Austin Lifestyle Photographer | Quarter of a Century

Today is my 25th birthday.  I’ve always kind of felt like an old soul in a young person’s body. I dunno, maybe you picked up on that too… I mean, I do knit and sew. I’ve been looking forward to this birthday for a really long time. I got married young – exactly a month before my 19th birthday. I always felt older, but the number never matched up.  Now I think things are starting to level out, and I’m so excited about this year.

I thought it would be fun to share a list of 25 random things about me to document my life thus far.  In ten years, I’ll look back at all the things I thought were important and laugh.

1. Random Fact #1 was stated above. I don’t think I’ve ever shared how old I was when we got married.  We got married on July 31st and on August 31st, I turned 19.
2. I got my first kidney stone three months after we got married. My parents refer to my kidney stones as their grandchildren since we don’t have kids yet and the pain is compared to child birth.
3. I have a crazy addiction to sour punch straws (strawberry) and frozen yogurt.  I’m definitely a sugar kind-of-girl. I much prefer it to chocolate or salty things.
4. Dustyn and I have owned four dogs since we’ve been married – Cayman, Eli, Camy, and Jules. Cayman has passed away, but Eli now lives with my parents as he is a dog who needs lots of room to run and play. They live on a farm so he has ample amounts of space.
5. I have mentioned where I grew up before, but never really said more than that. For the first 17 years of my life, I lived in the small town of Dime Box, Texas – home to 350 people.  No, I’m not kidding. I graduated with 23 people in my class. We didn’t have a football team, and everyone played every sport.
6. On that note, I played volleyball, basketball, ran track for a while, and played tennis. The sport I miss the absolute most is volleyball.
7. I was the valedictorian of my high school class; I know some of you are rolling your eyes as there weren’t many people in my class, but it is what it is.
8. My friends make fun of me because practically everything in my closet is a shade of grey.  It’s always been one of my favorite colors. My mom can testify to this – she hated that I always picked out grey t-shirts.
9. I have one brother, Justin, and one sister, Ashley.  They are both younger than me.
10. My family is a definite house divided. I am a UT alum, my mom is an A&M alum, my brother will soon be a Tech graduate, and my sister is still trying to figure out whose side she’ll take.
11. Dustyn and I have a serious reading addiction. There’s rarely a night that goes by where I don’t read.  I use two online websites to track my reads and share with friends – shelfari and good reads.  You can be my friend on there if you enjoy reading too.
12. The shot I got yesterday made my arm hurt so badly all through the night; I couldn’t sleep on that arm and I’m extremely tired today because I woke up so much last night.
13. One of my favorite restaurants is Casa Ole. They finally brought one to the Austin area; it’s located in Georgetown, but we drive there occasionally for dinner because it’s that darn good.
14. I’ve always had the complex of sharing too much information about myself. Case in point – this blog post.
15. When I was in college, I didn’t know what I would do if I didn’t get into the school of architecture. I would have been devastated not to have made it, but here I am anyway… not working in that field.
16. Right before I started college, I went to a medical camp at A&M. I was trying to decide between architecture and medicine. They put us through mock classes (boring) and made us do rounds at a hospital (extremely heartbreaking) and talked to us about cadavers (gross!).  I easily made up my mind and decided to pursue architecture.
17. I spent one year at A&M before transferring to UT after I got married.
18. At my student orientation at A&M, I was accepted in architectural engineering. I asked which school I should go with – the engineering kids or the architecture kids. They asked me what I was talking about, and I told them what I was accepted for. They informed me that the architectural engineering program had been closed since 1979.  Oh, Aggies.
19. I ask for my coffee ‘extra-hot’ at all coffee shops. Dustyn thinks my mouth has no nerves because I can also eat something directly out of the oven and it doesn’t burn me.
20. Dustyn tells me frequently that he thinks my handwriting is pretty, but he can’t read it worth a darn.
21. I have always refused to say the word “y’all”.  I gave a lot of speeches growing up for an organization and that word wouldn’t have been acceptable.  I never let it become part of my vocabulary.
22. I am a sucker for the Spanish language; I want to be fluent and have taken tons of classes. I can definitely understand more than I can speak, but sometimes, I’m just afraid I’ll really say something terribly wrong.
23. I am not a fan of seafood. I’m trying to eat fish because I know it’s healthier for me, but dang.  The smell just isn’t appetizing.
24. I feel extremely uncomfortable about having people come over to our house when it’s not perfectly clean.
25. I hate folding clothes, except for when they’re coming directly out of the dryer… soft and warm.

And here’s a recent photo of me. Taken by the lovely Amber Snow.