THEY LIKE ME!!! THEY REALLY LIKE ME!!!

Ladies and gents - I am happy to announce that I have been nominated for a Liebster Award! For those of you who don't know what this award is all about, basically it is an award that bloggers give to other bloggers. It particularly spotlights blogs with 200 followers or less. I guess you would say it helps to identify us as "up and commers" in the blogging community. I am honored to have been nominated by Lizbeth at Just Dip it In Chocolate. Thanks, Lizbeth!

Now, here's the rules about the Liebster award. I must answer 11 questions that have been posed to me by the one who nominated me, post 11 random facts about myself, nominate 11 other bloggers, and pose 11 questions to those bloggers that they will then answer on their Liebster award posts!

Here goes!

The questions posed to me by Lizbeth:

1.What is the #1 thing you love most about blogging?

Blogging is a great way to connect with others who are like me. I have always had trouble getting to know people “in real life” and it's nice to connect with others, even if it is online. To be able to share my thoughts and know that there is someone out there that cares about what I have to say and that what I could say could help others are strong motivators for me to keep on blogging.

2.What is your all time favorite movie?

The Avengers!


3.Are you a Coffee or Tea person? I used to say tea, but now that I get very little sleep AND have a hard time unwinding at the end of the day, I have to say BOTH! Coffee in the morning to wake me up and chamomile tea at night to help me unwind before I go to sleep.

4.Looking back, which was the best year of your life so far?

I honestly have to say that 2012 was a pretty great year. I gave birth to a wonderful baby boy and I've lost quite a bit of weight too. I feel healthier than I have in some time. My daughter is doing great in first grade. The unfortunate thing is that my husband has been going through some tough times on the job front, but I feel that a change is around the corner as far as that is concerned too. It's in God's hands!

5.Beach house or Mountain Cabin?

Beach house! I live in Nebraska and it is cold for a few months out of the year. I would love to have a beach house to run off to in the cold winter months!

6. Have you ever visited any other country outside the one you live in? Which one you loved the most?

I have never been to another country. I would like to go to Jamaica some day. I hear it's paradise!

7.Do you know when to stop talking when you argue or do you go on and on and on like the energizer bunny? 

It depends on who I'm arguing with. With my husband, it's hard to get a word in because he wants to have the last word. We don't argue a lot but when we do he usually wins! If I'm arguing with someone, say at work, I am usually right which means I will keep going on and on and on until they realize that I am right!

8.Favorite music era and genre?

I like music from the late 90s and the first decade of the 2000s. Anything (rock, pop, rap, r&b, hip hop) is good for me (except COUNTRY)!!

9.If you have to pick a super power..what would it be?

I would want the ability to teleport. Not only could I get wherever I wanted to go whenever I wanted to go there ,(Jamaican vacation, here we come!) but I would save a bundle on gas and I'd never be late for work!

10.When was the last time you ate Fast Food and what was it?

Well...if you consider Little Caesar's fast food then it was on Sunday.

11.First or last person to get a joke?

I am usually the one telling the jokes that other people don't get.

11 Random Facts About Me
-I am pursuing my Master's degree in Clinical Counseling
-I love to sing Karaoke!
-I have a goal to lose 32 more pounds before the summer gets here. Think I can do it?
-I hate wearing socks. Summer is my favorite time of year because I don't have to wear socks.
-I am an extremely picky eater. I have just a few foods that I really like and I get sick of the same food over and over again very easily.
-I played the piano for several years and the drums for 12 years. I haven't played either in by far too long.
-My favorite restaurant is Smashburger followed closely by Five Guys Burgers and Fries. I had cravings for them like mad when I was pregnant and I still love them!
-If there's one thing I can't stand, it's fake people. Be real or just get out!
-I can be really lazy, but I'm working on it!
-I love to go swimming, but I can't really swim.
-I love to take pictures of my kids!

And now! The nominees for the Liebster Award!!
Yours, Mine, and Ours
Women Abiding
Our Before and After
Yoga Mommy's Selftalk(In)Sanity
The Wild and Wonderful World of Gingersnaps
The Three Whiskateers
Dogs Don't Eat Pizza
Momma DOO
Beauty Through Imperfection
Pursuing Heart
Do Small Things with Love

And here are the questions for my nominees:
1. Why did you decide to start blogging?
2. What is your all time favorite book?
3. If you could meet any famous person, who would it be and why?
4. Who is the person that inspires you the most?
5. What is your dream job?
6. What is your favorite thing about being a parent?
7. What do you do to unwind?
8. Do you think of Facebook (and other social networking sites like Twitter) as a good thing or a bad thing? Why?
9. What is your all time favorite TV show?
10. Where do you want to be in 5 years?
11. What is your guilty pleasure?

What defines my family?

At our church this month, we've been talking about families. It's a whole series, going through the basic things like how to treat your spouse and how to parent your children based on biblical principles. Yesterday's sermon was about the family meeting and also about what defines your family. We should talk to our children about 1) who they are, 2) where they come from and, 3) where they are going.

