I'm a "Stylish Blogger"?!

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Yes-Sir-ee Bob! At least, that's what Kelly from Becoming Crunchy thinks! We recently "met" through another blog (I'm thinking it was probably Code Name: Mama?) Anyway. I'm very happy to accept this great surprise of an award! Here's my lovely button, which I will be proudly displaying in my sidebar from now on:

Now, in accepting this award, there are a few things that I must do:

1. Of course, I need to thank and link back to the person who was so kind as to bestow the Stylish Blogger Award to me.
2. Share 7 things about myself.
3. Award 10 - 15 bloggers who I feel are "stylish" this award.
4. And, notify those bloggers of their award.

So, first of all:

Thank you so very, very much to Kelly at Becoming Crunchy for thinking of my little blog when you were choosing who to pass this award to! (Go check out her blog. She went to go see Ina May Gaskin in Toronto and is going to be writing all about it. I can't wait to read her post!!!)

Next, there are those seven things about me. Hmm... let me see if I can come up with some interesting ones for you.

1. I graduated from high school a year early. No, it wasn't because I was super-smart. I absolutely hated the rural school I went to. I had moved from a city to B.F.E. the summer between 8th and 9th grade and, boy, was it a shock! The culture was all wrong for me. So, my freshman year, I skipped school for four months straight. I just didn't go. I finally got caught when I made my weekly call to the school as my mom, saying that I was still really sick. Problem was, they had my mom on the phone on another line at the same time! They didn't tell me a thing. Instead, my mom came tearing into the driveway like a bat out of hell about an hour later! Anyway, I decided to go to summer school each summer to rack up enough credits to get out of school ASAP. Oh, and the summer classes were made to ensure that all those kids who failed would pass, so they were extremely easy!
2. I'm left-handed. So is my husband. So was my first husband. And my dad, my brother, my grandfather... About 90% of the people I meet and really like turn out to be left-handed. I don't go around looking for left-handed people to make friends with (or marry!), it just turns out that way. Oh, and by the way, two lefties always make a righty. At least, that's my experience!
3. When I waited tables at a nice hotel in Los Angeles, I met some pretty famous people (and I didn't freak out, either!) I waited on: 

• Joe Walsh - he tipped pretty well and was nice and polite.

• Marlon Brando - He always ordered blueberry pie. And he wanted it heated - just not in the microwave. I'd have to take the piece of pie, fight my way past the cooks in the kitchen, put the pie in the oven for 5 minutes (and hope I didn't forget about it!), then transfer it to a plate and pop a scoop of ice cream on top. He tipped, but it was 20%, which doesn't amount to much for a cup of coffee and pie ala mode.

• Willie Nelson! - OK, I'm not a huge country music fan, OK? But this guy is well-respected by me for his ideals. He came walking in and sat at the counter with his long hair un-braided (yeah, this was way before the weird page boy cut.) He ordered a simple breakfast of eggs, hash browns, sausage & toast. He left me a $50 tip!!!! OMG! I think it was 1) because he gets the working class thing, and 2) I managed to keep every drooling tourist (and most of the restaurant staff ) away from him so he could eat his food in peace.

 Ahh... I screwed up the numbering thing with the bullets! Oh, well.

4.   I used to work at a wild animal rehabilitation center. Did you know that raccoons and squirrels make up 98% of the wildlife that abuse drugs and alcohol? OK, OK. It's just that when I see the "rehabilitation" thing, it's the first thing I think of! What I really did was volunteer once a week to care for animals that had been hit by cars, orphaned, accidentally shot by hunters, etc. And I raised two raccoons until they were weaned from the bottle every spring. And I used to run around the woods with a big net, trying to catch injured owls and other birds (yeah, imagine running through a bunch of trees with a huge fishing net on a pole. You get about two feet before you have to climb up a tree to untangle the damn thing - over and over...) It was fun and I learned a lot. I still take in injured animals that my oldest finds from time to time. *I'd like to add here that no wild animal should become a pet - ever! At a certain age, all animals "mature" and have urges. When they have those urges, they tend to become aggressive. They have to - in nature they need to fight off other potential suitors to their mate. They will be even more aggressive if they're being held captive and don't have anywhere to release all of that pent-up ... uh.. you know what I mean, right?



