Many thanks

As many (or few...however many of you there are) of you read on my last post, I was nominated for a Liebster Award. I am so thankful to the sweet little gal over at A fanciful creature for nominating me. One of the absolute best things about blogging is all the people you meet and have the opportunity to get to know. Blogging is a very raw expression of a person and so you really have the opportunity of getting to know people beyond a surface-level "know". It's nice being part of a community of people who are brave enough to share their vulnerability with others. I'm thankful for people like that. You learn so much from them.

So, thank you so much, Tiffany, for your nomination. I really do appreciate it very much.

Some background info on the Liebster Award (copied from Tiffany's blog):

The Liebster Award is given to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. So, what is a Liebster?  The meaning: Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome. 

Thats what makes receiving this so much sweeter. It's the thought that someone sees you in such a sweet light. Makes your cheeks turn up and turn shades of rosy! (thats the cheeks on your face, of course!)

The Rules:1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves.
2. Answer the questions that the tagger set for you plus create 11 questions for the people you’ve tagged to answer.
3. Choose 11 people to nominate and link them in your post.
4. Go to their page and tell them.
5. No tag backs!

Let's see what I can accomplish here:

11 Things about me:

1. I love taking showers. I'm not a very big "bath" person but in the same way that people are "bath" people, I'm a "shower" people. If I could stay ALL DAY in a shower, I happily would.

2. Nothing excites me more than a hand-written letter. I don't know why - but I really, really love them.

3. I am terrible at getting things out in the mail on time. It's an AWFUL problem of mine that I am working on fixing. I typically get things out in the mail like 2-3 weeks after they should have originally been in there. *hangs head in defeat*

4. I played the Tuba in Junior High. I honestly dont even remember how in the world I ever got talked into or decided to play it. But I played it for close to a year until I switched to the clarinet. 

5. My favorite color is black & white. 

Yep. You read that right - black & white is my favorite color.

I dont consider them to be a combination of 2 colors. If they're mixed together, it's one color.

6. I have never broken a bone in my body. I fractured several bones in my face in a car accident but I'm thankful that I've never fully and completely broken any bones.

7. I officially sleep with 4 pillows - 2 under my head, 1 between my legs and 1 in my arms. It drives me absolutely crazy. But if I don't have all 4 of them...I don't sleep.

8. I once got an apple stuck in my mouth....like a pig on a serving platter. Yeah...I swore I'd NEVER tell that story....but....the things you do for blogs, right? Yep. Got it stuck - top and lower teeth unable to move - unable to dislodge it for a good 5 minutes. My mother offered no assistance in removing it. She just sat across the table, laughing, tears streaming down her face. This was my childhood.

9. I am a terrible procrastinator. The worst. I'll tell you more about that tomorrow....

10. I believe the absolute best in other people. But I struggle with seeing it in myself. I'm thankful I have the Bible to remind me of who someone else thinks I am. Sometimes you just need to hear that someone recklessly loves you and sees something in you that you cant see in yourself.

10. I have the worlds best friends. I really, really do. I went through almost all my life wishing for friends like the ones I have now. I make no exaggeration when I saw that I thank GOD for them regularly. My life is beautiful, in the largest part, because of the people I call my "friends".

11. I wanted to post this one first but thought it might be a little too cliche so I saved it for the last, which is always the best: I could not think of a better man to have for my husband. He is the world's best person in so many ways. 

Questions by Tiffany:

1. Do you have a bad habit? What is it? When I'm excited, I always interrupt people. Not because I'm trying to be rude...but I'm just so excited about what they're talking about. 
2. Which superhero would you like to be? Popeye. I want huge muscular Biceps.
3. Name a skill you wish you were good at. Sewing. There are so many things I would LOVE to do if I could just learn how to sew.
4. If you could vacation at one place in the entire world free of charge, where would it be? PARIS!
5. Are you brave enough to share one of your weakest strength/trait/character flaw? Come on, don’t be a wuss. I am terrible at being diligent. It is by far my absolute worst personality/character flaw. I hardly ever stick to anything I start.
6. A lesson that you learned in life. Dont live your life to please others. It makes you empty in the long run.
7. What is one of your pet peeves? Being interrupted. Funny, huh, considering #1? lol
8. If you could send a one sentence note to yourself 8 years ago, what would it say? Don’t cheat. Don't let other's misconceptions of you define who you believe yourself to be.
9. If you could be any animal, which would it be and why? A lioness. She guards, protects and wears her strength in the best form of grace. 
10. How do you unwind after a long day? Curl up next to my hubbie and our puppies and watch a good movie
11. Since you were brave enough with question #5, what is your strong/positive trait? If you weren’t brave, go back to #5 and do not pass Go. I'd say my strongest, most positive trait is encouraging others. I love making others believe the best of themselves. It's not something I fake or fabricate or lie to others about. It's not something I do, at all, to get praise in return. Something just happens inside of me when I see someone pick themselves up and keep walking. I was once extended hands that helped to pick me up. I know how far that gesture goes.

