Will over at First Quarter Finance had a fun post this week called 25 Random Things About Me, and since I’m freaking out about our May budget (I went way over on groceries and transferred our medical bills from Maddie’s surgery onto one of our credit cards, so although in theory we don’t have more debt, it feels like we do, and I’m losing it a bit over this) I thought I’d traumatize entertain you all with a similar post until I get my head out of the sand long enough to report our May numbers. 🙂
Here are 20 random things about me.
1. My parents divorced when I was 11. This was life-changing for me, as I saw how 1 mistake could mess up a whole lot of stuff. Although this didn’t teach me any financial lessons (even though it should have) I learned quickly that it’s best to gain wisdom and avoid serious mistakes if it all possible. I got all crazy-perfectionist for a couple of decades, but I’m over that now. 🙂
2. I grew up in the inner city – the really inner city – and hung out with the tough crowd. I was a badass and a partier, (until I softened a bit in my later twenties) and would welcome eagerly look for an opportunity to kick your tail if you messed with me. Bring it. I wasn’t a big girl (tall, yes, muscular, no), but I was pissed off at the world, (see above) and that anger trumped my scrawny arms. One look from me, and I could have you running like a scared toddler to your mommy. 🙂
3. The girl you see now came on the scene when I learned that Jesus loved me and thought I was awesome, no matter how many other people didn’t. Now I’m a mushy, soft-hearted home schooling mommy whose greatest joy is to show love to others, although my kids will testify that if they’re getting out of line too much, the old Laurie comes back in fine form, which works very nicely for getting the kids to shape up quickly. 🙂
4. I haven’t eaten Spaghettios for three decades, and never will again, thanks to an “incident” with Spaghettios and Bacardi 151 when I was 17. My kids will never know this story. 🙂
5. I once owned a 1977 silver Trans Am. It may have had t-tops, but I can’t remember if it really did, or if I’m just glorifying my memory of it. That car rocked. 🙂
6. I was engaged to a guy before I met Rick and called the wedding off 29 days before “D-day”. A long story for another time, but it was definitely the right decision, although it was a bit awkward to have to call several hundred people to notify them, since the invitations had already gone out.
7. One time, my high school BFF and I ticked some gangstas off on the road (to this day we still don’t know what we did wrong), and they seriously tried to take us down. It was like something out of the movies. What ensued was a high-speed chase through the inner city of speeds up to 60 miles an hour. Not a cop anywhere to be found, of course, at the time when you really need them. With my NASCAR-like driving skills, I lost them after what seemed like an hour (but was probably only about 15-20 minutes), and we pulled into a cop shop, ran inside and begged them to save us.
8. This same BFF and I went through a stage where we were bodybuilders, I kid you not. We were total gym rats, hung out with all of the body building guys and spent countless hours at the gym. We were always the girls that hung out with groups of guys but never dated any of them. It was awesome, being in that good of shape. I finally had the muscles to go with my tough-girl attitude. 🙂
9. When I was a kid, before the divorce, I was the shyest kid ever. I never made a peep, and obeyed my parents faithfully, largely out of fear of my dad, who’s 6’3 and over 200 pounds. My mom never understood this, as my dad really is a softy, but when you’re 5 and looking up at a guy who’s like, three times your height, common sense dictates you best stay in line. 🙂
10. My favorite color is red.
11. I am passionate to a fault about the things I love.
12. I am as loyal as a black lab. If I count you as a friend, I will never, ever betray you in any way, shape or form. I may get ticked off at you, but I will never betray you. It’s a code of honor thing for me.
13. Nothing ticks me off like lying, dishonesty, and laziness.
14. I am a perpetual student. You’ll likely never find me reading fiction, but instead, always non-fiction of some sort, most often the Bible and some type of finance book.
15. I am a skeptic at heart. I don’t believe what I’m presented with until I’ve researched it thoroughly for myself. This includes my choice to have a relationship with Christ. I’ve spent countless hours studying, reading and dissecting the Bible to make sure it makes sense to me. I did this before I accepted Christ, and continue to do it to this day.
