25 Things

Ashley kept getting "tagged" by friends with this "25 things list," so we gave in and made the list together. Here are 25 things you likely do not know about us (and if you do, please remove the cameras from our house immediately).

25 random things …
1. Ashley makes up the bed once every day … while Graham is already asleep, just before she is about to get in it for the night.
2. About once a month or so when Graham can no longer take the mess, he puts all of Ashley’s piles of paper in one box. There are two full pampers boxes currently under the desk in the kitchen.
3. Ashley has a fire-proof box with letters, cards, and important papers. She actually rereads special letters when she is supposed to be pulling out the marriage license, passport, etc. … easily sidetracked when it comes to “memories.”
4. Graham would rather get up at 3 a.m. to work on something he can’t stop thinking about than to sleep and do it later. He calls it “pseudo-insomnia” b/c it’s not really insomnia, but he thinks it’s what it would feel like if he did actually have insomnia.
5. Ashley is only allowed a small sip of wine at a time because she wastes it. The other day she asked if they sell half-size Hornsby’s. She’d actually rather have a Coke (and a smile).

6. Graham has a really hard time letting go of old clothes. Why get rid of them when they’re just stained, torn, worn out, or don’t fit anymore? That would make too much sense.
7. Ashley likes to mute the television during commercials. She thinks she’s getting old b/c the change in volume from television show to commercial break annoys her. Graham confers.
8. Graham hates Taco Bell. He’d rather starve.
9. Ashley doesn’t really have to wear glasses but she does sometimes b/c she thinks she has “super-human vision” when she wears them. They are also strategically used as a distraction on days where she doesn’t have time to do her hair or makeup. A student mentioned once he figured out that she wore them strategically … for the “really serious” lectures. She has them fooled.
10. Graham’s favorite part of American Idol (i.e. the only part he likes) is when they show the people who are really, really, really bad. He has a secret desire to try out for the show in order to be one of those people one day.

11. Ashley can’t throw anything away (see #2)(see #3). On rare occasions every few months, she will pull together a few bags for Goodwill. Otherwise, if she truly knows she doesn’t need something or won’t ever use it, she gives it to Graham and says, “Just put this somewhere for me.”
12. Graham likes to crawl around on the floor and hide from Eden around the corner.
13. Ashley has a desk at the house. She doesn’t use it. The couch is her desk.
14. If he could, Graham would spend absolutely no money. He would eat eggs, beans and rice for every meal for a month.
15. Ashley opens the refrigerator and asks where things are. She hasn’t learned the lesson from her childhood about moving things around when looking for something.

16. Graham likes “left-over casserole” … literally, everything that’s leftover in the fridge, mixed all together, and reheated. Ashley believes he would mix salad, beans, rice, fajita fixings, corn, bread, all together if he could. Ashley is frowning in disgust as she types this.
17. On days where Ashley talks to two members of her immediate family, she feels like she “won the day’s game” if she can add the remaining two (momma, daddy, britton, or whitney) to her talked-to-them-today list.
18. Graham has an addictive personality. He has conquered his “Law&Order” addiction (he used to have to watch the whole hour if he heard the first “ding ding”). He simply replaced it with “House.”
19. Part of the reason Ashley chose her college was because she missed the scholarship acceptance deadline for another university. She thinks things usually have a way of working out.
20. Part of the reason Graham went to graduate school at Auburn was because he was dating somebody there and he didn’t want to get a real job. After staying for grad school and breaking up with the girlfriend, he met Ashley there, thus, supporting her theory (see # 19).

21. A common conversation we’ve had recently goes as follows:
G: “Maybe you shouldn’t watch this commercial?”
A: “I’m okay.”
G: “Uh, huh.”
(30 seconds later)
A: sniff, sniff “Why did they have to make me start to cry?”

A more common conversation we have is:
G: “Good night.”
A: “But, I just thought of one more thing to tell you.”
G: “But, I really want to go to bed now. It’s 9:30.” (see #4)
22. Graham can recite Each Peach Pear Plumb from memory.
23. One time, Ashley drank an entire gallon of milk in 2 days. Yes, she was pregnant.
24. Graham read to Ashley out of Your Pregnancy Week by Week and the Mayo Clinic Pregnancy Guide after dinner. He edited out all of the here-are-the-things-that-can-wrong information. Toward the end of the pregnancy, he would say, “This week, your baby is this size.” Then turn a bunch of pages and say, “That’s it.”
25. We think our daughter is amazing. Since she smiles at us, we think she thinks we’re amazing, too.

EXTRA: We still have a “Tips for storing breastmilk” magnet on our fridge.

EXTRA-EXTRA: Since Eden stopped nursing during the night, Graham took over getting up during the night when Eden cries or needs help going back to sleep. Somehow, Ashley is still the one to hear Eden on the monitor, decide when she’s really awake, and wake up Graham to tell him it’s time to go in and check on the little munchkin. At the first nudge, he usually says, “Are you sure she’s awake?” Now that he knows this, it has turned into a game.