Sunday, July 7, 2013

Liebster Award Nomination!

I woke up this morning to such a wonderful surprise!  Amber from School is a Happy Place nominated me for the Liebster Award, an award for new blogs.  :)  THANK YOU so much, Amber, for this honor, for your wonderful blog, and for being my blogging buddy!  Amber said that liebster means "dearest," "lovely," "cute," "beloved," and "welcome." I wish there were an English word that wrapped all of those adjectives into one like that!  I'll just have to start throwing around that German word and sounding so annoying smart as I give compliments!
Thank you, again, Amber, for making my day! :)
Here are my "rules" for accepting the nomination:
To accept the nomination I must:
1. Link back to the blog that nominated me
2. Nominate 5-11 blogs with fewer than 200 followers
3. Answer the questions posted for you by your nominator
4. Share 11 random facts about yourself
5. Create 11 questions for your nominees
6. Contact your nominees and let them know you nominated them
 

Here are the blogs I would like to nominate for the Liebster Award.  I don't know if you can re-nominate a blog that someone else did- but I just have to with my friend Sandy at Kinder-Gardening.  I love her blog!  (But Sandy, you don't have to redo the questions or you will be blogging for weeks- cause you are so popular! :)   SO here we go:

 Kinder-Gardening

Teaching in the Tongass

Sara at School

Teaching With Sight

Adventures in Room 204

Always an Adventure in Kindergarten

Teacher at the Wheel

I'm Not Your Grandpa, I'm Your Teacher

Here are the answers to the questions Amber asked me:
1. Why did you start blogging?
I started blogging because I love sharing ideas with other teachers- and once I started it has become a sort of journal to help me remember my teaching moments and things I love.

2.  If you could learn to do anything, what would it be?
I didn't want to think too hard on these answers and ruin the spontaneity- so the first thing that came to my mind here was ice skating!  I think that ever since I watched the Olympics when I was in 8th grade, I always wished that I were a  beautiful ice skater. Now, I can't stand being cold, and I am not very coordinated, so I don't think any upcoming Olympians need to worry much...

3.  What story does your family always tell about you?
One story I know my mother tells about me growing up is that I absolutely could NOT go to sleep without my stuffed dog, Floppy.  I got him when I was one- and he was soft, new, covered in brown fur, with floppy black ears.  Well, after I sucked on his ears during naps, my mother had to take them off.  One day I thought he would look cute without a mouth (?), so that was gone with one rip.  Once we left him home as we started off on vacation and my dear, dear Dad went back to get him for me.  (Yes- we had gone quite a long way already...)  I told that dog everything!  Year after year, patch after patch (made with my old clothes that I remember so well- like my Bicentennial shirt from 1976, and my 5th grade graduation dress,  for example, here he is today ( on our bed! - although now it is mainly for "decoration"...  ha!) He is my very own Velveteen Rabbit!
One year old...

Today...  



4.  What is your favorite song?
I am cheating here and naming several.  First, I love "You are my Sunshine."  My kids and I would always sing that and it makes me happy.  Next, I love Happy Together by the Turtles because I think of my husband.  Third, I have always loved God is in Control by Twila Paris.  Last, I love any cover by Michael Henry and Justin Robinett. They are amazing- and I always seem to like their version better than the original.  Go ahead, click on it and  listen to them!!! :) 

5.  What is your favorite outdoor activity?
I love walking with my husband, children, or friends- and hiking. 

6.  You have a ten minute speech to give at a high school, what is it about?
I would probably talk about remembering that 'nice matters.'   Everyone wants to know he/she is special and feel that way, because we all are special- so BE NICE and show people you care.  I love the quote, "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.”  I see it all the time in school, when the children realize that I really love and care about them, they just try a little harder because they know it will make me happy. 
Hmmm- ten minutes... Be kind, be nice, pay it forward, do nice things for others, remember the golden rule...  :)   You will just never regret being kind to someone.  (That is a much more positive speech than, "Mean people suck."  ha ha!)

7.  Where do you like to vacation?Fort. Myers. Beach. Florida! 

We love, love, love it there!  My family started vacationing in Florida when I was in 3rd grade.  My husband and I were married on that beach 26 years ago Wednesday!  We have taken our children several times over the years and just love it every time.  It is one of those things I just wish we could have done more.

8.  What is one goal you have made for yourself this year?
Besides eating healthy and exercising... which is a constant, nagging, goal-  my goal is to have more family get-togethers this coming year, even though everybody is busy, busy, busy! 

