Liebster Blog Award

A couple months back, my blog was nominated for an award! Well, less of an award and more of a get-to-know-you survey, it's true, but fun nonetheless. I have Sophia Marie from Teens Live For Jesus to thank for my little opportunity here. Hurray for her finding me and liking my blog! Life has been a little bit crazy due to extensive house cleaning (more on that in a soon-to-come post), bouts of illness, and my first ever [failing] attempt to potty train a two-year-old, so I am only now getting to this.  "This" being the Liebster Blog Award.  Liebster is German, in fact, for dearest, and as such is fitting for such an award which is used to expose your blog to other blogger friends who potentially and probably have similar interest.  Sounds fun, yeah?

Here are the rules:

~Thank and link back to the person who nominated you.
~List 11 facts about yourself.
~Answer the 11 questions asked by the blogger who nominated you.
~Nominate 9 bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers.
~Ask them 11 questions.
~Let them know about the nomination.

Eleven Facts Abouts Me

1. Summer is my favorite.

2. I recently acquired a cloche hat.  I must say, I adore it.

3. Rebecka watering the camels is probably the story in the Bible that has most inspired me.

4. I recently starting teaching a mini preschool class at the homeschool co-op my Mama runs.  Such fun!

5. Robert Pierre is my favorite Christian artist.  I can put in one of his C-Ds and not cringe at any of the songs.  It's a wonderful feeling.

6. My favorite book of the Bible is Proverbs.

7. I have hazel eyes.

8. Lemons. I love lemons.

9. Sometimes three cups of tea before noon is necessary.

10. I like to listen to books before I fall asleep.

11. Rapunzel is my favorite Disney Princess


Now for me to answer questions

1. What time of day do you look forward to most?

Dinner time.  My family has a bit of a strange practice, in which we eat out dinner in front of the T.V.  We watch various shows on Netflix together, and they tend to seep into our everyday life.  Doctor Who, Once Upon a Time, The X-Files, Monk...the list goes on.  It leads to so many other activities and conversation!  Although, bedtime is also a favorite time of day.

2. What’s your favorite genre in fiction?

I dabble.  Seriously, I'll read little bits of (almost) everything.  If Fairy Tales are a genre, that would probably be my favorite.  If I had to pick.

3. What sport do you like most, if any?

Ever seen Princess Diaries?  My hand-eye coordination, is zero.  I like riding horses, ice skating, rock climbing, and getting everyone out of the house in time for school.  Listed in increasing difficulty and exhursion levels.

4. What’s the funniest thing you heard (or did) today?

My mother, sister, and I watched Moms' Night Out.  We all laughed so hard, bringing on tears and headaches and coughs from residual colds.  It was worth it.

5. Do you/did you like being a teenager?

It had wonderful and horrible times.  In less than a month I'll be turning twenty and officially leaving the teenage stage of my life (scary!) and I must admit I'm looking forward to it.  I'm ready for a new stage in life, but don't want to forget everything I've learned these past seven years.  Being sixteen was probably my favorite year, although recently I have been discovering some life truths first hand.  It's taking a little while to put them into action, but I feel like my life is slowly getting better as i learn how to rely on God.

6. Who is your favorite author?

I love many, many authors.  The one who has probably stuck with me longest would be Shannon Hale.  She truly wrote books that touched me.

7. Do you play any musical instruments?

I play piano casually, and I like to sing when given opportunity.

8. How many hours a week do you spend in front of the computer (approximately)?

Too many?

9. Do you believe music relieves stress? Do books do a better job?

I believe they can be equal.  It would depend on the person, of course, but both help me.  If I am in a good book I will go to that first.

10. What’s your favorite color?

Blue.  Lovely, peaceful, personal, bright, blue

11. You’ve been given three work-free child-free chore-free study-free hours. What are you going to do?

So many tempting options!  Read, mindlessly surf Pinterest, catch up on important things...  I do love those free hours!

Nominations

Alright...now I'm going to break the rules slightly (sorry!)  I don't exactly have 9 bloggers to nominate, so I'm to pick two;  Kelsi from Messy Bits since she was kind enough to comment on my blog recently,and Kayla from Dancing Flames since she was following my blog even when it as [more] boring! But, as asking eleven questions just for these two girls to answer seems a bit superfluous, I would love to reuse the questions Sophia Marie asked me! I want to hear your answers to these questions too!  They definitely got me thinking. :)

Thank you again for choosing me!  Even though I've spent countless weeks getting this post together...  What fun!

And That's How It's Done

My awesome friend Sarah is engaged!  A gorgeous, sparkly ring on her finger a wonderful man at her side.  I am so excited for her.  

Sarah and I have known each other for a long time; she'd stay at my house on certain occasions, was always super fun to hang out with, and had the best ear around if I was having a problem and needed someone not involved to hear me out or give advice.  Christmas break 2012 she came over so we could catch up and hang out.  We were playing Skylanders and she'd keep making comments, "That's so funny, I have a friend Tim who says that all the time," "I'm starting to sound like Tim!" and, finally, "Tim and I are in a play together, one my roommate Leeana wrote." This followed by watching a video of this guy proposing to my friend and her quite tactfully turning him down.  After a lengthy explanation of the play, including the fact that she had to kiss Tim - or, rather, her character did - we watched the entire play in my basement.  And so I now knew of Sarah's friend Tim.

