The Liebster Award!

So, something pretty cool happened yesterday....

A fellow adoption blogger, Nikisha from Grown In Our Hearts , recognized me with the Liebster Award. The Liebster Award is a way that bloggers recognize other bloggers who don't have many followers (You guys! Click the follow button, I know for sure I have more than 2 followers!). This gets the word out about smaller blogs and brings traffic to the them and attention to whichever cause the blogger is writing about.

So, in order for me to receive this award, I have to do the following. I hope it is ok that I just used the rules infographic from Nikisha's blog!

Step 1: Check! Thanks Nikisha! I am digging your blog too! 

Step 2: Answer eleven questions given to you by the person who nominated you. Ok, here goes it! 

1.Why did you start blogging? I started blogging as an easy way for friends and family to follow our adoption process. I also thought it might be a good idea to journal the progress of our adoption and the feelings/thoughts that go along with it. Now I blog for those reasons and so that anyone looking at us as potential adoptive parents can see that there is more to us than just a 4 page PDF profile.

2. What is your favorite food? Mexican food. All day, all night, 7 days a week. Ok, not really that often, but I love it. Last night I made salsa chicken in the crock pot. Since John is a vegetarian, I made him a stove top version with beans, tomatoes etc. We have enough for at least two more meals of whatever mexican concoction we want. We keep mexican food fixings in the house pretty much at all times. Also chocolate. Mmmm... chocolate. 

3. What was your first job? I got my first job shortly after I turned 16 at Ulta3 Cosmetics and Salon- now known simply as Ulta. I stocked shelves, worked the register and eventually moved to the professional hair care area where I priced and stocked the expensive stuff like Paul Mitchell shampoos and styling products. I quit in a fit of rage when they didn't give me the raise I was promised for working a remodel of our store. Mature, I know. 

 

4. What are you having for dinner tonight? Leftover crock pot salsa chicken! It is super easy to make and there are always leftovers. 1lb chicken, 1 jar salsa, about 1/2 pack of taco seasoning (I like the reduced sodium), 4 hours (really like 3.5- use a meat thermometer to make sure you don't make anyone sick!) on high or about 7-8 on low. I add green chiles or jalapenos to make it spicy.

5. Pick one word to describe your blog. Honest

6. If you could go to any place in the world on a free vacation for a week, where would you go? Oh, I've been planning this one in my head for a long time! I would go to the UK and Ireland. I would love love love to see the castles and England, Scotland and Ireland. I would love to stare at the rivers and the shorelines and picture the deep history that they hold. I am a huge British history nerd. I also want to make sure I hit up some authentic pubs.. like ancient hole in the wall ones, eat some fish and chips and pretend I belong! 

7. Who was your favorite teacher? This one is hard to answer! In 2nd grade Mrs. Keheley would give me hugs when I wore my "I need a hug" shirt. I won't ever forget that. In high school, my British Literature teacher, Mr. Barton changed the way I learned and the way I thought of teachers. In college, Dr. Dowd terrified me into actually retaining information and writing good papers. I was not willing to disappoint him! 

8. Where do you see yourself in five years? I see myself as a mom to at least one kiddo. If it hasn't happened by then, perhaps I will be some sort of world traveler/travel blogger? We wont think that way. In five years, I WILL be a mom. I will probably be thinking again about grad school. Well, I think about that every day, but I need to find my path first.

9. Who would you say has been the most influential person in your life? I have to choose one? I think if I had to narrow it down to just one, I would say that my mom was and still is the most influential person in my life. I mean, she raised me after all, but that isn't really it. She is the one person who really got me when I was growing up with kidney disease. She let me cry about it, agreed when I thought it sucked, helped me navigate being a child, then a teen, then a young adult with a disease. She cooked special food for my special diet, she took me to endless appointments, she celebrated with me when I had my health back. She gave me a kidney to save my life when I was 19! She says she would do it again in a heartbeat. She marches to the beat of her own drum, not letting society dictate who she is or what she should think. She is a wonderful grandma to our 3 year old nephew and will be amazing with our kiddo when the time comes too. 