16. I am both amazingly wise and yet, sometimes, incredibly ditzy at the same time. How this happens, I don’t know, but I always get this bewildered look from Rick when ditzy Laurie makes an appearance, as if he’s thinking “How can you be so smart and so stupid at the same time?’.
17. Humor and laughter take up a majority of my time. Rick and I both are incredibly silly and love to make jokes. We used to be embarrassed by this, but now we’re old enough that we don’t care what other people think. And, it’s great for embarrassing teenage children. 🙂
18. My mom is a lot like Edith Bunker. She’s sweet as pie, silly and can tell a good off-color joke better than anyone I know. One time she had the whole family laughing so hard – in the middle of a restaurant – that we couldn’t even speak. I’m certain to this day that the waiter we had still wonders what on earth was going on, but I’d be too ashamed to repeat my innocent mom’s naughty joke to him.
19. One time some girlfriends and I were flying home from a vacation in AZ and came “this close” to crashing with another plane as we landed, due to a mess-up in the control tower about who was supposed to have access to the runway at the moment. Yeah, that was freaky.
20. In my dream world, I wouldn’t change much about my life, except for that we’d be debt free, and have a much bigger farm. It’s not for everyone, but for us, farm life rocks.
I hope this post helps to explain some of my oddities. 🙂 Now it’s your turn. Tell me some random facts about you. What’s your fave color? What were you like as a teen? What would your dream life look like?
I love learning more about you Laurie! I am also passionate, and also can be smart in some ways and incredibly dumb/naive in other ways, lol. My favorite color is purple. I hope that everything works out with your finances — don’t freak out too much, it’s not healthy for you! If you need an ear, email me, ok? 🙂
Awww, Melanie, you’re the best – thank you!!!! Yeah, it’s been a tough couple of weeks (sometimes I put WAY too much pressure on myself) but I am starting to come out of it now. Love that you love purple!! My stepmom and our second oldest daughter also love purple. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
I love posts like this! So much fun!
My favorite color is purple, I was a shy/awkward teen that just wanted to be the best at EVERYTHING, and my dream life would be traveling the world with my husband and dog.
Interesting! Lots of purple lovers! Can’t see you being shy – you’re so engaging now. 🙂 Love that, about traveling with the hubby and dog – sounds like fun – thanks for sharing!
This is great, thanks for sharing.
I don’t have a favorite color – lame I know. I was a little nerd with big teeth when I was younger… wait I’m still a little nerd with big teeth, nevermind that. I love rock climbing and riding my motorcycle. Oh and I love playing guitar. Have two cats and five turtles.
Interesting about the color thing, Aldo! LOL, funny about the nerd thing. 🙂 We are cat lovers too, and almost had a turtle: 3rd oldest found one in the yard and tried to convince Rick to let her keep it as a pet. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by, and thanks for sharing!
I still can’t picture you with the tough crowd! It’s funny how we change =). I like to think I’m pretty much the same personality-wise, but I know what I want more than I did years ago. My favorite colors are purple and blue; blue most of my life, purple most recently. My boyfriend often asks how I can be so smart, yet so dumb, haha. I make silly comments from time to time that leave him shaking his head. We’re also very weird together!
I think May had some conspiracy against most of us, as many budgets were busted. You’ve been doing so great this year, though, don’t let one month get you down! It’s just one more bump in the road that you’ll get past.
LOL, me either, E.M. 🙂 It does seem that those budget busts tend to run in streaks, doesn’t it? Glad to hear you guys know how to be silly too: to me, it’s a crucial part of success. 🙂
How funny! Great minds must think alike, I have a post all written up for Monday with 10 facts about me! 🙂
I can’t imagine you as a tough, angry girl. You always seem so sweet! Funny how people change over time isn’t it?
LOL, those were the days. 🙂 Can’t wait to read your post, SHNM. I think we’d get along famously IRL.
