Lovely

Wait, what? Lovely? Me? Huh? Who said I was lovely? Oh, it was Stefanie over at Knitspiring Odyssey :) Have I mentioned that she's lovely? Yes. She's lovely and someone awarded her the Lovely Blog Award...and she deemed me worthy enough to be Lovely, too :)

So, there are basic rules for this (there always are)....let's see how well I follow them (I'm not very good with rules sometimes)....

1. Thank the person who honored you with this award.

Okay...that sounds simple enough. Thank you, Miss Stefanie of Knitspiring Odyssey, for this fabulous award that screams to the world that I'm lovely and grand. I don't know why, but that sounds so......I don't know, it seems like there should be more to this. There isn't but there should be.

Anyway, onward...

2. Tell everyone seven (7) unknown things about yourself.

Again, this seems simple enough...but I may have a difficult time with this one. This could be for several reasons including that I'm kind of like an open book where if you ask me something, as long as it's not too nosy, I'll answer it. Or maybe I just like to talk a lot.

Yeah.

Okay...seven things about myself... 

(1) I'm kind of a cheese snob. I grew up in southern Wisconsin where there are asinine amounts of cheese. Moving to California has been a little difficult because we've had a really hard time finding good cheese. It's not that there isn't cheese around here or even that there isn't good cheese...it's just really hard to find. We've actually ordered cheese from the cheese shop in my hometown (yes, there's an entire 1500 sq. ft. shop devoted to cheese in my hometown) and had it shipped out to us.

(2) Until I was in my fourth year of college (the age of twenty-two years old), I never wanted kids in any way, shape, or form. It was even a little silly that I had been a music education major just a semester prior to that realization. I could handle high school age but I often lamented that I couldn't stand small children. And then I took Developmental Psychology with Dr. David Njus (who was probably the craziest professor I ever had in all my years at Luther College). I realized that I really did like little kids...oops. It took almost another ten years before I had one of my own but that's not the point.

(3) I'm unsure if I want to pursue my teaching license in California. In fact, I'm unsure if I want to even be a teacher anymore. It's such a volatile environment to begin with and the fact that I haven't had a permanent teaching job or my license in California makes me wonder if I really want to do it or not. I think I'd be perfectly happy sitting behind a desk all day...or working in a yarn shop.

(4) When I was about four years old, I pushed a girl in my daycare class down...she whacked her chin on the curb and wound up needing something like five or six stitches. She still has a scar to this day and to this day, I'm not sure she knows it was me that pushed her. I only pushed her down half on purpose. We were all in a hurry to get across the street to go to the park and she was in my way. I suppose it doesn't help my case when I say that I didn't like her then or in elementary school; in middle school she was my personal bully (and her snotty little friends); I didn't like her in high school...and she has tried to friend me on Facebook a few times and I always reject her. I still don't like her. Am I sorry I pushed her, even after all these years? Not one bit. 

::sigh:: So much for my "lovely" streak...

(5) When I was a kid, like elementary school age, we used to go to the local bowling alley on Friday nights for Friday Night Fish Fry (it's a total Wisconsin thing) and the bowling alley had a video game arcade. My mom would get a roll (or two) of quarters and I would play video games to my heart's content. The room would be filled with all these high schoolers, mostly boys, and little me...and I would play and beat their high scores. This would happen on a weekly basis. I used to wind up with a crowd of maybe six or seven of these high school boys around me, watching me play...wondering how I could even see over the pinball machine to play in the first place...or whichever game I was playing. The only one I wasn't very good at was Gauntlet, but I loved it so I would sit and waste quarters on it toward the end of the night.

(6) I would love to have a clean, organized, clutter-free living environment...but that's just not in my personality. I think I have to have the chaos in order to function better. Or something stupid like that. I can be a very organized person...but organized doesn't mean clean or clutter-free. I can be a clean-freak...but that doesn't mean organized or clutter-free. I can be clutter-free...but that doesn't mean organized or clean. So, while I would love to have all three, I don't know that it's a realistic possibility for me (much to Husband's dismay). I'm getting better bout not keeping certain things but I still have an emotional attachment to other things. I'm working on it and it's something that I will forever be working on. I don't know that I'll ever be proficient at all three at the same time. We'll see.

(7) I'm at a loss for this last one.....how about you all come up with something and I'll make a post where I answer questions (though I do reserve the right to not answer questions based on privacy or other personal reasons)? Does that sound good?

And...onward.....

3. Nominate fifteen (15) blogs and notify each recipient of their nomination.

I already know this is going to be difficult...I usually only come up with five or six. It's not that I don't read a buttload of blogs...but a lot of the blogs I read have either already been nominated by the person that nominated me (which is no fault of hers) or are bloggers that are so "big" that they don't have time for things like this (like The Yarn Harlot or Ginny over at Small Things or Susan B. Anderson). So, we'll see how this goes and please don't rip me a new one if I only come up with a few...

(1) Shelly from WoolAndChocolate: I "discovered" her probably through another blog, though I cannot figure out which one. She's a knitter and that's enough for me. Oh, and let's not forget about the chocolate thing...who doesn't like chocolate? I also appreciate that she's from a different viewpoint than me in terms of rearing children (she homeschools - which I have no problem with, it's just not something I'll probably do) and religion (she is, I'm not)...and maybe other things, too.

(2) Erin from The Knitting Squid: She made a knitted squid...and socks. I think I found her blog via Tami's FO Friday or WIP Wednesday posts. I'm not too sure. Either way, she's quite lovely :)

(3) Brinn from Stitch, Brinn, Stitch: I found her on one of the groups on Ravelry (perhaps Thrifty Knitters...or maybe it was something about her shark mittens...)...or maybe it was when I still had my LiveJournal account. I think that may have been it, actually...I liked her projects page on Ravelry and started following her blog. She's just so damn cute!

(4) Rick & Abbie Smith from Noah's Dad: I found this blog from the blog post that went viral. Someone posted a link to it on Facebook and it's been a love story ever since. This blog has absolutely nothing to do with knitting or crafting. It has to do with a little boy, Noah, who was born with Downs Syndrome and his family, specifically his parents, Rick & Abbie. Noah is a couple months younger than Little Man and Little Man loves to watch the "daily" videos of Noah.

(5) Emma from Knit One, Stitch One, Save One?: It's been awhile since I thought of how I came to know Emma. Honestly, I don't remember. Probably from Tami's FO Friday or WIP Wednesday posts...and then Year of Projects...she really is quite lovely. And let's not forget about intelligent. She's going to be a doctor. And she knits. And trampolines.

(6) Kasia from Kaś, nie myśl: Kasia is the only blog I read that is written in two languages (Polish and English). I started reading her blog after I did a test knit for her (Lothlorien, remember?). She is quite a lovely lady from Poland :)

Aaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnddddddddd.........I'm totally out of steam. I made it to six. That's pretty good for me.

Oh well.

I hope you're all having a lovely day :)