The Liebster Award...Part 1

Sooo a few weeks ago a dear old friend of mine nominated me (and by "me" I mean my blog of course) for an award!! How awesome is that?! According to her, its to help promote blogs that have less than 200 followers. It also gives people a chance to know me a little better. There are some rules but I'm in!!

The rules, should you be nominated:

1. If you were nominated, post 11 things about yourselves.

2. Then answer the 11 questions the person who nominated you created.

3. Create 11 more questions to ask the bloggers you decided to nominate.

4. Choose 11 bloggers to nominate with less than 200 followers.

5. Make sure and let these people know you nominated them! No tag backs, so don't nominate someone who nominated you.

 

 

Sheesh. Finding 11 things, much less 11 INTERESTING things to post about my self is hard!!! But I'll see what I can do...I'm also going to have to split this up into multiple posts since its A LOT of info! Here goes nothing:

 

1. I'm married to the love of my life. He's been my dream come true (hence the title of my blog), my knight in shining armor, the peas to my carrots, the whiskey to my wine. We met on MySpace 3 years ago & its been a whirlwind ever since! Despite all the tattoos & tough guy exterior...He's a big ol sap (just see my Facebook page lately!) He's an incredible man, amazing husband & the most fun, playful, dedicated father.
 

The night we finally met in person. After he had chickened out & stood me up!

 

2. Having kids was always a dream of mine...And my boys are little miracles! I was told from the time I was about 19 that I would probably never have kids. I was diagnosed with & eventually had surgery for endometriosis, was put in medical menopause (hence why I struggle so much with my weight now), was diagnosed with PCOS (poly cystic ovarian syndrome) & was put on fertility drugs to counteract the menopause in hopes that I could some day have kids. All that just to eventually be told that I would have to have IVF (invitro fertilization) if I ever wanted kids.

3. Nolin is my little monster. That kid has more energy & more attitude in his pint-size little body than anyone could possibly imagine!! He's incredibly smart but more often than not, he's too smart for his own good lol!! He's always been very advanced physically which caused some frustration on his part as far as communication went. As time progressed we began to deal with some pretty awful behaviors. Since this summer we have discovered that he is completely intolerant of synthetic food dyes. We also have to limit his juice (he really only gets green smoothies anyway) & keep him away from chocolate. We're still learning his behavior triggers & food intolerances but overall, he's a completely different kid today than he was 4-5 months ago. As far as we're concerned...He's the cutest, smartest, funniest 2 year old around :)

This is his "Don't tell me what to do" face lol!

4. Mason is our little butterball. Or Sir Chubs A Lot as he often goes by!! While he hasn't hit all of his milestones as quickly as his brother, he's sharp as a tack!! He prefers to observe everything. He's our little people watcher. He's also one of the happiest babies I've ever been around...He just WAITS for you to glance at him so he can give you a big ol grin! Right now we are slowly easing him into BLW (baby led weaning) which has been AMAZING!! Check this site out for more info on BLW: http://www.babyledweaning.com/

Seriously. How could you NOT smile at that?!

5. I have 2 miniature schnauzers. They may be cute but they annoy the hell out of me! I think its funny how your relationship with your pets changes once you have kids...While Charlie's barking may annoy me, I can at least appreciate that its only because he's over-protective. I have no excuses for Wilson. He's just a hateful little dog :(

Obviously this was BEFORE kids lol!

6. I'm an Occupational Therapy Assistant (or OTA for short). My passion is for working with the elderly, particularly those with dementia-related diseases. My great-grandmother had Alzheimer's & I remember very clearly all that she battled as her mind wasted away leaving behind a perfectly capable physical body. Currently I have a grandmother battling dementia as we speak...I specialize in a form of cognitive testing that focuses on the person's remaining abilities. I then educate the family and/or staff members on the abilities, best approaches, what to watch for, etc. I love the education portion of my job...Its interesting to see what triggers the "aha moment" for people!

Visit your local Alzheimer's Association website for more info.

7. No matter what, I'll always be a good girl at heart. I grew up in the Baptist Church, attended church 2-3x/week from the time I was a toddler until a few years ago, I've never done drugs, my encounters with alcohol were few & far between until I was like 27, I was a virgin when I got married...You get the picture. I've made MANY (some colossal) mistakes in my lifetime but my heart was always in the right place. Adam & I have spent a lot of time researching area churches & visited several but so far have been unable to find a place to call home. He comes from a Lutheran background & is use to a pretty formal service. I'm pretty big on doctrine, children's programming & music. We still have a few more churches we're interested in visiting so hopefully we'll hit the jackpot...Its strange for me to not be part of a church family for so long :(

8. I was married once before. And divorced. It was a pretty awful relationship. We'll just leave it at that.

9. My siblings mean the world to me. They are my bestest best friends. We've all had our ups & downs but at the end of the day we've got each other's backs NO MATTER WHAT. I can only hope & pray that my children have the bond that I have with my brother & sister. And bonus? We're all ridiculously good looking (BTW, humility will NOT be on my list of 11 things about myself haha!)



10. I'm addicted to Pinterest!! Seriously, I like to make fun projects with the kids, my own holiday cards & gifts, decoration for the house, amazing recipes...You name it. I troll it at all hours of the night pinning fabulous stuff, most of which I'll probably never get around to doing lol!!

11. I'm notoriously goofy. I love to have fun...Especially at my own expense! I can rarely keep a straight face & am incredibly blessed with family & friends who understand my sense of humor. And I'm not a fan of smiling pics...Those are B.O.R.I.N.G.

This is pre-baby. As in the month before I got pregnant with Nolin...Clearly since I still have cheekbones...And only 1 chin haha!

Is that it?! Am I done?! Of course I wracked my brain the whole time to make it to 11 & now that I'm there I feel like there's alot more I could've covered lol. Oh well, I think those are the most prevalent. Sorry to those of you that know me so well that this was boring old news...To the rest of you, I hope it wasn't information overload!!