1. Fav color is purple but I do tend to wear read if I need to feel smart or powerful
2. As a teen I too did what I was suppose to because my dad was in military & demanded respect & no questioning his authority! What he said goes…plus my mother has that similar Type “A” personality thst I just didn’t make waves…my sister did & because she rebelled often paid the price with her life..21 yrs ago
3. My dream life would to be TOTALLY debt free including home & vehicle.. So I could hopefully be at home with my 3 teenage girls who I feel need me now more than ever
There’s that fave purple again!! So sad about your sis – sorry to hear that. 🙁 Hoping you make debt free very, very soon, my friend!
Interesting facts about you Laurie, Thanks for sharing. It’s good to take a break from the numbers sometimes.
It seems that many women love the color purple so do I. I would have liked to be wiser about money in my 20s.
Another purple lover – definitely the winning color so far! Raquel, I think you are incredibly wise for your age – keep up the great work. 🙂
Wow, ticking off gangstas and going on high speed chases, I definitely didn’t know you were involved in that type of activity LAURIE! lol. Love the post, it was great to get to know you more, I may just do one of these of my own.
You should, Joshua!!! Yes, people often think I’m just a country bumpkin, but I’m far from it. 🙂
Yea, I think I’ll do it Wednesday!
Yay!
Love these kind of posts, Laurie. You’ve shared before that you were a tough girl and it’s hard for me to imagine you brawling with everyone. 🙂 My parents divorced when I was young too and it really affected me too. I’m really tall, like 6′ and hair. I don’t mind it now but growing up it was tough during that period where I was taller than most boys. I started slouching and my Mom put an immediate stop to it, which I am grateful she did. Now days, my girls tell me they hope they are as tall as me and that makes me feel really good.
I’ve learned to embrace being a bit taller too, Shannon, and good for your mom for making sure you did as well. 🙂 I didn’t know your parents were divorced: that can be so difficult as a child. My brawling days are over now, mostly ;-), and sometimes it seems as if that was another life, but it’s helped me to appreciate what I have today.
Oh man, I’m the “smart, stupid” thing to a tee. I can go from perfect reasoning to complete “duh!” within about one sentence and it throws people off. It’s the funniest at work when people first see the ditzy side and then realize I’m actually, totally, completely brilliant 😉 (and humble too, LOL!)
My favourite colour is yellow, but it looks horrid on me. Purple and deep blues look awesome though (they bring out my green eyes I guess).
Funny you mention the spaghettio’s incident. I think we all have an unfortunate story where a food was ruined due to a little too much alcohol. Mine was my Mom’s homemade chicken pot pie. She never did learn why I refused to eat that again. 🙂
Funny, Alicia, about you having a ditzy side, and about the chicken pot pie too. 🙂 I love yellow too, but it’s such a weird color, especially for clothes: so many different shades of yellow, some are really gorgeous, and some are like “Make it stop!”
It’s crazy how many lives you’ve had!
I too used to be super shy as a child. I would hide from guests when they came over and I didn’t even talk to one of my aunt’s until I was probably 12. She came to every family gathering lol.
Thanks for the shout-out!
LOL, oh yes, crazy it is. 🙂 Funny that you were shy too – I wonder why so many of us shy kids turn out to be extroverts?
Wow, what a fascinating person you are! I’m always amazed by people who completely turn their lives around.
When I was a kid, my favorite color was black. I just loved the boldness of it. Then one day my mom told me that it couldn’t be my favorite color because black is not a color. Womp womp.
I don’t know if I’d use the word fascinating, LOL, but thank you! 🙂 Funny about black, my oldest really likes that color too. I never thought about it not really being a color – interesting!
So much fun! I. never knew you were a badass. It’s funny how people change, I was such a goth in my early twenties but now in my early thirties you’d never know!
