I got 99 problems, but a BABY ain't one

I know that the song from whence my title derives is somewhat more crass. But I would like to say that my baby is NOT a problem. I am not going to be over the moon about this, because I know that babies are fickle things and my 8 hours of sleep a night can be taken away from me tomorrow. But for now I will rejoice and sing her praises.

Last night she slept 4 hours, and then she was up for a feeding/changing. And then she was asleep for another 4!! I was awake and had taken a shower and done my MAKEUP before she was awake!! She really is the best baby ever. Here is another picture of her:
Just as beautiful awake as asleep, right? Don't fight the truth: She's gorgeous.

So back to the topic of this email, I need to write 99 things about myself. I'm determined to stay at this blog until I have all 99.

1. I prefer rain to snow any day
2. I had never seen trees change color until I was a freshman at BYU. I only knew that it happened in theory. When I asked what was going on with the trees up on the mountains, one of my freshman roommates made fun of me.
3. I'm too old to be watching MTV, but I still find myself doing it
4. Before she was born, I was afraid I wouldn't love my daughter as much as I love my dog.
5. Sometimes I cry just looking at my daughter being overcome with my love for her and knowing that she's all mine and I get to be her mother.
6. I will never again work at a job or for a boss that demoralizes, bullies and blackmails me.
7. I have issues with my father so deep that I fear we will never be able to speak to each other normally ever again.
8. I love being warm. I can sit in a house that's 85 degrees and never once think of turning on the A/C
9. I hate being cold. I feel like no matter how many layers I put on, I can never stay warm
10. I am very smart, but sometimes I let my intelligence make me smug and self-righteous. I hate myself when I do that.
11. When I have no respect for someone, I become incredibly condescending and I talk down to them.
12. It takes a LOT to lose my respect. You usually have to abuse me for a consistent amount of time for this to happen. But once it does, that's it: you are dead to me
13. I would rather do anything besides clean a toilet. I mean ANYTHING. Marcelo and I have an arrangement: He cleans the toilets and I clean everything else in the house. That's how seriously I hate toilets.
14. I have no interest in ever watching an episode of American Idol.
15. I think I've seen every episode of ER since it started.
16. I considered going to law school after taking a law class for my major at BYU.
17. My obsession with Law & Order also contributed to my desire to go to law school.
18. One day I'm going to take the LSAT just for myself, to see how I do. I bet I'll tear it up
19. My best friends are very intelligent. I can't stand people with a below-average intelligence. I have no patience for them
20. I don't believe in "Love at first sight" but. . .
21. The first time I saw Marcelo I knew something was going to happen between us.
22. I loved every minute of my mission. Even the moments when I was crapping my pants or fighting my eating disorder, I love those too.
23. I think that missions are for everyone, male and female.
24. I'm sad that my sister doesn't want to serve a mission. She says that she "just doesn't want to" but I think there is something else there that she's not saying.
25. I was a dirty farm kid growing up. I had to regularly check my poop for worms, and I routinely found them.
26. I didn't own a store bought dress of my own until I was 15. And even then the only reason I got one was because I was fatter than my mom and my sister and we could no longer share clothes.
27. I think I underestimate how much fun I am and how much people like to be around me. I am often surprised when people say that they love hanging out with me
28. I don't think I look good in hats
29. My favorite number is 29
30. I hate the way my chin looks. I think it swells when I gain weight, so I hate seeing how bulbous it looks
31. I am so blessed with the friends I have. I don't think I love myself half as much as my friends love me.
32. I have issues with my mom her as well, but I mostly feel badly for her. I think she's a product of her generation and of nearly 40 years of brainwashing at the hands of my father. And I know that deep down she loves me. I'm not so sure that my father does.
33. I have an amazing sense of smell. I can smell things across the room and I have total recall when it comes to certain smells.
34. I could do a lot more with myself during the day if I weren't so lazy.
