Beautiful Blogger Award

 

To say that I was really excited to receive this award is an understatement.  Thank you, thank you, thank you Stephanie from Mommy, For Real.  If you’re not familiar with Stephanie’s blog, she’s funny, an awesome writer and a music therapist.  I visit her blog daily.  You should, too.  Her giving me this award made me cry tears of happy.  That’s never a bad thing.

The Beautiful Blogger Award is given from one blogger to another as “a simple way to boost a blogger’s traffic, recognize a fellow writer, and celebrate someone else’s accomplishments.”  The rules state that recipients post the award on their sites, list seven things about themselves, mention seven bloggers and then pass the award on.  Because I really want to be a good girl and follow the rules, it’s taken me four days to even draft this post.  Mostly because I follow a lot of blogs, some of which have been around for a while and already have tons of followers (which means that they don’t need me to list them). Plus it’s really hard to choose.  I’m a sentimental marshmallow and was petrified of leaving somebody off.  It took me hours to click on my bookmarks and figure this out.  Anyway, this morning I finally decided to just get over myself. I hope I’ve shared a blog here that’s new to you.

Award posted – done.

Seven things about me that you may not know…here you go.

1.  Prior to having Tucker, I wasn’t especially worried about dying.  I went skydiving six different times.  It was exhilarating and awesome and something I would never do now.  Being a mom has turned me into a wimp.

2.  I’m petrified of heights and have a hard time walking across bridges.  This fear extends to my dreams that are never complete without stomach dropping imagined catastrophes in which I’m trying to rescue Tucker and myself from certain death.

3.  Although staying at home with Tucker is a blessing that I’ll never tire of thanking my husband for allowing me, I have almost 20 years of marketing experience and sometimes really, really, really miss the thrill of major deadlines, campaigns, travel and going out for lunch.  I’d like to get back to it, but only want to commit to part-time.  I do a little free-lancing but it’s just not the same because nobody ever wants to go out for lunch with me.

4.  I got a bellybutton ring before it was cool.  Like in 1993.  It was so long ago that I can’t even remember the exact year.  I took it out when I was pregnant with Tucker and left it out until this summer.  I didn’t put it back in because it looks pretty.  At this point, I’m pretty resigned to my belly never looking pretty enough to wear jewelry again.  No, I put it back in because over the summer I realized that the hole had stayed open all this time and had turned into a giant zit-like thing.  Whether it was my own body making whatever was in there or whether it was three years of soap and stuff was gross enough for me to say screw it.  So it’s back in now.  And isn’t it really disgusting that the damn thing didn’t just close up?  Ew.

5.  I met my husband online.  And he isn’t weird, unlovable, a commitment phobe, freak or a serial killer.  Not yet, anyway.  Maybe he’s just waiting for the right time and a better place to stash my massacred body.  If you don’t hear from me at some point and fear that I am indeed dead by killing, look at him first.  After all, I met him online.

6.  I’m convinced that my dad owes me millions of dollars.  Once, before the iMac came out and basically saved them (along with Steve Jobs), I wanted to invest in Apple stock.  I went to my dad to figure out how to do it and he asked me why I chose Apple.  I told him that it was because they might go bankrupt and I wanted to show my support for them because I really believe in their company.  He told me that emotional reasons for purchasing stocks were not a good idea, so I didn’t invest.  Remember, this happened before the first iMac.  Or iPod.  I’ll just let that sink in for a minute.

7.  The cheapest car I’ve ever bought myself remains my favorite.  I drove a 1984 CJ-7 Jeep Renegade for 11 years.  I paid $5400 for it and it lasted for 11 years.  Then, after rebuilding the engine three times in four months (for real), it caught on fire.  Even then, I kept it in my garage for 2 years mourning it until I finally sold it.  It’s the most fun vehicle I’ve ever had.  I still have the license plate from it.  NVRNUF.  I was once cool.

