Liebster Award

I don't usually do these things. But today I felt like doing one. So I did. Hope you enjoy!

 

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The award is called the Liebster award. Liebster is a German word that means sweet, kind, nice, dear, beloved, lovely, valued and welcome. (Or so I've heard.)

*Jen's note: Google Translate says it means "dearest." Not that Google Translate is always perfect, but you never know...

Here are the rules:

1. Post 11 random facts about yourself. 

2. Answer 11 questions the tagger has asked you, and give 11 questions to the people you've tagged.

3. Choose 11 deserving bloggers (or as many as you can) and tag them in your post. (REMEMBER!! The people that you tage HAVE to have less than 200 followers).

3. Tell them you've tagged them. 

4. No tag backs.

5. Display this picture on your blog:

11 Random Facts About Me:

1. One of my aspirations in life is to ride a giraffe. Yes, I know this might be an uncomfortable ride. 

2. I'm super organized. Like OCD organized - and when I'm not organized, it drives me nuts.

3. I hate calling people. That awkward waiting time while it's ringing and your mouth is going all dry wondering what you're going to say...

4. I really enjoy the mountains, even though wildlife kinda scares me. 

5. I feel this ridiculous need to prove myself in everything, everywhere, all the time. 

6. I once did better on a music theory test than a bunch of aspiring music majors, even though I know nearly nothing about music theory. 

7. I love cooking, and wish I had more time to do it. 

8. I'm pretty obsessed with Psych. 

9. I think sibling relationships are fascinating (probably because I never had them) and can't wait to observe my kids interacting with each other. 

10. I hate getting up in the morning and often Ryan has to pull me out of bed.

11. I'm obsessed with making lists, and cute notepads are my shopping Achilles heel...

Questions Leah asked me:

1. Where are you sitting right now? Describe your surroundings.

On our bed. In our bedroom. With its cute color coordinated curtains and bed set that we bought with wedding gift money.
2. Do you still own something you've had since you were a child? If so, what is it?

Stuffed duck. He came to our wedding luncheon and gave a speech with my mom :)
3. Favorite crayon color?

Green. Although I used to truly love midnight blue.  It was perfect for coloring blue jeans and night skies.
4. When have you felt proud of yourself?

Lots of times. Mainly when I won senior all-around acapella first place at a clogging competition, or the time I made all-american in three categories, or the time when I canned beans and all the jars sealed, or the time when I had a whole conversation with my future mother-in-law and didn't say anything stupid, or the time I made the folk dance team... lots of times. 
5. What is your favorite physical feature about yourself? (And if you can't think of a favorite, then what do people compliment you on a lot?)

Um. I like my eyes. People don't really compliment me on physical features much... but I like my eyes, personally. 
6. What is something you know to be true? (Even if other people try and tell you it's not true)

Hogwarts is real and my letter got lost in the mail (I was supposed to be magical). 

7. Look at your i-tunes playlist. What is your most played song? (And no lying!) :)
8. Favorite vacation spot?

Daytona Beach, Florida
9. Favorite quote or scripture?

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

And John 14:27
10. What is something you always make sure to grab before you leave the house?

My keys. I've been locked out too many times. And my flash drive. That thing has half my life on it.
11. Favorite picture book?

Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney

 

People I nominated:

Krystal at Cookiecrumb Musings

Kim at Kim & Darrell

Erica at Messerly Moments

McKenzi at You Are Loved

Now that I've nominated you, don't hesitate to pass on the Liebster award. And don't forget to answer my questions.

My questions for you:

1. What is your favorite childhood memory?

2. If you could choose any airport to have a layover in, which would it be and why?

3. What is your favorite book?

4. What do you do when you have a short 15 minute block of free time?

5. Have you ever collected anything? What?

6. What is the craziest place you've ever been?

7. What is in the trunk of your car (or if you don't have a car, what is at the bottom of your backpack?)

8. If you had to be an animal, what would you be and why?

9. What's the best prank you've ever played?

10. Who is your hero and why?

11. What do you think the perfect age is - and why?

Enjoy :)

Day Zero 12, 71, 56,

It's been a long time since I've done a Day Zero update - and we're almost down to a year! I still have a lot of goals to accomplish. For those who might be curious, Day Zero is my "101 list" - a bucket list with a time limit of 1001 days. I have 101 goals to finish before that little blue clock on the bottom left of my blog runs out of time. My complete list is on a tab at the top.

In any case, I've completed some things lately:

#12: Let my hair grow for a full year.
This goal didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped. I'd anticipated long, beautiful tresses, but, as it turns out, my hair doesn't like to be longer than my shoulders. Oh well - it's beautiful just how it is. It's been fun having longer hair for an extended period of time - and it's gotten much thicker, too. I'm considering cutting a couple inches off to make it a little more manageable, since it's a lot of different lengths, but we'll see.

#71: Fly a kite
I got Ryan a cute Spiderman kite for Easter. We took it to Bear Lake with us and, joy of all joys, it was super windy one day. The kite flew with no problems. I think the best part was Hailey's face when we let her fly it and she let go - and watched in astonishment as it tumbled to the sand, Ryan chasing after it as hard as he could run.

#56: Ask someone on a date
Okay, this one was intended for my days of singlehood when I was supposed to challenge my lack of confidence and reach outside of my comfort zone. No apologies. I really don't care anymore! :) Ryan and I have gone on a lot of fun dates this last year - some of which were dying Easter eggs, going out to dinner, etc... The one I'm thinking of in particular was where I wrote up three "evening plans" and put a question on the back of each one. He picked the question that he most wanted the answer to, and that's what we did. We ended up having a barbeque, playing catch, going to Cold Stone, and watching a movie.

