I'd like to thank the academy...

Oh, and well you of course!  Without YOU none of this would be possible!

What, you're asking (I know you are because I'm kind of asking the same thing myself right now) is she going on about today?  Did she fall down and hit her head and now she's typing ridiculousness because no one made her go get checked out?  Someone should really put their hand in front of her face, wave some fingers and ask her how many fingers they're holding up!  

No, no, no!  It's not like that.  I'm actually not going crazy.  I, was nominated for an award!  What?  I guess that makes me an official blogger now, huh?  I was so flattered when Shawna over at Life as we know it nominated me and then Jules over at So totally life! also did!  I honestly can't tell you how awesome it feels to have some pretty amazing women whose blogs I really enjoy reading and following nominate me!  Seriously, little ol' me!  Wow!

Have you seen this adorbs little button?  I looks like, well, this!

Super cute, right?  And such a sweet idea!  The premise behind the award is simple.  It's awarded to bloggers by bloggers, specifically with a following (as I understand it) of under 200 people.  It's basically a way to recognize the blogs that you really like to follow and get other people reading those blogs too!  I honestly could not be more flattered by the fact that two other bloggers from this whole, big, blogosphere think that my random run-ons are entertaining enough to want to nominate me!  

So, here's the deal.  Now that I've been nominated, I have to tell you 11 random things about myself that maybe I haven't yet offered up - should be interesting.  Then, I have to answer 11 questions posed by the bloggers who nominated me.  When I'm done all that, I then need to nominate 11 other bloggers whom I love to follow and who have a following of under 200 but I think should have people crawling all over their pages on an hourly basis and pose 11 new questions to them!  Whew!  So much work - but it's so worth it!

Here goes!

11 things I've never told you about me:

1. I hate the smell of bacon.  It started when I was pregnant with my first.  I can't explain it.  It grosses me out now.
2. I feel anxious when my house isn't tidy.  I am that person that looks around and thinks, what if someone who has never been to my house before knocks on my front door and wants to come in for coffee right now.  On a scale of 1 - 10, how embarrassed would I be right now?  Yup.  Me.
3. I love my boys more than anything in this world and would do absolutely anything for them.  Even on the days when I want to pack them up and put them on the front step so they stop making a mess in my house (see above.)
4. I studied music at the University level.  My instrument?  Voice.
5. I still get butterflies in my stomach when I go out on a date with my husband.
6. If there was only one fast-food restaurant left open in the entire world I'd really want it to be Starbucks - ok, or a really good equivalent!  You don't want to see me pre-caffeine.  It's really not pretty.
7. This is my 3rd time losing a significant amount of weight.  This is the fist time I've felt confident that I was going to actually do the work to keep it off.
8. If I could choose between having all the money in the world and all of the health and happiness in the world, I would honestly (and without even thinking about it) choose health and happiness.
9. I have a huge soft spot for all things tiny and furry!  One day, we will figure out a way to keep them tiny and furry and cute and we'll all live happily ever after!
10. Sometimes, when I'm home alone - usually cleaning, I crank the tunes REALLY loud and dance and sing alla Tom Cruise in Risky Business.
11. This December marks the 8th year since we lost my Mom to f'ing cancer.  I still miss her like crazy.