35. The same goes for schooling. I can pull of an A- average working at only about 37% of my capacity.
36. I am currently fighting a little post pardom depression. But you'll be happy to know I haven't cried all day today!! (I think Lisa has something to do with that)
37. I don't have any female cousins my age. Family reunions sucked because no one would play with me. The one closest in age was all into dolls and playing "house" which I found asinine and pointless. I wanted to play G.I. Joe with the my boy cousins
38. I've had several dreams where I am smoking. I'm a good smoker in my dreams
39. I've never permanently died my hair. I've done that "temporary" dye, but that's the most I've ever done.
40. I will never dye my hair again. Even when I get old. I think people should age naturally
41. My baby has been sleeping for almost 5 hours now. How did I get so lucky?
42. Marcelo was the first person that ever loved me for me and not for anything else
43. I knew I wanted to marry Marcelo within a week of knowing him. He made me want to be better, and that has always been my #1 qualification in a husband. If I can't improve myself and if I can't be with someone that makes me be better and makes me WANT to be better, then what is the point of me being here on earth?
44. I will read my favorite books over and over again. I get excited as I start them just thinking of all the "good parts" that I'm about to get to.
45. My favorite book is "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH." I've probably read it 45 times. It always makes me cry when Justin dies.
46. I acquired "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH." in the second grade when I had a "perfect" week and got to pick a prize out of the "Treasure Chest." I picked a book. I've always loved books
47. I am a VERY fast reader. I read faster than my brilliant ex-roommate who got a perfect score on the ACT, was a Hinckley Scholar and who is currently getting her PhD in Physics.
48. I love the smell of trees
49. I love the smell of rain on hot asphalt
50. I love the smell of new babies. When Evi was placed in my arms, it took me back to holding my little sister Julianne the day after she was born. They had the same smell.
51. I was 5 when Julie was born. See? I have total smell recall
52. My mother did an amazing job smoothing over the fact that my father is a total jerk. She always helped make sure that she created good memories for us in our minds.
53. I have seen my father yell at my mother until she's in tears over something ridiculous. I was 6 or 7. I think I lost all respect for him at that point.
54. I have never had a desire to go to France to visit. If someone who speaks French would like to take me there and show me why it's so cool, I'll be happy to go. Otherwise no dice
55. Marcelo is a great husband, but new unknown experiences scare him. I.E. he has yet to change a diaper. (He asked me 2 days ago how they worked. I think we need to have a diaper tutorial)
56. My mother may be out of whack when it comes to certain things, but she knows how her daughters' breasts are going to react to breastfeeding. She lent these little cups to my sister Sarah who mailed them to me a few weeks ago. They go in your shirt and catch that milk that comes out between feedings. Some women can catch that stuff with one of those "pads", but apparently our family is different. We produce LOTS AND LOTS of milk. How much milk? Well, this is the amount that I removed from these cups over the space of 4 hours. (Not counting the TWO times I fed my baby in those 4 hours). That is out of control. But now cups are starting to leak a little bit, so I'm on the hunt for some more. But like I said, they were once my mother's (who stopped having kids 19 years ago. Yeah, they are that old) and so I think they will be hard to find. ARGH!
57. I love cheese curds.
58. I think that I'm quite inappropriate at times.
59. I trust people too quickly and open myself up to them way too easily. I have been burned many MANY times by doing this.
60. I love my freckles
61. I think my baby will have light brown eyes when her eye color finally establishes itself.
62. I love the fact that Marcelo doesn't have any hair on his chest. Hair grosses me out
63. Almost everyone that I graduated high school with or was a roommate in college with went into teaching.
64. At one time I wanted to name my kids after English Royalty: Jane, Victoria, Andrew and Edward were my favorites.
65. At another time, I wanted to name my kids after Greek mythological characters. Andromeda (calling her Andy) and Cassiopeia (Calling her Cassie) were my favorites.
