Linking Up ... Idiosyncrasies

I've been working on some new posts with plenty of pictures of the cutest member of our family, but to get me going I'm linking up with Laugh Until Your Cheeks Hurt and posting a few of my idiosyncrasies...

Idiosyncrasy-from Ancient Greek ἰδιοσυγκρασία, idiosynkrasía, "a peculiar temperament", "habit of body" is defined as an individualizing quality or characteristic of a person or group, and is often used to express eccentricity or peculiarity.

~As a girl I used to take weekend trips to Caldwell, Idaho from our home in Moscow, Idaho (about a 6 hour drive) with my Grandma to visit my Great-Grandma. Those trips began when I was just starting grade school and as a school teacher my Grandma would take those opportunities we had to teach me lots of things like math facts and the Counties and their Seats for the entire state; many things I have now pushed to the depths of my brain. But there is one thing I learned that I will never forget and that is how to spell the word CONSTRUCTION. There was always a ton of construction on Hwy 95, so needles to say I saw that word a lot. Even to this day if I need to write or type the word CONSTRUCTION I spell it out in my head, just to prove that I know how...

~I LOVE patterns & will usually jump through an irrational set of hoops to continue a pattern or to avoid making a pattern all together. It took me over 4 years of trying, to carry a baby full term & during that 4 years I created every pattern imaginable with the list of names we had agreed on. Had our first initials not spelled a word (T+A+G), it may have never become a concern, but since they do, here are the hoops I jumped through... 1st boy starts with T, 1st girl A & then the middle name starts with the other parent's middle initial. The 1st hoop was no biggie, but now... Do all boys start with T, all girls with A? Do we swap the rules & give the next girl a name that starts with T? Our 1st son will have a middle name that is also a town in Idaho; so do we give all boys  a middle name that is a town in Idaho? Are you thoroughly confused yet?  

~I get totally irritated when I find the toilet lid left up; we're not even talking about the seat folks, the lid is enough to make me crazy. ***I am only this critical and irrational at my house, so don't feel like I am going to go crazy at your house***

~I've mentioned this before, but it's worth mentioning again... I almost always sort my french fries by length before eating them in even number groupings. I group them according to length, because it makes for even, less messy dipping - especially on that not so kosher double dip that I do if the sauce has my name written all over it!

~I love love love IKEA, which if you have ever been to my house and know IKEA you would figure out right away. Twice a year I am allowed to go to IKEA with a decent chunk of change and purchase items that Travis and I pick out together for the rooms that need the most work. This works because it forces me to think outside the box and really use what we get and make odd things work to create the best house on a less than you would think budget. That twice a year does a lot for me, but then there are 363 IKEALESS days left for me to suffer through; so to get me by I came up with this game... I am allowed to go to IKEA anytime as long as I follow the rule of the day. That rule must be communicated to Travis beforehand and approved by him. The rule of the day changes based on our budget & my mood, but here are some rules I have used: $25.00 limit & no single item can cost more than $5.00, $20.00 limit & you can only purchase items that begin with whatever letter you pick, $50.00 limit & you can only buy things that are a specific color... I turn most everything in to a competition with myself... 

~My name is Alicia and I'm an Excel Spreadsheet Junkie... If it can be organized via spreadsheet, it has been at my house. Our movies, food storage, cleaning supplies, addresses, schedules and many more items have fallen victim to my crazy need for organization.