10. If you had to be any animal for the rest of your life, what would you pick? I have thought about this one more often than I should admit. I would be a house cat, but only in a house like ours or my parent's house. Spoiled, warm, cozy, fat. John just laughed at me at the grocery store, because I said I was planning on buying special cat food for our cats on Valentine's day. Someone, please find this girl a baby, so the spoiling can be redirected!

11. What is your favorite color?  Red. Red everything.

Step 3: Answer 11 facts about yourself.

1. I sing and dance in the car like it's my last day on earth. Someone either laughs or rolls their eyes at me almost every day. 

2. In 4th grade I lost the spelling bee due to missing the word parallel. Second place, grrr!

3. I can't function without coffee. Preferably iced coffee. It is a goal to be coffee free one day. 

4. The entire right side of my body is slightly, but not overtly noticeable, bigger than the left. Hand, leg, foot etc...

5. My friends are precious to me. The people I consider my best friends are the most honest and loyal people I know. 

6. I try to to get everyone I know who gets a new pet to name it Pancake. What a great pet name!  (Says the person who named her cat Waffles)

7. I can have a kind of mean spirited sense of humor that some people don't get. It's like sarcasm mixed with general societal observations mixed with bathroom humor.

8. My nephew is my FAVORITE HUMAN EVER. He reminds me that anything can be turned into a toy and that everything can be new and fun.

9. I secretly narrate my life in a British accent on a daily basis. Maybe I shouldn't admit to that one.

10. I met John when I was 21 and he was 22! We have basically grown into real adults together!

11. I love earrings that dangle. I have to wear them now, since no ear with a dangle earring is safe around babies.

Step 4: Nominate 11 blogs that I think are deserving of the award. 

I thought it would be hard to narrow this down, but apparently I read a lot of blogs with a lot of followers. I spent the evening trying to figure out a) who has less than 200 followers [I might a fudged a little on this one] b)who wouldn't be weirded out by me nominating them and c) Who has a writing style or topic that I truly enjoy. In no particular order, here they are! 

The Littlest Brooks-Livingston Not only have we been waiting about the same amount of time with the same adoption agency, but we are neighbors on the family profiles page for our agency. Hey neighbor! Great blog! 

Chris and Amy Thompson  Though they don't post often, I love their updates. It is another adoption blog. They are waiting to adopt baby number two! 

No Bohn's About It Another adoption blog. How cute is this blog!? I am not sure of the number of followers she has, but I love it, so I am sharing. 

The Thompson Baby  The Thompson family has adopted twice. Their blog is adorbs. Yes, i whipped out the lingo for this one. Simply adorbs.

The Hinze Family Also adoption. Sensing a theme yet? They often write about the very support group that we met them in. 

FSGS Sucks A blog about the kidney disease I grew up with from the perspective of someone who deals with it with a great attitude. Now a blog about dialysis and transplantation. Great read! Jenn needs a kidney, so give her some love and share her information! 

Transplant, Tantrums and Tiaras!  This blogger is not in the US, but I do love her honesty. She is a kidney transplant recipient who tells it like it is.

Our Modern Family - Journey to Adoption Yep, adoption related. Great read, neat and organized.

Adoption Adventures Adoption blog! Shocking, I know. Updated every couple months or so, but a good read none-the-less. 

A Bug's Life Full disclosure, this is John's sister's blog. I am not posting it for that reason though. It is a blog about a chronic health condition - Chronic Idiopathic Urticaria and Angioedema and her struggle to get well. It is really well written. More people should read it!

DnDAdopt Another adoption blog. Touches on the serious and not so serious parts of adoption. 

Let's get these blogs out there for the world to read. A bunch of good people writing a bunch of good stuff! If I missed any friends, it wasn't on purpose. Just a lot to think about in terms of criteria!

I am off to do step 5, let the other bloggers know that I nominated them. I am leaving the questions (step 6) as is for the bloggers to answer, assuming they accept. Just answer the same ones I did above. No pressure if you aren't into it!