my first blog award

Yay, my friend Stephanie has given my blog its first award!



But this prize doesn't come without rules. This time, it's that "When you receive the prize, you must write a post showing it, together with the name of who has given it to you, and link them back. Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in their content or design. Show their names and links and leave them a comment informing that they were prized with 'Honest Weblog'. List [if you can and/or dare] at least ten honest things about yourself. Then, pass it on!" I don't have a ton of blogging friends, so the 7 became my maximum instead of my minimum. But here they are, in no particular order.

1. Sarah has a blog called Mommy of Faith, where she talks about her various feelings as life happens. My heart goes out to her on the recent loss of her father.

2. Leah is blogging about the ups and downs of going through IVF as she tries for baby #2, in Desperately Seeking Womb Mate,

3. Heather lets you journey into her life in Simply Living Naturally. I love all the pictures in her blog and the crafts.

4. Mariana writes about interesting things in her life in Asi es mi vida! which is a mostly English blog despite the Spanish title.

5. Ashley is newly pregnant with #2 and writes about life with her daughter and life in general in A Perfect World.

6. Margaret and I have known each other in real life (unlike most of my other award recipients, who I only know online so far) for a long time now, before either of us were married. We were pregnant with our daughters at nearly the same time, and now she's gone on ahead of me to have #2 in the early spring. She writes about her life in World of Welch.

7. I met Tishia only once in person, I think, at a babywearing meeting in Missouri. She writes Tishia's Thoughts about being Deaf, and her life in general. I wish I had been able to get to know her in person better when I still lived in MO.

There, those are my award recipients. Even if they're not able to pass it on, I hope they come and comment here. :) Now for my 10 honest things about me. I've been thinking about this for several days, ever since I got the award, and am really not sure what to put here. But we'll try it out with these:

1. Sometimes I wonder if I'm really and truly "bonded" to my daughter. She was planned, I had a drug-free birth, I breastfed, I babywore. All those are supposed to help "enhance" bonding, but even today, I'm still waiting for it to really "sink in" that I'm a mom.

2. I'm a habitual worrier, usually about finances, but the months go on and everything ends up OK anyway despite my worries.

3. I wish I'd taken more pictures of Lydia within her first few days of life, and more videos overall.

4. I am extremely introverted in real life and do best when I'm in a "crowd" of less than 4-5 people.

5. Our current residence isn't in the greatest condition, but we're not really able to move right now. We'll likely be here for at least 3 more years, so I am trying to make the best of it.

6. I grew up as a "cat person", but in the past few years, dogs have started growing on me as well.

7. I don't make New Year's resolutions because they usually end up broken by January 2nd. Instead, if there's an area of my life that needs improving, I try to take steps right then to make changes rather than waiting until January.

8. I can still hula hoop, and even did so once while 7 months pg w/ Lydia.

9. I am a terrible procrastinator.

10. I'm picky about what water I will drink. The flavor of it varies greatly from region to region. Texas water needs heavy filtering when it's drinkable at all. Oklahoma water is delicious. Missouri water was fine as is.