Sunshine Award - Ten Things

My wonderful friend Jane Isaac (@JaneIsaacAuthor)  generously nominated me for the Sunshine Award. (Thank you, Jane!)


  
Here are the rules:
1. Include the award logo in a post or on your blog.
2. Tell 10 things about yourself.
3. Nominate 10 other fabulous bloggers.
4. Link your nominees to the post and comment on their blog letting them know they are nominated.
5. Share the love and link the person who nominated you.



So, ten things about myself:

1. I am only 5'2" tall, which is fairly short. (But my husband is 6'8".)


2. Although I have lost  over 145 lbs. and have kept it off for over 2 years now, I always battle the niggling fear inside me that tells me I will gain it back someday.

3. I exercise on my elliptical crosstrainer for 90 minutes to 2 hours every day, sometimes even when I am not feeling well. I worry that I obsess about keeping up my exercise.

4. Currently living in my house are two cats, a dog and two gerbils. The gerbils belong to my 9 year old daughter and my 6 year old daughter. The border collie belongs to my 19 year old daughter, even though she is usually away at her university. One of the cats belongs to me and the other one belongs to my 17 year old daughter.


5. I would be the local crazy cat lady if it weren't for the fact that I already have a bunch of kids to raise and a husband who won't let me get too carried away with cat ownership.


6. Although I love our dog Mercury and believe he is an awesome family pet, I have realized through caring for him that dogs are a lot more work as pets that I generally prefer to have to deal with. I think he will be our last dog.


7. I wish I was less lazy about housework. Honestly, I'd rather do anything other than housework, and I frequently do other things just to get out of doing housework.


8. Although I enjoy writing and can often get caught up in the stories I am writing, I always look back at my writing when I am done and cringe at it, thinking it's not good enough and never will be. I am working on believing in myself and my writing more.


9. I wish I had been able to go to my 20th highschool reunion. It was held in California (where I was born and raised) but I live in England now so wasn't able to go. I was never fat in highschool, but I always fought an extra ten to twenty pounds. It would have been great to go back weighing less than I weighed when I attended highschool! (And yes, I do weigh less now!)


10. Although I avoid going out in the sun when I can because of my fair skin, when we spend weeks, sometimes months, at a time here with very little sunshine and lots of rain, I start to feel more gloomy. Sunshine just makes the whole world look cleaner and brighter. It makes me happy.

Ten people I want to award the Sunshine Award to:


1. Anna Meade  @ruanna3

2. Meg McNulty  @charitygirlblog


3. Angela Goff  @Angela_Goff


4. Susi Holliday  @SJIHolliday


5. Sophie Moss  @SMossWrites

6. Afsaneh K   @Afsaneh_Dreams


7. Ruth Long  @bullishink


8. Jo-Anne Teal  @jtvancouver


9. Lillie McFerrin  @LillieMcFerrin

10. Stacy Bennett-Hoyt  @Rowanwolf66
The reason I have chosen these ladies is because they have all inspired me into writing some of my flash fiction stories and my fairy stories, either through running contest or through writing stories themselves. They are all a lot of fun on Twitter and there was recently some talk about Ruannaland. I'm not sure if I should want to go to Ruannaland or if I should want to avoid it at all costs! ;)


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Blog Awards

    

I have been awarded these two awards, the One Lovely Blog Award and the Reader Appreciation Award, by my lovely friend Beth Stilborn. You may remember Beth from my interview of her. Thanks so much, Beth for the award!

Seven things about myself:

1. Since moving from California to the UK, I have learned that I crave the sunshine. I can't spend much time in it because I am fair-skinned, but a sunny day lifts my mood.

2. I feel as close to my online friends as I do to the friends I see in person every day.

3. I have 15 nephews and nieces (including some grand-nephews), counting my side of the family and my husband's.

4. I miss the family get-togethers I used to have when I lived in the US. I am sometimes saddened that my children are not growing up around their cousins, aunts and uncles the way that I did.

5. Diet Mug Root Beer is my favorite drink, but it is not easy to get over here and the places that do sell it charge a lot for it.

6. I would love to learn to belly dance, but I think my belly would jiggle way more than would be attractive.

7. Although I am friendly and outwardly appear outgoing, inside I often feel insecure and shy.

Just as Beth did, I’ve combined the rules of the two awards, so here are the rules for recipients:

• Thank the person/people who nominated you and link back to them in your post
• Share 7 things about yourself
• Nominate six to ten blogs you admire
• Contact your chosen bloggers to let them know
  

And the lovely badges are the ones above.




Here are the seven people with blogs that I am awarding these two awards to:

Jo Michaels


Melissa Khalinsky

Tonya Cannariato

Kriss Morton

Erica Lucke Dean


Justin Bogdanovitch

Sandi Tuttle

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I Was Awarded the Liebster Blog Award!

I have won the Liebster Blog award from a new friend from the 12 x 12 in 2012 group, Anna at Green Tea & Toast.

As part of the award, I have to share five things about myself, then pass the torches on to five other worthy bloggers. So here goes:


1. I have lost more weight than I weigh and will never, ever gain it back. I'm actually a bit OCD about my eating and exercise habits now.

2. I am incredibly insecure, not just sometimes but ALL THE TIME. But I try and ignore it and get on with putting myself "out there" regardless.

3. My favorite color is blue, but my favorite color to wear is green (due to it looking better with my red hair and freckles.)

4. I feel closer to some of my Facebook friends whom I have never met in person than I do with most of the friends I see every day.

5. Robert and I met on-line nearly thirteen years ago. We recently celebrated our 10th anniversary.


The Liebster Award is designed to help drive traffic to blogs with fewer than 200 followers. It's a tough decision with so many fabulous ones out there, but without further ado I’m awarding them to…

1. Donna Martin's blog On The Write Track

2. Barbara Mack's blog Barb's Bookshelf

3. Kayecee Spain's blog Life Over Here

4. Kriss Morton-Weekley's blog The Cabin Goddess

5. Marie Patchen's blog Mynx Writes


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