Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Random Tuesdays—

Questions #3, 4, 5, and 6 Answered!!

Okay, this worked out PERFECTLY for my Random Tuesday post this morning since I had no clue what I was going to post about today. Usually, I come with something cute and quirky and creative for my Tuesday “random share time” but today? Nada, zilcho, coming up empty.

So, I took four of the questions you all gave me for the Q & A with Cheryl and I’ve made them into my Random Tuesday post today. As is the plan for all of my Tuesday posts, remember to share back with me! Answer the questions yourself and post them in my comments section, or post them on your own blog and let us know where they are!!!

Q: What is your dream vacation?

A: Traveling is one of my VERY favorite activities! In fact, I am literally bursting at the seams with excitement anytime I get to ride in an airplane, stay in a hotel, or get in the car for a long, open road trip. I love to go places I’ve never been before (exploration is the adventure!) and I also love to visit those comfortable places where I’ve been many times before.

So, that being said, this is a very HARD question for me. There are so many places I’d love to visit—in fact, I will be happy anywhere you ship me off to. But I’m going to say that I would love to visit Italy—both to stay somewhere in the gorgeous countryside and to also explore the art everywhere in that country (I absolutely adore art museums and I can only imagine how great it would be to visit all of them in Italy!).

Q: What is your favorite place to eat?

A: Food is HUGE for me (but I guess you all know that, since I talk about it a lot! LOL), so I’m going to break this question down a little bit and say that my favorite Fast Food restaurants are Taco Casa (local fast food; love it!) and Zoe’s (outrageously good Greek food!), my favorite Chain Sit-Down Restaurant is Olive Garden, and my favorite Local or Unique Restaurants are Cypress Inn (wonderful restaurant by the river) and Habaneros (just an average Mexican restaurant, but it’s getting my vote because of the good times we spend there with friends!). There are SO many great restaurants out there and right up there with traveling is my love for discovering new restaurants!

Q: What was your first job ever?

A: I had to actually really think back about this one! Aside from babysitting (which I did all through high school), my first job outside the house was at TCBY Yogurt the summer after my senior year of high school. (Gosh, I had forgotten about that until now! Lol) Then, my first “real” job out of college using my journalism degree was as a Copy Editor at a book publishing company in Birmingham (this job is also connected in a very round-about way to my meeting and falling in love with Gary—which was another question totally to itself, but that I will get to for all of you in a later post this week! Lol)

Q: Are your children named for anything or anyone?

A: I love this question, because I have always been obsessed with names and even though I never really imagined myself as a mother (it’s weird, because as a little girl I never really fantasized about being a mom) I DID come up with endless lists of names for my future children (I guess I didn’t really want to be a mom, I just wanted to name kids). Now, of course, I LOVE being a Mom AND I’m excited because I got to name my children as well.

Quick story about each of the girls’ names: McKenna’s Dad and I wanted a beautiful, unique name for our daughter and I found “McKenna” in a baby name book listed as a boys name that was originally a last name (it is a Scottish clan name). I thought it would make a gorgeous girls name, and it didn’t hurt that it was in one of my very favorite movies of all time (in “Somewhere in Time,” the main character’s name is Elise McKenna). McKenna quickly became our name of choice, but it took much longer for the middle name. (We eventually settled on Cathrynn.) When we named her, there were NO McKennas anywhere around and we would always have to repeat the name several times to people because it was so unique. Now? It’s made it’s way to like #75 on the latest Popular Baby Name list and we keep hearing little babies being named it. Stop naming your child this, even though we know it’s a gorgeous name! I love it being unique! Lol

When Gary and I discovered we were pregnant, Gary absolutely gave me NO choice over Delaney’s name! That was fine with me, though, since I loved it too! Gary’s favorite singer has always been Jimmy Buffett and he has a beautiful song called “Delaney Talks to Statues,” which is all about a daddy’s love for his daughter (one of JB’s daughters is named Delaney). So, that was the name and there was no other option! Lol When she was a baby, Gary sang this song to her incessantly and it has always been “her” song. I just love it, and love that there is such a special meaning behind it! (Btw, her middle name is Elizabeth.)

Then, when it came to Sydney, we had a much more difficult time. I had plenty of ideas for naming her—all of them names that would go along with the uniqueness of McKenna and Delaney (my first choice was Everly, and I still love that name!), but Gary hated every option I gave him! We finally decided on Sydney, because we thought it was a very feminine yet also strong-sounding name (although I still felt like it was too common!). We considered naming her Scout, which is the character from mine and Gary’s favorite book To Kill a Mockingbird, but we didn’t think it matched at all with the other girls’ names. Well, guess what? Yep, we end up calling her Scout half the time anyway. So, I guess she’s part Sydney and part Scout. (Btw, her middle name is Faith.)

