Top Ten Tuesday - Lovin Thy Dern Self Edition

1. I can cook most anything I want to. Except for instant rice. Seriously. I can dissect most any dish and re-create it, but that dang instant rice usually ends up runny? Hmmm.



2. I love my kids, and everyone else's. I am coaching volleyball this season, and the kids and I are having a ball...more on that later. But, kids and dogs just know I am a safe place and that I adore them. Yep, I do. Guilty as charged. I am a pretty darn good mommy, that I can always stand upon, if nothing else in the world is going my way.



3. I am a good amigo. People usually want to talk to me, and share their problems and thoughts. I have had one student call it "pastoral". I took it to mean related to Louis Pasteur, so I was like a disease? Huh? No, I kid. I kid. I guess I must put people at ease, and I like that I can be that for some people. I guess that's why I am in the profession I am in.



4. I think I am pretty fun. I like to laugh, and to make others laugh is a hobby of mine. I usually try to take a boring bunch of stiff academics and at least give them one chuckle per day. Even if it's a small, quiet, shoulders barely rising and falling sort of laugh. Academics don't do the belly laugh thang. I think it's forbidden in the first day of professor school.



5. I am tough as heck. I can lift more than most people. I can generally take a high level of pain. I just think it comes from thinking you were a boy until you turned 12. I just don't get too wrapped up in sniveling. I am a "suck it up" kinda chicky.



6. I love camping, hunting, fishing and the great outdoors. I think it's something that is part of our heritage, so I am glad to be honoring that part of our roots. I know it sounds overly dramatic to extrapolate this out of a simple desire to sleep in the woods, but seriously. I know Dad has told me that Grandpa wanted his kids and his grandkids to enjoy the woods as much as he did. I do, Papa McCumber. I so do. Dad said he sometimes would go find a tree and just sit under it with his back propped up against it and nap. I try to do this now, with some regularity. Not because I am a lazy bum that loves the whizz of the bugs in the trees and the smell of the pine and the sun on my face, but purely to honor my Grandfather. Geez, give a girl some credit...



7. I am honest. I get my arse in a sling sometimes because of this. I am honest, even if you would really rather I didn't tell the truth. So sorry, but I am a slave to the truth. I only lie when telling the kids that the almond M&Ms are all gone. Ok, that's usually a lie. Kidding! :)



8. I work hard. I am a very productive person. Most of the time. (Except for 3pm bath and literature hour...) I can get alot accomplished very quickly. Especially under pressure. I THRIVE under pressure. I think it comes from backup dispatching at the Sheriff's Department when I was a wee one...17 to be exact. I only had to dispatch if the main dispatch was swamped...so I had to be able to handle alot of pressure. I love working hard, and love accomplishing alot. Doesn't make for many "favorite colleague of the year" awards at work, but hey, whatcha gonna do?

9. I am passionate. It's a blessing and a curse, really. It leads me to say things when I am empassioned about something that I later regret. Usually when I am angry or fired up, I can be a bit "outspoken", shall we say? But, I usually have an opinion about things, and I love that I live to the extent that things excite me...and get me fired up.

10. I am adaptable. I get that from my Momma. I can be in the most bizarre situations, and still feel pretty comfortable. I was thinking that once when I was in a room full of snobby people and high priced hors'derves that I would be just as comfortable on a tailgate with a bunch of rednecks drinking beer.

See, this was a fun topic. When was the last time you had time to write ten things about you that you liked? Or, about your cousin? So sweet, Becky! You're my hero. :)