I'M "IT".

Well, my friend Jennifer has sort of tagged me. Her exact words were, "Okay, I now tag...Laura, Amber, and Reagan...Jill, you need to actually publish your blog and then I can tag you, too!!"

Jenn obviously knows that I began a blog not too long ago that has never been published.

I am a regular blog reader. I have a whole folder in my bookmarks which contains favorite blogs to read daily. I admire all of your bravery in actually posting your musings. I enjoy reading your tags and memes. (What IS a meme actually? I was not familiar with the word. Is it an Internet thing, a blog thing, or I have I just neglected to learn the term in my thirty-something years?) Anyway, I always think how fun it would be to participate, but I guess you actually have to publish your blog to be tagged by someone else...until Jennifer. She went and sort of tagged me anyway. Now what am I supposed to do with THAT?

For now, I will answer my first unofficial tag ~ in draft form, of course. I will save tackling the decision of to be or not to be actually published for a later time! You can go ahead and proceed with the chicken bock-bock-bocks if it gives you a chuckle. I'm not sure about how these tags work. If the answers are all supposed to be short, then mine will be wrong. I feel like writing today; and since I'll be the only one reading it, I can do it how I'd like! So there!

FIRSTS...
First Memory - This is a hard one! It's difficult to remember how old I was when the things I remember happened, making it very difficult to remember which thing happened first! One thing I do remember, though, had to have been about age three because we lived in a little pink house. It was around Christmas time. I remember going back to my bedroom and opening a dresser drawer and getting out pajamas. I proceeded to dress myself in a little red nightgown with a matching cap, and I then dressed Thing 2, who was one at the time, in festive nightwear as well. We were like little visions of sugarplums.

First Real Kiss - Oh, my word! This is the kind of question that is embarrassing and can fill you with that moment of regret, that moment of "What on EARTH was I thinking?!?" I don't really remember my first little peck on the cheek (either Cheshire Cat or Bear), but my first real kiss was in the Eighth Grade (which is far TOO young!). It was in the movie theater, and his name was Slick. He was older than me, and we were not on a date. (I repeat, it was too young ~ I wasn't even allowed to date yet!) I will never forget the butterflies of a first kiss, and that's why I wish I had saved that first kiss for someone different. Slick was cute, and older, and he thought I was pretty...so it was exciting, but it was not true love.

First Love - Mercy! This is another one of those questions! And doesn't first love come in many different forms?

• My first love ~ or the love I put above all others, the one that transcends all earthbound love ~ is for my King, my Savior, my Jesus, my God, Elohim, El Shaddai, Jehovah...Name above all names, Name I cannot live without, my Lord.
• But...my first love was my daddy. I am so thankful for my dad. I have been blessed with one that I know loves me and that will always be there for me, for Mr. Brownstone, and for Tornado and Twister. He is a great balance of everything a dad should be, and I love him for it.
  
• My first crush was in Kindergarten. Everybody, every girl anyway, had a crush on Little Fonzie. He wore a black leather jacket just like the Fonz. I'm not sure if we all really loved him, or if we loved the fact that he had a black leather jacket like Fonzie.
• My first boyfriend was in First Grade. Cheshire Cat had siblings that were quite a bit older than him ~ old enough to be dating. He was my boyfriend because he told me that I was going to be his girlfriend. Cheshire Cat might have attempted a kiss on the cheek, but I really don't remember because it was so long ago and the whole boyfriend/girlfriend thing just embarrassed me in the first place. I think that was about the extent of our relationship, other than the fact that we were friends all the way through graduation.
  
• The first boy with whom I held hands was in Fifth Grade. His name was Bear. We went to the Planetarium on a field trip and held hands under the stars. So romantic for a fifth grader, wasn't he? I got a peck on the cheek from Bear. It was very fast, very unexpected, and his cheeks turned ALL SHADES of red ~ probably because eleven years old is too young to be kissing!
• My first love that confused me was Johnny Boy. We were such good friends. Johnny Boy moved to Our Town in Second Grade. Through all of the him liking me and me liking him when I liked someone else or he liked someone else, we remained good friends. And let me ask you, have you experienced how hard it is to listen to the girlfriend troubles of your heart's true love when you are fourteen and that girlfriend isn't you? As a result, Johnny Boy was also the first boy to break my heart, and I was the first girl to break his. We were friends all through High School, and all through College, and we still are friends ~ though we have both moved away from Our Town and never see each other except when we are both in Our Town at the same time. Though our timing was not often in sync, we did get the timing right once; but by that time, we were too good of friends ~ the "almost like dating your brother" kind of friends. We both got a friend for life, though, and now he's found Mrs. Johnny Boy, and I've found Mr. Brownstone.
• My first real boyfriend was in High School. Star Athlete and I dated for two years. Things started out rosy, but Star Athlete was not very nice to me after awhile. It was an eye-opener for me and a life lesson in that whole "books and their covers" analogy. I was so thankful to have Johnny Boy in my life. Johnny Boy, Bear, and Fred (my dear friend) saved me from harm's way. Cue foreboding music here. And then...there was my daddy. My daddy, non-violent man that he is, found the ability to be very scary when there was a need to be very scary. Star Athlete did not bother me anymore.
• I dated some in College, but it was just dating, no real love connections. And then...Mr. Brownstone walked into my life and never walked out of it ~ my first and only true love.
  