6.   Oh, geez! Am I only t six??? OK, if you made it this far, email me and I'll send you some kind of blog award. Maybe "most attentive reader of blogs" or something.OK, here's one. I love going fishing. I've done it since I was a very little kid. By the time I was seven, I was going down to the river on my own. I can put a worm on a hook (I just do NOT think about what I'm doing!), take a fish off the hook without hurting it, fix any kind of pole, and know which hook, line, and sinker to use in all kinds of situations. I always throw my catches back. Drives my husband nuts. I tell him that if he wants fish that bad then he can catch his own. He's tried, but he sucks. He can't sit still for two minutes, let alone an entire afternoon. Fishing is the only way I can get a few hours completely alone. No one else in my family likes fishing, so I can go sit under a tree, toss in a line, and read, read, read!

7.  We made it! I watch TV with the sound off and Closed Captioning on. I live in a tiny apartment with two kids and a husband who's losing his hearing. It is always loud around here - ALL. DAY. LONG.  I get aggravated from the noise. So, I stay up late. Once everyone's in bed, I put Turner Classic Movies on and pray that the movie they're showing is captioned. I can read super-fast now and I can almost always guess what's going on in a movie that's not captioned.

And now onto who I'd like to pass this award onto. I'm choosing blogs that I love and aren't really popular - YET. These blogs are great and more people should know about them. (No, there aren't 10-15, but I figure this post is WAY too long already!)

Prince Charming, My Arse!

OK, first of all, how could you NOT be stylish with those slippers?! You have to go read "Tiny Temper's" posts. You'll be rolling on the floor. She writes about somewhat serious subjects with so much humor!  Oh, and she's British, so she uses really cool words like: Crikey!, bloke, lorries, and grassing (I've got NO CLUE as to what that means, but it's still cool, right?)

The Peaceful Housewife

 I love Jenny's posts! She shares some of the easiest and yummiest recipes around. She has lots of great crafts, too! I love reading her posts and, although I'm nowhere near being a religious person, I always take a little something from her message with me to mull over the rest of the day. Her thoughts on parenting are very similar to mine and I have learned quite a few new ways to deal with the frustrations of being the parent of a toddler through some of her writing.

I'm Lucy

You may be familiar with Lucy's other blogs, Lucy Likes It and The Ultimate Gift Guide. I'm Lucy is a little different. It's an artistic blog that I really enjoy reading. Her posts are funny and enlightening. And she has just started a hop this week (not sure which day, yet) called Constrictive Critique where you can link a post of something creative you have done and get constructive criticism from other blog hoppers. I love this idea! It is so hard to get real opinions that help you get better. Most people will just say, "Oh, yeah. It's great." when you ask for an opinion. This hop is designed to get actual help and honest opinions. You can submit any kind of creative endeavor - poetry, photography, artwork, anything that is creative and you need someone's honest opinion about. Go check it out!

My Secret Experiment

Tawna began this blog after watching a documentary called The Secret.  Up to that point, she says her life was just not what she wanted - negativity had taken over. The movie helped her realize that she wouldn't be happy until she chose to be happy and to look at things in a positive light. She posts lots of positive quotes and things that have happened to her that most would consider a "bad day" and shows her readers the little ray of sunshine through all of the bad. I love reading her posts - I can always use a little boost of happy during my day!

Not So Average, Hippie Mommy

I LOVE Cassie's blog! We are very like-minded when it comes to living green and attachment parenting. Only, she's what I aspire to - I am not quite as "green" or "attachment-oriented" as I'd like to be. Reading her posts gives me inspiration and ideas of how I can keep changing to become a better mommy and person.


OK, that's it! Thank you very much!!! (Play exit music here)