Getting to know me.....

On another surrogacy blog I follow, they had a getting to know me post, so I wanted to follow suit. A couple of years ago, I did a list as many things as you can about yourself on my family blog, so copied and pasted this and updated it. Enjoy!

My name is Carla.

I was born on 6/10. I am 35 years old.

I weighed 7 lbs. 3 oz and was 19.5 inches long, my mom's biggest baby.

I married Brian on 10/4. We have been married over 7 years.

We got married outside at a local park by the lake house overlooking the water.

We both changed our last name when we got married. We both moved our birth last names to our middle name and our married last name was a total new name combining letters from both of our original last names. We had to appear in front of a judge in court to officially change our name.

Our first son, Gareth Odin, was born on 6/19/06 after 32 hours of labor! Pushed for 3+ hours!

Our second son, Zane Orion, was born on 9/26/07 after 7 hours of labor. pushed 2 times!

Our last child/daughter, Iris Zuzana, was born on 1/14/09 - forget how many hours of labor, but it was an easy birth. pushed 3 times!

My mom almost died in 2007 due to acquiring Legionnare's disease. She was hospitalized for 3 months, with over a month of that being in critical care. She had severe pneumonia and severe sepsis. She had a tracheotomy, feeding tube, and dialysis was needed. I was pregnant with Zane and had to deliver him while my mom was still in the hospital recovering. It was a very stressful time. I am so glad she is alive and here to enjoy her grandchildren!

I grew up in Paxton, IL until I was 16 - big town of 4700 people.

We then moved to West Frankfort, IL where I finished my last 2 years of high school. I cried at my HS graduation because I felt that I had left my home in Paxton and did not have the time to establish a home in WF and felt that I did not belong anywhere.

I lived in the Southern Illinois area for 6 years - WF and Carterville.

I received my AA degree from John A Logan Community College in Carterville in 1995.

I received my BA in psychology from SIU-Carbondale in 1998.

After college, I lived in Nashville, TN for a year, working at an alternative school for kids that were dually diagnosed with mental illness/developmental disabilities.

I moved back to this area to be near family (they had all moved back while I was in college).

I was in Girl Scouts until I was in 7th grade.

I have 2 sisters; Carrie 5 years younger and Angela 11 years older.

I am an aunt. Carrie has a 15 year old son named Daniel. Carrie has just learned a few weeks ago that she is pregnant! Angela has 3 children all mid 20's: Robert, Tijuanda, and Courtney.

I am a great-aunt. My niece, Courtney, has 2 children: Sicellia and Kameron-Lee.

I played clarinet for 1 year in grade school.

We had X-mas plays each year in grade school. One year, I had the very important role of being Rudolph. I got to strut across the stage in my costume. It was some rock-n-roll X-mas theme.

My first real job was at Long John Silver's. I was employee of the month once for my awesome drive thru skills. :)

Other paying jobs I have held have been: waitress at an Italian restaurant, group homes for people with disabilities, neuroscience lab assistant, counselor in an alternative school, and case management, recreation therapy, and respite for people with disabilities. I was also a part time census worker during the 2010 census.

My first car was a Datsun hatchback that would backfire when we dragged Main St. The seniors, when I was a junior, put a huge peace sign (I was often called flower child) in shoe polish on the back window during graduation week that stayed there all summer until school started again.

For my job in the SIU Neuroscience Lab, I monitored research participants in a no smoking study. I had to collect personality questionnaires, saliva samples, freeze and ship blood samples, and order supplies for the lab.

I have been a stay at home mom since 6-06.

We have 4 cats: Marvin, Waldo, Jeremy, Jo. Jo is intersexed; has a small, crooked penis, undescended testicles, had a vaginal pouch. We went to the shelter to get a girl cat and when they went to spade her, they discovered, the cat was more male. They neutered him and sewed up the vaginal pouch because they figured bacteria could grow there easily.

We have 1 miniature poodle mix dog named Vito, who is about 9 years old.

My favorite color is the color of beet juice. I guess the closest thing to call it would be magenta.

My husband and I are both atheist - we do not think/believe there is a god. We are very science oriented and are skeptical of many things.

My little and closest sister and nephew moved to South Dakota in 2008. We miss them terribly!!!

My favorite kind of music is bluegrass/alternative country/celtic. I really like artists that write their own music. I also like female singer/songwriters with unique voices.

My husband is a libertarian. He talks to me quite a bit about politics. I am somewhat apathetic when it comes to politics. I wish I had more passion and interest in some of it.

I have been to Niagara Falls, Canada 2 times.

My favorite flower is stargazer lilies and lilacs.

Some of my favorite movies include: Love Actually, The Piano, Juno, Beautiful Girls, Sliding Doors, Amelie

My fave food is snow crab legs.

Some girl in HS hated me because I smiled too much- what?!

DC Piatt broke up with me in 6th grade because I had skinny ankles!

I met Brian through match.com. Our first meeting was for lunch at Dos Reales. Our first real date was at Allerton Park in Monticello, IL.

My fave children's book is The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton. It is about a house that lives in the country on a hill and the city grows around it. Future generation of the people that built the house see her and take her back to the country.

I was a certified sexuality educator via Planned Parenthood training. I provided sexuality education to adults with developmental disabilities. I am a strong advocate for sexuality rights.

I have always been interested in different ways of living and people who are on the outer edges of the bell curve of what is "normal", whether this may be sexual orientation, gender issues, disabilities, or anything else that may make a a person "different." I am highly intolerant of hatred towards these people based on ignorance, indoctrination, or other forms of bigotry.

I completed training to be an advocate through Rape Crisis Services.

I completed education and volunteer hours to become a Master Gardener.

I bite/pick at my nails and cuticles.

Some of my favorite nature images include trees and round hay bales. Trees seem to exhibit unique personalities all of their own.

I like to blog, take photographs, quilt, sew, scrapbook, and do other crafty things.

I like scary movies, but will not watch them by myself.

We do not have a TV set in our house. We have not had one since 2006. We watch movies on our computer monitor or projector screen.

We have canned our own strawberry jam, peach preserves, apple butter, and tomato sauce. This year, we hope to do A LOT more of this.

We have kept honeybees and harvested the honey.

The summer of 2009, we moved from a brand new home in a subdivision to a rural location. We bought 10 acres with a pond, creek, small wooded area, a cattle shed, pole barn, and a small, humble, 100 year old farm house. We intend on living in the farm house until we can afford to build a new passive solar design home further back on the property. Our time is spent fixing up the house and adding fruit, nut, vegetables, herbs to our land. We are interested in living a simple life and becoming as self sustainable as we can and are comfortable. We like our" stuff" the same as anybody, but try not to be motivated by mainstream media and over commercialized products.

We hope to pay off our debt this year and start plans for the new house in the next couple of years!

Let me know if you have any questions!