In April, Sarah and Mrs. B invited me to go to TN to visit Sarah at college.  Here I watched this play myself and took a few pictures in spite of harsh theater light.  I was able to meet some of her friends, including Tim, and instantly saw the connection between the two of them.  One of the night's I was there visiting, he asked her to be his girlfriend.  We were all so excited!  The coming winter, several months later, Mrs. B walked into church and came straight up to me.  She told me Sarah and Tim would be at church that day.  She then smiled and said, "Can you guess why Tim is in town?" Followed by gasps and exclamations and whens and hows.  She told me he was planning on April, again.  

So, before long April was here, and once again Mrs. B came up to me at church and said she was going down via Tim's request, and that I was to come too, if I could.  In short, of course I could.  My friend was getting engaged, and her soon-to-be-fiance had said I could be there. As if I would miss it. ;)  Tim's family also was able to be there.  We had a schedule of events that were part fun, part for keeping Sarah busy and as unsuspicious as possible.  An Improv show, The Cardinal Ball, getting nails done, playing board games, going out to eat; we all knew this was Sarah's weekend.  She just didn't know it yet. 

Here are some of the pictures! I took several, though some are more snapshot quality due to nerves and excitement.

Saturday

 

Hannah, Emily, Nathan, Sarah, Tim, Sara, Eli, Me

Sunday

At the beginning of the play, there is this awesome music and they swing dance to it, and in the play Tim's character proposes to Sarah's at the end of the music and she says no. Then the play begins. This year, Tim had the four other dances from the play relearn their parts. To get Sarah into place, we went out for ice cream until there was a "spur of the moment" "dance party" in the theater. So we went. And danced. And Tim disappeared. And then we all hid and left Sarah there, as she started to get suspicious and then the music started; the awesome swing dancing music. And the dancers preformed their roles just like before, only around Sarah, and handing her roses. They were all dressed up and happy making her so special. They had pictures of the play blown up huge and mounted and on easels, and they turned them over through the dance. She knew what was happening and was getting emotional/excited, and then the music stopped instead of continuing for the usual part where here and Tim would dance. And there was a pause. Seriously, it was like a dramatic pause from a movie while she stands there, waiting for Tim. Then he walked out from backstage complete in costume and all wonderful while a new song starts, "You'll Be In My Heart".  He walked over to her and - although we couldn't hear for the music, we asked her later - he said something to the effect of,  "I've asked you to marry me about so many times now, and you've turned me down every time. I thought I'd try once more." And he knelt down and she cried and I cried and the moms cried and she said Yes this time and about 50 people who were hiding all over the theater yelled and cheered and screamed and ran over to hug them. I heard someone say Tim has set the bar high for proposal expectations, and I rather agree.  He spent months planning this and getting it ready so it would be perfect for Sarah.  They had an after party planned and everything and we were up late and so excited and screaming in the car on the way back to the apartment. I took pictures, but I left the telephoto lens at home thinking I wouldn't need it, darn it, so I had to zoom in a bit. Though they had a friend photographer there with an awesome lens who was prepared and not crying (note to self, never photograph a friends wedding-I will fail it for sobbing through the whole thing.) So everything went perfect, and she is wonderfully happy and due to be married on the 27th - just a few days away!

 

Monday 

Selfies with Sammy

Yes, I usually am anti-selfie.  The word itself rather makes me shudder.  Why take awful pictures of yourself with a phone and let them loose on the internet?  It eludes me. Nonetheless, I am not opposed to the random snapshot taken of oneself and one's friend; it can be fun, if not a great photographic experience.  This is proven by a two year old.  While waiting for my ride to TN and my backup babysitter (my mother) to arrive, Sammy and I conquered boredom with my phone.  Here be the results. 

 

 

 

Field Trip!

So, I'm quite behind in my blog posts.  Still, today was my first day off work so summer has officially begun! Sadly I am sick (again) so mostly I laid around on the couch watching Once Upon A Time and My Little Pony.  I was sitting here, trying to catch up my blog a little bit while eating a blue cotton candy popsicle.  The old kind, with two sticks so you can break it in half and share it with a friend (as if people actually do that) or so you can have two popsicles and your mom won't complain.  The kind where you have to get real careful when you get to the end or else it falls off the stick.  Yeah, apparently they come in cotton candy, and I have yet to learn how to eat one carefully, as I have just proceeded to drop half on myself and now am quite sticky as I write this.  There ends my eating popsicles while typing attempts.

This post has been some time coming, but there were so many pictures I took, that I really couldn't choose just a few.  The week of the kids spring break, we took them to the Boonshoft Museum.  It was so much fun.  The playing, climbing, pressing buttons, touching, exploring: the kids were all over it.  They especially loved the little zoo part.  Kids were running and screaming, as usual, which only added to the endless energy of these three.  Everyone was exhausted when we got home; Sam went to bed with his ball which he picked in the gift shop, and the girls collapsed on the couch.  It was a fun day for everyone!

Ready to go! (A.K.A. the "Why are we taking a picture here instead of going inside to play?!" photo.)

This bobcat reminded me of my old kitty, Sparkles.  The mannerisms were quite familiar to us.  Sparkles was a stray cat from the hills of Kentucky, so it has always been questioned by our family if he was part bobcat.

Sammy loved the owls.

Aly, making her own fun.  (Note the terrified passenger, and rather crazy driver of this vehicle.)

The special exhibit: The Amazon Rainforest.  The main attraction here was the giant, lifesize, plastic snake.  Sam climbed on it and promptly yelled "Yeehaw!"

Part of the fun was the fake snake was also actual weight.  The kids had to work together to lift it.

These two loved the jail...

And of course, Madi played judge.