A to Z Survey

Hello all!  I like surveys and quizzes...what can I say; they're my Kryptonite.  So I found the following survey and thought I'd share.  Feel free to participate in the comments section!

A to Z Survey

A – Age: 28.

B – Biggest Fear: Having to have surgery and be able to feel EVERYTHING during it.

C – Current Time: Early. Or Late. All depends on how you look at it.

D – Drink You Had Last: Arnold Palmer. So good :)

E – Easiest Person To Talk To: Toss up between Hannah & Tyler. They're both easy to talk to about different things.

F – Favorite Song: That's such a hard question to answer as a singer.  Right now, I really like the song "No" by Megan Trainer.  Even though I HATE the music video.

G – Grossest Memory: Umm, I don't know? I got licked in the mouth by a dog once. It was pretty disgusting.

H – Hometown: Winter Haven, Florida.  Born and raised.

I – In Love With: My handsome hubby, Tyler. And my Savior, Jesus. And my cats, Jojo & Jeeves.  But not in that order.

J – Jealous Of: Rich people. I know they have their problems too, but sometimes I just wish I had more money.

K – Kindest Person You Know: That's a hard one, but my mom is probably the kindest, most caring woman ever.

L – Longest Relationship: My current relationship - 3 1/2 years and going strong!

M – Middle Name: Janae (It's a combination of my mom's name, Janese, and her best friend who helped raise me, Lynae.)

N – Number of Siblings: Five - two by birth (Jessica & Sara); three by marriage (Katelynn, Matt & Paul)

O – One Wish: To live a God-centered and God-honoring life.

P – Person You Spoke To On The Phone Last: My husband.

Q – Question You’re Always Asked: "Are you pregnant?"  I choose to believe it's because I'm newly married; not because of the weight I've gained.

R – Reason To Smile: I have Jesus in my heart! :)

S – Song You Last Sang: "Crown Him (Majesty)" by Chris Tomlin

T – Time You Woke Up: Later than I should have.

U – Underwear Color: Like I'm gonna tell you. (They're real cute though!)

V – Vacation Destination: Road trip in the US or I would love to go back to Germany again. Or visit Australia for the first time!

W – Worst Habit: Eating when I'm bored. Eating when I'm happy.  Eating when I'm sad.  Eating when I'm stressed.  I eat too much.

X – X-Rays You’ve Had: Teeth, foot, neck, shoulders, back.

Y – Your Favorite Food: Sushi.  I know, I'm weird.  So sue me.

Z – Zodiac Sign: Libra.


Now it's your turn!  Copy and past the below survey in the comments and fill it out.  If you don't want to do the whole thing, just pick and choose what you wanna do :)

A – Age:
B – Biggest Fear:
C – Current Time:
D – Drink You Had Last:
E – Easiest Person To Talk To:
F – Favorite Song:
G – Grossest Memory:
H – Hometown:
I – In Love With:
J – Jealous Of:
K – Kindest Person You Know:
L – Longest Relationship:
M – Middle Name:
N – Number of Siblings:
O – One Wish:
P – Person You Spoke To On The Phone Last:
Q – Question You’re Always Asked:
R – Reason To Smile:
S – Song You Last Sang:
T – Time You Woke Up:
U – Underwear Color:
V – Vacation Destination:
W – Worst Habit:
X – X-Rays You’ve Had:
Y – Your Favorite Food:
Z – Zodiac Sign:

Ouchie

Have you ever had one of those days where you wake up and you're like, "I'm gonna get stuff done today!"  But then you actually just sit around, watch Netflix, and stuff your face with junk food?

Yeah, usually that's me every Friday.

But today, I woke up saying, "I'm gonna do nothing all day!" and walked into the kitchen. Where the dishes were piled up in the sink, the counters were full of crumbs and junk mail, the cats were meowing for food, and there was an icky conglomerate of stenches emanating from the cats' litter box and the kitchen trash can.  Needless to say, I spent the next two hours cleaning.  With a bum foot.  I think I deserve an award.

Oh, by the way, I didn't tell you about my recent injury!  Last Saturday, I stopped by Moe's with two friends, Lyndsey and Dakota.  When we were leaving, I walked out the back door first and the alarm went off.  So I turned around to see if a Moe's employee was going to possibly come running after me with handcuffs (an extremely rational fear, I know), and a curb just came up out of nowhere...connecting with my left ankle.  I went down, hard.  And it hurt...just a little bit.  Okay, a lot a bit.

And...I guess that's all I got for today.  If you feel like sending me an award for my above accomplishments, I'll be at home all day. ;)  This is Christina...over and out!

PS: After I published this post, I realized it's my 100th!  Yay me :)

New Book Idea

So a lot of my book ideas I get from dreams, and last night's dream was no exception.  Here's my idea:

Society for Wandering Adventurers (and Anyone Else Who Happens to be with Them)
Basically, this book will be about Hannah and I (yes, I'm using our real identities - I know, crazy, right?!) on the run from the law because our male friend (still haven't decided what his name will be yet) made some poor life choices.  Anyway, as we're speeding down the highway from the cops (which I would never do in real life by the way, because my brother-in-law is a law enforcement officer - hello) we start to see signs on the side of the road like "In trouble with the law?  Exit right in 6 miles" and "Running for your life and not sure where to go?  Come on in to the S.W.A. and leave your problems behind!"  So we figure, "What the heck, why not?" and we turn into this seedy looking rest stop and....long story short, we end up going on an adventure.  I'm not going to give it all away here, but let's just say it may or may not involve time travel, temporary amnesia, and foreign countries.

