Day 23: My Favorite Book(s)

I can not pick just one book. Here are a few of my faves ~

Childhood Favorite:

Favorite of my teen years:

My recent faves (no surprises here):

Day 22: Something I wish I was better at...

Being a housewife...

Day 21 - A picture of something you wish you could forget

Umm...I forgot

Day 20: Somewhere I wish I could travel

It is probably no surprise that I want to go to Italy. In my ideal world, in addition to traveling around and seeing all our favorite people and places, I would love to have some time to ourselves to visit some of the places we never made it to. For example Cinque Terre. It's one of those iconic tourist spots that we never made it to. I was also really sad that I didn't get to visit the island of Capri. That was a place I read about before we went and then we never made it there. We also never spent any time on the Amalfi coast. I would love for us to be able to spend a few days just the two of us at one of these beautiful places.

Cinque Terre

Capri

Amalfi Coast

Day 19: My Nicknames

• In elementary school: Freckle face - didn't bother me like people thought it would, especially since my mom told me they were angel kisses.
• Amanda Panda - I've had this one on and off throughout my life and I've always liked it, since, as you know, the panda is my favorite animal. :)
• In 6th grade: Mandie - there were a million other Amandas in my sixth grade classes. I used to read books with the heroine Mandie so I decided to go by it. My mom didn't like it though and it only lasted that year.
• DinkyManda - this was the first nickname Bella, our niece, gave us. The boys always just called us Jeremy and Amanda. Bella couldn't quite say it, thus we were dubbed DinkyManda!
• Jeremymanda - for Dahlia, we are still just Jeremymanda. Whether she is talking to me or to Jeremy it's Jeremymanda. :D

Day 18: My Biggest Insecurity

People

That's right.

I am insecure around people I don't know. I am horrible at small talk and just don't know how to meet new people.

And people I do know...

I worry if they still like me.

I know it is crazy and I try not to, but, hey, you asked what my biggest insecurity is.

Day 17: Something that made a huge impact on my life

Italy

You can't live for two years in another country without being impacted.

The impact goes on, even five years later.

I love this picture because it shows the beautiful blend

of old and new that is Italy.

Day 16: Someone Who Inspires Me

My mom

She is such a wonderful person.

She is the most selfless, loving, kind, giving person I know.

If I could be even half as compassionate and giving as she is I would be happy!

Day 15: Something I want to do before I die

This is my precious nephew Charlie one day after he was born.

I can't wait until I am holding one of my own.

Day 14: My Ipod

As I made reference to in an earlier post,

my ipod is not exactly normal.

I used to have some music on there,

maybe 10 songs,

but they got lost and I never bothered to replace them.

Instead of music, this is what I have:

That's it.

No kidding.

Three audio books that I listen to

over

and over

and over

and over

and over

You get the point.

I listen to Twilight like most people listen to music.

While I drive, workout, cook, clean...

Pretty much anything that I have to do alone. :D

Have I mentioned that I love Twilight?

Day 12: Me a Year Ago

Taken February 2010

Hmmm....

How have I changed?

Well, I hope I'm a few pounds lighter! :)

I hope my face doesn't look so chubby in pictures any more.

Ummm...

I am a homeowner now.

That's something big.

In some ways, I'm a much more in control of myself.

I am proud of how much weight I have been able to lose.

I am proud of being able to count calories and make sacrifices.

I am proud of how many of those changes have become permanent for me now.

I am also proud of how long I have kept up my disciplined nightly schedule,

(though I am way off tonight...)

I have felt for a long time that I should be more in control of my time,

that I should have time to do the things I wanted to,

I just had to be a little more disciplined.

I have finally done that.

Other than that, I don't really think I have changed that much,

but it's hard to tell. :D

Oops!

Oops! I skipped a day! Sorry. I am really messing this up this week. I promise I will go back and pick up day 12. :D

My favorite band

I am not a huge music person. I don't have it on constantly, nor do I have a ridiculously long iPod play list (though that will be a future post). However, there are couple of people who could listen to any time, any where. Since it said "band" and mine are both individual singers, I figure I could have two. :)

First is Laura Pausini. One of the very first Italian CDs we bought was her album "Tra Te e Il Mare" (between you and the sea). I was in love. She is amazing!

