Zimmerman Family

Okay, so I've been tagged, and I am such a scrooge with this kind of stuff, and this tag has now been circulating for quite some time, so I'm going to write my 7 facts.....but not tag anyone else. Seriously, though,i think everyone of my friends has done this already!!

1. I have a completely irrational fear of cats. I know many people don't like cats, but this is WAY more than that. It is a paralyzing fear,as in if you had a cat near your door, I would not come up to your door. As in, if you own a cat I will call you from outside your house and make sure the cat is quarantined before I entered your house. Luckily for me, i only have one friend who is a cat lover, so it's not usually an issue. But as some of you may know, there was a small white cat in my neighborhood a few months back that was terrorizing me! And I'm not joking--at one point it chased me into my garage where I had to slam my door to stop it from coming into my house! (Sara witnessed that, she can vouch for me!) Another time it climbed up my screen and was hanging from my window screen outside my office window, meowing viciously (an oxymoron, I know, but accurate nonetheless!). I was so terrified I literally called Jim sobbing and told him to come home. Of course he wouldn't, so then I called Animal Control to see what my "options" were. I'm not sure what happened to that cat, but bottom line is, I HATE CATS!

2. It took me five years to graduate college....and FIVE different colleges. Transferring credits from school to school and then from state to state is NOT a good idea. My collegiate journey began at Utah State (go Aggies), where I only lasted a year. :) Then Jim and I got married so I transferred to BYU for one semester (my least favorite of all the schools, to be honest. I could never get used to saying an opening prayer before Algebra). Then Jim graduated so we moved to CA, where I took an entire year off to become a California resident. Then I resumed my quest for a degree at Saddleback college for a couple of semesters. Then I transferred to Cal State Fullerton, where I took 5 classes for 3 semesters in a row to finish as soon as possible. I thought I was in the clear, finally done, only to find out one of my professors screwed me over and I had one requirement left. So I then took one final course at the Cal State Fullerton extension campus, pregnant and sick out of my mind. But I finally did it....and now I have a completely useless English degree, still in the manilla envelope it was mailed in, stuffed somewhere on our book shelves.

3. I love diet coke. Everyone loves a tall, cold one now and then, but I relish and savor every last drop. And don't give me a glass or ice....that makes it flat. I like it classy and ladylike, chugged right out of the can! The saddest part about my pregnancies is that I lose the taste for diet coke. But I have gotten pretty good at limiting myself to just one can a day, and I think about that one can all day long. Should i have it with lunch? should i wait and have it with dinner? Sometimes I buy those little half cans of Diet Coke that they sell at Target so then I can have one with both lunch and dinner. And if I'm having a bad day, I promise you an extra diet coke will cheer me right up. And nothing bothers me more than when I order a diet coke with a lemon at a restaurant, and they don't bring me a lemon! What the? Would you ever serve a martini without the olive, or a margarita without a lime? (Bartender!:) Just because it's a non-alcoholic beverage doesn't mean I don't like it the way I like it!

4. I love to travel, and I have been quite a few places in my 27 years. Let's see, I have been to Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, Romania, Hungary, England, Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, and all over the US. But I have never been to a lot of states in the US, like Texas or Florida. But I enjoy traveling, and would love to someday visit Asia. And for the record, I did all of that traveling before I had kids, except for Fiji!

5. My family is a variation of the Von Trapp family. We have 7 kids, and of those seven kids, four play the cello, two play the viola (myself included), and 6 of us play the piano (at least somewhat). My oldest brother Nate, for some reason, was exempt from all those arduous hours of music lessons and practicing. And my mom was a professional opera singer until she got pregnant with her sixth baby.....so as a result, we all sing rather well. My two sisters both have beautiful voices, but I have what I call a good "choir voice." Maybe I spent too many years cheerleading!

6. I love to bake, as some of you may know. :) I toy around with the idea of one day trying to start some sort of side business peddling my baked goods. But then when I try to make dinner and Ezra is crying at my feet, and the house is trashed, and all I want to do is put my kids to bed and watch my shows,I think to myself, how would I like to make 6 dozen cookies right now? Maybe when my kids are older. Oh, and I am the worst--no haters, but I don't really like to share my recipes. I ALWAYS will if you ask, but it sort of pains me a little bit. If everyone can make the same yummy treats that I can, where's the fun in that? I have a joke with my friend Ali who lives over an hour away that i will give her recipes but only because she lives seven stakes away. I know, it's so lame, but true.

7. I still think I am 17....one of my Laurels was talking about her boyfriend, and I said, "oh is he our age?" I was so embarassed. But seriously, when am I going to quit watching the Hills and watch the nightly national news? Or when am I going to trade People magazine for Newsweek? KISS Fm radio for KFI talk radio? I fear it might never happen! I'm going to be that dorky mom who thinks she's just one of the girls, in the know with all the latest music and fashion trends, to my kids' absolute mortification! Maybe someday....but right now I gotta go finish a text message and check my MySpace account! :)

So there you go, 7 way too long tidbits of completely worthless information about me!