First Concert - Do concerts I saw at a County Fair count? If so, it was probably Merl Haggard, or Charley Pride. I also saw George Strait and Mickey Gilley and several other artists this way. I guess the first REAL concert I saw was Garth Brooks. He was truly phenomenal ~ I saw him on his birthday. He told us that in honor of his birthday he would like to try out a new song to see if we liked it. I guess you could call it a "World Premiere". Well, the crowd obviously liked it because it sent him from stardom to super-stardom and opened a new door in country music. He debuted "Rodeo" for us that night...and the crowd went wild.

First Thought In The Morning - My first thought is always "just nine more minutes". That is also my second thought and my third thought ~ sometimes it's my fourth thought, too. However, when it's my fourth thought, it makes me nine minutes behind if we are trying to get out the door for anything. My first annoying thought is fear at the tingling in my left set of toes, accompanied by "isn't once enough?" ~ more on that another time. My first lucid thought is "I need a Diet Coke".

First Best Friend - Well, the obvious would be to say that Thing 2 was my first best friend, followed by Thing 3 and Thing 4. I was ~ and still am ~ very close to my siblings. My first non-sibling best friend was Jeff. Well, her name wasn't really Jeff. It was before my time, but there was a comic strip about Mutt and Jeff. Jeff was very short and Mutt was very tall. Grown-ups used to call us Mutt and Jeff because I was so much taller than her. Jeff and I are still friends. She was a bridesmaid in my wedding to Mr. Brownstone.

AND LASTS...
Last Food You Ate - Do Tootsie Rolls count as food? If so, then the answer is Tootsie Rolls. If those don't count, then it was the Asian Salad with Grilled Chicken from McDonald's. Yum.

Last CD Purchased - The last CD I purchased was Kelly Clarkson's "My December". I really love her voice and have been a fan since Season One of American Idol.

Last Good Book You Read - The last book I read was Karen Kingsbury's "Forever". It was not good, though. It was great. If you have not read her series about the Baxter Family, I highly recommend them. I say "them" because there are three different series about the Baxters ~ different, but not independent of one another.

You must first read the Redemption Series in order:

• "Redemption"
• "Remember"
• "Return"
• "Rejoice"
• "Reunion"

Then, you read the Firstborn Series in order as well:

• "Fame"
• "Forgiven"
• "Found"
• "Family"
• "Forever"

Then, you read the Sunrise Series, which is a work in progress with the final three books to be released between now and Summer 2008:

• "Sunrise"
• "Summer"
• "Someday"
• "Sunset"

Last Time You Cried - Oh mercy. I cry a lot! The last time I cried was while watching "Disney's Aladdin - A Musical Spectacular" at Disneyland. I know that is SO cheesy, but I can't help it. I cry at musicals, even when they are funny, as well as instrumental music concerts ~ like a symphony, or when I watch marching bands. I KNOW. These, of course, are not the only times I cry. I cried a few days before the musical when I talked to a friend on the phone ~ please keep in mind that this is a friend I see often ~ because it had been a couple of weeks since I had seen her and thought that it was going to be a couple of more. I also cry when I get my feelings hurt, which happened the same week. I cry sometimes in commercials, movies, and television shows. I cry when I'm reading a good book. I cry when Tornado and Twister do anything, including grow!

Last "I Love You" Said - The last time I said "I love you" was when Mr. Brownstone called me earlier today. I love that man. I am a lucky girl. So lucky. Mr. Brownstone has got ALL the goods.

Last Funny Thing You Did - Hmm...Tornado and Twister find it extremely funny when I make up new words to old songs to fit whatever it is we are doing, or just to be silly. My last made up song was today. It went something like this, "Wilbur Wonka, Wilbur Wonka, for the cleanest teeth in town. Wilbur Wonka, Wilbur Wonka, helps avoid the need to frown." (Wilbur Wonka is Willy Wonka's father.)

Now for a little extra...
Last Words To Type On This Tag - The End.

I'M "IT".

http://xboxwife.blogspot.com/2007/07/im-it.html