I'm going to cheat on this blog entry. I got tagged on facebook with this silly note deal: 25 random facts about me; and so now you get them on the blog. Blogs and facebook are notoriously self-centered, so here goes....

1. I'm both blessed and cursed by facebook--how much fun is it to reconnect with old friends and stay connected to friends who are far away but I'm also slightly addicted to silly games like MyFarm and flair.

2. I've been happily married to Tom for almost 10 years!

3. Tom and I still watch reruns of the x-files.

4. I just started a job as a temp 1/2 time at CPA firm through tax season. I find this ridiculously amusing and also oddly providential.

5. I have a new habit of using the word ridiculously--it stems from a few weeks ago hearing the weather person say, "It's bitterly cold out there." Really? 'Cause you used that word when it was 20 degrees and now it's 10 below! Seems like there should be a more extreme word... like ridiculously.

6. I recently moved to Madison, Wisconsin, and I have a sneaking suspicion I will live here for the rest of my life. Who knows--things can change... but still....

7. I have a bad habit of ending sentences with... simply because I have more to say but I kind of want to leave it open to question.

8. I have with three cats. Well, really, I have a cat, Tom has a cat, and Tom's cat has a cat.

9. I usually don't admit that I have three cats, because I find it kind of embarrassing.

10. I have been both a down-hill ski racer and instructor, and I'm so glad to live somewhere where I can ski again, even if it was a small, lame hill somewhere because I LOVE IT!!!

11. I also love to read, and right now I'm reading News of the Spirit by Lee Smith and The Shack, which for the first time in a long has my book list to 2 books, only fiction, and no ministry books. hmmmm....

12. I'm an out-of-work minister, and while I was pretty sure I did not define myself as a minister or would ever define myself by my job, when Tom suggested I get a vanity plate for my car when I moved to Wisconsin, the first thought that ran through my head is, "How can I do that when I don't have a job?" Which was really weird and something I am continuing to work through.

13. I am also working through living somewhere I absolutely love 100% but leaving my minister breakfast buddies and my precious Montlieu Crew behind--I'm still ridiculously attached to them. Moving to NC was easier I guess, 'cause somehow we knew we'd end up back in the mid-west again some day, but now...

14. I am 99.99% sure I will never move out of the mid-west.

15. 100% of the time I get a sinking feeling that when I say something with 100% certainty, God will 100% get me back with that.

16. I keep forgetting over and over again that God is love.

17. I like to drink beer out of glass boots.

18. I LOVE, love, love to travel. I leave for Italy in 6 weeks.

19. I play the violin but am not musically talented, so I am extremely thankful my parents started me playing at 5 years old so I at least have the longevity thing going for me.

20. I like to read sermons by Charles Spurgeon and Barbara Brown Taylor and well, really anybody else, because I do like to read sermons.

21. I have jumped out of a perfectly good airplane, twice. And I would consider going again when Sasha goes for her pre-30 goal, if she'll go with me when I fulfill my before-30 goal of riding a mechanical bull--3 years late of course.

22. Because I love people so much, I kind of feel guilty that I haven't mentioned my family and other friends, previous co-workers, and all the people I should give shouts out to--love you guys!

23. I love to take pictures and have a hard time not dragging my camera bag with me wherever I go, even places like the grocery store.

24. I have stepped foot in every state but Louisiana, Washington, and Oregon (I'm actually not sure about Oregon...).

25. I'm a seven on the enneagram, an ENFJ, and have the spiritual gift of hanging out.

If you're up to responding with 25 facts--go for it. Otherwise, maybe at least one or two would be fun :)

Love,
Jess