Liebster Blog Award OR This is just like winning an Oscar

Thanks so much to Katie from Nested who nominated me for the Liebster Blog Award.

"The Liebster Blog Award is an award given from bloggers to bloggers that are small to medium in size or up and coming in the blogsphere. Liebster is German for "favorite." The award is a way to give beginning bloggers some worthy attention, make connections and let readers learn a little more about you. "

I am cuh-razy silly happy that someone other than my beloved family reads this blog and actually likes it.  Part of receiving this award is to answer 11 questions from the nominator, but since it's taking me forever to get this out, I'm going to hurry up and just post the ones I have answered so I can be timely already. (Ezra escaping from his crib and running amok during my prime blogging time has thrown a monkey wrench in my daily plans of late.)

What did you want to be when you "grew up"?

The goals have changed through the years.
Elementary School - an architect.  Then I learned there was math involved in that profession.

Junior High School - a rock star.
High School - Initially I wanted to go to West Point but heard there might be a pull-up requirement,  so I decided to become a music teacher/rock star.
College - After a year of ear training and music theory I revamped my career trajectory and decided I wanted to be barefoot and pregnant.  And a rock star.
Adulthood - a rock star.
I'll totally figure it out by the time I've grown up.


Would you rather have a human head and intelligence with a velociraptor's body or a parrot that sat on your shoulder and broadcast your every thought?

I would think this question is pretty much a no-brainer (much like my parrot would be)(*vocal rimshot*).  Um, obviously I'd want a human head with a velocirapter's body because I could get away with wearing anything and no one would judge me. In fact, they'd be all impressed at the way I pulled off skinny jeans as a velociraptor.  Like, "My body may be prehistoric but I look fabulous in these pants."  And I could bling out my claws, which I've never had the desire to do, but if they're there ... why deny a rhinestone it's rightful place?  Plus I'd have a tail.* So there's that. Also, this blog is kind of my parrot already.

What's your guilty pleasure?

One word = Hoarders.
We actually live on the same street as a real life hoarder. Sometimes at night I stroll slooooooowly by their house to gaze in through the windows at the mountains of mess inside. (Me doing this is not creeper-like at all.) Brian has forbidden me from offering my professional caliber organizational skills to these people that I've never met.  Or from trying to meet them just so that it's now okay that I offer to clean their home.  I have faith that someday it will happen.  I mean, I have been to Disney World, and I know that if I wish hard enough, Tinkerbell will come and sprinkle fairy dust and it will totally happen. Because that's how stuff gets done.



If you could have dinner with one person, dead or alive, who would it be?

I know haters gone hate, but Betty White optional.

It would be Jesus, so all the divisive church issues could finally be laid to rest and we could go on our merry ways serving God.

But if it were a dinner party, I would have to include Jimmy Fallon and Steve Higgins as well, because I know Jesus appreciates humor.  And thankfulness.  And Jimmy Fallon is one of the most thankful people I know.  I mean, he is a published author on the subject.




How do you take your coffee?

Sadly, I don't.  Take my coffee, I mean.  Because of this.  But if I had my choice it would be cold, and 50% cream, 30% sugar, 20% coffee.  Roughly.  I'm not too picky.

Do you believe in ghosts?

No, but I do believe in demons which is much more terrifying.

If you could accomplish only one thing in 2013, what would it be?

What happens in Frankenmuth stays in Frankenmuth.

I want to run a half-marathon.  I was aiming for spring of 2013, but with my pulled muscle horrific calf injury it may need to wait until the fall.  I did find a fantastic half marathon to run in October in a fun little Michigan town called Frankenmuth.  Frankenmuth is Michigan's very own Bavaria, because, honestly, every state needs their own slice of Germanic heaven and chicken dinners that are ah-may-zing. (Frankenmuth is one of my favorite places in the world, and one time we went there with the in-laws and the kiddos and we all ordered the family style chicken dinner and it was torturous because I was on some weird diet I'm pretty sure I invented due to self-loathing and all I could eat there was chicken broth.)(Worst.memory.ever.)(Which is why I squeezed it into one sentence.)(Frankenmuth is also really close to Bronner's, which you owe yourself to visit before you die.)(Seriously. I might take the kids this week just because I'm thinking of it now.)(Don't get too jealous.)

Cats or dogs?

Neither.  I have four kids and they shed enough.

What animal best represents your personality and why?

I have no idea, and now I'm having a personal crisis of identity because I should know this by the age of 33.  What kind of animal really likes to organize, is a rock-n-roll drummer in their head, and loves to laugh except when they are premenstrual and then will yell at the driver who cut them off while The Little Drummer Boy plays on the radio in the background and then the animal feels ashamed that all the Little Drummer Boy had to offer Jesus was his drumming so he drummed, and can't I at least offer him my silence when I want to rant at the confused person who doesn't understand lane lines?

What is that animal?  Because that's totally me.

Are you afraid of the dark?

Only when I'm getting into bed at night and I'm pretty sure Fred Savage and Howie Mandel are lurking underneath, ready to grab my ankles and kidnap me to the land under the bed where all the monsters live.  This has helped me develop really excellent form for what I call the "Crossfit Jump."  I have no idea if this is anything they actually do at Crossfit, but standing at the side of my bed, jumping with feet together and saying, "CROSSFIT JUMP!" as I leap into bed makes me feel really athletic. And safe from monsters.  Win.




Paper or plastic?

When I remember I have a million (probably a bit of an exaggeration) of those canvas-y bags that I use to bring home the groceries.  But sometimes because I care about the environment, I will use the plastic bags I have to wrap stinky disposable diapers, effectively adding 130 years to their decomposition time, but making my home smell less like a 'Rhea Factory.  I also use the paper ones from Whole Foods and Trader Joes as book covers and Native American vests (because have I mentioned I have four kids?)

(Also, if you were counting, I answered all 11 questions while trying to post this, so that ups my overall average, right?)


The next part of the award is to write 11 facts about myself, but the fact remains that that isn't going to happen today.  And here are some blogs you should check out. (Again, I'd pass on the award but I'm totally not going to have any questions prepared, so I know I'm breaking the chain and will probably die a thousand horrible deaths this week, but in the spirit of this award check out these blogs anyway.)

For Weight Loss/ Maintenance - That Loud Redhead, Runs for Cookies

For Humor - Nested, Filing Jointly

For a Hodge-Podge of stuff - Miss Madison's Charmed Life



*My tail.  Brian told the children I have a tail.  They believe him.  I may encourage this story with mysterious comments that back him up.
**Also, a story just for fun:  Ezra has a hooded monkey towel complete with a fabric tail on the back.  One night after his bath, I made a comment on him sitting on his tail, and at the word "tail", he grabbed his penis.  He totally thinks his penis is a tail. That kind of thing never happened when I had all girls.