Last week I started working on the layout of my blog to make it look more professional. For about a year now I knew how I wanted to organize everything, but I didn’t have the motivation to get any work done (depression sucks, guys). I finally took the plunge last week to develop my brand and bam! The new and improved Kim on a Limb came to life. Another exciting aspect is that I created an Instagram account for the blog. Because of the new readership and the rebranding of Kim on a Limb, I thought it would be fun to reintroduce myself with a list of 27 things about me. Enjoy!

1. Thanks to growing up in the Air Force, I’ve lived in the country of Turkey (that’s where I started school) and on the island of Guam (we survived typhoon Paka).
2. The platypus is my favorite animal. And no, it’s not thanks to Phineas and Ferb. When I was in 6th grade (a good 4-5 years before that show aired) I picked up a Kid’s National Geographic magazine in my homeroom. The feature article was on the platypus and I gobbled that article up. I fell in love with how different it was from anything I’d ever seen before. Plus it’s just so doggone cute.
3. I attended 8 public schools:
   Incirlik Air Base Elementary (first half of kindergarten)
   Upi Elementary (last half of kindergarten)
   Oceanview Elementary (1st grade)
   Anderson Elementary (2nd grade)
   Ranchvale Elementary (3rd & 4th grade)
   Lowell H. Smith Elementary (5th grade – no longer exists)
   Utterback Middle School (6th – 8th grade)
   Rincon High School (9th – 12th grade)
4. Purple is my favorite color. Clearly.
5. After I came home from my mission in 2014, I stopped wearing matching socks. While cleaning my room I had this amazing revelation that I don’t have to wear matching socks! That was, hands down, one of the most freeing experiences of my life. It was such a revolutionary experience for me that I wrote a blog post about it in 2015.
6. To date my favorite title I carry is “aunt” (Hermana Beckert from my time as a missionary is a close second). Being the youngest of two kids, I was never super interested in children. In fact, they terrified me when I was younger. But when my nephew was born I realized how much I love babies and children. Now I’m not nearly as afraid of them as I used to be.
7. While living on Guam I was stung by a Portuguese man o’ war. My dad’s lab was having a cookout on the beach. I want to say this was after Typhoon Paka, but I’m not 100% sure. My sister and I were playing on the beach when we saw these clear, blue tinted things. We thought they were light bulbs and started burying them in the sand. Not too long afterwards my foot started stinging and aching. One of my dad’s coworkers said I’d been stung by something and that someone should pee on my foot to alleviate the burn. We didn’t do that, but we stayed away from the “light bulbs” the rest of the cookout.
8. I have a long-standing fight with and fear of trees. On Turkey I got my leg caught between two branches of a tree while climbing it. In a fit of panic I started screaming at the top of my lungs because I thought I was never going to get out and die there. Then on Guam I got stuck in a tree again and was too scared to jump down from it, so the mailman had to rescue me. Needless to say, I was a pretty big cause of embarrassment to my family when I was younger. 🙂
9. I love learning. I’ve always loved school (#tooschoolforcool). When I was younger I was mostly interested in all thing English, literature, and writing, but as I’ve gotten older my interests have expanded greatly. Some other subjects that I absolutely love are astronomy and history. More recently I’ve become interested in science, personal finances, and organization. A lot of the things I’m really into now fall under the psychology branch of science. Nonfiction books are my jam right now. I can’t get enough of nonfiction. If I could, I would be an eternal college student and just get degree after degree.
10. We love documentaries in my family. One of my favorite memories of my family is sitting down together and watching Ken Burns’ documentary on the Civil War (which is utterly fantastic, by the way). I think we’re all secretly history buffs.
11. The main reason I don’t like the Harry Potter series and think it’s overrated is because Narnia keeps getting slighted and looked over as a children’s series that revolutionized literature. Petty, I know, but I get really petty when it comes to books. Also, Harry is just annoying and Snape was a bully and creeper. That being said, I’m obsessed with Hufflepuff house (which I was sorted into, by the way). The world that J.K. Rowling build is absolutely fascinating to me and I’m in awe of all the information she created about the wizarding world. I just think the books and plot are mediocre.
12. Chicken is my favorite food. It’s so versatile and healthy. You can make so many things with chicken. I never get tired of it. It’s gotten to the point that whenever I go to a new restaurant I look at their chicken options first.
13. I come from a musical family. I play three instruments: clarinet, viola, and piano. I’m a self-taught pianist and play at church from time to time, so that skill is still somewhat solid. Between clarinet and viola, though, I miss playing the viola the most. I’m dying to get my hands on one again.

    

14. Vegetables are so disgusting. I was traumatized by peas and carrots as a child, so it’s taken me a long time to learn to like certain vegetables. My mission really helped with that and there are a handful that I enjoy eating. But I’m still trying to train myself to eat vegetables because I want to have good eating habits.
15. Batman is my favorite superhero. I consider him a superhero. Your argument is invalid.
16. No one else in my family really speaks Spanish but they can all roll their R’s, whereas I can speak Spanish and can’t roll my R’s.
17. I’ve been a nail biter for as long as I can remember. Though it may not look like I’m making much progress with breaking this habit, I’m very proud with how my nails look now. I have a long way to go but I’ve also come a long way, too!
18. I started blogging back in 2005 on Blogger. After I came home, though, I decided that I wanted a change. I’d been getting frustrated with Blogger’s format, anyway. I moved over to WordPress and originally started this blog to just keep in touch with family and friends. Not too long after starting this blog, though, I realized that I wanted it to have a focus and purpose. It took a few years to finally get everything organized, but I’m super happy with the outcome!
19. In the third grade I started getting acne and it plagued me well into my twenties. I feel like within the last few years it’s calmed down a lot. The scars and pockmarks are still visible. Though they cause me embarrassment from time to time, I have to remind myself to be proud of what I look like. The scars remind me that I had to learn to love myself for who I am despite my appearance.
20. I’ve always secretly wanted to be able to rap well.
21. Jupiter is my favorite planet.
22. I try to be funny. Most people say that I am funny. I enjoy making people laugh. But I also have an extremely odd sense of humor. It’s a blessing and a curse.
23. I have an odd interest/fascination/obsession with Canada. One of the reasons I loved going to BYU-Idaho was because there were so many Canadians on campus! I always got super excited when there was a Canadian in one of my classes. I just want to be friends with someone from Canada! It’s also on my bucket list to visit British Columbia.
24. One thing that I just cannot not understand very well is art. I took an art 101 class in community college and it didn’t go super well. I just don’t understand shading and tone and mixing colors and everything. I’ve been to a few art museums and I just have a hard time really appreciating the paintings. It’s something that I’d like to develop.
25. I’m fascinated by wings. I think the reason I love them so much is because they represent freedom and strength. I love pretty much anything that has to do with wings and feathers. Sometimes I wish I had a pair of beautiful white wings so I could feel what it’s like to fly.
26. When I was a very small child I took a bite out of a bar of soap. My mother was so worried that she called poison control to make sure it wouldn’t do me any harm.
27. Learning to do my best, work my hardest, and have fun while not taking things too seriously is one of the best lessons I’ve ever learned – and one that I’m still working on.