Meet My Sister Janna

I am blessed with 5 sisters and a brother.  I asked each one if I could ask them the same five questions for a new feature called "Five on Friday".  I thought by meeting them you might learn a little about who I am and where I came from.  My sister Janna, was the first to respond.  She's whacky and adorable and I love her.  Here she is, looking like "Where's Waldo" and her are her unedited responses.....enjoy! (I always do!) :

Janna, a.k.a. 6 of 7 (better know as Danni's favorite sister).  Emotionally stable, financially independent, and so much more.  (That was fun.)   The real me?  Well, I suppose Danni would say solitary, a bit stubborn at times, interested in academic-type things, adventurous on occasion and definitely weird.  No doubt she would forget to add beautiful, witty, loving, and charming.  But that's probably because she's jealous, although she has no need to be, since she is each of those things and much, much more!  I feel honored to add a blurb or two to her blog.  Hope you enjoy, and hello to everyone reading this that knew me when I lived in the backwoods with her. 

1) What do you do?  - I've learned that my greatest talent lies in avoiding housework, as you might suspect from three-foot-high pile on top of my desk and the leashes that I've had to create for all of the dust bunnies that insist on calling themselves my new pets.  When I'm not busy hiding from the hideous evil cleaning supplies, I can usually be found writing for the Post Tribune, which is now owned by the Chicago SunTimes (go figure).  And in the rare moments that my teen son is cooperative (ROFL !!!) I pretend to homeschool him.   

2) Where have you been?  - Well, I've been to hell and back many, many times, but since the heat burned up the travel tickets, I have no proof.  I think I may have stayed in a cabin in the Canadian wilderness for awhile, but then again, that was probably in a wonderful dream.  Other than that, I've had the wonderful fortune of seeing most of the United States.  Next stop, China, Finland, Peru......

3) What is your passion?  I am a hopeless cards and board game addict (not computerized games, since I'm usually still trying to figure out which guy I am when the screen says "game over").  When I'm not creating bizarre artwork in my visual wordless journal, I can usually be found gardening, camping, taking photos, reading, fishing, hiking in the woods and looking for strange and wonderful bugs. And if I can't find time to relax with the above mentioned activities, I'm trying to learn to kick butt in martial arts, although I usually end up on my own butt on the floor, hopefully in as stylish a manner as I can fake ("um, I meant to do that"). 

4) What is your favorite quote or saying?  Anything by comedian Steven Wright, especially, "They say you never know what you have until it's gone... I wanted to know what I have, so I got rid of everything."  And another favorite, "The waitress said I could have breakfast anytime... so I ordered for French Toast during the Rennaissance."  And from personal experience - once when ordering "just water" to drink at a restaurant, the waitress literally asked me, "in a glass?"  And the best for last... once when visiting a psychiatric ward, one of the nurses actually said to me, "Welcome back!"  (Life is too short not to laugh.)

5) What is your favorite book and why? (Please don't all say The Bible...it's all of our favorites!) -

 I'm hoping that my favorite book will be the one that I write some day while on a train bound for nowhere - one of my goals in life.  But since that won't be happening in the near future, for now I will have to say that I love any historical fiction books by Jane Kirkpatrick, especially "All Together in One Place."  Her books are real, live northwestern adventures - yeehaa!  Other favorites include the eye-opening, jaw-dropping, mind-stopping reflection of my own treatment of others in "Same Kind of Different as Me" (by somebody??), and anything that is clean, will make me laugh till I pee my pants, and can be read in short spurts to lift me out of my rare (ha) impatient, irritable moods.

Hope you've enjoyed getting to know me a bit, and that by getting to know Danni's family and friends a bit better, you can piece together what makes her so unique and an honor to know and love!