things i bet you didn't know about me

who's the girl behind this blog? well you all know my name is erikka... it's at the end of every post. you know that i have a beautiful {if i may so myself} lil miss, claire, who is the center of my universe. you may also remember that i have a furry friend too, murphy. i have a husband {duh! claire didn't just appear!}. you also know that i love cloth diapering and photography. but, ladies there are some things i bet you don't know about me. for instance...

i hate cheese on my pizza. yeah, i hate it... actually i despise the idea of putting cheese on my pizza. yuck, yuck, yuck! i hate the smell, i hate the taste, but mostly i hate the texture. ugh. i'm literally gagging just thinking about it. when i make pizza {or order it} i have a portion of the pizza without cheese. if i order it the person on the other line always reiterates the fact that i don't want cheese, because {i assume} they think they heard me incorrectly. but nope, they in fact, didn't i dont like cheese on my pizza!

i sleep with a pillow over my head. full-fledged plop a pillow over my face. you would swear i was trying to suffocate myself when in fact, i'm only trying to muffle noise. before claire was born i was a very light sleeper. the tiniest peep would wake me. don't even get me started on snoring people. when claire's was first born i had to remind myself to remove my beloved feather pillow from my bed so i didn't risk it falling into her pack & play beside my bed. to be honest, i'm so exhausted at night that i rarely need to use it but i do because it's like my security blanket.

i am still in college. blah. i hate to admit it, but it's true. i'm still a student. i am happy to say that i will graduate in december {if all goes as planned}. i graduated from high school in 2005 and went straight to college. i did that for a 3 semesters when i decided that i wanted to take time to really learn what i wanted to do for the rest of my life. i went from being a physician's assistant student, to a elementary education student, to a {now} special education student. i feel like, although it's taking me forever, that God had a plan and it's really starting to make sense to me. i look forward to student teaching in the fall and graduating in the winter.

i am hoping {and secretly praying} to get pregnant this summer. matt and i are already ready to expand our family. don't get me wrong, we love our life with lil miss, but we are so in love with her that we are excited to love another lil babe h. we have our fingers crossed for a 2014 spring baby so i can be home with him/her {and claire too, of course} for a long time before another school year starts.

i am dying to experience labor again. call me crazy but it was the best thing i have ever experienced. the  love that filled the delivery room, the anticipation of a new baby being born, and the way the body allows itself to birth a little human being. i loved every moment of claire's birth and i wouldn't change it for the world because it's hers. and only hers, but i really hopeful that i will be able to go into labor naturally and experience that side of laboring.

i love people. if i hadn't fallen in love and got married at such a young age, i would have def. entered the peace corp, or became a missionary. i went on a mission trip {when i was 15} to the poorest place in america- the lakota indian reservation in south dakota. those two weeks changed my perspective of life and changed me in a way that i couldn't even begin to describe. i plan on getting our children {in the future} involved in volunteer efforts so they can learn humility and kindness like i did when i was a teenager.  i also want to do missions when i retire and our children are off and on their own... which is waay down the road!!

welp, there you have it. i'm on my computer, not my ipad, so please excuse the lack of capitalization. it's so much more fun {and easier} to type without them. auto-correct has spoiled me slightly!

if you care to know anything else about me, feel free to ask!