11 Questions from Shawna:

1. What is one thing about yourself that most people don't know? I am not good in awkward situations.  I'm also kind of weird and awkward when you first meet me.  Once I find common ground with a person - something we can both talk about, I'm all good!  Situational comedies often make me uncomfortable too.  Like I have to hide my head under a pillow because it makes me so crazy!
2. Whose your favourite singer/band? That's a tough one.  I seriously LOVE music.  See point 4 above.  I love pop music, classical music, rock music, disco, folk...these days though I love a song that can really get me moving when I'm running.  I was Tom Cruise dancing in my house yesterday to LMFAO's 'I"m Sexy and I know it!'  But then last night, was humming along to one of my favourite operatic arias, O, mio bambino caro.  It honestly just depends on the hour and the mood I'm in!
3. What's your favourite time of the year? Ok, I love the weather and temperatures of summer.  I love summer vacation and road trips and getting a lovely golden tan.  However, I adore fall.  I love the colours and the crisp cool mornings.  I also LOVE running in the fall.  It's not so hot that you come back after 20 minutes looking like you've just dumped an entire bucket of water over your head and the sun doesn't scorch you in 10 seconds flat!  I do, however, find something a tiny bit sad about fall.  I've never been able to figure it out.  Any Psyche majors out there wanna take that one on?
4. What is one of your guilty pleasures? Hmmmm, only one?  Just kidding!  I think probably my worst one is Facebook.  Especially now that I'm so in love with so many amazing 'hookstars'!  I swear, I could spend a million hours stalking I mean trolling I mean scrolling through this amazing group of women and I'd still only see 1/2 of the stuff that's going on there!
5. What do you hope to accomplish in the next year? Well, I hope to achieve my goal weight - not actually sure what that is yet, so stay tuned!  I also hope to figure out what I want to do with my life now that my boys are both in school and be either doing it or at least making significant headway to being there by the end of 2013.
6. Where is your favourite place to travel to? Gosh!  There are so many places I've never been - I don't know!  Everywhere I've gone I've loved for different reasons.  Our recent trip to Mexico was out of this world and I loved everything about it.  I definitely need to go back there and explore some more. Europe is on my list next though - anywhere and everywhere!
7. Are you married/have kids? Yup, sure am!  We just celebrated 10 years of wedded 'bliss' (mwah! love you honey!) last week!  We have two amazing little boys - 8 and 4 years old.  All 3 of my boys keep me on my toes and my amazing hair chic in business covering up all these damn grays that keep popping up lately!
8. What do you have most of in your closet? Ok, this is a tricky question.  Which closet are we talking about?  My front hall closet where I keep my shoes/boots, purses and coats which is definitely more coats than anything else or the closet in my bedroom which is pretty evenly covered with button down shirts, jeans, cardigans and cute summer short sleeved tops that I refuse to move to the back yet?  I'm a SAHM - most of my clothes from my previous working life have long since fled the coup!  
9. What's your favourite TV show and movie? It's funny because I would have told you a few years ago the my favourite TV show was Grey's Anatomy or Brother's and Sisters.  Now?  I'm not so sure.  I have a whole list of shows that I PVR every week, but I'm not entirely sure that my life would end without watching any of them.  I really like Parenthood, 2 Broke Girls, Don't Trust the B in Apt 23, Scandal, Blue Bloods, Raising Hope, Modern Family, The Middle.  My new addition for this year?  Nashville.  I'm really enjoying it so far.  I hope it sticks around!  My favourite movie?  Of all time?  Pretty Woman.  The Husband won't watch it with me because it drives him nuts that I can quote it!  'Big mistake...Big...Huge!  Well, if you'll excuse me, I have to go shopping now!'
10. If there was a quote to describe you or your life, what would it be? Believe you can and you're halfway there.  Theodore Roosevelt
11. How would your best friend describe you? You mean other than the yin to her yang?  The milk in her tea (she hates coffee - you see how we're yin and yang like that?)  She would say that I'm patient - to a fault sometimes!  She would say that I'm accommodating and always want to try and help.  That I'm a doer and a fixer.  She would tell you that we've laughed together over our 16 year friendship like no one has ever laughed before but man, we've had some cries that I don't even want to think about.  She'd tell you that I'm the only person she's ever fought with and even broken up with for a short period of time that she's ever gone back to and come away with a stronger relationship.  She'd also tell you that if we were lesbians, we'd be married ;) 

