Saturday, January 31, 2009

25 Random Things About Me

1. Most people would consider me shy and quiet. But once you get to know me, good luck on getting me to shut up.

2. Growing up, I was teased a lot for being a "Molly Mormon" and "Goody Two Shoes."

3. I'm always being asked what my nationality is. The answer is "American." If you want to know what my ethnicity is, I'm Japanese Caucasion with some native American mixed in and possibly Hawaiian. It's hard to know for sure since my great grandmother was kind of wild and crazy :)

4. I'm the oldest of 7 kids and have 1 older half-brother.

5. When I was 15 I competed in the Miss Teen Utah Pageant. It was a great opportunity to break out of the box I had myself in and be whatever I wanted to be because No one knew I was shy and quiet. I placed in the top 10 and was chosen to be Miss Congeniality. The next day I went back to school and sat by myself at lunch.

6. I've struggled with various health problems all my life and in 2006 was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph system. I went through 4 months of chemotherapy and 1 month of radiation. I lost all my hair but successfully eliminated the cancer. I've been in remission for 2 1/2 years.

7. I published a short story when I was 12 years old after entering the Young Author's conference. The story was called "The Last Samurai" and then years later, Tom Cruise starred in a movie with the same title...but very different story :)

8. I served an LDS mission in Tokyo Japan and this was the last place on earth I wanted to go. But I ended up loving it and gaining a great appreciation for my culture and my ancestors.

9. I'm a computer geek. I love to make and edit movies on my iMac, design web pages and do other desktop publishing projects.

10. I composed music with lyrics and produced a CD which I sold to raise money to pay for my mission.

11. Before I married Munro, I was engaged to another guy 3 different times and lost 3 separate engagement rings...I guess it wasn't meant to be. (I've never lost the ring Munro gave me.)

12. I met Munro at a Laundromat/Tanning salon. His family owned it and I went in to go tanning before moving to Hawaii. I met him briefly, shook his hand and that was it. The next week I moved to Hawaii to attend BYU-H and ran into him on the beach with the sun shining gloriously behind him. We were married 4 months later.

13. I've never tasted alcohol, smoked a cigarette, drank coffee, done illegal drugs or been arrested.

14. I have 5 tattoos.

15. Each tattoo is the size of a mole and was strategically placed to receive radiation in exactly the right areas.

16. I lived in the Cayman Islands and survived a direct hit from a CAT 5 hurricane which devastated the island.

17. Once I start working on a project, I obsessively work on it until it is completed. I hate half finished things.

18. I love bubble gum ice cream, junior mints, and dill pickles. (but not neccesarily all together.)

19. I hate to exercise.

20. When I went on my mission, I had 2 brothers who were out at the same time, so my parents had 3 missionaries out. Then when I got married, a brother and a sister also got married the same month, so my parents had 3 weddings in 30 days.

21. I love history, politics and current events. I voted for Barack Obama.

22. I'm SCUBA certified.

23. I have a keen business sense, enjoy accounting, and have been told I have a dry sense of humor.

24. Most people think I'm in my mid to lower twenties. If my kids aren't with me I'm still occasionally mistaken for an 18 year old. I turn 32 this March! (When my mom was 32 she had her 7th child!)

25. Nothing brings me greater happiness than my husband and 2.5 children.