There you go . . . sorry the name question went especially long. But you asked. … Ha!!!

Now, share with the rest of us:

Your Dream Vacation
Your Favorite Place to Eat
Your First Job Ever
Your Stories about your Child’s Name

I LOVE reading your answers so I can't wait to hear back from a lot of you!!!!

(Okay, totally of the subject for a moment, but OMG--did any of you see Heroes last night? It was SO good!!!!! And it won't be back until April 23!!!)


25 comments:

Adrienne said...

I am first again! LOVE your answer about the names!!!!!

aimee said...

Thanks for answering my question about the names. You and Gary did a great job naming all three of them! :)

My dream vacation: Hawaii.
Favorite place to eat: Food is a favorite of mine as well and I love eating out but I think right now my favorite place to eat is at home, in our living room, watching a movie with the kids. That is something we have done once a week for many years and the boys look forward to it so much. The best part is being together.
3. My first job ever was babysitting my second cousin's children.
4. Rhett was named for Rhett Atkins. We were driving home from a weekend away and were talking about names and Rhett Atkins came on the radio and we both said, "Rhett!" His middle name, Layne is a combo of my middle name, Leigh and Seth's middle name, Wayne. I came up with Noah's name at church. But it wasn't Noah from the ark I was thinking about. Instead of listening to the preacher, I was thinking about all the actors that I liked. When I came to Noah Wyly, from ER, I stopped and just knew that my baby had to be Noah. Seth laughs at that story because I was thinking about other guys at church! Oops. :) His middle name is Lee, like mine but spelled like his grandad's.

~Telah said...

Enjoyed reading through that! My dream vacation would be: well, not real sure...just someplace nice and relaxing with my family for a long week or so! My favorite place to eat is this little Italian place about an hour from here, it's called Sernicola's. But I love the Olive Garden and Red Lobster too. My first job (other than pet sitting and babysitting) was a paper store called If It's Paper. I had a lot of friends work there with me and we had some great times! My first child's name is Annessa Danielle. When I was pregnant with her I was working in a Rehab. Hospital and one of my patients' names was Odessa. I liked that but then changed it to Adessa, then I thought about Anessa. I added the extra N so she would have my middle name, Ann in her first name. Her middle name is from her dad's--Daniel. For my son Andrew, we named him that with intentions of calling him Drew but it just never happened...he has always been an Andrew. His middle name is Daniel for his dad too. And then when #3 came along, we knew we had to continue the A thing but we couldn't agree on a name. I wanted Aidan but Daniel didn't like it. But I could never get him to talk to me about it so I just gave up and thought if we make it to the hospital and have this child with no name picked out then I was going to fall back on Aidan. When I was in labor and we were on our way to the hospital is when Daniel asked me about Alexander. I said "Sure" I like it enough. LOL so that was it. And his middle name is Dalton after his dad's middle name. We call him Alex though. Wheww...that was a mouthful!

Anonymous said...

I totally love your answers. They are great! Your daughters names are so pretty. That was fun to find out where they came from.
I'd love to go to Hawaii.

Unknown said...

I didn't even know about TCBY. thats the first time i've heard about you working there.

Cheryl Wray said...

Adrienne--But what about your kids' names? I know there's a story behind them! lol
Aimee--LOVE the story behind your names. They are both great! (The Noah story cracked me up!!)
Telah--I think it's so cool that your first job was at a paper store. Kind of a premonition of all the scrapbooking to come? LOL I LOVE your child's names and the stories behind them. Anessa is so unique and pretty; I bet you've met very few of them!
Gin--Thanks! I also would love to go to Hawaii. One of my best friends lives there and I would love to visit!
G--isn't that funny? I just thought about that for the first time in a LONG time!!

Jeff said...

Yay! It's Tuesday and I'm actually answering on the same day (last week I didn't make it until Friday... ugh).

Here we go:

Your Dream Vacation: A cruise. We very much want to head out on a, minimum, 7 day cruise into the tropcs, or even better over to Greece. This will happen someday.

Your Favorite Place to Eat: Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill here in NYC. That 16-spice chicken is amazing! Good atmoshpere, great food. It's where we go for special occassions becusae it is a bit high priced for everyday eating, but it is always worth it.

Your First Job Ever: Star Video in Tuscaloosa. I was the typical video store geek clerk throughout college.

Your Stories about your Child’s Name: No kids... so no stories. Sorry.

HEROES! Wow! What a mini-cliffhanger. April 23 will not get here fast enough.

Anonymous said...

Always look forward to Random Tuesdays. It's always fun to read your answres and find out about everyone else too. cool.

Dawn Bibbs said...

What awesome answers. I love all your details. Probably because I'm such a talker.

I love your daughters' names. And my baby, Jayla, her middle name is Faith too. And I remind her of it often...especially when she's in trouble :-).

