58 Great Years

Hi Everyone!
It was so much fun reading your birthday 100 lists that I couldn't resist making one of my own. So here goes:


1. I like to sit up straight and I try to have good posture.
2. My hands perspire when I’m hot or nervous. I can make them perspire on demand!
3. I love clean sheets.
4. My husband and my daughter are my best friends. We talk everyday.
5. I wrote a book, “A Companion to the Children’s Songbook.”
6. Autumn is my favorite season.
7. I enjoy reading historical fiction novels.
8. I love chocolate candy, the darker the better. (There is always some chocolate
in the house somewhere!)
9. I enjoy being alone.
10. I adore my grandkids. I pray for each one everyday…my kids, too.
11. I love the ladies in my quilt group. We meet every Tuesday to work on projects
and eat a delicious potluck lunch.
12. I collect sets of dishes. I have 20+ sets…crazy! And only two people to cook
for!
13. I enjoy making quilts.
14. My body clock prefers staying up late and sleeping in till 8:00 a.m.
15. I make my own Christmas cards.
16. I look forward to going to the Oregon Coast with my sisters every summer.
17. I like to set a pretty table.
18. My mother died just before my 12th birthday. I still miss her.
19. I like to keep my hands busy with handwork in the car, on an airplane or in the
evenings while watching television.
20. I love to be with my kids. They make me laugh and fill me with joy.
21. I’m nuts about collecting beach agates.
22. I love the warmth and glow of a fire.
23. My favorite scriptures are: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may
see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”(Matthew 5:16)
And “I will not forget thee. I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands.”
(Isaiah 49: 15-16)
24. I am obsessive compulsive in a fabric store, a shoe department or at any good
sale.
25. I weigh the same as when I got married.
26. I love all animals, but especially dogs.
27. Bill and I have traveled quite a bit. My favorite trips so far have been to
the Holy Lands, France and Tanzania.
28. I sleep on a squishy pillow and take it with me when I travel.
29. I like to play games with my family or friends.
30. I play the piano…best at sight-reading.
31. Being a Primary Chorister is my favorite calling…also my first at age 15.
32. I can overdose on chocolate chip cookies.
33. I’ve been blessed to have a cleaning lady for years, but I pull my own weeds in
the yard and garden.
34. I sang with a performing group of ten ladies for 11 years. (Just Ten) Still
love to sing in small women’s groups.
35. I have never had to work outside our home since our children were born. My
husband, Bill, has provided an abundant life for us.
36. My favorite movies are A & E’s “Pride and Prejudice” and “Ann of Green
Gables”. I usually watch both series once a year.
37. I was a child model (ages 3-13).
38. I hope to have great teeth in the next life…I’m looking forward to at least
getting my front tooth back!
39. I would love to be better at articulating.
40. I collect children’s books.
41. I wish I had a beautiful singing voice.
42. I enjoy growing a small vegetable garden.
43. If I could change anything about my body it would be to have a good jaw line
and pretty hands.
44. I love the sound of crickets chirping on a warm summer night.
45. I am not very good at reading my scriptures everyday.
46. I do remember to say my prayers everyday.
47. I love the Wasatch Mountains!
48. I wish my kids and their families lived closer.
49. I would love to cook a yummy dinner for my family every Sunday…at a pretty
table on pretty dishes.
50. The older I get, the more organized I like to be.
51. I don’t like to carry a cell phone, unless I’m driving on a trip by myself.
52. I love to hear about the cute things my grandkids say and do.
53. I’m an American Idol junky.
54. As a child I had dogs, cats, fish, birds, mice, rats, turtles and ducks as
pets. But I always wanted a horse.
55. I enjoy playing duets on the piano.
56. My fingernails won’t grow long. They break, chip, peel and curl!
57. As a child I took lots of lessons: horseback riding, sewing, singing,
swimming, elocution, piano, and ballet.
58. My high school boyfriend died in Vietnam.
59. I love cool, fresh sea air and dislike the hottest weeks of summer here in Utah.
60. I collect cookbooks and recipes.
61. I was a Rose Festival Princess in Portland my senior year of high school.
62. I exercise 3 times a week at Gold’s Gym (elliptical, treadmill, few weights)
63. I make a picture scrapbook every year.
64. I can’t stand it when a toilet seat is left up.
65. I am an optimist.
66. I have to read before I can go to sleep.
67. I’ve never had a calling in Relief Society other than visiting teacher.
68. I like to play Sudoku and Free Cell.
69. I feel like I am half my age.
70. I love the smell of lilacs, peonies and the blossoms on Chinese plum trees (we
had two of these in the parkway where I grew up.)
71. I collect depression glass.
72. I have my mother’s squinty, wrinkly smile.
73. I enjoy dinners and hikes in the canyon.
74. I memorize children’s poems.
75. I feel great joy in the fact that my children married extremely well!
76. I like to ride my bike in our neighborhood.
77. I am the youngest of 4 girls born to “Doug” and “Em” Swenson.
78. I like a tidy house.
79. I still love the house where I grew up in Portland.
80. I must have 40 lipsticks in my drawer (compulsive?)
81. Bill and I have great friends with whom we travel and go out every Friday night.
82. I like scented candles (they give Bill a headache.)
83. I have a yellow/red personality with some blue and white. So what am I?
84. Bill and I met on a blind date. I thought he had a really great smile. I
still do.
85. I think I am getting less patient as I grow older.
86. My favorite place in the world is home.
87. I had the first Barbie doll. I still have it.
88. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ and his gospel.
89. I have too many clothes, shoes, dishes, candles, fabric, scrapbook supplies and
beauty aids (though the older I get the more aids I need!)
90. I love yummy soup.
91. I wish I could remember names better.
92. I am mechanically challenged, but fortunately I’m married to a man who can fix
almost anything.
93. I stay on top of the dishes.
94. I can’t stand sleeping bags or socks in bed.
95. I prefer nightgowns to pajamas. (I like my legs bear.)
96. I am so proud of my children, but I try not to strut my feathers.
97. I’ve made my bed every day since the morning when my mother called me out of my
6th grade class to walk home and make my bed.
98. I am not a procrastinator. I love to be prepared way ahead of time.
99. I love the smell of a rainy day and a forested trail.
100. I LOVE LIFE!