11 Questions from Jules:

1. Do you have pets? Yes!  Currently, we have a tabi cat named Francine.  Normally, I'm really not much of a cat person - it takes a really special cat to worm her way into this dog-loving girl's heart.  But Francine?  She's good.  She likes to cuddle sometimes but isn't bitchy about it when she doesn't want to.  She stays out of the way and really isn't annoying!  We had a dog named Molly for 10 years.  Sadly, this past Mother's Day, we had to put her down.  It was one of the worst moments of my life.
2. Did you graduate from college? I graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education.  Ask me now what I do with that.  Ummmmmm.  Hold on, I'm still trying to think of a really good answer.  Can I get back to you on that one?
3. How many countries have you travelled to? Let's see, I've been to Barbados, Bahamas, Mexico, United States and of course Canada.  My list is pretty sad, huh?  I really need to get on that!
4. What's your favourite TV show? I just realized that I completely forgot to mention in my previous answer about this how much I LOVE Damages.  I'm really sad that it's over.  Oh and I still cannot believe that Rose Byrne is an Aussie!  I mean, I love that she is, but I never would have guessed it!  Amazing!
5. Do you love/enjoy your job/career? Well, the answer I'm supposed to give here is that well of course I adooooooore being a stay at home mom to two incredible little boys!  The real answer is, yes, most days I really do enjoy the fact that I get to be here so much for my boys.  However, lately there have been many days where I've really started to feel like I need to do more.  I don't know what that something is yet though.  It's part of the 2013 quest for greatness!
6. Do you consider yourself an introvert or an extrovert? Um, I think it depends on the situation.  I think that if I want to fly below the radar I'm definitely keeping to myself.  That being said, I feel like I'm naturally a pretty loud and well, let's be honest, dramatic person.  I try to keep that shit bottled up, but sometimes, when I'm not looking it kind of seeps out.  Then once it's out there, well, it's out there!  
7. What's your favourite meal to cook? Honestly?  It depends on the season!  I love creating new salads with fresh, locally grown yumminess in the summer.  In the fall, I love soups and casseroles and hearty things.  I also, however, love doing the big traditional dinners like Thanksgiving and Christmas.  They are so much work and take so long, but watching everyone enjoy that meal?  That's pretty satisfying!  Oh, I also love making pasta creations!
8. Why do you blog? Honestly?  In the beginning I did this just to keep myself accountable for my weight loss journey.  Then it turned into something more.  I wanted to reach out to a wider audience and share my craziness with other people.  Is that completely narcissistic?  I also wanted to have a place where I could make sense of thoughts that were rattling around in my head.  Sometimes I don't know how to actually make sense of my own feelings/positions on things until I write them down.  In a nutshell, it's cheaper than therapy?  ;)
9. What's one goal/dream you hope to attain in 2013? In addition to my answer to number 5 above, I want to 100% conquer the 10k with a time of 1 hour or less.  Once I've done that, I'll feel like I can move on to conquering the 1/2!
10. If you had more free time, what's something you would like to do? I would like to learn to play the piano all over again.  I was never really that great at it and not having actually played for more than 10 years has made it really tough to retain any of it!!  I'd like to be able to sit down at my piano and play and not feel self-conscious about it.  Kind of like wearing skinny jeans in public up until now!
11. What's your biggest fear? Losing loved ones unexpectedly.  

Sorry - that was a heavy ending, huh?

So now!  The next part is kind of fun because now I, get to nominate 11 other amazing bloggers!  You're not supposed to nominate people who have nominated you, and if I understand correctly if someone has already been nominated, you're not supposed to nominate them again but quite frankly, there are some pretty kick-ass bloggers on my following list and I'd love to hear their answers to my questions!  So here goes!

My 11 nominees are:

1. Brandi at Thin after twins
2. Mandy at Some Crafty Life!
3. Emily at Unchartered Territory
4. Nikki at Aussie in the USA
5. Brooke at The Ah Ha Moment
6. Amanda at Leap of Taste
7. Jennifer at I Run (and eat) This Town
8. Jennifer (Hamm Owens) at Losing It!
9. Janelle at Domestically Seasoned
10. Abby at Cowgirl Imagery
11. Tangela at Finding Myself in Food and Fitness

My questions for you are:

1. What is your first and most clear childhood memory that you have?
2. If money and time were not issues, where would you travel to and why?
3. When you were little, what did you want to be when you 'growed' up?
4. Where did you have your first kiss?
5. What is the one thing in this world that no amount of money or coaxing could ever make you do?
6. What challenge will you conquer in 2013?
7. If you woke up on a deserted island tomorrow morning, what are the 3 most important things you'd want with you and why?
8. Who do you not want to ever read your blog and why?
9. What was the catalyst that led you to blogging?
10. What's the one life lesson you hope to teach your children/nieces/nephews?
11. Where is your favourite place in the whole, entire world?

OK, so now my job is done!  I hope you enjoy answering the questions I've given you and sharing the Liebster love!