WHO THEY ARE:
So what defines our family? My husband and I were discussing this yesterday evening. Two words that he could think of were "scholar" and "warrior". I agree that we are scholars. My husband has his Masters degree and I am pursuing mine. We always work to learn more and more each day and we are very intelligent on the whole. We want our daughter and our son to be the same way. I started thinking about the word "warrior". Warrior has the base word "war", so it makes it sound like someone who is a warrior is always at war with someone or something. So, as my husband often does when he starts to think of what a word really means, I looked it up in the dictionary. According to dictionary.com, a warrior is "a person engaged or experienced in warfare; soldier". But there is another definition - "a person who shows or has shown great vigor, courage, or aggressiveness". I started to think of the words that describe a warrior - dedicated, perseverance, strength, courage. Yes. This describes my family. We've been through a lot, losing jobs, friends, etc. We've always had each other and we've, each one of us, been a warrior to get through it all.

THIS FAMILY IS A FAMILY OF SCHOLARS AND WARRIORS.

WHERE THEY COME FROM:
It's difficult to trace my roots back too far. I am a European mutt. English, Irish, Swedish - those are the main ones I can name. I did a report in grade school about my ancestry, and it was difficult to go back very far. My husband's family roots may be a little easier to assume, though maybe not easy to trace. There's the possibility that his ancestors were slaves, and we also know that there is Native American blood in his family. So when I tell my children where they come from, I think it really boils down to uniqueness! There's not many children that can trace such a varied ancestry. It's also so important to talk to them about how things were different before. I've written another post in the past about racism, and my daughter has asked questions about skin color from time to time. I try to put it in the back of my mind because it's not really that important to me. I don't want it to be that important to my daughter and my son either. I want them to be able to turn to someone who asks them "what" they are and say, "I am me!" If they ask them if their dad is black and their mom is white to say, "My dad is my dad. My mom is my mom." Yes, where they come from is important. I won't deny that. I just don't want that to define where they can go.

WHERE THEY ARE GOING:
My family is going places. Lately, we are stagnant. But I want us to go places. My father had his Bachelor's degree and my mother a high school diploma. I am going for my Masters degree, my sister has hers, and my brothers are both fairly successful in their chosen career fields thus far. My husband's mother and father both were educated, but they did not get as far as he did. He has two Bachelors degrees and a Masters degree. That is further than anyone in his family has gotten in schooling. So, yes, we are going places. The next step is to have successful careers and live in a house rather than a cramped apartment. When will it happen? Soon, we hope. But our family is going places, with God's help!

Sit down and define your family - WHO ARE THEY? WHERE DO THEY COME FROM? WHERE ARE THEY GOING? Have a clear vision because you can't get there if you don't know where you're going!

10 Things I Miss About You

It's always tough going back to work and missing your new little baby. It was very difficult with my first baby because I had to go back to work so early (she was only 6 weeks old). It's a little easier with Baby T. I wanted to get back into the adult world and not just live in the land of poopy diapers and goo goo ga ga forever. But I still miss him when I'm at work. And I miss my daughter even more than I used to as well. I guess being home with them quite often for 12 weeks will do that to a mom. Here's my list of 10 things I miss about my babies when I'm at work.

1) I miss his smile when he wakes up from his nap in a good mood or when he's happy right after he finishes eating.

2) I miss his little baby feet. (Aren't they so cute?)

3) I miss her beautiful curls.

4) I miss cuddling. With either one of them. Don't tell Miss K or she will want to cuddle all day long on the weekend!

5) I really do miss breastfeeding him. Yes, I do it when I'm home from work but with the exception of the feeding right when I get home, the rest of them are when I'm getting so tired there's not much involvement there. It was really nice to have every feeding be a breast feeding over the weekend. I'm sure he feels the same way.

6) I miss her laugh. She's got the cutest little laugh. I'm sure her brother's laugh will be just as cute once he starts laughing. (I can't wait!)

7) I miss my mid-morning nap. Yes, I know that this is not so much a son and daughter thing, but I need that nap!

8) I miss "Mommy and K days". We used to do them once a month on the day that my husband worked but I didn't. We would order Jimmy John's or go to the pizza place down the street. It was nice bonding time for us. We can still do it, but we get limited time with the whole family on the weekend so time is precious. I know she would love some time away with just mom and no baby though!

9) I miss trying to catch him doing something cute or groundbreaking. It makes me a little sad to know that I may miss the first babble, the first laugh, the first crawl, the first steps because I have to be at work. I hope his dad will break out the video camera!

10) I miss how he smells. That baby lotion smell is just one of the best smells in the world!

Absence really does make the heart grow fonder. I do miss my babies when I'm away, but that makes the time I spend with them even more precious.

Smile! You're on Video!

"Come on, I said SMILE! You were doing it a couple seconds ago! Why won't you do it now? I just turned on the camera! Come on!"

IMAGE FROM ROLLS.COM.CY

This seems to be the pattern when my baby is doing something cute. I got lucky and managed to get video of him smiling for one of the first times, but he will not smile for a picture. The other day, he rolled from his stomach to his back. We all cheered and I got out the video camera hoping he would do it again. I rolled him back over to his tummy and what did he do? He cried. He kept crying and wouldn't stop. Darn. There goes that Kodak moment.

We all want to be able to capture these moments so we can see them over and over again. We want to capture these firsts and store them forever. One thing I've learned as a mom as that usually the first time your child does something, it's spontaneous. So unless we have the video camera on him 24/7, we're probably not going to catch that very first giggle, the first time he crawls, his first words, or his first steps. The best we can do is capture them the second, third, or twentieth time around and remember how we felt that first time.