Madame M over at A Daily Dose of Zen Sarcasm has openly tagged anyone who’ll participate in this meme, so here goes!

1. I’ve been married and divorced three times (well, ok, married and divorced LEGALLY twice, but the other one we lived together and it lasted twice as long as the first two combined and then some, so I think it counts). One was a run-of-the-mill break up – just shouldn’t have married in the first place. One hubby was lost to crack cocaine addiction and felony bank fraud. And the other was a compulsive cheater and got caught by bringing home an STD. Oh yeah – I know how to pick ’em. And no, I’m not telling which was which. 🙂

2. I have three children with three different daddies. I’ve had to explain countless times why “your brother has one grandma and grandpa, but you have two each and your other brother has two each, also, but they’re not the same people. No, he’s not your cousin, he’s your brother’s cousin. Yes, that grandma and grandpa all three of you share because they are MY parents, and all three of you are MY children.” Makes the holidays an interesting time of year, to be sure!

3. I went to four high schools in four years in four different towns, in three different states. Both parents’ jobs took turns moving us around. Needless to say, I have never been to a reunion, and probably never will be.

4. Speaking of high school, I took first place in the state vocal competition in my junior year singing, “At the Cry of the First Bird.” Sadly, today my vocal performances are limited to the car and the shower.

5. I’ve been pulled over, handcuffed and read my rights by the side of the road…proof that sometimes the old adage ‘when you sleep with dogs you wake up with fleas’ really is true. I have not ever been to jail, though, unless you count bailing 2 of the 3 hubbies out. I guess that’d be an item for the ’10 Things that Haven’t Happened to Me’ list, though.

6. Back in my Corporate America life, I was promoted 4 times in less than 2 years which more than doubled my income as a result. That was cool!

7. My house burned 5/26/07 (which would also be an entry for Prima-Donna-Daughter’s list, because it happened on her 7th birthday) and we lost everything, but as you can see from these pictures, it was a blessing in disguise. We now have a brand new house and all new stuff (and no clutter!)

8. March 4th, 1994 I was hit by an idiot driver and my head pushed the rearview mirror through the windshield. Had my one and hopefully only ambulance ride that day. I was on my way to pick up Oldest Son from school, and had it not been for the fact that my girlfriend who was babysitting Second Son that day also had to pick up her daughter from school and drove right by the scene of the accident and saw me being loaded into the ambulance, Oldest Son might STILL be sitting alone at the school, waiting for me to pick him up. These kinds of coincidences are my proof that, while bad things happen, God is always watching my back.

9. I’ve had 9 major surgeries through the course of my life: glass removed from my foot, tonsils and adenoids removed, appendix yanked, 3 c-sections, gall bladder removed, hernia repaired, and knee surgery.

10. I achieved my 20-year dream: I work from home!

So, there you have my 10 – and I pass on the open meme tag – do this on your own blog (and kindly link back here so I can ooohh and ahhhh over your 10 things, too) or do this in the comments below.

It’s the first day of school here, so I thought I’d embarrass Second Son (9th grade) and Prima-Donna-Daughter (3rd grade) by posting their annual “First Day of School” picture, a tradition started by my own embarrassing mother. 🙂