the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth

Hmmm . . . no one guessed the right answer to this post.  Like Bethany, I included truth in most of them, but changed just a little to make them fiction.  It's kinda funny the three almost trues were all guessed, but the total truth one and the total lie one both were not. :)

1. I have been to Hong Kong, Japan, Mainland China, and Thailand, but never Mexico.  And, I claim both Taiwan and Texas as "home."
This one is almost all true except that I have never been to Thailand.  Thailand and Korea are both on my "would love to visit list."  This one was sneaky of me--sorry. :)

2. My sister and I knew my mom was going to have a son before she did--we were 13 and 15 years old when he was born.
Again, almost true.  My brother was born when I was 15 and Sarah was 13.  I had started to pray for a brother long before my mom was pregnant; Sarah joined me.  When I decided to tell my mom about our prayers, she got quite upset at me and said very sternly, "never pray things for others without asking them first!!"  I still remember exactly what we were doing at that moment--peeling potatoes together in the kitchen.  When I told her, she thought she was going through early menopause but actually she was pregnant with Sam! 

The two sonograms done both indicated Sam was a girl.  Sarah insisted that he was a boy because we had prayed for a brother.  Mom picked out a girl's name "Victoria Paige" (meaning: one who announces victory) and bought lots of pink things.  When the baby entered the world, the doctor announced he was a boy--mom actually told the doctor, "no he is not.  I am having a girl!"  Anywho, after talking about names Samuel Joe Austin was decided on.  We had been referring to the baby all along as Baby Sammy.  Later Dad looked up the meaning of Samuel.  It means "God hears."  Perfect!   

3. Right after I got my driver's license, I drove through our family's garage door--leaving a large gaping hole.
This really did happen.  It just happened before I got my license.  I was 15, my mom was 8 months pregnant, and Dad was out of state on his annual fly-fishing trip.  I freaked out as I sat there with the car's hood still 1/2 in the garage with the door staring right at me.  Mom just said, "stop being so emotional.  put it in reverse and get out of the car. you have to tell your dad."  To this day, I do not know how she remained so calm.  We called Dad,  mom talked first.  When I got on the phone he said, "So, I hear you put a new window in the garage door, what happened?"  I then gave further details.  I don't remember his exact words, but they were calming and comforting and ended with something like "don't worry its ok; I will take care of it when I get home."  And he did.  I don't remember it being talked about again, except to tease me later.

4. Just for fun, I was a competitive barrel racer when I was in college--competing mostly at the Mesquite Championship Rodeo in the Dallas Area.
This one?  Total lie.  Well, when I was in kindergarten I did compete in a barrel race but that was on a stick horse for my class rodeo.  I even had cute red cowgirl boots and a brown cowgirl hat. 

5. I once fought with my sister (when we were tweens) so loud that the neighbors actually called the police who came to our house to see if we were being abused.
So, through the process of elimination this one must be it, right?  It is.  This one is all truth!  Sarah and I had had a bad week or two--fighting all the time.  For some reason, mom and dad both needed to be gone on a Saturday.  So, we were home alone.  Mother had warned us that if we didn't get along while she was gone we would never see light of day again.  So, what did we do?  We fought tooth and nail and as soon as she was gone.  Sarah admits to starting it--she pulled the computer chair out from underneath me when I went to sit down, and from there we fought screaming and yelling, pushing and slapping around the entire house for about 30 min to an hour even maybe.  Of course it ended in tears, forgiveness and "I'm so sorry; you really are my best friend." 

Then BAM!  BAM!  BAM!  "POLICE!  OPEN UP!!"  They asked us lots of questions asking if we were ok, yelled into the house "anyone home?" and told us that our neighbors had called concerned for us and that if we needed help they could help us.  We were so scared mom was going to find out that we pledged never to tell ANYONE.  Well, we lasted a long time--we didn't tell anyone for at least 10-15 years about our "little secret" (and we told mom for the first in the presence of all her sisters).  We had to wait at least until we were old enough to not be grounded.  You see, Sarah and I kinda like the light of day. :)