Middle Name Meme

Scelata has tagged me... first time out for me to answer a meme... here goes:

Firstly, here are the rules for this one:

1.You have to post the rules before you give your answers.

2.You must list one fact about yourself beginning with each letter of your middle name. (If you don't have a middle name, use your maiden name or your mother's maiden name).

3.At the end of your blog post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged.)

My husband asked me what middle name I would use in this meme since I have a choice... as a child growing up, my middle name was Louise, the name of one of my Dad's cousins for whom I was named. I actually never cared much for the name (don't really know why), although my entire family still calls me "Jannie-Lou" at times when we are all together. My husband picked up on it and also has carried it on.

When we married, though, I was a bit reluctant to simply jettison my maiden name and didn't like the idea of the hyphenation (he was in the Army -- hyphened names were a seemingly big problem for military folks to handle on any of the military records). So, I dropped Louise and just kept my maiden name as my middle name... so since that is my legal middle name now (and it has fewer letters), I'm using that one -- Floyd.

F -- follower... since being married I have followed my husband to many different places. We just found out that it is very likely that we'll be moving yet again in May. So, I was mentally counting up all the places we have lived and the number of household moves we have made. In 25 years we have moved (to this point) 16 times, which doesn't include the 4 1/2 months' time we lived in the travel trailer following Hurricane Katrina. We have lived in 9 different cities (twice in the same city on different occasions), two different countries, in 5 different states. My oldest little boy has lived in 6 different homes (only 5 for the younger one). Our moving about is likely to continue until my dear husband retires... we are getting very good at packing up, moving and learning about new places, although we are always very sad to leave the friends we make along the way.

L --lucky. I have been blessed with a wonderful husband and two happy, healthy little boys. We had wished to have children for many years (and had actually given up) before our first child came along. Our grandiose plans of having a large family wasn't to be, but we feel quite lucky to have the two we got. Good health, laughter, wonderful friends and family have blessed our lives at every turn. If that isn't lucky, I don't know what is...

O--outspoken. I tend to be fairly blunt and somewhat quick to state my opinions about things. Since that isn't always an admirable trait (and can tend to cause hurt feelings), I have tried to temper my initial instinct and pause a bit before speaking out. I have found that, many times, people really don't want your opinion about every topic (imagine that). Sometimes they just want to tell you what they think about things and have you listen. Also, I have found that some of my opinions are not fit to share with others... it is far more charitable to keep them to myself! All that being said, I have not gained complete mastery of my inclination to speak my mind and cannot seem to help but say what I think when asked. So... be prepared to get the straight truth if you ask me about something.

Y--yarn... goes along with knitting. I learned to knit from a neighbor who lived across the street from us when I was about 7 or 8 years old. I can remember going across the street several times a week for awhile and spending time learning from her the basics of winding a ball of yarn so that you can pull the yarn out from the middle, casting on, knitting, purling and binding off. After that, I was on my own. I learned the rest from knitting books and magazines and have enjoyed it ever since. As a kid, I used to be the one who would make every person in the family a pair of mittens for Christmas... later on I progressed to sweaters... I don't knit as much now as I used to, but I think it is primarily because of the climate where we live. It just doesn't feel like 'knitting weather' when it is hot and humid most of the time :)

D--December 29. My anniversary. It is hard to believe so much time has already passed. It has been a fun life together...

I'm going to tag the following bloggers... check out their blogs...

Mara Joy

Madd Chatter
Matt at Absolutely No Spin
The Layman at Back When We Were Liberal
The Deacon at Back When We Were Liberal

Thanks, Scelata...