My First Meme Tag!

I'm still not too sure what exactly a "meme" is (it's not in my Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary - 1993 pre-Internet edition - and I'm too lazy to go downstairs and check my more-recent OED), but it seems to be a little chain-letter-survey do-hickey passed from one blogger to another. Rebecca from doxology tagged me, and I'm so excited. Here goes. . .

Time Passages

What was going on in your life ten years ago - 1995?

I was really hoping to be tagged for this, just because ten years ago I became a Christian. Jason and I had been dating for one and a half years, and we had just moved out to California together. I had been studying the Bible for the previous few years, and I committed myself to Christ on my twenty-first birthday. This was also the year that a young Canadian singer/songwriter released her first album, I Can Hear You. Happy tenth anniversary in the recording industry, Carolyn Arends!

What was going on in your life five years ago - 2000?

Five years ago, Jason and I moved up here to the Seattle area. He began working at the local airline up in these parts, and I was transferred to Barnes & Noble in Issaquah. Later in 2000, I was promoted to being the Community Relations Manager at B&N, which was my dream job (until I became a mama).

What was going on in your life one year ago - 2004?

Last year at this time, Jason and I were planning a vacation to Las Vegas with his sister and her husband. We were enjoying our little one-year-old, Sadie, who was toddling about on uncertain little, chubby feet. I had just finished my first college class in almost six years at Bellevue Community College (Macroeconomics - absolutely fascinating!).

What did you do yesterday - June 27, 2005?

Yesterday, I started a new blog to record in detail my excessive admiration for Jane Austen's works - Austensorium. I also baked a new kind of bread - Victorian Milk Bread - which came out surprisingly well in a beautiful S-shaped loaf. Sadie and I danced to the Wiggles in the kitchen. I made steak and green beans and mashed potatoes for dinner, and we watched a re-broadcast of the Seattle Mariners' division-winning game against the NY Yankees in 1995 (ah - the glory days!). Later in the evening, Sadie practiced her alphabet letters. Oh, I also cleaned the bathrooms - pbbbbbblt!

What are you doing today - June 28, 2005?

Well, other than tackling this meme, I want to post some more Sadie pics to my blog for the enjoyment of distant grandparents. I also want to write out a detailed packing list for our planned journey up north next week for a week-long retreat on a British Columbia island - Keats Island - with Carolyn Arends. I guess I'll also plan dinner and dust and vacuum. And, of course, play, dance and sing with Sadie. A fairly typical day for this suburban homemaker and mom.

What will you do tomorrow - June 29, 2005?

Everything I didn't get to today! Plus, more singing, dancing, playing, reading and learning with Sadie.

Five snacks you enjoy:

1. Anything salty - especially pretzels and potato chips
2. Homemade bread and butter
3. Anna's Ginger Cookies
4. Carrot Sticks
5. Apples

Five songs you know all the words to:

1. Oh goodness - anything by Carolyn Arends - natch!
2. "Oh How the Years Go By" as sung by Amy Grant
3. "Hold Me Jesus" by Rich Mullins
4. "Still the One" by Shania Twain
5. "All That Jazz" from the musical Chicago

(**One song I am trying to memorize the lyrics to is the hymn "It is Well with My Soul.")

Five things you would do with $100,000,000:

1. I would tithe 10% to my church right off the top.
2. I would give about 90% of the remainder to crisis pregnancy centers and free-market economic scholarships.
3. I would pay taxes after the charitable giving had been deducted.
4. I would pay off all our debts - that wouldn't amount to much, but it needs to be done.
5. I would buy about 25 acres and build a nice-sized custom house with a huge kitchen, at least five bedrooms to fill up with kids, a garage full of cars for my automobile-deprived husband, a ten-stall horse stable with an indoor riding arena and a good-sized separate house for my dad and Nancy.

Five locations you would love to run away to:

1. England - especially Jane Austen haunts
2. Italy - everywhere!
3. Greece
4. Australia
5. The Holy Lands, especially Jerusalem - first in my heart, last on my travel list because of security

Five things you like doing:

1. Being a mom - scratch that - I love it!!
2. Reading
3. Writing
4. Playing on the Internet
5. Baking

Five things you would never wear:

1. Those yucky low-rise pants that show off your "plumber's corner"
2. Midriff-baring tops
3. A bikini
4. Bellbottom pants
5. Cowboy boots

Five recently seen movies that you like:

1. Topper with Cary Grant and Constance Bennett
2. The Awful Truth with Cary Grant and Irene Dunne
3. The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland
4. The Lady Eve with Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda
5. Madagascar (actually seen in a movie theater - a novel idea for the parents of a toddler!)

Five famous people I'd like to meet:

(**Okay, I'm going to assume that this means famous people who are alive and whom I have never met before and who are not Jesus - without these assumptions, this list would look very different and be comprised mostly of dead people (e.g. Jane Austen, Isabel Paterson, Carole Lombard), cool people I've been privileged to meet already (e.g. Carolyn Arends), and my Savior.)

1. Thomas Sowell
2. Walter Williams
3. The Wiggles - assuming Sadie were with me - yes, this is cheating
4. Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki, the creators of VeggieTales - yes, this is still cheating
5. Randy Winn

Five biggest joys of the moment:

1. Jesus - my savior, my hope, my joy always
2. Sadie - my sweet little bug
3. Jason - my wonderful husband
4. The blogging community and all the wonderful pro-life people I've met therein - a great joy and comfort in this modern "culture of death"
5. Books - "I cannot live without books." --Thomas Jefferson

Five favorite toys:

1. My KitchenAid hand mixer - cobalt blue, very powerful - my kitchen gadget of choice
2. Our portable DVD player - don't leave home with a toddler and get on an airplane without one!
3. My computer - my portal to the outside world and my virtual community that helps me keep my sanity here in commie-land
4. Chrissy Dog - technically Sadie's favorite toy - literally - but mine too because he brings her so much joy
5. Our digital camera - capturing all those priceless moments of childhood, bread-baking, and garden growing (plus, Camp Carolyn!)

Five people to tag:

(**This will be the most difficult, since I know so few bloggers. Here goes. . .)

1. My dad
2. Serena
3. Flicka Spumoni
4. Amigo
5. Carolyn Arends (oh, she'll probably never see this, but I'll give it a go anyway!)

(**If you've been tagged with this before, I apologize. I know most bloggers from others' blogs, so it is rather clumped, and we all seem to know the same people.)

(Do you like my patriotic homage to my country's upcoming birthday in the color scheme of this post?)

Peace to All!