Oh man! I guess I'm it.

Vicki M. Taylor, who is the author of the wonderful book Trust in the Wind (I reviewed this book here in May), tagged me, and now I have to come up with 8 unique things to tell you about myself. I'm not sure if these things will help you understand me or give you reasons to avoid me, but it's who I am.

1) I am a Laura Ingalls Wilder and Little House on the Prairie (LHOP) fanatic. I have an entire bookshelf dedicated to books by and about Wilder and her family. I've reviewed books about and by her daughter Rose Wilder Lane here at my blog. I watched Michael Landon's adaptation of these books when it originally aired in the 1970's and 80's. It remains my all time favorite show. I own a Dean Butler (Almanzo Wilder, LHOP) Yahoo Group, administrate a LHOP forum, and have written many LHOP fan fiction stories. I have two Laura Ingalls Wilder writing projects in mind if I ever find the time to put them together.

2) I taught catechism in the Catholic Church for ten years and ran the elementary age program for five years, which garnered me the Pope Pious X award.

3) I have a Christmas fetish. Christmas is my favorite time of year. Of course, around here it's almost an all year round event. I finally put my oldest daughter's tree down in the cellar tonight. From Thanksgiving until some time in January, I have 8 trees inside my home and 7 trees outside. My goal is to have every room of my house decorated during the season (even the bathrooms). I'm pretty close now, but my mother-in-law says she hopes she's gone home to meet her Maker before I achieve my goal.

4) I worked fourteen years in retail; I was a bank teller for two different credit unions; I worked as an office manager for a manufacturing firm, and was a data management analyst for a Fortune 100 company before I left the workforce in 2004 to stay home with my kids.

5) Speaking of my children, I have a son who turned 20 last month and two daughters who are 5 and 3. It is strange having a child in college and one in Kindergarten, but I figure it could make for some interesting story ideas.

6) I ran for public office in 2003. I lost, but I still got 40% of the vote against a person who had lived in town for over twenty years.

7) I danced for over nine years. I had dreams of touring with a ballet company. When my mother became ill, I quit. It is one of my biggest regrets.

8) I can spread my toes out so much that it looks like I have bird feet. I don't know how I discovered this trait, but I loved grossing out my middle sister with it when we were younger.

Now that you know more about me than you ever cared to, I'll tag the following people: Sadie, Amber, Candela, JoElle, Peg, Rhett, Karina, and Joyce.