9.  Do you have a pet?  If so, what type do you have?
We have a sweet cat named Peanut. He is twelve, and he is a great little cat!  We got him one day at a pet store actually when the kids and I were shopping, right before Vacation Bible School.  I don't think Jeff was actually WANTING a cat, so we put him in the laundry room with a nice little sign on the door introducing Peanut to Jeff-while we are at Bible School-  and they have been best buddies ever since.  Here is one of my favorite picture combos of Peanut.  He was all proud on his rock and then got cocky and rolled over in the sun and rolled off- and I actually captured the moment!



10.  Are you married?  Do you have children?
Yes- Jeff and I have been married 26 years this coming Wednesday!  We  met in 9th grade . :)  We have 3 children- Ellie will be 23  soon, Emily is 21, and Matt is 19.
( Jeff doesn't have the "No Shave November" look anymore... :)
11.  What do you "know now" that you wish you "knew then?"
Hmmm- I am still trying to know NOT to be such a people pleaser- but I guess what I do know is I wish that I had videotaped more of the small moments as my children grew up just so I could "re-live" a normal day with them being small.  I love the holidays and special things- but I really love those everyday moments.
 I also know now that "cheap" doesn't always cost less in the long run.  Sometimes cheap stuff that you buy is just... cheap.  :) 
11 Random Facts about Me:
1.  I am not really big- 5'4" and have size 9 feet.  That never seemed that odd, until my friend was describing someone the other day being REALLY big and she said, "She even has SIZE 9 feet!"  hmm.
2.  I hate, always kill, struggle with indoor house plants.
3. I played tennis in high school and loved it.
4. I hate have a pet peeve against dull pencils. My Kindergarteners will therefore grow up learning to love sharp pencils as much as I do. 
5. I homeschooled our children- Ellie all the way through high school, Emily until she went to school to swim in 9th grade, and Matt until he went to school for golf and swimming in 8th grade.  (Well, they actually did other things in school besides the sports!  :) 
 
6.  My husband and I love to put our groceries on the conveyer belt and look at the mess of stuff we buy and think , "What does that say about us?"  We like grocery shopping together.
7.  I clean when I am nervous or anxious about something- like before vacations or before something big.  I also like coming home to a clean house, so that works out ok!
 
8.  I started writing to TV stars for autographed pictures when I was young- maybe 3rd or 4th grade.  My first one was Brett Sommers from Match Game! That is so funny to me now- but she was so sweet and wrote me this wonderful letter- and I think that inspired me to keep going.   I had all of the cast from Mary Tyler Moore, Rhoda, Bob Newhart, Mash, One Day at a Time, all of the shows from that era...  some stars actually wrote to me back and forth for a while- like Melody Thomas Scott from Young and the Restless.  I had about 80 pictures althogether!
9. I also collected all sorts of Charlie's Angel's things-  I always loved Jaclyn Smith the most.  I always wanted to play her when my friends and I played. I always got stuck playing Kate Jackson. HA!  My daughter and I got to meet Jaclyn Smith a few years ago and she signed one of her books for me- so that made up for it.
10.  I love making breakfast foods and having get-togethers for breakfast more than dinners.
11.  I love grammar.  I loved 8th grade English when we learned all sorts of grammar.  We had to be able to recite all of the helping verbs in 4 seconds.  I did it in 2.   Yeah.... I did! I remember my teacher always saying that "nice" was a trite and overused word. She seemed to HATE that word!  But it stuck in my head.  (So... my message to high schoolers is to, "Be nice." oops.  Sorry, Miss Vianese!)   
Here are my questions for my nominees!
1.  How do you spend your free time?
2.  What is your favorite candy?
3.  What is a favorite childhood memory?
4.  If you had to live in a decade other than the current one, which would you choose?
5. Chinese, Mexican, or Italian for dinner?
6.  Your life is going to become a script for a movie. Who would you want to play you?
7.  Not counting family, what do you think your greatest accomplishment is so far in life?
8.  What is your favorite TV show?
9.  What was your favorite childhood toy?
10. You can have a half-hour conversation with anyone no longer living. Who do you choose? Why?

11. You can have a half-hour conversation with any fictional character. Who do you choose? Why?

Thank you again, Amber, for the nomination and for the fun answering these questions! 
I can't wait to see the answers my nominees write in their blogs!  :)

Carolyn




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