Thanks for sharing. I may have to come with some answers to those questions myself....

Mz.Elle said...

Hee Hee I love naming things,kids,animals..places..you name(ha!) it!

Ok my answers.
I'd have to say New Zealand although there are nine billion places I'd love to go. New Zealand is so far away and so expensive,lol so it'd be a once in a lifetime trip.

My first job was a paper route. I had an early morning(5am) route from the time I was 7 til I was 11!
(My mother wasn't...shall we say..concerned with my safety so much. I'd NEVER let my kids do that!)

Gourmet Chinese Food restaurant is my fave place to eat. Why? It's in Port Moody(my hometown) and they serve the BEST food in a cosy,relaxed setting!

The kids names: Devon was named such because it was the most original name my hubby would agree too,lol He hated everything else and prefered 'normal' names which I of course hated,lol
Ciarán was named as such because I couldn't think of a girl's name. We were going to name our son (if it was a he) Ciarán(it's an irish boy's name) when a friend said she thought it'd make a good girls name. I was ticked! WHAT?? That's a boy's name! I was thinking she was kind of..well you know,lol and then I thought about it...and decided it would make a good girls name. Ha,I[m a dork;p

Michelle said...

I love reading all your Q&A - what a fun way to get to know you!

I would love to take a vacation to Australia, but I hate flying!

I was going to do a post about first jobs - how funny! Mine was as a cart pusher for the commissary (besides babysitting of course!)

Kelly said...

ok I will have to come back tonight and answer the questions. We all love talking about our kids, right?

Cheryl Wray said...

Jeff--A cruise to Greece sounds wonderful! Another one that has always been on my Wish List! And I know that the Bobby Flay restaurant has got to be fabulous!! Heroes was SO SO SO good. I don't know how I will wait for it to come back!
Anon--I like Tuesdays too! lol
Dawn--Jayla Faith is just gorgeous! We picked Faith because of what it means too, so it's special!
Ms L--Love the paper route story! Times have changed, haven't they? and your kids names are GREAT!!!
Michelle--Hey, great minds think alike right? i'd love to hear your job story
Kelly--Hey!!! Yay! I will look forward to your stories!!

Unknown said...

I am sooooooo coming for supper one night!!! I love your love for food and the olive garden is one of my fave's too!!! I love unique, one of a kind, eclectic little restaurants!!! my fave from Van. Island is Pagliacci's is Victoria...Red Deer doesn't really have any of these kinds of restaurants...all chain and fast food!! dream vacation would be Italy..if I could live there I would!!!

and I LOVE the stories behind your children's name...it makes the names special and unique to them!!! my children have stories behiond their names too...we wanted our kids to have names unique to them annd leave their middle names for family names.
dakota...fell in love with this name in a baby name book for boys because of the meaning to it...it means friend or ally in native american. and it sooooooooo suits him...he makes friends with everyone!!! his middle names are adriannus (dutch) and kenneth after both his grandfathers middle names
haillee...we wanted to go with a classic name that we hadn't heard in awhile...and than it became like one of the most popular names...LOL!!! and as stupid as this sounds, her name came to me in a dream...seriously!!! her middle names are alexis(just liked it and didn't want to use florence and such names...LOL!!) and anne (grandmas)
delainey...I fell in love with this name and wanted to name haillee this, but my hubby hated it...imagine that hey?? when we got pregnant I said how about delainey...he's like... OOOh I like it!!! I was like, WHAT??!!! and her middle names are elizabeth and grace after great grandma's

OMGosh...what a long comment!!! sorry!!! but have a fabulous evening and thanks for sharing!!!

oh, first job was A&W..yuck!!!!

Kelly said...

OK, I'm back.
1. My dream vacation is a hard one. I've been a lot of places but I've never been to New Zealand and Austrailia. And I've always been interested in Hong Kong.
2. My favorite place is Hugo's. It is located on the square in Fayetteville, Arkansas in a basement. I was in 9th grade the first time I ate there. They have the best french fries. It's a place where Attorneys/business people eat during the day and college kids/young couples are there at night. The waitstaff wear shorts, t-shirts and running shoes in the summer. The pipes are exposed in the ceiling.
3. First job was scooping ice cream at Bresler's in the Northwest Arkansas Mall.
4. Kendall is Irish for a shade of green (if you can believe Jeapardy). And, of course, Kelly is Irish for green, too. So, I thought it would be neat to have a girl named Kendall. Louise is her middle name and it is after Lake Louise in Alberta, Canada. My son's name is Clayton. Clay is a soil classification and my husband is a soil scientist. He always wanted to name a boy Clay. His middle name is Arthur after my husband's father.

Susie Q said...

