It’s an honor just to be nominated

I’m blown away… like you could knock me over with a feather kind of blown away. I’ve been nominated for a SOAPY (Friends reference anyone?) Liebster Award by the incredibly talented, creative, and gracious Jolene from Miss. Once Upon A Marathon. I swear I’m not trying to suck up. Just calling it like I see it. This is kind of a “pay it forward” process to bring lesser known/followed blogs to light. It’s a contagious affect where one blog asks and answers questions and then brags about 11 other blogs who must follow the same steps.

First of all, I’m completely shocked that I’m nominated. It’s a very humbling moment when someone says “I enjoy your blog so much that I think it deserves some recognition.” My blog definitely reaches an incredibly small portion of the global population. At this very moment I have a whopping 34 people following my blog. This statement is not even a little sarcastic. I never thought this blog would reach beyond my personal friends and family. So go me.

So in order to follow through with my nomination I need to do a few things.

• Thank the blogger who nominated you and link back to his or her blog…. CHECK!
• Answer 11 questions asked by the nominator <- sounds a bit like “The Terminator”. “Come with me if you want to win!”)
• Post 11 random tidbits about yourself. The inevitability that it will get all kinds of awkward is promising.
• Nominate 11 blogs for the Liebster Award.
• Create 11 new questions for my nominees!
• Don’t forget to include the Liebster Award logo on your post. Double check!

Jolene decided to have mercy on me and ask only 5 questions:

1. What is your favorite meal? (ie. breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks): Lunch!
2. If you could change one thing about yourself what would you change? Make my scoliosis disappear!
3. If you could go to the Olympics in one sport, which would you choose? Archery (this is assuming that I’d instantly acquire the skill to be good enough right? I’d hate to go and just embarrass myself considering how I’ve never shot an arrow in my life!)
4. Jeans or sweatpants? Jeans
5. Cats or dogs? Dogs… dogs all. day. long.

Now for my 11 random things that may make you scratch your head in wonder, laugh, or both.

1. In high school, I thought I wanted to be a nun. My family has never let me forget this fun fact. LOTS of nunnery jokes.
2. Before high school, I wanted to be an architect. I drew housing plans on graph paper more than I played with my dolls.
3. I became neither a nun nor an architect and got a Bachelor’s in Psychology instead. Probably to study my crazy self.
4. My son’s middle name is Maverick because I thought God was trying to tell me something when I saw Top Gun on the TV almost every week of my first trimester. (In reality, Tom Cruise probably just had a new movie coming out.)
5. My favorite book is Catcher in the Rye.
6. I had a short story nationally published when I was in high school. I wrote it under a pen name.
7. I have 11 toes. Kidding. Just making sure you weren’t skimming through the list. I have actually traveled to every U.S. state except 2 (Alaska & North Dakota).
8. I have a very irrational fear of vampires. I refuse to watch any Twilight movies because of this.
9. I grew up in New England… until I very randomly decided that I couldn’t sanely handle another winter and moved south of the Mason-Dixon a handful of years ago.
10. My favorite city is Washington, D.C.
11. In keeping up with the “11” theme, I married my husband on November 11th 2011.

Now for my 11 nominees, I hope you will accept the terms and conditions of this award (I don’t think there are any other than to follow than the above stated rules.) Drum roll, please!

• A Witty Running Pun: a fellow first time marathoner joining me and so many others at the Marine Corps Marathon 🙂
• We are 2 Fit 2 Quit: an inspiring blogger who is full of encouragement and great advice. You should buy tickets to his gun show.
• Semper Spouse: a Marine wife happy to extend some advice to those new to the military “game”
• runstilletos: exercise, food recipes, awesomeness.
• The New Adventures of Lo: a blog about planning and new life changes
• All is Fitness: I’m pretty sure the title says it all 😉
• shortcuthills: reading, running, travel, and creativity… even some pretty impressive Words With Friends scores
• cultfit: as noted on the blog- random workouts, random results
• Fluency’s Folly: a fellow runner who encourages exercise, patience, and hope
• Rather Be Runnin’: I’m sure you can see a trend with the theme of these blogs, but this one in particular is always a fun read when I’m not feeling motivated.
• Run Cardiff Run: really great running advice and idea with the added bonus of recipes

Now if you would like to enter in the running (no pun intended) I should probably provide you with 11 questions. Ready, set….. GO!

