Versatile Blogger Award

Thanks to Mama Lola for awarding me with the Versatile Blogger award! 

 
Rules for the Versatile Blogger Award:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you and include a link to their site.
2. Add the Versatile Blogger Award picture to your blog post.
3. Nominate 7 fellow bloggers who you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly and include a link to their site.
4. Let them know you have nominated them.
5. Share 7 random facts about you.  

Seven random facts about me:

 

1. I don't like marshmallows because of their weird smell and strange texture.

2. I have a weird pulsing sound in my left ear that won't go away. 

3. I look at grocery ads and cut coupons all the time... except I always end up shopping at the same place, and I usually forget my coupons at home.

4. I have been going on 3 hour max. sleep stretches for about a year.  When I finally get to sleep through the night again, I won't know how I'll react!

5. My favourite ice-cream flavour is Blue Bunny's Bordeaux Cherry Chocolate.

6. I'm scared of heights.  My first recollection of this is when I was climbing up the Leaning Tower of Pisa with my Mum and my brother.   It was slippery and the outside first level didn't have a barrier.  A girl behind me slipped and pulled on me when she fell.  It freaked me out and I got scared.

7. I love Burger King's sausage, egg and cheese croissanwiches but I don't eat them very often because they're so unhealthy!

 

Seven versatile bloggers worth checking out:

 

1. Mushypea - chronicling her life with a 17 month old toddler and preparing to get married in the summer.

2. Cathysvoicenow - writer, college student, grandma, alcoholic/addict in long-term recovery and true friend who blogs from the heart about the trials and tribulations that have made her who she is today.

3. Denise - a twitter friend / new penpal and fellow preemie parent who thrives no matter what life throws at her.  She's just restarted her blog so go give her some support.

4.Victoria at Busy House Big Heart - fellow commiserator of low breastmilk supply issues and 3am friend when we're both up feeding our new babies.

5.Kylie at Kykaree - I was drawn to her because she lives in my hometown in UK! She has a strong following online so I feel like this is about as close to knowing a famous person I'll get.  She's funny and personable, and bares her soul about how she manages, copes and survives the abuse and trauma she has experienced in her life.

6. Sonya at somusti - I went to school with this smart gal.  She's a great writer and I love reading her blog.  It's fun to feel connected to someone who I haven't seen for over a decade!

7. Arlo's Dad - A Dad who writes to his son by blogging.  His posts are funny, heart-warming and a wonderful way to connect to his child.  I just think you should check out his blog. 

Another blog meme

I received a few complaints about numbers 5, 6 and 7 of the last blog meme.  Apparently my dreams are not all that fascinating, or at least not worth 3 of the 7 'things you didn't know about me'!  Haha!  So, to finish off the last one, here are numbers 6 and 7, as number 5 I will count all of my dream stuff rolled into one!

6.  I love picnics.  One time, my siblings and I microwaved hotdogs and took them to the park.  I don't really remember much else but that it was a lot of fun.  One summer, my siblings and I travelled all around the UK by train.  We would make chicken drumsticks and sandwiches for our trip.  I remember Bern falling asleep in Oxford and having to carry her everywhere, and people looking at us and wondering what a bunch of young kids were doing wandering around town.
7.  I watch movies from the middle to the end.  Gary hates it when I do that, but sometimes there's a movie on and I'll just turn it on.  Or, it's a movie I've seen that I've either forgotten how it ends, or I liked the ending so I just watch the end part!

That's all I've got.  Onto the next meme!!
Well this blog meme was sent to me by my sister.  This is very much a motherhood-themed meme as the questions imply that we don't have much time to complete the tasks as we're too busy looking after the kiddos.  So that being said, I won't be sad if you don't read this to the end.

Some ground rules to start:

• Post the rules
• When answering the questions, please give as much detail as possible
• Leave a comment on Sex, drugs, rocker and stroller, baby so we can keep track of the meme and totally steal your routine tips to make our worlds a happier place
• Tag 3 or more people and link them to your blog

How and when do you find the time to ....

... do your laundry?
Usually on weekends, although I sometimes do a load mid-week that sits there for a few days before I get it folded and put away.  I have about 3 loads of clothes I need to hang up in my closet.  I won't say no to some help if someone wants to come over!

...write a blog post?
I used to blog once a week on sonia-gary-lydia.blogspot.com.  Then that changed to once every couple of weeks, to once a month, to totally not.  Now I have this new blog.  I worried about consistency of posts at first but when I feel obligated to blog, I find I have no creative juices at all.  So now I blog whenever I have something to say.
...look after yourself?... i.e. wash your hair, paint your nails, take a bubble bath etc?
I don't particularly care for bubble baths.  Washing my hair isn't really a luxury - isn't that just a necessity in the course of hygiene?!  So I do that every other day when I'm in my daily morning shower.  I do paint my nails and have done so since I was 14 years old.  I've probably only gone a few months since then without nail varnish on my nails.  I have noticed that I am less inclined to freak out when my nail varnish is chipping off though.  I probably do my nails once a week, as in  I do them myself as I don't trust anyone else to touch them!

