband ever since I was in 9th grade! I wrote a whole post about it HERE – and it became a special part of Bjorn’s and my love story. I always wrote these letters to “FH,” which is how I referred to my “Future Husband.” What an amazing feeling it was the day I realized that Bjorn was FH! I gave the whole packet of letters to Bjorn when we were engaged – I’ll never forget that afternoon and how much the letters meant to him. (If you haven’t met your future husband yet, start writing letters now! Totally worth it!)

RELATED: 4 Reasons to Write Letters to Your Future Husband

I’m a left-hander. (Something you couldn’t know from reading this blog online!) 3 out of the 5 in my immediate family are lefties, and the majority of my in-laws are lefties as well! So, what do you think? Will our baby girl be a left-hander, too? 🙂

I played alto saxophone for 9 years. Jazz band was basically my life in middle school and high school – especially in high school! I love jazz! I think it’s hilarious that everyone guesses I played the flute. Saxophones are pretty much my soul instrument. (I also played in honor band, pep band, marching band, and pit orchestra besides jazz. Oh, and “regular band” every day.)

Medicine tends to hit me pretty hard. And that has made me paranoid! I hardly ever take anything, and if I do, I hardly ever take the full dose. I was strongly encouraged by an adult to take a Dramamine on a Colorado youth group trip once (and I shouldn’t have, because driving in the mountains to visit my grandparents had never affected me before), and when I took it, I had a horrible out-of-body experience. It was surreal and really freaked me out! (I am NOT a fan of anything that alters my brain!) So, now days I’d always much rather tough it out than even take something. My first inclination is never to reach for medicine. (We’ll see what happens with my labor, though – that’s a whole different story! We’re going into it with very flexible, open expectations, so who knows?)

Even with all my past travels to Europe, trips to the Caribbean, and studying abroad in Cambodia, etc., for some reason I got motion sick when we went to Europe in 2016. I was super paranoid about taking Dramamine again, so Bjorn just fed it to me in 1/4 tablets (I know – bless his heart – he broke it up so small, haha!) in between my naps. He was so sweet about it – and at that point, having such a tiny amount of Dramamine was probably more of a placebo effect, haha, but it helped.

I’m super obsessed with Riverdance. I like to think it’s my “soul music.” My mom used to put the 1995 Riverdance show VHS on for us after church on Sundays, so I know the songs super, super well! And once, when my sister and I were little, my parents got us all dressed up without telling us where we were going, and they took us to a Riverdance show!! I’ve gone to Riverdance a couple times since then, and I still get goosebumps. I freak out whenever I learn they’re back in the U.S. and having shows near us. I play the songs for our baby girl, and I love feeling her kick along to the music! I hope she likes Riverdance as much as her mama does. 🙂

I have really bad vision. I got glasses in 1st grade, and contacts in middle school. My eyes are -7.00 and -6.5!! Yikes!

I started dance “late” in life. (And was able to catch up!) It all started with me joining a hip hop class at a dance studio as a 9th grader. I fell in love with dance – and I had always wanted to be in ballet – so I gathered up my courage and started ballet! I began with private lessons during the summer, and then I joined a ballet class and a more intensive technique class for girls my age. It was hard work but it was a blast! It was a valuable lesson to me that in life, it’s never too late to start something – three cheers for lifelong learning! While I wish I had done dance my whole life, I still gleaned such joy from the years I did do.

I’m 5’6″. That’s something that’s harder for you to tell as a reader of my blog. 🙂 My husband is about 6’3″. I’m the shortest one in my family of 5. My guess is, we’ll have relatively tall children!

I LOOOOVE personality tests! I seriously considered majoring in psychology in college. My grandpa was a psychologist and a psychology professor, and when I was younger, I loved looking at all of his older textbooks. Personality theory fascinates me – I love figuring people out, personality-wise or motivation-wise, so I when I had extra room in my college schedule, I took a junior level psych course on personality theory just for the fun of it! I also love learning about birth order. (Side note: I don’t understand people who say they don’t like to learn new things. Everything is so interesting in this world, and there’s always more we can learn about! To lose one’s curiosity sounds really sad to me.)

PS – I’m an INFJ. I’ve actually discovered that a lot of bloggers are! What’s your Myers-Briggs type?

I cannot make brownies for the life of me. But I still do. 😉 I just always wonder if they’re underbaked, and then I overbake them, and then have to chisel them out of the pan! Oh well.. The good news is, I make a good loaf of homemade bread, and I love making triple-layer cakes when I get the chance!

My husband and I are not into watching sports. It goes way beyond the fact that we don’t own a TV. I did play soccer for years, and did ballet and figure skating (must be something about “foot” sports for me), and Bjorn did football and wrestling, but we don’t enjoy watching professional sports. Sometimes it feels like we’re the only people not obsessed with watching sports during basketball or football season. Thank goodness we have each other! PS – we’re not into hunting either..

I LOVE Indian and Thai food! I love spicy food, and I especially love curry. I often make this Thai Red Curry recipe. I’ve craved Indian food off and on throughout pregnancy, but there aren’t any Indian restaurants nearby, so I’ll just have to wait for a while before I get my curry and naan. 🙂

I type over 100 wpm. I attribute that to the fact that I’m a blogger and I type a lot. 😉

I change into sweats or comfy clothing the second I get home. Whenever I’m at home, I’m in what Bjorn calls my “around the house pants.” Haha. I feel like Mr. Rogers, with my ritual changes to different clothing…but it really makes me feel relaxed and like I’m truly “at home.”

I have a relatively low voice. That’s another thing you couldn’t glean from reading my blog! I think I surprise people sometimes, when they’ve only known me online and finally hear my voice! I was an alto in choir. I also have a Minnesotan accent, of course. 😉

Bjorn and I began dating rather spontaneously. Well, in a way. It was a long time coming. 😉 We had been best friends for a while, and we spent a lot of time together already. We had big crushes on each other by the time December of our junior year in college rolled around. But neither of us was doing much about it. Then, one night Bjorn and I were standing outside the house he shared with his friends, about to head inside for a movie night with everyone — and Bjorn grabbed me in a hug and kissed me!! Neither of us is super spontaneous, usually, but it was like a scene out of a movie. We’ve never looked back since. We knew it was the real deal. We had both wanted to marry our best friend, and we had found each other. It was meant to be – and I am daily grateful for that spontaneous moment that one December night!

RELATED: Our Love Story

I took German in middle and high school. I actually started teaching myself German from various workbooks as a kid. My family is German so it was meaningful to me to learn more about my heritage in this way. I tested out of my second language requirement in college with German, and I did take 2 semesters of Spanish, but German will always be easier for me and I love it the most.

I’m an elementary teacher, but not a typical classroom teacher. I’m an elementary Title I teacher, which means I support students by working with them in small groups on math and reading skills. I LOVE the small group atmosphere in Title I, and I have enjoyed getting to know so many of the elementary students over the years. I’ve taught for 4 years, but I’m currently taking this school year off to be at home with our baby girl!

Now it’s your turn, friends! Teach me a random fact about yourself! What’s something random about you that people probably don’t know??