I LOVE the stories behind your girl's names. How special...thank you for answering that question for me!!
The girls will have such sweet and lovely tales to tell people...and to share with their families some day!
VERY special...
Love,
Sue

Unknown said...

Niiiiice!!!
I think Adrienne must stalk you :P
Ok ....

1 - Soooo many places I want to visit ... Iceland, Australia, South Africa, to name but a few.
2 - I love eating and really anywhere there is food I'll be there lol.
3 - Ship's Agent and customs officer in a local shipping company. Met captains and crews from a lot of places around the world.
4 - I don't have any children but for names I would like any future 'we mes' to be named Erin for a girl and I'm not really sure what I would like to name a son. Maybe Stephen, after my middle name. But really so long as they are happy and healthy then that is all I want :)

Renee said...

Interesting stories behind the names. Such great names your girls have too. I've always liked 'Scout' too.

Rene said...

So much fun!!
Love the names, and the background on each of them.
As for me...
Dream vacation - right now I'm looking forward to hopefully going on lots of camping trips this summer! Also, a possible trip to a cabin in TN - looks BEAUTIFUL. Long term, I'd love to go to the Tuscan region of Italy, and visit the Islands of Greece.
Favorite place to eat - there's an amazing (but very expensive) restaurant in Chicago called Ambria. By far one of the best overall dining experiences... But believe you me, this is really a VERY long list. I'm a huge fan of food.
First job ever - hmmm... I worked as the administrative assistant for an attorney here in Effingham right after graduating from high school. He and his wife were very nice, and I enjoyed being the only person in the office most of the time!
Children's names/stories behind them - there are none, no names, so therefore, no stories!!

Thanks for sharing so much of yourself with us.
xo

Phats said...

Idol guys are dropping the ball big time! Love that you are answering these questions cool idea Cheryl, and that you put thought and time into it.

Dream Vacation- Australia, and go during the Aussie Open would be in heaven.

Eat- Hacienda, a mexican place here in town. love it!

first job- I was a gymnastics instructor haha nice right?

Child's name- Unless I am missing something Idon't have kids! at least I don't think so there was that night oh nm you don't wanna hear about that ha :)

Cheryl Wray said...

Jessi--Oh we would have SO much fun going out to eat together,wouldn't we? lol I LOVE your kids' names--Delainey especially (of course!)
Kelly--Yes, New Zealand or Australia would be great! I'm very jealous of all the traveling you've done! You know-I think I actually remember Hugo's from a long time ago in Fville. And I love the kids' names--great meaning behind them!!!
Suse--Thanks!! You're so sweet! I do love that my girls' names have meaning!
Gareth--Love your answers! I think Erin is a wonderfully Irish name! Love it! (And yes, Adrienne stalks me! Of course, she lives next door to me as well so it's not that hard! lol)
Renee--Love hearing name stories!! Thanks!
Rene--Tuscany and Greece sound heavenly, don't they?? I love going to cabins too. We went to one in Tenn a year ago and had a blast!
Phats--Boy, the girls better step it up because the guys were BORING last night! Ugh!!! yes, the Aussie Open would be great! I didn't share about how I would love to go to all the major sporting events--Final Four, a tennis Major, national championship football game, etc. How FUN would that be?

Mississippi Songbird said...

Great answers..I enjoyed learning more about you..Thanks for sharing part of your life with us..

**hugs**

Anonymous said...

your random tuesdays are always so cool, my favorite vacation will have to be my honeymoon at big bear CA,, totally unforgettable, take care

Anonymous said...

Oh man, I totally missed Heroes on Monday since we were travelling. I am sooo upset! I'm hoping I can find someone who recorded it. That's the only show I watch on tv. lol

Just a quick answer to one of your questions: How my kids got their names. Since I have six kids, I'll only tell you a brief bit. Each child's name comes from the Bible with an interesting middle or first name thrown in. For instance, Zachary Beau was born while we lived in Oklahoma, so he got Zachary (modern version of Zacheriah) and Beau because I missed the Cajun culture back home. lol

Bare said...

What a wonderful post, Cheryl! I love these things-- you learn so much about your *blog* friends, that you might not've been able to find out, otherwise!

As for me:

Your Dream Vacation; Tahiti and Easter Island-- hands down. Those are the ONLY two places I'm willing to die to see (meaning, get on a plane and fly to)

Your Favorite Place to Eat: Shoney's (for the breakfast buffet)
Zaxby's, and the Olive Garden

Your First Job Ever: Save-A-Lot (AKA: Generic Land!) Ahhhhhh, the memories!

Your Stories about your Child’s Name: I have no children yet, but if I have a girl, I plan on naming her Olivia (after my FAVORITE Law and Order: SVU character), Hannah (after a beautiful little girl I used to keep at church), or Cinnamon (just because I like it)

Boy- Christopher, (after my husband) :0)