I don't like mashed potatoes (or coffee).
I know that makes me in the minority. Tea is much more my thing! And French fries? How can I love those but not like mashed potatoes? The mere thought makes my gag reflex start!
I fractured my pinky finger playing t-ball.
I was pretty young when this happened, as you might imagine. My coach threw me the ball and, for some reason, I tried to catch it with my non-gloved hand and...well, the rest is history. I went on to play slow and fast-pitch softball as I got older, and quickly learned which hand to catch with!
I had the honor of being asked to create a sign for Rachel Ray.
My friend, Tanya of Joey's PAW asked me to make a sign for Rachel Ray's then dog named Isaboo when she was asked to be on her sow to promote Joey's PAW. Tanya's not sure if the sign ever made it to Rachel as she was not allowed to hand it directly to her so it's always been a mystery!
My last name is pronounced Kl- EE-ber.
It's a long EE sound in the middle. However, we get pronunciations such as Klebber (short E), KEEBLER (as in the cookie brand), and even the DJ at our wedding combined the latter two together, despite us practicing with him a whole bunch of times first! (..."I now introduce to you... Mr. and Mrs. Gregory KLEBBLER!") I have video proof of the dirty look I gave him. Our kids think it's quite comical.
I taught fitness and line dancing at Penn State University when I was an undergraduate student.
One of my jobs in college included teaching various student aerobics classes. In fact, the first class I ever taught was in Rec Hall with 75 people! I had taken the certification classes through the athletic department and, teaching fitness classes became part of my mission to lose those "freshmen 15" (for me it was closer to 20). Before I knew it, line dancing classes were also being offered to faculty and staff and I found myself doing that as well!
I missed 21 days of school in the ninth grade.
While I have no idea how that number is stuck in my head, I do know why I missed them. Our family went on our very first (and only) cruise during the very first week of school. Little did we know that later that year, I'd miss way more! At some point, I got the chicken pox. BAD. They were awful! My first chicken pock showed up at the very top of my forehead by my hairline and I still have a scar. Once I healed from the pox, I went back for a week and ended up with mononucleosis and missed another two weeks! Needless to say, that year stunk big time!
My first concert was Billy Joel and it was in Paris!
While I haven't really been to many concerts in my lifetime, this was pretty exciting as my first one! Why was it in Paris? If you read my previous "Ten Things You May Not Know" blog post, you may remember I studied abroad in France for a semester in college. The experiences I got to have were amazing and I did a ton of traveling (way more than I have ever done here in the United States). My friend, Nina, and I had the priviledge of staying an extra week after the semester ended. Billy Joel was one of those special, never-forget, opportunities!
When my oldest (my daughter) was just six weeks old, I was taken by ambulance to the ER for what I thought was a back issue.
Right smack in the middle of hurricane Ivan (2004), my husband happened to be next door helping the neighbors pump out their flooded basement. At the same time, I was nursing my then six week old on our bed. When I went to get up from the bed, something happened in my back and I could barely function! It was all I could do to open the window and yell over to my husband that I needed help. Long story short, this happened to be the Friday prior to my daughter's baptism. We were hosting a big party that weekend. When all was said and done, the ER folks chalked it up to an anxiety attack. The worst part about it was being away from my daughter for so long that I got an infection from being unable to nurse. Needless to say, I was absolutely miserable for her party!
I taught a graduate class at Carnegie Mellon University for 13 years.
Again, if you read my last "ten things" post, you know that I got my Master's Degree at CMU. It was because of this that I was fortunate enough to cross paths with the person who asked me to teach. It was a pre-requisite review of Algebra for grad students going through the same program I had gone through (Master's of Public Management/Policy). Keep in mind, I went to Penn State for Secondary Education with a concentration in Math and French (both of which are extremely rusty now).The CMU folks who took this class had been out of school for anywhere from a few years to even as much as forty years.
Even thought it was a non-credit class and I'm proud to have been able to do it. But in the later years of teaching there, My Home Matters was growing and, when they changed up the program, the timing was just perfect for me to jump full time into my business.
My favorite musical artist is Tim McGraw and country music is my favorite!
I prefer the newer country but Mr. Home Matters is more partial to the old stuff!
To there you have it. Ten MORE things you may not know about me!
