Who Would Have Thought?

I was tagged by my mother for a meme. I haven't done one of these in a long time and as it is my own dear mother, I'm playing.

The idea is to list five things in your life now that you would have never thought would be in your life when you were 25.

1. The first thing has to be my husband Henry. How was I to know that in four years, I was going to meet him. Falling in love with him and having that relationship develop was certainly surprising! I wasn't even LOOKING for a boyfriend (hoping but not actively hunting) when we met. It is hard to find a decent boyfriend when you have two very active, lively boys. I used to think that men would rather date a woman with a social disease than date one with two children.
I was camping with my boys Ian then 9 years old and Sean then 8 years and I bumped into him near the campsite. Three weeks later, he proposed marriage. Eleven months later were were saying our "I dos".

2. Next is George, son #3. Just a year and two months after I married his father, George showed up. I remember being upset when I was divorced from my first husband. I was worried that the split marked the completion of my family. I had two lovely young boys and I wanted a large family. How was I going to have that on my own?

3. I live in Scotland! Wow! If you had told me when I was 25 that in twenty years, I'd be happily ensconced in the Scottish countryside with my family, the dog, the cat and all those chickens, I think I would have called you a liar. But here I am. If I look out the window, sure enough, it's Scotland out there.

4. I learned how to dive! When I turned 25, I was living in South Florida. A few guys that I dated were divers as was one of my best friends and I always wanted to learn to dive. Sadly, raising two boys on my own meant that the budget didn't run to scuba lessons. I contented myself with snorkeling. Good thing that the snorkeling at the beach in Boca Raton is great and free! The boys actually started to complain about having to go to the beach every Saturday. I couldn't believe that! Aren't young boys supposed to want to go to the beach and the mothers supposed to make excuses not to go?

5. I travel! I have always WANTED to travel. It seemed, growing up in the Midwest that the sort of life where I would own a passport and have lots of stamps in it from all over the world was just not going to happen to me. I had lots of international friends but I meet them at school. They traveled to where I lived not the other way around. These people were evidence that life existed outside the US and it was interesting! Nobody in my family went anywhere near a border. I came from a family where you lived and died inside the same state you were born. If you did have to move one didn't move any further than the next state over. I was desperate to go places. My life choices leading up to my 25th year meant that I was a single mother with two active boys to raise. One thing that single parents DIDN'T do was international travel. Even non-international travel was a stretch.

Those are the five things about which my 25 year old self would be happily surprised.

In the spirit of a meme I am tagging five other people. The people I have tagged have been requested to fill in their own list. Those who have been tagged please don't feel OBLIGATED to do this, but I would like to read what you write.

1. Gordon
2. Bob
3. Mort
4. Joe
5. Wil

Claude, I am not tagging you again because you said you don't like memes but you did one to please me. So, I am not pushing my luck on this one however, I would love to read your response if you want to play. This goes double for Betty, Kell, Jay, Josie, Susan, Joy, Reg, Biker Bob and Tink (who may not qualify yet as she is so bloody young!)

If you do decide to take me up on this particular meme, please let me and others know in the comments. Thank you.
----------------------------
I'm going to be away for the bulk of the week in Cambridge with work. I'm leaving at some stupidly early hour tomorrow morning. Yippee conference rooms!