Blogs I love (in alphabetical order because I don’t want you to feel bad if I don’t love you the most):

I only recently found Happiness Cubed and loved this post.  Like, a lot.  I mean I really, really, really loved it.  I wish I thought of it myself.  It’s that awesome.

Misty from Meet the Cottons and Courtney from Our Small Moments are bloggers that always know just the right thing to say.  We chat often about our special needs kids and both of them have uplifted me and encouraged and commented on posts when I really need it.  How cool is that?  Cool.  Super cool.  They are super cool.

Undiagnosed, but we are ok with that is another blog I’ve only just recently found.  Go check out utterly adorable Boo.  Her mom, Kerri, is a great writer and I can relate to so many of her posts that I always make sure I have time to click around when I visit.

Wonderfully Wired’s list of 25 things to tell her kids is just plain amazing.  Enough said.

I found Wrinkled Mommy during my first few blogging weeks while searching for mature moms.  Debbie is really funny and does this awesome TALU thing.  I love it and am so thankful for each new blogging friend I find from it.  Don’t know what TALU is?  Go check Debbie at Wrinkled Mommy out.  She hosts it each week along with three other awesome bloggers: Jennifer, author of I Am Not Superwoman, Jessica, author of Sugar In My Grits and Anne, author of Life On The Funny Farm.  TALU is how I found some really cool bloggers including Here’s the Thing, OhBoy Mom, red van ramblings, and The Bonny Bard. And those are just a few. TALU rocks.

Yeah. Good Times. by Jillsmo is one of the first blogs I found after starting Finding Ninee and remains my all-time favorite. Somewhere around the one-month mark I realized I didn’t know where I was going with this whole project and felt weird about my writing, photos and stupid drawings being all over the place.  I wasn’t sure whether it was ok to blog one day about being sad and thankful and then about being old and the next draw a picture of my dog wiping his ass on my couch.  Finding Yeah. Good Times. was a huge relief for me.  This is the blog that made me realize that my own blog can be whatever it’s going to be. Jillsmo says what nobody else wants to admit in her posts about autism, and has one post that seriously saved me from despair and guilt when I felt alone in wishing that Tucker were “normal.”  Her blog also contains a ton of hilarious antics (and bad pictures!) that will make you laugh until you get snot on your keyboard. Based on her latest post, I’m not sure what she’ll do next, but there’s definitely enough stuff already there to keep you entertained for a long while. Here’s Jill. You can already tell she’s cool, right?

Now for the award-passing ceremony (just imagine a really lovely torch and lots of happy people dancing and singing and celebrating blogs).  I pass the Beautiful Blogger Award to Joy from i can say mama. While she’s super new to blogging, I couldn’t find anything in the rules that said somebody needed to have x number of posts in order to receive the award.  She’s cool and sweet and raising her little boy Sunny who also has undiagnosed developmental delays.  And, perhaps the best of all (for me anyway), Finding Ninee is the reason she blogs in the first place.  Seriously.  How can I give this award to anybody else?  It’s like Finding Ninee birthed its own little baby blog.  Ok, maybe not.  But still.  How awesome is it that starting a blog inspires another mom to start a blog?  I tell you – it feels good.  Here are her first two posts in case you don’t believe me that Ninee was a total inspiration:
Living in Limbo
This is where it all starts

Some more bloggers that are better and huger and mightier than I am that I stalk regularly include:

A Calibama State of Mind
A Mother Life
Bad Parenting Moments
Can I Get Another Bottle of Whine
Cloudy with a Chance of Whine
Love that Max
One LoCo Mommy
Tao of Poop
The Insomniac’s Dream
The Maven of Mahem
They Call Me Mummy
Uncommon Sense

I should also say that most people on this list are totally awesome Tweeters.  They’ll totally make you laugh if you follow them.  So Make It So.

Do I stalk you and still forgot to include your blog?  UGH.  It’s not because I don’t love you.  I do.  I really do.  I have swiss cheese for a brain.  Shoot me a comment or an email and I’ll add you ASAP.