How Lovely

Isn't it lovely to get an award? I get excited every single time, because it means that people out there actually enjoy reading what I have to say. And that makes me smile. 

Recently, I was lucky enough to get this award from two lovely ladies...Carlia from the new and improved Nest Building 101 (I am just loving all of her photo tips and crafty ideas by the way), and SLESE1014 from Mommyhood after Fertility Frustration (who always impresses me with her honesty and has helpful insights due to her job in the NICU). Thanks very much ladies!


Ok, so are usual, here's how it works:

1. Share who gave this award to you with a link back to their blog. 
2. Write down 7 random facts about yourself. 
3. Give this award to 15 other bloggers. 

All right, what can I tell you all that I haven't already?

1. First, thanks for all the lovely compliments I've been getting on my belly shots. You all know how to make a girl feel good. But I have a confession to make. I'm a photoshop wiz and I'm not above airbrushing my face a little. (Did I ever mention how many chins I removed out of my wedding photos?) I take the pictures using the timer on my camera (set to take 10 shots with one press of the button so I have a few to choose from). I stand in front of the white closet doors in our office, and then I always photoshop out the seam between the doors so it looks like a big white wall. So, um, yeah, never believe what you see in a photograph!
2. Hubby has gone overboard researching names for Violetta. We want a normalish name, that's nowhere near as popular as my name. See 27 Jennifers tab above. He recently downloaded the top 1000 names for 2010 from the Social Security website and has been running a statistical analysis. This morning, he was excited because he figured out a new way to look at the data. For example, the name Michael was number 3. He analysed the number of Michaels vs. the total number of babies to determine that 1 out of every 100 boys born last year was named Michael. He now wants me to tell him what sort of ratio I would be comfortable with. Hmmm. Anyway, it's very adorable. 
3. I wish I could be a stay at home mom. But, if we want to keep living in Metro Boston, own a house, and have a prayer of helping Violetta pay for college, I think I will have to continue working, at least part time. But I'm so over it. I kinda loved my life when I freelanced from home, even though I racked up a good amount of credit card debt to support myself (all gone now!). I think I'll have to settle for hopefully a 6 month leave, and a 3-4 day work week when I go back...I hope!
4. I'm four weeks away from correctly predicting the winner of American Idol at the top 12 point for the second year in a row. My bragging rights are on Phillip Phillips. Do I want him to win, not necessarily, but he is the next white guy with guitar, and that's just the way these things tend to go. In any case, I will beat out my mom and Hubby who had D'Andre and Colton respectively. 
5. I love Russian dressing. I grew up eating roast beef subs with Russian. Yum! In college, I mostly lived on Russian dressing. I dipped everything in it including grilled cheese, french fries and chocolate chip cookies. Yes, cookies. These days, I get an occasional hot pastrami from my favorite deli (they nuke the meat so it's a safe sandwich) or a veggie wrap smothered in Russian.
6. I fear I will never craft again. I have so many projects that I want to take on, and I can't seem to find the energy or the motivation (and what better motivation is there, really?) I'm convinced that I have 5 months left to craft and then it will all be over! This is not true though, kids love to craft, right?
7. I am picky about chocolate. A friend recently brought over mini fruit tarts for dessert, because as he put it "you don't like chocolate." I proceeded to tell him, sure I do, just not mouse, pudding, ice cream, cake, or really dark bitter chocolate. And try to mix raspberries with chocolate, and you'll see me make quite a face. But I love chocolate chip cookies (even without Russian), brownies, fudge, and milk chocolate (especially dairy milk from the UK). He promptly responded with "yeah, for my purposes, you don't like chocolate." I guess he doesn't want to have to remember my rules!

All right, now it's the moment you've all been waiting for. Who am I going to give this to. Let's see...

1. Emily from A Blanket to Keep
2. Liz from Compromised Fertility
3. Jesica from Just Smile and Blog
4. CW from Life Begins
5. Sometimes
6. NV at Baby NV
7. Rebecca at Life of an Army Wife
8. Rebecca at Trying not to Scream
9. M at A Miracle 4 Us
10. Kelly at Candid Confessions of a Southern Princess
11. Jennifer at Do I Have to be a DINK?
12. Mr. Thompson and Me at Viva La Vida
13. Her Royal Fabulousness at Waiting for Little Feet
14. Jules at The Road Less Traveled
15. Lauren at The Yoakum Crew and a Foster Dog or Two