A Bloggy Award

My friend Hevel over at  KosherKola gave me an award. Fun! I haven't gotten a bloggy award in a long time.

The rules are pretty simple: Post 7 thing about yourself that your readers wouldn't know about you, and pass the award onto up to 5 other bloggers.

Hmm...I'm such an open book, it might be hard for me to come up with 7 things people don't know about me. (The last time I did something like this I shocked a couple of people and I think they stopped reading.)

1) I detest entertaining. Wait, no...that's not entirely true. I don't like the preparation part of entertaining, and I'm terrible at the hostess part of the job. You know, remembering to offer people something to eat/drink, etc. I'm more of a "There's the kitchen, help yourself" kind of person. Really though, I think my dislike of entertaining goes back my inability to cook. When I met Dean, I had this sign in my kitchen:

That sign is no joke and very much true. It's still hanging in my kitchen.

2) I have 31 blog posts in draft which will probably never be published. Some are controversial, some have far over the TMI line, and others are only a subject line with a couple of sentences. Those particular posts, the ones with just a couple sentences, usually come about after a life experience when I think, "I SO need to blog this!" Then I get a couple sentences down so I can remember the thought and come back to it later.

3) I dabbled in watercolor art once. Here's the first watercolor I ever painted.

Two days later I painted this one. When I was 1/2 way through the artist who was teaching me told m I picked on of the most difficult pictures to do because there is skin which I guess is hard to do!

These were done under the instruction of an artist. He helped me understand the mixing of colors, etc but they were painted 100% by me. My mom, who is an incredible watercolor artist, was impressed, and bought me an entire set of materials, including canvases. Hmmm Maybe I'll dig those out again.

4) I once, in a small town in south central Minnesota, I layed in the middle of the street laughing hysterically. Don't ask.

5) I have a bucket list. All the things on the list involve conquering my biggest fears. I used to have a "before 40 list" but that is long gone. (and I've done all of the things on the list!)

6) I'm really painfully shy. No really.

7) I'm also a fairly decent actress. (this goes back to #6) and when I was in high school I learned to "fake it" that I'm not.

Ok, now to pass this award onto 7 other bloggers. Most of the blogs I read right now are adoption related, but since this is a "Versatile" award, I'm going to try to spread this around.

1) Jennifer at A Difference To This One. Jennifer is mom to 6, 5 of whom are adopted. Jennifer has been really good at keeping things "real" on her blog. And, not having any real experience with Down syndrome, she and her husband stepped out on a limb and last spring brought home two little boys with DS from Bulgaria. Their path has not been easy, but I love reading about their journey.

2) Kate over at Teaching Learners with Multiple Special Needs. This is one of the most useful to me blogs I've ever read. If you're looking for ideas of things to do with your unique learner, Kate's blog is the place to go! She posts almost daily too.

3) Dan Niblock over at Down with Oz. Blogging dads are hard to find, and Dan is a great reader. He also needs to update his blog!

4) Laura over at The Organizing Junkie. I'm a new reader over there, and I love it! Like she does a lot of people, I'm sure, Laura inspires me to....to...to do SOMETHING to fix my life and my house. But her site is more than just a blog, its a place where you an glean all kinds of information to help you fix your house too. Go have a look! (there's also a button for her site on my left sidebar)

5) CraftFail This is a site where you can submit your failed attempts at being crafty. It makes me feel so much better about myself. I don't know if they'll want me award over there, but I'm giving it to them anyway.