"25 Random Things About Me"

We were sent this to complete on our facebook pages, so we thought we would share our responses below. You should try it! It really is fun!

Dana's 25 -
1. I can’t imagine my life if I had never gone to eat at Great Waters Brewery on 11/12/04. Isn’t it amazing the impact the tiniest decisions can have in our lives? I love being a wife and mother.

2. I am grateful everyday for my family. I enjoy the closeness we share and the comfort of knowing that I am surrounded by a safety net of love at all times.

3. I was so worried about becoming “one of those people” after I had my daughter that would only talk about poop, etc…I have and honestly, I don’t really care.

4. I am very disturbed and embarrassed by our healthcare system and daily watch the additional suffering it inflicts on people who are already struggling. I believe we need to have an entirely different way of administering health care, but I also think that the population in general needs to stop seeing technology related to healthcare as the answer and get back to the basics.

5. I spend hours playing the “booping” game with Matti and singing my new song “Matti pants” to her to the tune of “Lollipop”

6. I become really really crabby if I do not get to run regularly (anyone who witnessed my pregnancy can attest to this fact). I don’t run to be healthy or to lose weight, I run because it is necessary to being for me. I really miss my Wednesday evening runs – someday we’ll get the schedule worked out so I can partake again.

7. I could live on chocolate (current addiction is Dove Promises with caramel) and red wine

8. I have been fortunate to live in many different places and have many different experiences and through this I have created an incredible network of friends. I think the number of strong, compassionate, intelligent, independent women I have as friends is amazing!

9. Biggest pet peeve is people who can not just listen to a story, but have to tell you why what you are experiencing is not that bad compared to their experience….arghhhhhh.

10. I love having people over to the house and entertaining, but I am not really a fan of cooking. I just can’t get that timing thing down. I now write out about what time each item should be underway to help the process.

11. I ran the freeze your gizzard blizzard run in International Falls five days after I had surgery on a broken elbow which is an injury I got from a fall on ice that occurred while I was out running.

12. I believe there are conversations you have with people that you really believe will be of no consequence that turn out to have huge consequences and that you have to live with the responsibility of the outcome from that conversation.

13. Elvis is coolest person to ever live – I was honored that my daughter came into this world with the Elvis sneer on her lips.

14. My biggest fear is change. At the same time, I am always looking for it.

15. I still sleep in a flannel night gown when I get sick that I got when I was in the hospital as a teen. Sorry Steve.

16. I learned on my maternity leave that I would be happy and able to stay at home – this realization has made going back to work easier

17. I think the best work is trying to get a smile from a baby

18. I ran by Oprah on the lake path in Chicago one time and couldn’t figure out why there were so many people following this woman down the path.

19. The increasing use of texting and emailing rather than using the telephone makes me sad – although I am as bad as culprit as any.

20. I am proud I was able to break my addiction to Pepsi which many said could not be done - almost three years now

21. I think the conversations you have with yourself really do matter.

22. I love curling up in a spot warmed by the sun and getting lost in a good book.

23. Before I had a baby, I used to like how Cielo smelled, but now I think she just smells like cat litter.

24. I love listening to reggae and daydreaming about our honeymoon.

25. i have to talk about the evidence and research behind concepts all day at work, but I believe that there are many things that research and evidence do not explain - so there EBM!

Steve's 25

1. My wife and daughter are the whole world to me. I can't even imagine life without them. The best part of every work day is when I can come home to them in the evening. Aubrey is always happy to see me, Dana is almost always happy to see me, and the cat ... well, she tolerates me.

2. I can't open my eyes under water. No idea why - some reflexive thing, I guess.

3. I love to cook, just wish I had more time for it. I have been promised a divorce if I ever do such a damn fool thing as buy a restaurant.

4. I'm somewhere between a baritone and a bass. I went on a choir trip to California with full-blown laryngitis and the director didn't find out about it until weeks after we returned.

5. Back in my high school days working at the farm equipment dealership, I became an expert in lacing round baler belts. So if your baler belts are frayed or broken, I'm your dude.

6. Quitting piano lessons was the biggest mistake of my life. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

7. Babies never used to interest me that much, but now that I have one of my own I think they are the most fascinating little creatures on earth.

8. I love dogs. I miss Boota, who I grew up with and who died in 1991. Yes we will get a dog, but first we need a house in which we own all four walls. House first, then dog.

9. Most of life's deeper issues can be discussed and resolved while fishing. I'm always looking for people to fish with. Please send picture of boat. Those issues that need more intensive thought should be thought about while in the woods.

10. I love to travel, and due to previous trips I am becoming increasingly fond of warm places with beaches.

11. I can't stand spiders. Well actually, I generally don't like to deal with any animals with more than four legs, with the exception of crabs, shrimp and lobsters because they're yummy. One thing I love about Minnesota winters is that they keep the varmints small.

12. I have been to seven ... eight Jimmy Buffett concerts? Will keep going until he croaks or I do.

13. I have to be honest, I really don't give a crap about party politics. Actually, I'm not fond of idealogues in general. And if you are one of those people for whom a political party identification tells you everything you "know" or want to know about another person, kindly leave now.

14. I did an impression of Bullwinkle in my high school graduation speech.

15. My wife is the smartest person I know. She listens closely and knows how to ask the right questions, and when to ask them. She is also enormously generous, passionate and thoughtful. And I got her! She's all mine! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

16. Sadly, I won the school spelling bee four years in a row. Even more sadly, to this day that is the one thing - no matter what I've done before or since - that some people know me for.

17. I'm fascinated by old stuff - antiques, old planes, old tractors, old cars, dinosaur bones, you name it. I remember reading about a fictional animal that always walked backwards because "he didn't care where he was going, but was always fascinated by where he had been (kind of like some historians)."

18. I've had anxiety for as long as I can remember. No idea why.

19. My great unfulfilled dream is to be a writer. Although I love to write, I don't stick with it enough to put together something to submit for publication. Probably some combination of #18, being busy, and cranking out a ton of words at work.

20. Sailing is my new favorite hobby. It's a great feeling to steer a boat and control the sails, and go around barking orders in sailor lingo. "Prepare to tack! Loose the port jib sheet! Hard a-lee!"

21. Although he was largely "checked out" the last two years of his life and we didn't agree on much before that, I still miss my dad terribly.

22. I'm not all that well read in the classics, but I'm working on that. Right now it's Atlas Shrugged (and has been for the last two months, that's a loooooong book).

23. Dana got me into this running stuff, and as a result I am more physically active now than I have ever been. Dropped 25 pounds and threw the Lipitor away.

24. The one thing I really wish I had more of is time with my family and friends. Like random visiting for no apparent reason - people don't do that nearly as much as they used to.

25. I will forever be grateful to Emily for dragging me out to Greatwaters that November evening in 2004 to pound back some beers and talk politics. I almost didn't go. Moral of the story: if a friend asks you to go out drinking, make sure you go, because the next person you meet might be your spouse.