"Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed."

Saturday, February 6, 2010

7 Things About Me

Dear Wafa' tagged me so I'm telling you 7 things about myself. For the record, her seven things turned to nineteen, but I greatly loved reading those 19 things and getting to better know this lovely Saudi lady.

So here's my list . . .

1. I enjoy Hershey's Special Dark chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate chips waaaay more than their milk chocolate counterparts. When my dad has one of those bags of Hershey's miniatures, I skip all the other stuff and head straight for the Special Dark. (Hmmm, I think I need some chocolate now...be right back.)



Can you find the ones I like best?

*licking the chocolate off my fingers* OK, I'm back!

2. I am amazed at how interested I've become in the Middle East since late 2007. I'd always had a general interest in that region basically because of its connection to the Bible, but now it's not just an interest based on religious things, but it's based on having actual friends living there!

Sweet! :-)


3. I never thought some of my best friends in life would be people I met online. There is one group of about 12 ladies whom I met on Babycenter.com nearly seven years ago on a baby name poll. And we've kept in touch to this day. One of them teases me about looking like Little Orphan Annie.



4. I've always liked talking names with people. When I was a teen, I'd ask my friends what their favorite names were for their future children. (Btw, I don't think any of them used the names they liked in high school!) My liking of names is how I ended up on Babycenter.com and met the friends I mentioned above. I remember my brother teasing me about spending time writing name combinations. Kind of ironic that I never had children so I could use one or two of them, huh? Maybe it's a good thing though. Andrew tends to like boring names like "Bob" and, wellllllllllllll, I'm not so keen on Bob.




5. On the subject of names, my real name is Susanna, but I've always gone by Susanne. Kind of funny to say Susanne is short for Susanna, but syllable-wise it is - at least for those of us who speak English! My friend met a Susanne (same spelling) in Germany recently, but it's said more like "sue sah nay." According to most sites and books, Susanna is from a Hebrew word which means lily.




Behindthename.com reports this about my name. Maybe you can look up information on yours and post it ... if you are name nerdish like that. :)

SUSANNA

Gender: Feminine

Usage: Italian, Swedish, Finnish, Russian, Dutch, English, Biblical, Biblical Latin, Old Church Slavic

Other Scripts: Сусанна (Russian), Сѹсанна (Church Slavic)

Pronounced: soo-ZAN-ə (English) [key]

From Σουσαννα (Sousanna), the Greek form of the Hebrew name שׁוֹשַׁנָּה (Shoshannah). This was derived from the Hebrew word שׁוֹשָׁן (shoshan) meaning "lily" (in modern Hebrew this also means "rose"), perhaps ultimately from Egyptian sšn "lotus". In the Old Testament Apocrypha this is the name of a woman falsely accused of adultery. The prophet Daniel clears her name by tricking her accusers, who end up being condemned themselves. It also occurs in the New Testament belonging to a woman who ministered to Christ.

As an English name, it was occasionally used during the Middle Ages in honour of the Old Testament heroine. It did not become common until after the Protestant Reformation, at which time it was often spelled Susan.



6. Since getting married, I've come to enjoy having a football game on TV. Not that I always watch, but from time to time I'll catch parts of it and find it exciting. I don't really have a favorite team. I tend to like players though and Kurt Warner was one of my favorites. I say "was" because he recently announced that he is retiring from the NFL.






7. I like one or two snows per season and after that, I'm ready for spring! Snows do make for good pictures, don't you think?



Michael & Will at night in the snow
This was 2010 despite the date on the picture.

I won't tag anyone, but if you read this and want to do it, please do. I'd love to know more about you!

17 comments:

Sarah said...

When I visited America for the first time last year, I tried Hersheys milk chocolate and no offense to you guys, but it was horrible! We have MUCH better chocolate over here. I did get some Giardielli (I think it was called) and that was much nicer, but more "special".

Did you mind not having any children? (Ignore obviously if it's too personal) I don't know if I will have any. I don't know how I really feel about it actually.

I am looking forward to spring too. We've had a bit more snow than usual this year. Still not that much compared to some places. I quite like snow, it's pretty and brightens everything up. I prefer it to wind and rain any day.

Carmen said...

Here's what my name info says from behindthename.com.

CARMEN

Gender: Feminine

Usage: Spanish, English, Romanian

Pronounced: KAHR-men (Spanish), KAHR-mən (English) [key]
Medieval Spanish form of CARMEL influenced by the Latin word carmen "song". This was the name of the main character in George Bizet's opera 'Carmen' (1875).

or from Nameberry


CARMEN

Gender: F
Origin: Spanish variation of CARMEL

Popularity in 2008: #262

Carmel's sexier, more operatic sister, also used for boys in Hispanic culture.

Nicknames & Variations:
Carmina, Carmie, Carmelia, Carmene, Carmi, Karmina, Carmelina, Karmen, Carmynn, Carmelita, Carmita, Karmia, Carmon, Lita, Karmita, Charmaine, Carmencita, Carman, Mina, Carmia, Carmyta, Carma, Carmine, Carmyna, Carmaine, Carmin

I loved reading about your 7 things. I hope to have time this week to try this on my blog. I haven't written in a while. :D

Unknown said...