She even won a grammy!

But, since nobody has any idea who she is, here is number two:

I ADORE Taylor Swift!

She is sweet, beautiful and good to her fans.

And I could listen to her albums all day long and not get tired of them!

Though some people don't think she can sing, I strongly disagree! So there :P

Something I Hate

Cleaning up after dinner!

Falling behind...

I know that I'm two days behind, but I am really stuck! What do I hate??? When I figure that out, I am going to have to find a good picture from me a year ago... And by the time I get that done, I will have to figure out who my favorite band is! I will get there eventually :D

Day 10

The description of today was obviously written by a teenager.

Or someone with a much more interesting life than mine...

So I'm modifying a little bit.

Today is a tribute to the person with whom

I have done the craziest things, for me.

Because I am not really a crazy kind of girl.

I am a stick to what I know, routine, stay in my comfort zone kind of girl.

The person who has pushed me

out of that comfort zone the most is Jeremy.

And not because he is a crazy kid,

but because together, we are much more brave!

This picture was the last one taken of us before we boarded a plane to Italy...

And yes, that does go down in my book as the

"craziest" thing I ever did.

I left behind ever conceivable comfort zone

to live two years in a foreign country.

I would NEVER have done that without Jeremy.

Thank you honey.

You are the love of my life,

the breath to my soul,

my inspiration and my strength.

Day 9

I will be away from my computer this weekend, so I thought I would get a little ahead.

This is one of my all time favorite pictures of my family.

And this is the reason I will be gone.

This is the reason I am stressing myself out

trying to get things ready for a sub

and get myself ready for another weekend away from home.

My family.

As I mentioned in the 15 facts about me,

I LOVE my family!!

I HATE that we live so far from each other

and I am THRILLED that I get to see them again so soon.

And yes, this picture is taken at Whataburger.

If you know us, you know how appropriate that is! :D

My favorite color

Purple

Pretty much every shade,

though I like the darker ones better.

Surprisingly, I don't have much purple in my wardrobe;

so instead you get a picture of this beautiful flower!

My most treasured possession

Today I am supposed to post a picture of my most treasured possession. This should be easy, right? Wrong! The thing that breaks my heart is that I know exactly what it would be. I should be showing off pictures of my beautiful scrapbooks. That and the hard drive with all my digitals on it. I have always said those were the things I would grab in a fire.

So why can't I post them? Well, because of an idiotic moment that ruined a lot of hard work and great memories. It is my own fault and terribly embarrassing so I won't even tell you what happened, but a little over a year ago my scrapbooks got wet. Almost all the pages were ruined. The beautiful book chronicling my courtship with Jeremy, my first year of college and our wedding album. It makes me sick thinking about it all over again. After it happened, it hurt so bad I couldn't even look at them.

My wonderful, beautiful, selfless mother took on the rescue and recovery mission. She took pictures of the pages, salvaged what she could and threw away the rest (something I could not have done). Then, unbeknownst to me, she had Jeremy mail her the negatives and had all the pictures reprinted. In addition, she purchased all the supplies for me to remake the books - pages, paper, stickers etc!! She is one of the most amazing people I know!!!!!

That was Christmas 2009. Partly from the heartbreak, partly out of laziness, and mostly because scrap booking isn't nearly as much fun by yourself, I have not even begun to work on the new books. One of my goals for this summer (one of MANY) is to make major headway on that.

So, all that to say, no picture today. Just think about all the millions of pictures I post on my blogs and facebook and you will know what I treasure the most, memories with the friends and family that I love.

Someone I want to trade places with

I started to post a picture of her as Hermoine,

because that's who I really want to change places with!

I mean who doesn't want to be an

incredibly smart girl with a magic wand?!

Back in reality,

I am also impressed with her real world persona

Emma Watson.

She has handled her fame well

and is using her name and money to support

Fair Trade clothing and other charity work.

I just hope she doesn't turn out to be yet another celebrity

that let's me down...