An award? For me?

Why thank you Meg!!  

I've been nominated by my sweet friend Meg for a Liebster Award...  a what? you ask...  it's "a networking tool for new bloggers, to recognize 'up and coming' bloggers with less than 200 followers. Liebster is a German word meaning: sweetest, kindest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing and welcome." I love that this little award recognizes the small blogger, the little stay-at-home mom who doesn't have a giant following, the writer who hasn't made it "big" in the blog world.

Here are the rules:

1. Answer the 11 questions that were posted for you by the blogger who nominated you

               2. Give 11 random facts about yourself

               3. Nominate 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers

               4. Create 11 questions for your nominees to answer

 

Here are my questions from Meg:

1. What makes you read a blog and/or follow?

I'm mostly interested in Mommy blogs - other women I can relate to through life as a mother.  I enjoy seeing the every day, knowing I'm not alone in certain frustrations, sharing the joy over their childrens accomplishments - real life stuff.

2. How long have you been blogging?

I've had a blog for a while.  Back in 2007 when I had weight loss surgery I wrote for a while and then decided that I didn’t want to be defined by that label so I deleted everything and started fresh.  I changed the name of my blog and here I am today.  I'm thinking about revamping my blog again soon.  Check back for updates!

3. What is your favorite dinner to make? Please post the recipe if you know it off the top of your head.

My favorite dinner lately is shrimp and pasta.  

Ingredients -

1 bag of small cleaned/deveined/cooked frozen shrimp

1/2 box of Dreamfields angel hair or penne

1 tablespoon of EVOO

Tablespoon (or more) of minced garlic

Medium onion - minced

1 Roasted red pepper - minced

Salt/pepper to taste

1 cup frozen peas

1 can beans (red/black/white) rinsed

handful of fresh baby spinach

Cook pasta according to package directions.

Sauté all other ingredients together.

When both pasta and shrimp mixture are cooked toss and serve with grated parmesan cheese.

4. Do you know - or have you met anyone famous?

 If you consider local news anchor's famous, then yes. 

5. Do you get along with your parents? One better then the other?

Yes, I'm an only child and I'm really close with both of my parents. 

My mom and I are a lot alike.  We talk all the time and she is an awesome and loving grandmother to Olivia.  She's helped me learn so much about parenting through advice and her own experiences.  Plus she's an awesome cook. 

My father and I have a typical father/daughter relationship.  He is a strong man with a very honest personality.  I look to him for reassurance and approval.  He's an amazing Papa to Olivia and she adores him.

6. Besides your spouse and kids, what is one of the biggest blessings in your life?

One of the biggest blessings in my life has to be my church home.  I was so broken and lost when I found my church and honestly, I didn’t even know it.  The people of my church have welcomed us as a family, embraced us, loved us, helped us and taught us some of the most valuable lessons in our lifetime.  Being able to have a strong faith foundation and a strong church home is essential to Joe and I when raising Olivia.  We are so, so blessed to have a place to go where we feel welcomed and loved and Olivia will have a strong foundation growing up there.  We look forward to the time we get to spend in that building learning about the word and His ways.

7. Do you have any pets? Give 'em some love, tell us about them.

Yes - we have a dog and a bird.  Our dog Penny is half cocker spaniel and half chihuahua.  She's so sweet to us and anyone she knows but she's not very friendly to strangers.  We adopted her from the local SPCA when she was 6 months old and she had already been abused so badly by her former owner.  She was actually taken from her former home because the abuse was reported.  She went from being extremely fearful and skiddish to thinking she is a big bad dog... when she's really only 25 lbs!  Our bird's name is Lucky.  He's a 15 year old cockatiel that I bought when I got my first job at 15 years old.  He was just a baby and he's been with me ever since.  He currently lives in our dining room.  Enjoys whistling super early in the morning and eating sunflower seeds!

8. If you could live anywhere, where would it be?

If my family could live anywhere I think I'd have to vote for someplace tropical right now. 

Winter this year has been LONG, so I'm thinking Hawaii!

9. When was the last time you peed the bed?

Meg really?  What kind of question is this!  LOL - I think I was probably about 6-7 years old.  I'm not really sure though.

10. List 5 of your biggest pet peeves.

~ swearing

~ poor grammar

~ bad drivers

~ talking with your mouth full

~ when someone interrupts me

11. List 5 of your favorite bloggers.
~ Katie @ Loves of Life

~ Jess @ Wrangling Chaos

~ Meg @ Better Late Than Never

~ Kelle @ Enjoying the Small Things

~ Kristin @ First Name Smith

11 Random Facts About Me

~ my husband took my last name when we got married.

~ I'm deathly afraid of masks.

~ Olivia is named after both of my grandmothers - Olivia Yvette.

~ I'm an only child.

~ I've never not had a dog.

~ My first car was a red 1986 Camaro and I loved it!

~ I love to read but it always makes me drowsy.

~ I love iced coffee and drink it all winter.

~ I'm turning 30 this year.  eeeek!

~ Olivia is probably going to be an only child.

~ I just started treating myself to manicures and I'm not sure why I waited so long.

Here are my questions for the blogs I nominated. (I'm stealing a few of Meg's!)

1. Other than your spouse and children, what is your biggest blessing?

2. What is your favorite thing to do for yourself?

3. If you could choose another name for yourself what would it be?

4. What is one thing you'd change about yourself?

5. What is your favorite book?

6. What is your dream vacation spot?

7. What makes you read a blog and/or follow?

8. What is your dream job?

9. What is one thing you are super proud of about yourself?

10. Do you have any pets? 

11. What is your biggest fear?

I have no idea who to nominate - but, if you're reading and you fit the criteria for a leibster award then I nominate YOU!  If you post, please let me know so I can read your answers!