I have been tagged by Maggie Harris. Truth be told, I was also tagged by Doug Townsdin right before I had my tonsils taken out but never played along. So here goes…Here are the rules. 1)Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves. (2) People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules. (3) At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. (4) Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog

1. The most interesting One Thing to ever happen would be my 30 ft. fall from a cliff when I was an AIM student in Portugal. But since I’ve beaten that dead horse, I won’t retell it here.

2. I’m a direct descendant of Benjamin Rush. “Who is that?”, you ask. If you look on the Declaration of Independence and find Benjamin Franklin’s name, Rush’s is right above it. I could probably give you 8 facts about him easier than I can about myself. Interesting fellow! My youngest son’s name happens to be Clark Benjamin.

3. I’ve been in a couple of pretty interesting historical settings. I was in Russia in 96 when they almost returned to communism. (Dennis Wilson had me convinced it would happen and had me deciding what I’d do if they returned. It was quite the teaching moment!) And I was in South Africa weeks after Nelson Mandela was elected president in 94. As we were leaving the airport, upon arrival, the missionary that picked us up (Paul Miller and Monica Smith-now-Fox went as well) pointed out a pile of rubble where someone detonated a bomb the week before in protest to the elections.

4. This is kind of gross, but I like to snack on spinach by putting a huge chaw of it in my mouth and continuing on about my day. Kim’s not a fan of the habit, though she’s happy to see me eating my veggies.

5. I find it very interesting that my parents were converted by missionaries. The College Church of Christ in Abilene, Tx sent missionaries to Quincy Il, somewhere around 68. Really, who would target Quincy? I’m so glad they did! My oldest son’s name is Quincy.

6. James Kinnaird was my best friend in AIM (class of 90). 5 years later, he and his beautiful wife coordinated a young AIMer in Perm Russia by the name of Kimberly Blachly who would later marry me. (James’s oldest son’s name is Timothy. No, not really named after me, but I thought that piece of info would fit in nicely here.)

7. The only noticeable skill I’ve ever exhibited has been dissecting rats in biology lab at Texas Tech. Really, it was like a freaky thing. I believe each person has THEIR gift that they can do better than anyone else. I was saddened to find that was mine. I couldn’t really skin rats at parties to impress girls.

8. I used to swear I’d never be a preacher, never do mission work and NEVER go to Africa. After I had done all three I began swearing that I’d NEVER marry a super model. It worked!

I tag Kara Lane (Blachly) Olsen. http://ericandkara.blogspot.com/ By the way, my daughter’s name is Karsyn Lane. I think I’ll put their links up just in case you’d like to catch up with them. So I also tag Doug Oaks http://thedougout24.wordpress.com/, Pat Sheaffer http://sheaffersaimreport.blogspot.com/, Doogle http://allaboutcanaan.blogspot.com/, Theresa Wilson http://denniswilson.com/theresa/ , Beau Hart http://beauahart.blogspot.com/, Cheeky Susan http://cheekyness.blogspot.com/ and Clair (Maguire) Wilson http://www.gingerpixel.com/.