Funny about the goth thing, Victoria! I went through a punk rock stage for a short stint in the 8th grade, but I was just not tough enough yet to pull it off. 🙂
I LOVED this and getting to know you better, Laurie!! We have some stuff in common, from having red as our favorite color to being a gym rat in a past life! I wasn’t a badass, though, I just read books. 😉 Thank you so much for sharing, it really gave me some insight on the wonderful person that you are!
I should say – read books and they were pretty much my only friends. lol
Well, at least they couldn’t get you into too much trouble. 🙂
LOL, life probably wouldn’t have held quite so many bumps for me if I’d chosen the book reading route, Anna. 🙂 Thanks for your kind words; you know I feel the same about you!
Wow I would have never thought in a million years you were a thug Laurie! I mean never! And some of the other stuff is crazy too. I remember you mentioning your childhood so I did know that part though. I love these posts because they are fun and insightful. Me, I was a introverted, but had a chip on my shoulder and a sharp tongue. I was pretty cynical from my childhood too, and didn’t soften until my very late 20’s too. Except it had nothing to do with Jesus, and more to do with my music tastes. I went from listening to Ministry to Jack Johnson. 🙂 My fave color is red!
Music is an amazing soother, isn’t it? It’s been a big part of my life too: helped me cope with lots of things. Yeah, I was a bit of a thug. A fun party girl, but you didn’t want to get on my bad side. 🙂 I can identify with the chip and the sharp tongue. I guess a part of that life will always be with me in a way. As my ex-fiance used to say “You can take the girl out of the East Side, but you can’t take the East Side out of the girl.” This used to tick my mom off, but I’m proud of it. Hugs to you, my fellow cynic! 🙂
Nice post about your life Laurie. Always great to know more about my favorite bloggers. I’ve entered three food challenges like you see on man vs. Food and won them all.
Wow, Charles!! I would love to hear more about those food challenges!! We get a huge kick out of watching shows like that. 🙂
I love this post, Laurie! Getting to know your story and what makes you tick, rocks! I loved spagettios as a kid, my fav colour is green, and I’m a member of the J cheer leading club too!
Ah, the groceries. My grocery budget is bugging me big time right now and I’m trying to figure out how to deal with it.
Woohoo for the J cheerleading club! 🙂 Yeah, I’m ready to start eating ramen noodles out of frustration over that d__n grocery budget. At least the lettuce is starting to come in. 🙂
Thanks for sharing! I enjoy learning personal things about my blogger friends! Very cool!
Glad you enjoyed it, Natalie. 🙂
I am SO glad that you did one of these Laurie and I LOVED what you shared!!! I was engaged in college and ending the wedding 6 months before we were about to pull the trigger. SO glad that I did! My mom grew up in the hood and was a badass, skinny white girl because of it and it’s probably why I have a little tough side too. My parents divorced when I was 2 and it didn’t really impact me until I was in my late 20s and had my son. All of the sudden, once I had a kid, I cared more about my parent’s relationship or lack thereof. And I definitely want to hear more about the Bacardi and spaghettio incident! I have a really bad wine cooler story from about the same age. Thanks for sharing your stories!
Interesting, Shannon!!! This must be why we click so well. 🙂 Yeah, having our oldest really made me realize the magnitude of my parents’ divorce, too. Very eye opening. Seems lots of people have those alcohol food-related stories, LOL.
Laurie,
Seriously, I am crying I am laughing so hard. Too damn funny! I think we may be soulmates. My parents divorced when I was 17 years old. That really leaves a mark. Nonetheless, I have found the love of my life (as have you) – (for 30 plus years) and life goes on.
You just quit beating yourself up over your debt. YOU are doing GREAT. Take a breath, trust and give it some time. You are sooooooooooooo well on your way and I just don’t think you see it yet. Been there, done that. Lived well below the poverty line and never took a dime of welfare. That whole concept just never set well with me.
God – if you only really knew how close you are! And I only know that ’cause I’ve been there – for what seemed to be a really, really long hopeless time. Thank God we were too busy trying to survive so that we didn’t have that much time to concentrate on our financial situation and you know what happened? We are now well on our way to being financially independent. I’m certainly not bragging – I’m just telling you what happened to us.
