Thirteen Little-Known Facts About Me [Sixth Edition]

1. I have a drinking problem. I'm talking first thing in the morning, with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and a lot in between. And I spend so much money on feeding my addiction, it's no wonder I'm always broke. But at least my health isn't adversely affected by my habit—I drink only skim.

2. I have a lip gloss fetish. I'm never more than 2 feet away from my lip gloss at any time. It's in my pocket or by my bed 24 hours a day without fail. And I get extremely cranky if I can't find my gloss.

3. I can count to 10 in five other languages: Latin, German, Spanish, French, and Japanese.

4. I've traveled to all but 11 states in the U.S., and lived in 5 of them, from Alaska to South Carolina (and we're not even military).

5. I'm not much of an animal person now, but growing up I was a complete animal maniac! I had tons of pets, but not necessarily all at the same time: a salamander (named Leif Ericson), a couple anoles, 13 hamsters (at one time), rabbits (13 of those, too), pigeons, chickens, dogs, cats, and even an injured squirrel.

6. I call my father Dud. As a teen, I also called him PCPCP (Poochie Couch Potato Chauvinistic Pig) although he really wasn't a chauvinist. The kids call him Grumpy (he IS that sometimes). Seriously, I do have the utmost respect for him; we're both just weird, so we call each other names. His latest name for me is DTM: Dingy-er Than Me.

7. I dropped out of nursing school only 3 classes before finishing.

8. I've been out of the U.S. twice on mission trips. One was to Mexico during high school, and the other was to Belarus in 2006. I did go to Canada once, but that was just driving through on our move to Alaska in 1995.

9. When the Challenger exploded in 1986, I decided I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew up.

10. I am usually very picky when it comes to the food I eat; and meat-wise, I really only eat chicken and a little beef. But one weird thing I do like to eat is Braunschweiger, also known as "liver sausage" (although I haven't had any in years.) If you're unfamiliar with Braunschweiger, some of the main ingredients are pork liver and pork hearts—gross, I know, but it tastes really good!

11. I had a gran mal seizure my first week away at college—2,000 miles from home—during the invitation of a church service. I'd never had one before. After a CT and EEG, the doctors determined my only problem was that I had too much "air in my head" (in other words, my ventricles were larger then normal). Because of my milk addiction, and since I'd had a seizure, one lovely friend of mine started calling me Milkshake. Thankfully, I haven't had a seizure since.

12. I've never broken a bone, gotten a speeding ticket, or smoked a cigarette (although I tried as a teen; I just couldn't inhale—it was entirely too gross!)

13. My husband and I knew each other for only 9 weeks before we got engaged. (You can read the whole story of how we met here.