Questions for you:

1. If you could have one body part replaced by robotic mechanics, what would it be and why?

2. If you were in the Matrix, would you take the blue pill or the red pill?

3. What time is your bed time?

4. What one thing would you re-do in life if you could?

5. What embarrassing nickname did you have growing up and how did you get it?

6. What motivated you to start a blog?

7. If your readers snagged your iphone from you, would they see more pictures of you in your gallery or of others?

8. What is your daily 'getting ready' routine look like?

9. If you had the choice, would you be a Hollywood Movie/Rock Star, a Fairy-Tale Princess or an Undercover CIA Operative with to many Aliases to count?

10.  What experience or encounter with a person helped you to grow the most into the person that you are?

11. Of all the blogs you've written, which has been your favorite to write and why?

Because I'm really new to blogging and haven't really established a "following", I'm going to do Rules#3-5 a little differently.

I'm going to let my READERS nominate their favorite "followers" for this award! Just drop them a comment letting them know you've nominated them, include the link to my post here, and then leave them a comment on my post about why you think they're so awesome! I believe in the power of the people. So let your voice be heard!

xoxoxoxo

Wowzers

WOWZERS is right!

Where in the world have I been???? 

I must say...I have missed blogging SO much.

It's crazy how you can start something and not really have any idea where it will take you. You think it means nothing - what's writing a few things down on a computer, right? 

But then you realize...you miss the moments spent in front of the computer assigning real words to nameless emotions and pealing back the scaly-skin of "feelings" and exposing yourself to what really lays within you.

It's amazing how quickly blogging can become a part of you.

So....

where the heck have I been?

What the heck have I been doing?

Time to insert some bullet-point paragraphs, my friends. 

(My organizational OCD is elated right now)

• First things first - hubby and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary this year - celebrated it in May. We took a trip out to Thousand Acres (literally exactly what it sounds like - a 1000 acre field) and we let our 1 1/2 year old Cattle Dog pups off the leash for the first time. I love exploring new places, especially if they are outside in wide-open spaces like woods or fields or oceans. We took the most lovely walk, held hands, smooched, ran with our puppies. It was really just such a perfect get-away. 

Later that night we went out to eat at a classy place here in Portland on the 34th (?) floor of a major downtown building and we sipped on Coca Cola's and ate the world's best appetizers. Talked about work and life and love. Got all dressed up. It was a very romantic 45 minutes :)

Then we enjoyed late night movies and snacks - my all-time favorite thing to do with the hubs. 

Love is simply the most wonderful thing in the world when you share it with the right person. I'm so incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to share love everyday with this man.

• Secondly, I celebrated my 27th birthday this year. Hubby took me out to my favorite restaurant in all the world: Olive Garden, and spoiled me with chocolate cake lit by the sparkle of a single candle flame.

 He went all-out this year and gave me mullah (thats "money", for you less gangster readers) to purchase a Nike Running Band which I couldn't be more excited about. I made the very personally-frightening but equally challenging commitment to sign up and participate in my very first 5k this coming September. So having something to track my performance is a big fat A+++ in my little black book of all things awesome-sauce. As if all that wasn't enough lovin', my sweet, sweet friends - the Tarter's - baked me some birthday goodies. This woman and her baking skills are 

A-MA-ZING. 

• Ok, third bullet-pointed paragraph (are you loving these as much as I am, yet?): The next big thing to take my attention away from blogging was our trip to Coronado Island. Ok, so my hubby INSISTS it's not an "island" because a small part of it is technically still attached to a bridge that connects San Diego to Coronado but....since I'm the one blogging here. I get to tell the story the way that I want to tell the story. 

So, there we were on an island.....

We went to visit the Reynold's family for a family reunion. I had the amazing privilege of meeting family I had never met before and honestly just getting to know those I have so much better. I had the best time loving and being loved on by my hubby's family. It was such a wonderful trip.

• The week before we left for Coronado I found out that I was blessed with a new job. I am now, officially, the Administrative Assistant for the Staples Distribution Center here in Portland, OR. I could not be MORE excited. I am so, so thankful to GOD for HIS favor. I feel incredibly blessed to be working with such a reputable, well-known and profitable company. The people I am meeting really seem just so genuine and honestly happy to work there. I completed day 3 there today and I am very excited to complete many, many more. I am very humbled to have this opportunity. I owe it all to the favor and goodness of GOD. HE is so, so good.

• Lastly, I received such an amazing honor this week. I opened my email this week to find an amazing blogger named Tiffany from A Fanciful Creature nominated me for a Liebster Award! If you dont know what that is, check out Tiffany's post about it here. I will post my official response and answers about it this weekend when I have some dedicated time to sit down and really invest time in expressing my absolute sincere appreciation and "awe" for being thought of to be nominated. But, I just want to say (in preface for my post this coming weekend): Thank you SOOOOOOO much, Tiffany, for taking the time out of your day to do something so thoughtful and kind. I appreciate your sweet gesture so much. I really look forward to getting to know you and your blog much better.

I have missed you all!!!! I promise to return to my more punctual, routine-blogging lifestyle very shortly. Did I mention I also started a summer course at Portland Bible College? Yeah...I'm juggling homework, as well. Oh, and 2 bible study classes throughout the week...while training for my marathon...while learning a new job...while taking care of my hubby and house and pups....

while un-crossing my eyes and letting go of the handfuls of hair in my fits. enjoying all the blessings in my life. :)

Hugs, love and other glittery stuff, as always!

xoxoxoxooxglitterxoxooxoxox