Day 1 -- A Recent Picture and 15 Facts

Our friends Joe and Amanda throw crazy parties, and we're lucky enough to be invited to them.  This picture was taken May 7 at their Moustache/Siete de Mayo party.  Jason grew out his facial hair for 6 months prior to the party.  The whole night, I was known as "the wife of the guy with the awesome moustache."

Ok, now time for the 15 facts.  Notice I'm leaving out the "interesting" part.

1.    I come from a small Eastern NC town called Jamesville, population ~500.  We have one stoplight, one flashing light, and no name-brand grocery stores or restaurants.  That's right, no Target, no Wal-Mart, no McDonald's.  Once in college, a friend asked me if they throw a parade every time I returned home because it doubled the town's population.
2.    My college roommate and I once spent 24 consecutive hours in a Wal-Mart just to say that we did.  We did Christmas shopping, ate all our meals there, played in the toy aisle, and frequently checked our blood pressure.
3.    On a whim, I once tried out for College Jeopardy.  I didn't get far (just to the second round), but it was still really fun.
4.   I was a chemistry major, psychology minor in college.  I thought it was a unique combination until I met someone else who ended up doing the same thing when he was in college... my husband!
5.   I love all science, but I'm obsessed with the Periodic Table of the Elements.  I've read books about how the elements were each discovered, how the table was created, etc.  Plus, one of my goals in life is to beat this quiz and name all the elements.
6.   I am an organ donor, and I want to be cremated when I die.
7.   I love food and cooking.  If I had a cooking show, it would be about buying fresh non-processed foods (except when they can speed up the cooking process) for as cheaply as possible (without jumping off the couponing deep end) and cooking less than five ingredient meals in less than 30 minutes... which is probably why I don't have my own cooking show.
8.   My family (and Jason and I, actually) make up lots of words.  The tough thing is, you usually do not realize that these words are made up until you say them in front of people and they give you weird looks.  This is especially not fun when those "people" are a classroom of thirty teenage students.
9.   I have always been a really good steward of money.  The only time I can remember this not being true was when Mom gave me $20 to go to our town's annual festival, and I came home with 6 (yes, six!) giant inflatable things I had won.
10.   I have never eaten Easy Mac.
11.   Until I was 12, I wanted to be a fashion designer, but then I realized that meant moving to some place like NYC or Paris.
12.   My favorite movie of all time is Princess Bride.  Rounding out my list of other top movies (not in order) are My Fair Lady, Clue, the Harry Potter movies, Pride and Prejudice (either the BBC version or the Keira Knightley version), Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, plus many mid-90s Disney movies.
13.   I'm afraid of caterpillars.  I'm not sure if this goes back to the time as a kid when I accidentally squished (and killed) one trying to pick it up or to older childhood when my sisters used to throw them on me.
14.   I've seen every season of Project Runway and America's Next Top Model more times than I can count.
15.   The only foods I've come across in life that I haven't like are Brussel sprouts, brie cheese, and mole sauce.