the liebs

The other day I was checking my email for the 63rd time in a two-hour time frame for the sole purpose of seeing if I'd received any blog comments. They totally excite me, which is why I get a super sadface when I see yet another spam comment taking up space in my inbox. Talk about anticlimax.

Imagine my delight when Chalayn popped over a comment, firstly commiserating about a surge of spam on her blog too (seriously, what the deal) and secondly to nominate me for a "Liebster Award." Do I know what this means? No, not really. But it's good news for three reasons:

1) I didn't win stuff in....any period of my life. I have the athleticism of Andre the Giant, so sports awards are foreign to me. When I was ten I did a year long stint on a swim team. Six months in, my eight-year-old sister joined the team and quickly got promoted over me (out of beginners) to intermediate and consequently to golds. When I was eight, I took ballet, and at our recital that we train the whole year for, I tripped and ripped my tutu moments before I went on stage, and performed the whole dance with two feet of tulle hanging off my costume, down to my knees. 

Being nominated for a cyber, and I imagine virtual, award is like getting accepted to Harvard. Right?

2) The invitation to participate in this award launched me into an introduction to Chalayn's blog. I am thoroughly entertained.

3) I was fresh out of blog fodder for this week.

Apparently how this works is I tell you guys 11 things about me, presumably that you don't already know. A challenge, as I've been oversharing for nearly four months now. I then answer Chalayn's questions and pose 11 of my own to bloggers that I tag. Apparently they're supposed to be underappreciated blogs too, less than 200 followers? (which is crazy to me, because I see 50 followers on a blog and assume I'm visiting the domain of a blogging titan.)

Ok, 11 things about me:

1. The bottom layers of my hair are kinked-out curly and the top layers are pin straight. It's been this way for years, but pregnancy aggravated the situation. My fix-it is to straighten the bottom, because if I were to match the curliness on top I'd end up looking like this

2. At 5'4, I'm the confirmed runt of my family. Only the ten year old has yet to surpass me, but given her long long legs and already big feet, check back with me when she's twelve. All the other siblings have me by at least three inches, and one of my sisters by nearly 8:

literally stooping to my level, while I'm on my tippies.

3. I was among the last two standing in my middle school spelling bee. The word that ended me was "isolate," which I spelled "icilate" (seriously the only phonetic word they give me and I have to complicate it) and I lost to Scott Bandler.

I'm over it.

4. I went to three concerts when I was pregnant with Jordan, all accompanied by my sister Audrey, who is a live music junkie. We saw 

Chuck Prophet 

 Bright Eyes

My Morning Jacket

(not my images. Google's images.) My favorite was My Morning Jacket when I was eight months along. The lead singer is like a great big teddy bear and sounds just like he does on record. I'm pretty sure Jordan's love of music and inclination to dance comes from her in utero exposure to jams.

5. When I was a senior, I was school president and also co-president of Yearbook and Drama Club. I must've been sooo popular right? I graduated with eight other people; no one ran against me for school president; my bestie and I split yearbook and dramasponsibilites because no one else stepped up. Necessity is the mother of taking too much on to your plate.

6. Ok I'm floundering here...my favorite cartoon is probably Fantasia. I remember seeing it for the first time on Christmas at my grandparents' house when I was probably four and thinking these guys

were thuh greatest.

7. I've only dyed my hair once in my life: two months after I had Jordan. I dyed it darkish reddish brown and Sean didn't notice.

8. I can bodysurf with the heavyweights but put me on a surfboard and I've got about 4 seconds before my epic flailing wipeout. 

9. My favorite outfits for babies are no outfits. They're bodies are the cutest, I just don't want to clothe them.

10. But then, my favorite shoes for myself are no shoes. I loooove being barefoot. I take off my shoes whenever and wherever it is socially acceptable and sometimes when and where it's not. (I'm usually barefoot at my desk....)

11. I read Gatsby in high school and that was the first time I'd ever heard of the name Jordan as a girl's name. I loved it. But if I remember correctly, Jordan Baker is not an exemplary woman, so my Jordan is not named in honor of her, but I guess because of her.

Chalayn's Questions:

1. Does the incorrect spelling of "brain" in my blog title bother you? Not at all. I totally get it.

2. Enough about me! What kind of deodorant do you use? I would get this question...I use Sean's Old Spice. It smells nice! And spicy! Girls' deodorants are too pungent. 

3. What is the strangest food you've ever eaten? Gotta be when Sean and I went on our "babymoon" to France when I was preg with Jordo. We were in Nice at this cute cafe in Ville Vielle, and it was a Friday during Lent. I decided to branch out and get a fish called John Dory that I'd never heard of. It came to me head and all: eyeballs bugged out and staring at me accusingly. Sean just chuckled into his fettucine alfredo as I tried to negotiate the corpse with my fork and knife.

4. N'Sync or Backstreet Boys? Psh, Backstreet Boys.

5. If you could have any superpower, what would you choose? That's too easy. Mary Poppins' power to snap and clean an entire room. Who needs a spoonful of sugar if you can do that crap?

6. What is your guilty pleasure? Chocolate milk made with Hershey's syrup. Every time.

7. If money didn't matter, what would you do with your life? You're going to be underwhelmed by the simplicity of this but I would stay at home with my babies. Sean and I would get a ranch-style house with a huge yard, and I would try and cure my blackthumb and learn to garden. It'd be great to have enough money to travel with our kids too. Some cool Europe trips, and a tropic vacation or two or five?

8. What do you like about yourself most? I don't know if you mean physically or personally. I'm going to go with personally: I think I'm a semi-good mom. I could be much better, and I strive to be, but Jordan seems to like me pretty well, and she's not a total brat all the time. Yet?

9. What is one article of clothing or accessory that you wish you had right now? A Blanqi. I'm gonna need it in t minus two weeks when this baby starts really popping out.

10. Have you ever given money, food or an item to a homeless person? I've given food in that I've worked at homeless shelters before, but I think that's more giving my time, since it's not my food.

11. What is something you thought you wanted, but then when you got it you realized it wasn't so desirable after all? Our papasan chair. I thought I would nurse in it all the time, which is why it's in Jordan's room, but I don't think I did that once.

My Questions:

1. What's your favorite TV show ever?

2. Who do you think is the most attractive actor from the classic era of film? I'm thinking 1960's and before? (I'm not supposed to answer my own questions but PAUL NEWMAN.)

3. When you were a kid planning your life out, is there something you always thought you'd have done by now that you haven't done yet? 

4. What's your favorite holiday and why?

5. Do you have a go-to meal that you make allll the time? What is it?

6. Playing of Chalayn's question: Beach Boys or Beatles?

7. Do you have a book you've read more than once or twice? Which book?

8. If the rain or snow has you stuck inside, what's one way you try and beat the cabin fever?

9. If you have a garden: what do you grow? If you had a garden: what would you grow?

10. In your opinion, which is the best Disney/Pixar collaboration? (Monster, Inc., definitely.)

11. Are you a Kindle fan or an advocate for hard copies of books? Or both?

Deeeeep questions here guys. Real thinkers. So I choose YOU:

Jamie @ The Art of Making a Home

Kate @ Rhodes Log

Kimmy @ Heels and Robots

and I so will not hold it against you if you don't want to. Promise. It's just for funsies.

Thanks Chalayn!! Hope you all learned too much about me.