The vacation? It continues...

Apparently my brain still believes it is on a bloggy vacation, because all on its own, it is insisting on reading books and watching the Olympics instead of coming up with something - anything! - to blog about. Well, actually,that's not entirely true... I have at least 4 different post ideas swirling inside my head, but it's really hard to bring my thoughts together cohesively when the fate of the US gymnastics team depends solely upon me being glued to the TV. And since I'm not one to let my country down, I shall remain glued.

So, given all of this, it seems like a perfect time to do a meme.

Tracey at Grace Comes by Hearing tagged me awhile back for this one, and so here goes...6 random things about moi.

1. I wash almost all of my dishes by hand. And not because I don't have a dishwasher, because I do. I just enjoy it; something about it is therapeutic for me. In fact, my dishwasher actually stopped working because of lack of use, and after my dad and Ricardo got it running again, Dad told me that I had to use it once a week so that it didn't happen again. So every Monday I run it, but only because I am more or less forced to.

2. I was 15 when our neighbor hired my brother and me to feed and groom the 8 horses that she owned. This was basically a dream job for me, because I was going through that stage where I thought owning a horse would be the most amazing thing in the world. I loved it; we would go out twice a day and give them hay and oats, and then brush them down until they were sleek and shiny. It was boatloads of fun. That is, until winter hit. We had an excruciatingly cold winter that year, and it got down to about 15 below zero. The water pump out in the horse barn froze, and so my brother and I had to fill up 5 gallon buckets at the house, and then carry them by hand across 3 acres to the barn. Try doing that for 8 extremely thirsty horses every single day; suddenly the job isn't so dreamy anymore. What should have taken 20 minutes took over an hour, and then we would trudge back to our house, frozen to the bone and with no feeling left in our hands and feet.

3. When it comes to Savannah, I have sort of an irrational fear. Two actually; one is that she will choke on something; when she takes too big of a bite and starts to gag, my heart stops. I think it is because I feel so helpless; I can pound on her back, but really, I don't know what I'm doing, and it makes me so nervous. I can't even describe how awful it is. The second one is a little stranger; I am afraid something will fall on her. Like a ceiling fan, or the shelf on the wall, or something else equally silly and unlikely. When she was small, she was on the bed, and I was sitting beside her, singing a song complete with wild gestures. My hand shot up and connected with the shelf behind me, on which sat a heavy porcelain picture frame. I watched in slow motion as the frame hurtled down towards Savannah's head; it missed her by mere inches. I still get chills thinking about it. And yes, I know; this fear is completely unfounded, and I just need to trust that God will protect my baby from any random falling objects. I'm working on it.

4. When Ricardo first called to ask me out (I use that term loosely here - you will see why in a moment), it was to invite me to go white-water rafting. I was excited that he had thought to include me, and had visions of romance dancing in my head until he said, "Well, we had all of the places filled until today, 2 people dropped out and so I'm trying to find some replacements." Well, then. When you put it like that, what girl wouldn't jump at such an opportunity? But I decided to go anyway, mentally writing him off in my head as any sort of a prospect. He ended up hovering close by the entire trip, making sure he was in my raft, sitting by me at lunch, and then talking non-stop for the 2-hour ride home. 8 years later, I'd say that was one great white-water rafting trip.

5. I abhor cockroaches with every fiber of my being. Just typing that word gives me the heebie-jeebies. I have been known to grab a bowl and set it upside-down over a cockroach so that it can't escape while waiting for my hubby to come home and rescue us. I'm sure his love for me knows no bounds at that moment when he walks in the door and sees what is sitting there.

6. We chose to wait to find out whether we were having a boy or girl when I was pregnant with Savannah. It killed me when I was going in for my ultrasound, because a part of me wanted to find out so badly. In the end, she didn't cooperate anyway, so even the ultrasound tech didn't know what we were having, and that gave me a little satisfaction...if we weren't going to know, then nobody was going to know. However, we were 100% convinced that we were having a boy. I don't know what we were basing that on, but we believed it with absolute certainty. Imagine our surprise when at the birth the midwife said to Ricardo, "Take a look, see what you've got!" And he, already choked up with the emotion and beauty of the moment, did a double take and then announced, "It's a... girl!" And I was all, "Serious? Really??" And we could not have been more thrilled. Of course now, I can't picture having anyone else but her. Perfection.

And now...I am tagging Wendi at Everyday Miracles, Kaley at Cheap Therapy, and Sarah at Tales from Oakbriar Farm.

A few weeks back Wendi passed along this lovely little award to me:


Thank you, Wendi! She is such an amazing writer, weaving her words into stories with so much beauty. She is also my soul sista...pretty much every time she writes something, I feel she is peeking into my life and writing about me.

I would like to pass this on to Lizz at Yes, And so is my Heart. She has such a sweet blog, and also 3 of the most adorable children you could ever hope to see.

Chel at Leaving a Legacy awarded these two little beauties to me last week...thank you, Chel! You need to go and visit this girl...she is a fairly new blogger who is witty and insightful, and I'm so glad that I ran across her blog recently.





I am Sharing the Love with Alana from A Kiss, A Hug and a Squeeze...you cannot visit her and leave without a smile on your face.

And for the Friendship Award, I am giving that to my real life best friend, Tara. I don't know what I would do without her!

Whew! I feel like I just gave some sort of speech at the Academy Awards. Except this is much easier because, the public speaking? It terrifies me. There, that's one last random fact about me, thrown in as a bonus.