A little enlightenment

Lucy from Romance tagged me! And because I'm "it" you get to find out 11 fun facts about me :)

The Rules:
1. You must post these rules.
2. Each person must post 11 things about themselves on their blog.
3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
4. You have to choose 11 people to tag and link them on the post. 
5. Go to their page and tell them you have linked him or her.

11 Questions:
1. What's your favorite Christmas/ Birthday gift or story (good or bad)?

Birthday: I have 2 - it's a tie. When I was in 7th grade my 3 best friends spent months planning a surprise party for me. They spent hours individually decorating each invitation and envelope. They had my family and all of our friends in on it. I had NO idea. It was at the Camden Place clubhouse. Bonnie lived in Camden Place which backed up to my neighborhood. I could cut through my across the street neighbor's backyard and end up in Bonnie's back yard. Her dad put a bail of pine straw at the fence so when I jumped over I didn't have as far to land. That day I hopped over the fence, Katie and Kyle were already hanging out at Bonnie's house for the evening. It was TGIF! All of our favorite shows were most likely coming on that night: Boy Meets World, Step by Step, Family Matters, Full House. But it was a pretty day so we decided to jump on the trampoline. We WORE OURSELVES OUT! You know how tiring it is when you play on the tramp for over an hour?! Well, before TGIF started they somehow threw out the idea that we should take a walk up to the pool. I don't remember anything in particular about the walk up there except when we reached the parking lot one of them suggested we cut through the clubhouse to get to the pool (and now, come to think of it, it was February or March, so I'm not sure why I wasn't catching onto something being "up". Too cold to swim! :) But, I opened the door and it was pitch black and I heard something. I remember saying, "Did y'all hear that?!" And I rounded the corner and lights came on and tons of people cried out, "SURPRISE!!!!!" and I was BLOWN.AWAY. It was for me! It was SO. MUCH. FUN! We danced and ate and belted out songs at the tops of our lungs. I do remember jumping on couches too! It was quite honestly one of the greatest childhood memories I have! SO. MUCH. FUN! 

I will tell the other favorite birthday memory on a different blog post because that response was really long and I still have 10 questions to go. Stay Tuned :)

2. What's your favorite memory from college?
the first one that comes to mind is doing jumping pictures in Granny's attic with the fan blowing while wearing bathing suits over our clothes. SNA (Sunday Night Alive - spin off from SNL) also comes to mind. And there is also the first time Tay and I saw each other freshman year after having broken up when we left for college. Whew! Flood of emotions! We literally hugged for like an hour straight with Norah Jones playing in the background - it was the greatest and the most heartbreaking time ever. 

3. What's your favorite place you've been?
Africa

(I'll try and answer more rapidly now or else I'm scared I may never finish)

4. What's the next place you'd like to visit?
Switzerland

5. Lake, beach, mountains, or dessert?
BEACH

6. What's your favorite cuisine/ meal?
Italian. Any carb or starch. I love things that crunch. Breakfast. Einstein Cookies from the GMP (ate, no lie, sometimes 3 per day my freshman year of college). 

7. Would you rather be on Survivor, American Idol, or Jersey Shore?
American Idol. I love American Idol. And I'd love to have the camaraderie with the other contestants. And at least once per episode I will stand up at commercial and give Taylor my rendition of how I would have performed the previous song. 

He does that eyes-to-the-ground-sweet-smile-shake-his-head-thing when I do this. 

8. Would you rather head up a flash mob dance party or sing along?
FLASH MOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

9. What's your favorite childhood movie? 
Little Giants

10. What's the best thing you've learned from your mother?
hmmm . . . lots has been learned from my mother. This is a very difficult question to answer as I am trying to fire rapidly through these so I don't loose all my readers (ha! readers? Anyone out there? Really? Sometimes I want to just ask you to leave a comment so I know that people at least glance at the posts. So, leave me some love below people!!!!). . . I'm thinking I'm thinking. 

There are the 3 points of good manners:

1. Use the Golden Rule

2. Always do your best

3. Choose to do the right thing

Then there is "what sunshine and exercise can do for the mind and heart!"

Then there is "Just be Sally."

And then, in all seriousness, she taught me about Jesus. That is by far the best thing I've learned from my mother. Jesus.

11. What's your favorite pic (please post and add a caption)?

FAAAAVORITE PIC?!?!?!! sheesh, this is hard too!! For emotional reasons (So hard to pick just one) but more importantly for technical reasons seeing as we lost an absurd amount of pictures in the hard-drive incident . . . so, I'll pick my fav from what I have access to on my computer at the moment. 

This one still makes me smile EVERYTIME I look at it. What JOY!

11 New People

1. Hal from R.E.D

2. Catie from Craving Sweet Tea

3. Beccs from Lowlife Couture

4. Rebecca from The Dosters

11 New Questions

1. Tell about your childhood pet. 

2. What is one of the things you are most proud of in your life?

3. Did you have a childhood security blanket (or stuffed animal or pillow, etc)?

4. How many children would you like to have?

5. Is there a hobby you would be interested in trying to incorporate in your life?

6. What's one thing you learned from your father?

7. Favorite book you had to read for school? (remember A Separate Peace, The Scarlet Letter, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, Catch 22, The Crucible, The Giver, The Grapes of Wrath, etc)?

8. Tell about a time when you really laughed hard - like belly laughter, deep from your soul.

9. Cold weather or hot weather?

10. The best conversation starter you've ever heard?

11. Favorite picture with a caption.