Next up: Zoo animal cookies - with my new birthday present! (cookie cutters)


Viva la Vida.

Spitless and Drooling

I can't feel my face.

Due to a combination of poor genes and soft enamel, I have pretty bad teeth. I am particularly susceptible to little baby cavities that eat away at my pearly cream-coloreds until pretty soon my pearly cream-coloreds are shiny silver-spotteds, or worse, soft, creamy-looking bumps of artificial cement masquerading as a tooth in my mouth. I have one of those and a fantastic assortment of speckled teeth.
Lovely.
Now I'm sitting at work crossing my fingers and toes that the phone doesn't ring, because I can't feel my face thanks to an upper-left block and a lower-right infiltration, and I'm crossing my eyes and ears that nobody walks in because my smile is reminiscent of a sweet elderly woman who has recently had a stroke. Excellent.

What makes things EVEN BETTER is that in less than two hours I'll be crowding up to a computer with my amazing ESL students, discussing their various uses of English grammar while I inadvertently drool all over their papers and they stare at me in some kind of trance, wondering why this American girl doesn't move half her face. I'll see the shock and horror in their eyes as they worry that perhaps it's a part of learning the English language that most of their teachers have forgotten to tell them.

And if all that wasn't good enough, I have the marvelous blessing of being able to teach myself a new skill: swallowing. That's right, folks, apparently my tongue has been partying away for the last 22 years and some-odd months (when do fetuses [feti? fetum?] develop tongues, anyway?). In any case, it doesn't do its job very well (bad tongue!) and the orthodontist's assistant struck the fear of wild rhinosceroses [rhinosceri? rhinocerum?] into me yesterday and sent me away with a happy little handout about how to swallow properly. I've been practicing ever since. Tongue-thrusting has me scared spitless (literally. It feels like I have cottonmouth from practicing so much). 

So here's to a happy day full of drool and swallowing. Viva la Vida... I guess...

Change

I see change all around me.

I see it in the blue of the sky and the heat rising up from the pavement. I see it in the feathers sprouting from the baby ducks at the pond. I see it in the strollers that the mothers push down the sidewalk, the face of a baby that's growing up all too fast, the laugh of a toddler that already knows too much about life, stay young, don't change, don't grow up.

I see it in the calendar pages, turned over each day almost mechanically, as life ticks on. I see it in the ring on my finger and the date on the wall, realizing it's been almost six months and wondering where the time went. I see it in the hole in my favorite jeans, the box of clothes for DI, the bricks of the high school I haven't stepped foot in for over four years. I see it in the face of a tall missionary who shouldn't be old enough to go, let alone to be soon coming home. I see it in the wedding announcements, the graduation announcements, the new baby announcements, and the obituaries. I hear it in the music on the radio and smell it in a coat of fresh paint and feel it in the rocks under my feet where there once was grass.

I see change whirling all around me, snatching familiarity and wafting it away, dangling it just past my fingertips before it disappears forever. I close my eyes and picture my life and open them and watch it change. I plead for it to just slow down, to let me rest and enjoy the comfortable, familiar moments for just a second longer, but change hurries on and I am left to find new familiarity in whatever follows in its wake.

And so I hold the hand of the one who will never leave and I watch change as it sweeps past, changing life, changing everything, changing us.



Viva la Vida.

Wedding Photo Book!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly offers exclusive photobook layouts so you can make your book just the way you want.

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So I finally finished our wedding photo album and ordered it from Shutterfly. Now I just need to get some prints for our wall in our apartment :)

Birthday list

My birthday is coming up.
Naturally, that means it's time for the always-difficult task of deciding what to tell those well-wishing friends and family when they ask "What do you want for your birthday?"

Fortunately, I have answers for them:

 

Psych Wall clock (available here with a $10 discount using the code TICKTOCK)

Psych Toaster (seriously, it puts pineapple on the bread! available here)

A year's supply of this!

And a few of these:

Some of these (not these exact ones, but some from somewhere)

One of these (so I can get fabric for curtains for our apartment, plus thread and such!)

 THIS: Psych season 6 on DVD. Unfortunately it's not released yet. That's okay, late birthday gifts are almost like celebrating all over again! :)

Most of all, I want this: 

Oh wait, I already have that :) That's all I really need, anyway. Nothing else is really that important!

Viva la Vida.

Sick.

Sick...

Huddle under blankets and try to keep warm, even though the internal furnace is burning me up...

Stare at clock.
Roll over.
Rock back and forth.
Move arms to new position.
Move arms back.
Stare at clock. It's been one minute.
Try to ignore aching body.
Push off blankets.
Shiver.
Pull back blankets.
Stare at clock.
Two minutes.
Roll over.
Listen to Ryan snore softly.
Be very jealous of sleeping Ryan.
Stare at clock. 
Stick hot feet under Ryan's cold feet.
Listen to Ryan continue snoring softly.
Stare at clock.
Stare at clock.
Decide to get up.
Lay in bed twenty minutes getting up courage to leave warm cocoon.
Stare at clock.
Try to ignore aching body.
Get out of bed.
Sit on floor and shiver.
Go to kitchen and eat applesauce.
Sit on couch.
Stare at clock.
Register for classes.
Blog about being sick.
Stare at clock.
Stare at clock.
Stare at clock.
Stare at clock.
Stare at clock.


Viva la Vida? Maybe when I feel like a person again...