66. I think that the hottest Disney animated character is Prince Phillip from Sleeping Beauty
67. When I first saw my daughter, I thought she looked too much like me and I was upset. ( I don't think too well of my looks)
68. Because she looked too much like me, I only rated her a 4 on a cuteness scale from 1 to 10. Her swelling has since gone down and I now rate her an 8 or a 9 on the cuteness scale.
69. I have no problems with people telling me that my baby is weird looking or even mildly unattractive.
70. I think that Heavenly Father knew my weaknesses and made me unattractive for a reason
71. I have only kissed one man in my life: My husband
72. I love the smell of gardenia and lavender and sweat pea. I hate the smell of roses
73. My uncle calls me "stink weed" because I used to pick the stink weeds with red-orange flowers from our front yard and bring them in and give them to my mom as a gift.
74. I think the most beautiful place in the world is the Redwood Forest of Northern California.
75. I do not like the beach. I have never been to a warm beach in my life. To me, the beach means being cold, eating a half cooked hot dog with sand inside, and then coming home smelling like smoke and finding sand in your undies. Not a pleasant experience.
76. I've played club volleyball and volleyball in school since I was in the 6th grade. Because of that, I HATED when the ward mutual night called for playing volleyball. I had no patience for what I called "Jungle ball." Can someone just set me so I can spike the ball? DANG!!
77. I LOVE cracking crab, but I hate eating it.
78. No one would be surprised to know my favorite color is green. However, did you know my second favorite color is red?
79. I hate liars. I hate that my last job encouraged me and demanded that I lie for them every moment of every day. I hope to someday be forgiven for the horrible things that job made me do to good and decent people.
80. I used to wet the bed. Almost every night. The last time I wet the bed I was a junior in High School.
81. Because I used to wet the bed, my mom would never put a mattress pad between the plastic sheets protecting the mattress and the fitted sheet. I hated the crackle it would make as I laid down, but I knew that I didn't deserve a non-crackly bed because I couldn't keep my bed dry at night. To this day I hate the sound and smell of plastic sheets.
82. I played 2 and sometimes 3 varsity sports in High School
83. My greatest fear and biggest embarrassment growing up was to be left out of the activities of my friends. And I frequently was.
84. I dream in Spanish still sometimes
85. I miss Ecuador almost every day. Especially all the fresh fruits and vegetables.
86. I prefer water to any other thing I could possibly drink
87. I think it's easier to hate myself then to love myself
88. I was worried about how my father would feel when I didn't invite him to the blessing of my baby. I don't worry about that any more. I will invite him and he won't come because my mother will be there.
89. I don't like raw marshmallows, but I love s'mores and rice krispy treats.
90. I once wrote a 3 page list of all the foods I don't like. Bananas was at the top of the list.
91. I think that I am very blessed. I worry about what my trials in life will be because I feel like I have received nothing but blessings every day of my life
92. I need to improve my piano playing abilities. I'm sure that soon I'll get a calling where I'll need to play, and I won't be ready.
93. I didn't know I had curly hair until my senior year in high school. Even then, I didn't think it was really CURLY. Whenever someone called it that, I was always confused.
94. I don't like things touching my neck. I always get in trouble in the temple and am told to fix my clothing so it's "RIGHT"
95. I have had lots of thoughts and feelings that I'm ashamed of. I'm glad others can't read my mind
96. I think that Roses are pretentious flowers. And generic all at the same time. I would rather receive almost anything else as a gift instead of roses.
97. I hate going to General Conference at the Conference Center. I hate the crowds, the protesters shouting at me and trying to find a parking situation. Everything about it. I would rather just stay at home and watch it on TV and be in my PJ's. No reason to fight through everyone if you don't have to, right?
98. I love my Tivo. It's the best purchase I've made in the past 10 years
99. I'm sure I could do another 99 items if you asked me right now.

Well, that's it. I'm all done. It's now 11:39 so I'm going to bed. My baby should be up in just a few hours.

Here's hoping you all do this exercise too. It's super fun!