Me in 8 Nutshells

Well I, Kim, was tagged twice on Tim’s blog and since I have never posted it would be pretty easy for me to post twice as much. I can be frightfully long winded, so there will be only a few, brave souls that make it all the way to the end of my post. I am cheating, I was not going to tag anyone since I almost never blog. But I am going to tag my neice, Kira and nephew, Ethan.

1-- I contribute my strong tomboy streak largely to my older sis, Kelcey. When we would play house as kids (since she is older) she always got to be the mom. I got so used to being the make-believe dad that once when I was about 3 or 4 I informed my fam that they could call me Jeffery. They said “no”.

2--Around 4th grade, my best friend Ariana and I used to play soccer at every recess with the boys. We were very conceited and highly talented athletes, always running just as hard and fast as we could. Probably after watching me run my heart out and strut over a great steal, one of Kelcey’s friends said to her “Your sister runs like a boy, does she walk like a girl?”

3--I am by nature a packrat. It pains me to throw cool or possibly useful stuff away. Also in 4th grade, (as tradition for all of us) my Grandma Chrystal took me to the capital building when I was going to start studying CA government. As we walked through the metal detectors, I set off all the bells and whistles. We stepped aside and she asked me if I had anything metal in my little purse or pockets. All of the security agents and Grandma were cracking up by the time I was done emptying all the treasures from my purse. It was a collection of flattened scraps of metal from parking lots. Fascinating stuff!

4--Living in Russia and Mexico has only added to my already thrify, almost miserly self. When my little sis, Kara, was here visiting I was talking about turning our leftover fajitas and chilaquiles into a great egg casserole the next day for breakfast. She said “Kim, if you were not a missionary, I think you would make a great . . . (now here is where I expected her to say gourmet chief or something related, but no) . . . cafeteria lunch lady!” Oh the shame! Sadly, it so fits. We never bought hot lunch on “Cook’s Choice” day because we knew that was cafeteria code for leftovers. (Well anyway, the breakfast was delicious.)

5--Not all tomboy, I am afraid of spiders and creepy-crawlies in general. I used to play outside a lot with my brother, Chris. Once we were both up in the apricot tree and when he turned around I was shocked to see that there was a lizard clinging to the back of his t-shirt. Instead of telling him and having to help get it off, I said “Let’s run to the house!” It was a good little distance, and thankfully the lizard bailed off before we got to the fence. (I am pretty sure I have never told him that story!)

6-- I love projects and like to throw a little creativity into everything I do. Tim has thought I was crazy more than once because of another bright idea. One of my all time favorites was knitting a hammock after moving back to CA from Russia. I really think projects are therapeutic for me, it was my form of combating reverse culture shock. I am thankful to have parents that let me make messes and allowed me to follow some whims. I want to be that kind of a mom.

7-- Here are a bunch in one, since my time in almost out. I am a relationship person; loyal to a fault; cower at conflict; love to make life more liveable; cry at the drop of a hat; love to sing out loud and be silly; love to read out loud to myself or anyone who will listen; love Tim and being married; love being a mom of three and that has also been the biggest challenge in life so far.

8—Here is the social worker in me coming out. My most recent fascination has been a program I heard about this week on the news called One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) and the idea is to provide kid friendly laptops to students in poverty stricken areas (especially in third-world countries.) The more I think about it, I love the idea. The goal of the company is to alleviate poverty by empowering students with access to knowledge, technology and global communication. But it really relies on the creativity of the members to improve their communities by what they are given. Neat, huh? Anyway, until Nov. 26 they are running a promotion for the program that if you give one laptop, you get one to keep or give to the child of your choice. I wonder what great good God could do through this. Here’s the link for anyone interested: http://www.laptop.org/en/vision/index.shtml

Thanks, Tim, for letting me hijack your blog and ever indulging my crazies.

Rush Family Update

If you'd be interested in reading our monthly newsletter, you can check it out at http://www.saturnroad.org/html/bm~doc/mexico-rpt_october-2007.pdf