I'm still trying to decide if I want this to be a novel or a Choose Your Own Adventure story...which I've never tried to write before.  Hmm.... Dunno.  What do you think?

Erikson & Graham

So the title of this post isn't in reference to a law firm - don't worry, I'm not going to court or anything.  Whew.

Although (side note) I am currently addicted to this show on Netflix called "Drop Dead Diva."  Ever heard of it?  Ever watched it?  It's about this model who dies in a car accident and her spirit gets recycled into an overweight lawyer's body who just so happens to WORK WITH THE MODEL'S EX-FIANCE!!!!  Say what?!!  I know, it's crazy.

ANYWAY...

Back to what this post is for real supposed to be about.  Have you heard that song "7 Years" by Lukas Graham?  Read the lyrics here.  Or just watch the below video.  Whatevs.

Okay, so anyway, I was listening to this song the other day, and it kinda reminded me of when we used to study Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development in my college Psych classes.  For those of you who didn't take Intro to Psych in college, the stages of development can be broken up into the following:

1. Stage 1 - Trust vs. Mistrust.  Occurs between ages of birth to one year old.  The child develops trust based on care of primary caregivers, and without the formation of this trust, the child can grow up to be insecure and distrustful for life.
2. Stage 2 - Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt.  Occurs during early childhood.  The child becomes more independent and starts making choices about personal preferences and clothing selection.  If this stage isn't navigated successfully, the child may experience feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt.
3. Stage 3 - Initiative vs. Guilt.  Occurs during the preschool years.  The child begins to develop leadership and social interaction skills through play.  Successful completion of this stage will give a child confidence and leadership skills; without it, they will have self-doubt and lack of initiative.
4. Stage 4 - Industry vs. Inferiority.  Occurs between ages 5-11.  Through social interactions and encouragement from parents and teachers, the child develops confidence and pride in their skills and abilities.  If this stage isn't successfully completed, the child will have doubts about their ability to succeed in life.
5. Stage 5 - Identity vs. Confusion.  During Adolescence.  Which is kind of a hard word to spell, amiright?  Anyway, basically this stage is like, "Who am I, really?" and can usually last well into adulthood.  Sad.
6. Stage 6 - Intimacy vs. Isolation.  Early Adulthood.  When the adult looks around and realizes, "Hey, I'm single, and I'm not okay with that," and they try to find someone to marry them.  According to recent statistics, it only works out about 50% of the time, so a lot of people are failing at this.  (NOT IT! hahahahahhaha)
7. Stage 7 - Generativity vs. Stagnation.  Adulthood.  AKA finding a career beyond working at Mickie D's during high school and excelling at said job.  This is hard, y'all.  I should know.  I'm still trying to surmount this.  #adultingsux
8. Stage 8 - Integrity vs. Despair.  During old age.  When you're sitting in your recliner (hopefully by choice and not because you no longer have use of your limbs) and you look back on your life and think, "Was it a good life?"  We all pray the answer will be yes...and also, we hope that we can remember that far back.  #alsheimersawareness

So those are the stages.  If you've made it this far into the post, congratulations, you're a reader!  For all the rest of the people, I don't have a message, because they won't see it anyway.

So back to the "7 Years" song.  Here are the ages he mentions and what happened to him during those ages.  Let's see if he failed or succeeded:

• 7 years old - Trying to make some friends and learn stuff.  Social interaction - check.  Learning (which probably involves parents and teachers) - check.
• 11 years old - Smoking, drinking, and told to find a wife by his dad.  I'm sorry, what?  Things just went waaaaay off track.  He's still supposed to be gaining confidence in his skills and abilities, not hindering them by being drunk or high all the time!  Also, his dad doesn't sound like a great, encouraging role model.  Just sayin'.
• 20 years old - Sometime between age 11 and now, he started writing songs/stories like his dad did.  I guess that's a good way to find identity, so we'll say he completed this stage...ish.
• 30 years old - He hopes to travel, continue learning about life, spend time with friends and his woman and children.  By the way...what exactly does it mean when someone refers to someone else as his "woman"?  Shouldn't that be offensive?  Because I would be offended if Tyler called me his "woman."  I'd be like, "Call me that one more time..."
• 60 years old - He's hoping his kids will come visit every once in awhile and warm the cold years.  A worthy goal, I'd say.

Overall, I'd say this song does a good job of following Erickson's stages.  Except for age 11.  Don't know what happened there.  #tweenlifecrisis

Well, that's just my little random thought of the day.  What do you thing of Erickson's stages?  Which one are you in now?  Are you having trouble, or acing it like a boss?  Do you like the song "7 Years"?  Are all of these questions annoying?  Lesbi-honest.  Haha.  Pitch Perfect reference.  Sorry.

And with that, I'll leave you with these two recent Pentatonix songs I just discovered, so I'm fangirling a little bit over here.  Watch them and you're welcome in advance for enriching your life.  Have a good day!