I didn't actually look it up on Behind the Name this time, because I have enough times before. :D I love thinking about names, too. My name (Stephanie) comes from Stephen (or whatever the Greek version of that is), which means "crowned". "Atarah" is the Hebrew version, which is why it's part of my name online.

Stacy K. said...

Oh, I could definitely go for some chocolate now too :-)

Its funny how my interest in all things Arab and East African happened too. I never imagined 10 years ago that I'd speak Somali fluently!

Carmen S. said...

Atarah is a pretty name. I like that a lot!

Unknown said...

Thanks! :) I never liked my real name and always said I would change it. I like Atarah better.

Sommer said...

Just ONE of them teases you about looking like Annie? ;-P

Fati said...

cool post!! nice to meet you :)

Suroor said...

Very interesting post!

I think about names a lot too.

I like Hersheys but really, Americans are clueless about *real* chocolate :D Haha!

Suroor said...

Oh and when I was little I wanted to be called Evangelica!

Wafa said...

it's been ages since i want to comment but the comment section of blogs doesn't work :( . anyhow, thanx for the lovely words about me. and i loved knowing more about you, too dear.

Susanne said...

WWR, thanks for your reply!

Chocolate -- my church friend told me of a trip they took to England a few years ago. They took some candy to give to the children and were surprised when the children refused with "No thanks, your candy is bitter." (Sherel said it in a British accent which amused me as I could hear the kids saying that.)

Can you believe many Americans LOVE Hershey's chocolate? Well, I like the Special Dark myself. Hehehe. I guess we just don't know what we are missing out on. :)

By the way, what part of America did you visit? I didn't realize you came here last year.

Children -- I could have had them, I suppose. No known fertility issues. I just never did. I like babies, but they grow up to be teenagers who can break your heart. So I just decided to spare myself the living hell and remain childless. Selfish perhaps, but God knows the issues I have with this.

Every once in a while I wish I had a child, but thankfully I've had my nephew close by and he's filled that void when it comes. Generally I am content with not having any. Then again like with the chocolate, I don't know what I'm missing! :-) And most moms I know love being moms. Eh, I just am weird on this issue. Definitely not like most conservative religious people in my area who are very much in favor of having children. Here's where I am not like them. I think America is the most pro-having-large-families country in the West. We are, at least, replacing ourselves in population unlike some European nations which are having to recruit foreign workers because they are aging too fast (e.g. Germany.)

I like snow, too. It's soooo very pretty, but where I live we don't have great snow removal since it's typically not a snowy area of the US. So I feel trapped moreso when we get snow. And I like sunshine and warmth so that's why I prefer and am ready for spring. Heat is more expensive than air conditioning for me as well. Sooooo....thanks for your great comments. If you have further questions or comments, please let me know.

Susanne said...

Carmen, yay! I always like seeing you here. :) I didn't realize your name meant "song." That's so pretty! I enjoyed reading more about it so thanks for sharing.

By the way, Carmen is one of my name nerd friends whom I mentioned on this blog. :-D

Susanne said...

Sanil, I always wondered about your blogger name. What it meant and all. Thanks for sharing about Atarah! That's really cool! My sister's name is Stephanie so I knew that about it's Greek meaning. :)

Stacy, yeah, it's really neat how our lives can change just by meeting certain people. It's like God can really turn our lives around by placing people or events into our lives. It was 28 months ago today when I got a message with the subject line "From Damascus" that really changed my focus in life. :)

It's great that you can fluently speak Somali. You've got a real gift for languages!!

Hope you got some chocolate by now! :-)


Sommer, ah! Not you! Everyone, this is another of my name nerd friends and SHE is the one who calls me "Susannie" due to the Little Orphan Annie connection. OK, some of the others tease me too, but Sommer is the instigator. :)

Susanne said...

Fatimah, welcome and thanks for leaving a comment. I hope to check out your blog as it looks very inviting. :)

Suroor, ah, so we are missing out on the good stuff, eh? *pouts* :)

Evangelica ... hehee, that's cute. But someone might have mistaken you for an 'evangelical.' ;) My friend has a daughter named Evangeline and I think that's pretty. Actually my grandfather's sister is Faith Evangeline. Your Evangelica reminded me of this.

Good to see you back among us. Missed you!

Wafa', ugh, I hate it when it's hard to leave comments. But I'm glad you were able to do so now. :)

Sarah said...

It was California, last April - I was there for a couple of conferences.

My brother told me before I went that American chocolate tasted like vomit! I didn't think it was that bad, but hm. I liked all the peanut butter candy there though - we don't really get that.

Yes, I've heard that Germans are not reproducing fast. A German friend once expressed surprise at how many children there are here in Scotland!

The world is over-populated, and with climate change, life is going to become really hard for future generations, so the way I see it, not having children is the most selfless choice! :)

Susanne said...

Sarah, LOL @ vomit! :-P Yeah, peanut butter is mostly an American thing, right? I'm glad you liked it.