Versatile Blogger

So this post somehow disappeared after I posted it (probably user error), so here is my attempt at recreating the original.

I am excited to announce that Our Busy Bee has won a Versatile Blogger award! It was presented to me by my friend from high school, Virginia (though I will always know her as Ginnie) on her blog, Getting Funky with the Strunk-ys. Getting an award is always exciting because it means a few people might actually be reading about our crazy lives.

How it works is that I tell 10 things about myself that people may not know. Then I pass the award onto 7 other bloggers whom I want to participate.

Here are my 10 things:

1) I cannot sit still or relax. Brian ALWAYS yells at me for this. In my eyes, there is always something that needs to be done. I think this is probably why I bake a lot...I do it when I'm bored! I can't just sit and watch a movie without needing to multitask somehow. I wish I could learn the art of doing nothing, but maybe I'm doomed to never knowing how to do it. At the same time, though, I always complain when I am too busy and don't feel like I have any time to relax...it's a catch-22.

2) I was a pretty good volleyball player in high school. I was all-state & all-conference twice. I was approached to play for Sweet Briar College, but opted to go to a better school (UVA, of course) over playing D3 volleyball. I did coach my high school's JV team when I was a student at UVA, though. That was a true test of patience!

3) I have some pretty hippie/crunchy beliefs that only surfaced when I was pregnant with Audrey and started doing research into birthing & raising her. The big one is that I one-hundred percent believe in natural birth and believe that it is the best way of delivery for both mother AND baby. I'm also big into baby-wearing and I breastfed Audrey for a little over a year. This was not an easy feat since after month 5, she refused to latch and I had to exclusively pump for the rest of the year. That was miserable, but worth it in the end. I feel like the only crunchy thing we didn't do was cloth diapering...I am up for trying it next time, but I know I'll be met with some resistance from Brian.

4) I want 4 kids. Sometimes I wonder if I want 4 kids because I actually want that many kids or if it's because I LOVED pregnancy and labor & delivery (yes, I was one of those people). However, I wanted 3-4 kids before even having Audrey, so I think it's the loving kids part...delivering 3 more babies is just a perk!

5) I have lived in 4 places total: Buffalo, NY; Charlottesville, VA; Great Falls, MT; Northern Virginia/Washington, DC. Montana was my least favorite of these places because it was very easy to fall into the trap of feeling isolated out there. Compared to the East Coast, there is NOTHING there. Airports are few & far between, so flying out of there is expensive and impractical. There are at least 3 hours between each city...really, it's so easy to feel trapped there. Plus, it's COLD (obviously). We made some great friends there, though, and I miss them dearly.

6) I broke my nose in a very intense game of 3rd grade dodgeball on the first day of gym class. As soon as I collided with my classmate's forehead, the fire drill bell rang. It was a perfect storm of chaos! I still have a bump on my nose and I totally hate it.

7) I love UVA football (even though my love is not being rewarded at the moment). When I was a student at UVA, I never missed any UVA football home games. I loved the atmosphere of the games and never understood how people could skip them when they got in for FREE! This is when UVA had a decent team, too. Some of my friends & I also took a one-day roadtrip up to Philly just to see UVA play Temple. So much fun! I'm hoping that we can get back to having a decent team this season...especially since we have the #19 recruiting class in the country this year! My friend Emily and I even volunteered with Cavalier Connection which was a student volunteer group that aided the football office in recruiting.

8) Sometimes I get road rage. I don't know why it's so hard for people to follow the rules of the road and it REALLY frustrates me. Blinkers are key, headlights at twilight and dawn are key, going the speed limit is always a good idea, using the left lane as a passing lane is a great technique, etc. WHY IS IT SO HARD, PEOPLE!? I hate driving simply because of the above.

9) As I sort of alluded to in number 1, I love to bake. I do it all the time; you've probably seen some pictures on Twitter or FB. It's a good thing I also love the treadmill because I might be 300 lbs otherwise.

10) I LOVE LOVE LOVE musicals and sometimes, when I'm home alone, I'll put on a soundtrack and pretend like I am the star. I can't believe I just admitted it, but it's true. I still think it would be fun to miraculously develop a talent in musical theater and be able to be on Broadway!

And without further ado, here are the blogs I have chosen to receive the award:

1) Lauren at Steady as We Go. Lauren is a good friend from college whose husband and I actually knew each other in high school. They are a fantastic couple and I'm so glad we have all stayed such good friends after college. They recently added a beautiful daughter, Celia, to their family; she has TONS of hair and is always sporting a very fashionable bow. I'm sort of jealous. Reading Lauren's blog always reminds me to keep things in perspective.

2) Lindsey at Moylan Mayhem. Lindsey and I "met" on a mommy board when we were pregnant. We found out that we were due around the same time AND both lived in Great Falls, and we have been friends since. We even attended the same Labor & Delivery class at the hospital, and her adorable daughter, Willa, was born only a few days after Audrey. It's so nice to have a resource when I have questions..."Lindsey, Audrey is doing this. Is Willa doing this, too? Is it normal!?"

3) Kathy at Kids, Cooking, Crazyness. Kathy is my cousin-in-law, but has become more like a sister to me. She has two adorable kids, Hannah & Lucas. Hannah was our flower girl and is currently a Fisher Price model as she is the girl on two of their toy boxes!

4) Farah at The Life and Times of LGR. Farah and I met through a mutual friend, Cindy, in college and hung out a few times then. We were then reunited because we were both bridesmaids at Cindy's wedding. She currently lives in northern VA as well, and is expecting her first baby (a boy!) this spring. It's been so fun to catch up with her now that we're in the same area and we are already planning playdates!

5) Mary at Minding the Music. Mary is my future sister-in-law and she has just resurrected her blog. This is exciting news for me because it means I have one more thing to read while I'm bored at work! Reading her random thoughts and ideas is always entertaining.

6) Liz at Step by Step, Ooh Baby! Liz and I are friends from Great Falls. She, her husband & Brian all did missiles together. She is a fitness guru/avid runner and is currently teaching fitness and personal wellness courses at a community college in Omaha. She recently had an ADORABLE baby boy, Emmett, and I have loved keeping up with her pregnancy and post-baby fitness regime via her blog.

7) Kelly at Meet The Marlows. Kelly and I have never officially met, but she is the wife of one of my college friends. We have kept up with each other through blogs and Facebook and she is such a sweetheart. She and Matt recently moved from Charlottesville to Saint Louis and that made me VERY unhappy because it happened right around the time we moved back to the area. No fair! They recently purchased their first house and it is BEAUTIFUL.