...spend time with your other half?
We spend every evening together, unless I'm working.  We usually get a couple of hours after Lydia goes to bed.  We rarely go on date night.  Even before Lydia was born, we rarely had date nights.  We went places and spent time together, but it was rare that it was a planned night out for the purpose of romance and love!  My reasoning is: 1. We're content with being a family all the time.  2. My husband is incredibly unromantic.  You can try to change him if you want - I still try even after 12 years

...do fun stuff with your LO?

All the time.  We try to go somewhere on the weekends.  We go to hockey.  We spend time in the evening playing.

...spend time with family?
I see my father-in-law at least once a week.  My family is all in England, so maybe once a year.

...socialise with friends?

Usually a couple of times a month.  Not too often as I don't really need it and I talk to lots of people at work.  Every time I go back home I get to see friends too.

...prepare an evening meal juggling a baby/toddler bedtime routine?

I call it, 'My husband'.  I am really irritable when I'm hungry, so if I'm trying to spend time with Lydia too, it's even worse.  If I'm not rushed (like on weekends) I don't mind cooking, or if Gary really really doesn't want to cook for some reason.  Otherwise Gary's pretty good at cooking if I tell him what to cook.  This is probably the best thing about my husband and it takes a lot of stress off me because I get home from work a lot later than he does and I used to hate having to figure out dinner to eat half an hour after I walked into the door because I wouldn't have time to even sit down.  He eventually just fell into the routine of doing it most of the time.

...deep clean your house?

I have no idea what that means.  If you'd like to come to my house and show me, please feel free to do so. 

...do the food shopping?

Gary and I go food shopping usually on the weekend. 

...bulk ironing?

Seriously?  No way.  We had to iron masses of shirts for my Dad when we were growing up.  I don't think there's anything I detest more.  My brother hates painting because we had to paint the house every summer too.  I still have a few items of clothing that I haven't worn for about a year because they require ironing.  The only reason I iron these days is if I have something I'm sewing that needs to be ironed!  Why iron when there are dry cleaners?  And I don't have enough money for dry cleaners so I just buy clothes that don't need to be ironed, or things that will straighten themselves out once they've been hung up in my closet for long enough!!

That's all, folks.  I'm not a very good tagger so if you feel like filling out these questions, feel free to do so.  Follow the rules better than I do ;)

Bet you didn't know this about me

I've been tagged in a couple of blog memes so before I'm told I'm a complete blog snob, I figured I'd give a nod to some of my dearest friends and family and answer the questions.  I'm quite an open book so this first meme will be rather difficult.  Apparently I'm supposed to share seven things about myself.  I'm guessing they have to be interesting and not things you already know.  I'm fairly certain you already know my name and what I look like (um, hello, pictures all over the blog?).  You may not know about my penchant for spotting spelling mistakes on any document that whizzes in front of my face for a millisecond, but that's just old news to people who spend any time with me.  Anyway, I'm procrastinating.

1.  I know a little bit about every sport.  I love to watch sports in general.  I think it's because I have no sense of balance myself and no athletic ability at all, so I cheer on my favourite teams instead.  I've noticed that I can connect with all types of people with my rudimentary knowledge about sports.  Sometimes I know random facts about sports and wonder why that's taking up space in my head.  It's irritating yet awesome at the same time!

2.  I'm really nosey.  Call it curious, interested, inquisitive, whatever you want.  I am genuinely interested in many different things, but mostly in your life.  I love to learn how people are managing, coping, thriving, living... I like to know what makes people who they are. 

3.  I think my true calling is helping people to see themselves.  I find myself drawn to  helping people see their strengths and how to harness them.  I love to help people feel comfortable and happy with who they are.  Hate towards other people and towards ourselves takes too much energy away from living life.  

4.  I don't really drink alcohol.  I don't really like it or how I feel and act with it.  I get a lot of lip and pressure from people when I don't drink.  It irritates me that people think this is up for discussion and not my choice.  I have my reasons.  If you want to drink, drink.  Don't think you'll ever make me feel like I'm letting myself down by not drinking alcohol.  How ridiculous is that?

5.  I woke myself up last night laughing.  Seriously.  In my dream, there were people popping up - out of a hat or something - and it was making me laugh.  I snorted whilst laughing in my dream which actually woke me up.  I think I was probably snoring really loudly!  Anyway, I woke up and couldn't stop laughing.  It was really strange.

6.  The other night, I had a dream that I was on a plane that suddenly started plunging at a 90 degree angle into the sea.  At first I thought we were crashing, then I realised we were actually going underwater.  We ended up going to the bottom of the sea where there was this entire undersea world.  We got there and it was like that new show, Terra Nova.  You could go to this new land but you couldn't go back.  There was a girl on a cell phone and they told her she couldn't talk on it because there was no contact allowed with the 'other' world.  Yeah, I have no idea where this dream came from either.

7.  I have really vivid dreams.  Some of you have heard my Chili (our beagle) and roast chicken dream.  I'll tell you about it if you haven't!

Ummm I guess at this point I'm supposed to tag some peeps to participate.  How about I send this out to the blogosphere and just see who wants to respond?!