When we didn’t have the time/energy to worry about how much debt we were in, we simply kept plugging away at it and frankly, having kids helped us a lot. We were so distracted trying to keep them fed, clothed, safe, etc that that is all we concentrated on. Lo and behold, they grew up and unbeknownst to us – we sort of got rich. It just happened. We just kept paying off our debt and saving and now we’ve got well over $1M in assets.
I swear I am not an arrogant ass – I’m just telling you – you’re doing fine and you’re going to be great. Hell, if it can happen to us, it can happen to anyone (at least anyone in America).
The one thing that I truly do think made all the difference in the world was whenever I paid a bill I literally thanked God and said a prayer of extreme gratitude. Even when (maybe especially when) after I paid the bills and we literally had 87 cents in the bank I was doing a happy dance with my wife ’cause we had made it thru one more month and our kids were still safe, fed and loved.
You go girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You’re further on your way than you realize. LOVED this blog.
God bless.
Jim
Jim, your comment has made my entire week. 🙂 It’s amazing, I’ve quadrupled the time I spend reading the Bible, just starting at the beginning of the week here, and I now have that “perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Him”. I just know we have this thing in the bag, Jim. I can’t see it on paper, but it’s there, just like you said. God is good! 🙂 Have an awesome week, my friend. Hugs to you and Mrs. Jim for being such an encouragement to us.
I’m a perpetual student as well! I love learning and reading non-fiction. Although I did actually read a fiction book, Still Missing, this past weekend in one day. Which resulted in me ignoring my entire family because I was so involved in the story. lol. 🙂 Loved learning more about you Laurie!
LOL, yeah, fiction stuff can really draw you in like that. 🙂 Glad to hear you are a perpetual student as well, Jessi. There’s so much great stuff to be learned!
Great post Laurie! Thanks for sharing. Would have never figured you for the wild/ high speed chase kinda girl! Continued success to you and the family.
Yeah, there’s many things about my younger years that surprise people. 🙂 Thanks, Brian, and to you as well!
LOVED this Laurie! Sometime you’re going to have to tell me the story behind #4. 😉 I have a few of those myself and the kiddos will never know about it either. 🙂 In regards to #5, my first car was a candy apple red 1976 Firebird. It belonged to a widow who used it to drive to church and the grocery store and was stinkin’ awesome. Something random about me…I LOVE purple! The main reason is I got my Bachelor’s from K-State and that’s where my life changed so it stuck. 🙂 But, as we live in Nebraska all we see is red and I have taken to teaching the kids that red is not “red” but “evil”. It drives my poor wife nuts, lol. 🙂 And to quote Jim above, you’re doing great! 🙂
Oooh, candy apple red: gorgeous!!!!! I can just envision it now. 🙂 Funny about Nebraska and red: we say the same thing about the Green Bay Packers, although, it’s more along the lines of “pray for them, kids, that they may be granted the wisdom that the Vikes are better.” We think it’s hilarious, but I have a feeling the Packers fans wouldn’t find it very funny. 🙂 Thanks too, to you guys, for all of the encouragement – much, much appreciated!
Bacardi and spaghettios?! Oh my : ) On a similar note, my first time getting drunk I hade vodka shots and chased them w/Gatorade. To this day I cannot bring myself to drink Gatorade. For some reason the vodka sits just fine though. HA! Have a great weekend.
LOL, funny!!! Just reading that makes me never want to drink Gatorade again. 🙂 Thanks for sharing, Liz, and you have a great weekend too.
Thanks for sharing that post, Laurie. I feel like I know you better now.
As for me, hmmm, I love playing kickball even though I’m in my thirties…
That’s awesome, DB40!!! It’s activities and attitudes like yours that keep people young. 🙂
I would NOT have thought you grew up in the inner city! You seem like such a rural person – at least in your blogging. Love posts like this where I get to know about other bloggers.