1. What place have you always wanted to visit?
2. Which is your favorite season?
3. Who do you admire the most? (ie. a parent, a friend, an athlete, a historical figure, etc)
4. What’s the most unusual thing you’ve eaten? (Bonus: would you ever eat it again?)
5. Are you a beach, mountain, farm, or city kind of person?
6. What did you want to be when you grew up?
7. What is you favorite movie?
8. What do you have on you at all times that you’d never want to forget at home?
9. Who was your celebrity crush as a kid?
10. What is your favorite dessert?
11. Name a goal you want to accomplish this year:

Gotta go! Time to start writing my acceptance speech! (Really, I’m tracking down each of my nominees to let them know how awesome they are!)

Editor’s note: I have received a second nomination from Stacy at The Complaining Runner (is there any other kind? haha)! The first nomination was luck. The second one I think is considered a fluke? At any rate since this is my first go around at this award I’m not really sure what to do when a second blogger nominates you. So I’m just putting a small addendum down here to answer her 11 questions (because it’s fun).

1. Who is your fitness inspiration? Shalane Flanagan (that girl can run!) and Misty May-Treanor/Kerri Walsh Jennings duo (beach volleyball Olympians)
2. What is one thing you did everyday when you were 10, but now never do? You’re asking me to think back 20 years? Sweet Georgia Brown, that’s tough. Probably using my imagination… yikes, that’s sad!
3. What is your favorite brunch item? A mimosa? How about we stick with a spinach, goat cheese, and tomato omelet.
4. If you could eat only one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be? sushi… of course mercury poisoning would probably be imminent so “the rest of your life” is a pretty loose term at this point. But, man, what a way to go.
5. What is your greatest accomplishment? I think the expectation would be to say that my son is my greatest accomplishment… but until he turns out to be a kind and respectful young man who has graduated high school I don’t really think I can smack a label on his tush that reads “greatest accomplishment”. With that being put out into the universe, I will say that I’m over the moon proud that I did not poop during labor. For real.
6. If you had to spend 24 hours with either Lindsay Lohan or Amanda Bynes who would you choose? Ah, see, this one is easy. Considering how Lindsay is at Betty Ford right now I’d have to stick with her because at least someone is overseeing those 24 hours who has access to medication (medication for me or her, it doesn’t matter).
7. What was your worst haircut? HA! Well, in college I let a friend give me a trim… which turned into a half done disaster… which then lead to a very cute shoulder length cut. This monstrosity was only slightly better than the incredibly short bowl like hair cut I had in fifth grade. It was not cute. DO NOT LISTEN TO MY MOTHER!
8. Early bird or night owl? Definitely night owl. I struggle from the moment my alarm goes off until my son’s wakes up and requires that I get my act together. It’s a slow process.
9. What was the last book you read? I am currently about to finish Inferno by Dan Brown. I love mystery/historical adventure books.
10. What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever seen a stranger do in public? Someone launched a bag of Werther’s Originals at my husband and I from an aisle over in a Walmart once. It was at 2 am. And it was Walmart. So I guess that’s pretty tame.
11. Apple or Android? I have an Android right now but I’m desperate to have an Apple. (I curse my phone aloud on a daily basis and I’m one frozen screen away from chucking it into a wall.) I’m totally a Mac/iPod/iPad/iWhatever kind of girl.

Well, that was fun! Thanks again Stacy. I look forward to checking our your blog and who knows maybe we’ll run in a race together someday. You’ll be the runner complaining right?