Interesting Tid Bits

So, I was recently told I was going to have to stand up in front of 50 or so people at a networking event and introduce myself and tell everyone something interesting about myself. I'm not special, everyone has to do it, but my initial response to this was "oh great, I guess I'll be making something up". It took a co-worker to point out Trading Spaces, which I'm sure I would have come up with given more time to think, it is fairly recent and I'm still asked about it. However, I tried to think of other interesting things and was having a hard time coming up with stuff. It made me wonder, why do we seem to find the interesting and unique in others but can’t pinpoint them in ourselves?

I took the advice given by a coworker, to ask John and did some brainstorming last night and all together this is what we came up with (I've written these about myself, but it's obvious how many of my interesting tidbits include John and other loved ones):

• My name is carved into an interior support beam of the top floor of the sears tower (my dad worked there for 16 years when the top floors were built)
• I did some really bad catalog modeling for Bass Pro shops in the mid 80’s (along with my Dad who can hold his own agains any thermal underware model)
• I was an official crew member of an automobile racing team (my dad raced vintage car racing – the name of his car/team was sundial racing b/c in the early days he was so slow we joked we could toss the stop watch and time him using a sundial)
• I’m a double certified scuba diver whose never been open water diving
• I was married in the Boston Public Garden on the same day Hemp (um I mean) Freedom Fest was celebrated in the Common (I’ve been told all of our guests had the munchies)
• I witnessed Pope John Paul II conduct a mass wedding ceremony in Piazza San Pietro at St. Peter’s Church in Rome
• I was on the Italian nightly news – John and I were traveling by train to Civitavecchia when the tracks were flooded out and we were stranded on the train for several hours. We were in a box car with two priests from Spain. The Red Cross showed up to provide everyone with ham croissants and apples. The film crew showed up too and filmed our box car, John and I were drinking Italian beer and playing cards with the two priests looking on (good and evil in one box car!)
• I met Whoopi Goldberg and accused her of being an impersonator (alcohol was involved)
• I have my apprentice black belt in TKD
• I filmed an episode of Trading Spaces with John and my best freinds (no we didn’t meet Paige Davis)
• one last thing (not interesting really, just memorable for me) on this day, September 11th, 4 years ago, I found out I was pregnant with Loretta. My parents were also married on September 11th. Nice to have some fond memories of this date to help counter the bad memories, ya know?

So, what did I learn from this exercise in self awareness? We are so critical of ourselves. We are often never "enough" (smart, pretty, strong, interesting) in our own mind. But, if we look at ourselves with less critical eyes (like through the eyes of our loved ones) we may just see how interesting we really are.

Teeth and Expressions

Caroline has finally gotten a few more teeth. She has 6 total now. Much more slow going then her big sister. Loretta had 11 or 12 by this age. It's been a difficult few weeks, but when she is pain free (thanks to Motrin) she is her happy wonderful playful self!

So, John and I are more careful lately with our favorite ways of expressing ourselves. Loretta is picking up on everything we say and using our gems in the right context and often. She sometimes combines and mixes them up a little though. Her latest is "SON OF GOD!!!" It's an apparent combination of "son of a gun" (only recently revised from the tried and true version) and one of mine "For the love of God". Needless to say, it pretty much kills us when we hear her scream it from another room b/c her tower was knocked over by Caroline or some other tragedy occurred.

Caroline is now in Parent Child Swim and Loretta has recently started gymnastics classes. She loves it and asks pretty much daily if today is a gymnastics day. She started asking for gymnastics after we let her watch it during the Olympics. It's absolutely adorable watching her. She's much taller than the other kids and a bit of a "bull in a china shop" but she is trying and loves it. Caroline is a little less enamored with the swimming, she loves her baths, but is a little overwhelmed in the big cool pool. But, I'm hoping she'll eventually take to it like her big sister.

That's all for now EXCEPT for a quick call out to Dad T. Happy Birthday DAD T!!!

Tid Bits

Here are a couple of pictures of the girls. I was playing with the settings and taking pictures of a few flowers - movement, etc.

Also - Check out Aryana's blog (link on the right under Fav Links). She's getting so big, such a cutie pie. Also, the very first video is one of us all at the zoo feeding and petting the deer.
Enjoy!