LOL, yeah, people who knew me then would never believe the life I lead now. 🙂
This was so fun to read Laurie! You really did have some wild inner-city experiences. I bet you love that your kids are getting the farm-style youth experiences instead. I know as a kid I felt invincible, but as a Mama, thinking about my kids doing the same things make my heart stop. I’m glad they’re growing up in the boonies.
LOL, so true about the differences between being a mom and being a kid, and yes, I am absolutely thrilled that the kids get the blessing of this peaceful and laid-back lifestyle. In one sense, we work harder than ever before – kids included – but in another sense, there is so much peace here. Good stuff. 🙂
It’s so much fun to learn more about you, Laurie! My favorite color is also red and I am one of the few girls in my group of friends who mostly guys. In fact, I used to be the only girl! I never dated any of them, except for The BF – he was the only one to successfully make it out of the friend zone 🙂
LOL, funny!!! Rick started out as a friend too, although I don’t think either of us thought we’d ever end up married to each other. Funny how that works out. 🙂
Holy cow. I did NOT expect half of these from you. You were a f$%#ing badass. Still are, BTW, just in a different way….
You. Have. No. Idea. ;-). Thanks, Joe, I appreciate the encouragement. 🙂
Those were some really good ones! Bodybuilding and Gangstas mixed with some nascar racing, good stuff.
Thanks, Even Steven. 🙂
Thanks for sharing a few and more things about you. Love getting to know other bloggers. I also grew up in an inner city, fave color is read and have totally forgotten about spaghettios.
LOL, glad to hear you’re a fan of the color red too. We just passed a red Mustang on the road yesterday: what better color is there for a sports car? 🙂
Thanks for sharing all of these things! I can relate most to number 14. I, too, am a perpetual student, always reading non-fiction!
Gotta love it, Natalie. There’s always something to learn!
Awww….this is neat. I don’t eat Spaghettios either. They are so gross! =)
Beyond. Rick used to occasionally pick up a can for the kids, as a “treat” but I put a stop to that. 🙂
Laurie,
Wow, it sounds like you’ve had a couple near death experiences. Glad you’re still here with us 🙂
Your story sounds like it would make a really good book – seriously. You have a very interesting background.
LOL, you know, Derek, I think about that, but there’s way too much stuff that I wouldn’t want anyone to know. 🙂
“Spaghettios and Bacardi 151” wow that must have been quiet a night! I love posts like this. I can’t even imagine you being a badass, but I bet you can’t imagine me with blonde hair and acrylic finger nails! (Seriously, I have no idea what I was thinking).
One of my girlfriends from grad school was engaged to a guy prior to meeting her (now) husband. She sent out cards to everyone calling off the engagement. They said, “met the wrong guy, gave him the wrong finger”–love that!
LOL, so funny!!! We should exchange pics of those days sometime. 🙂 Hilarious about the cards – what a great line!
It was great reading this article and getting to find out more about you, Laurie! I would’ve never imagined you as a badass, but I guess that many of us were really different when we were young. And managing to upset some gangsters… now that’s an experience (not one I’d like to live, though :P)
LOL, yeah, it was scary, even for a tough girl like me. 🙂 Glad you liked the article, C. 🙂
Thanks for sharing. It’s really hard to picture you in a silver T-bird terrorizing the neighborhood, but I guess we all eventually grow into who we are supposed to be. I hope so anyway!
LOL, me too, Kim. 🙂
This is great! I never knew you were a badass, but I’d believe it. lol. I like #3! It’s amazing what Jesus can do. I’m right there with you on 14. #20, my wife parents are looking to buy a farm right now. They have mentioned passing it on to us in the future. Could be fun! I grew up on a farm, but I was fairly young when we moved. BTW, I haven’t been around the blogosphere much as of late, because my wife and I just adopted 2 children. We have been kind of busy! I’m trying to get around now and read all these great posts. lol