Wooot! My First Award!

I was having a horrible day (insurance woes - if your house ever catches on fire, just let it burn to the ground, trust me a total loss would be way easier to deal with than the colossal headache I'm dealing with between the contractor, mortgage company and the insurance adjustor!) and then I saw that Mrs. Bee had given me the Versatile Blogger award!

I really, really needed this pick me up and I am so grateful that someone actually reads what I'm writing! Mrs. Bee's Kinder Garden is an awesome blog too, I love reading it because it feels like I'm listening to a friend talk aboiut her day. Receiving this award means following these rules:

1.  Thank the person/people that nominated you and provide a link back to their blog. 

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3.  Pass this award along to 15 other blogs that you have discovered

Oh boy, 7 things about me?  

1. I've been married for 13 years now - I met my husband during training in the Army. We knew each other for 3 weeks when he proposed and we got married the next weekend! Yep, we knew each other less than 30 days before we got married! He is my best friend and I am so glad I took that chance!

2. My closest family lives in Canada! We don't get to see them nearly as often as I'd like either :( However, I did get a chance to reunite with my oldest brother and his family when we unknowingly both went to Florida at the same time! My husband and I took the kids to DisneyWorld in March and I just happened to see that my brother had posted a pic on Facebook of his family in front of their favorite restaurant in Florida. I think they heard my scream of delight all the way in Antarctica! They were staying on Anna Marie Island so we drove down and spent a day with them - it was the most fun ever! I have terrific pictures from that day, here are a few of my faves:

 My brother, his wife and two kids, plus me and my four!

 Love this pic of my daughter!

 Nothing beats an ocean sunset!

 His cousin taught him to boogie board (sort of!)

Right before I took this pic he yelled "I'm swimming out to sea!" lol

3. During the school year I am a caffiene fiend, which is crazy since I'm normally wired enough without it! Two cups of coffee in the morning and a soda in the afternoon and I have a great day lol!

4. I am a total Gleek. I have every cd they've come out with and I play them in the car every day (and sing along!). Last night I missed the season premiere and I seriously called Direct Tv to see if I could upgrade my programming to get the Los Angeles channel that was showing it later in the evening (no such luck!)

5. I am a recovering World of Warcraft junkie. I have spent many, many hours playing online, and I still miss it, but between school, blogging, housework and kids I just can't play during the school year :(

6.  I love reading. Seriously. To the tune of about 5 books a week. Not that I'm reading anything highbrow or character building, give me a steamy romance or a fantasy adventure and I get so engrossed that I can tune out anything (quite a feat when there are 4 kids and a husband trying to get your attention!) Of course a lot of that is at night when everyone else is asleep. I have horrible insomnia, every time I lay down my mind starts racing with all sorts of stressful thoughts and I can't sleep, so I read instead.

7. I am currently doing a low carb diet, trying to lose 15 more lbs. I started in the spring and have lost 30lbs so far! My husband went to Korea for a year (Army) and while he was gone we ate way too much fast food (first year teaching, first year as a single mom, 'nough said). When he came back he was jonesing for all of his favorite restaurants so we kept eating out. That lifestyle piled on the lbs of course, but it didn't hit me until it got to the point that I realized I was the same weight as when I was 9 months pregnant with my youngest! So I started low carbing and its working for me, but it still makes me cringe to post pictures of myself (like the Pirate pic from Monday!) 

Alright, enough about me, here are the 15 blogs I'm passing this award to: (I tried to pick ones that haven't won the award yet because there's nothing better than finding a fantastic new blog right?!) 

Heather's Heart - I love her freebies and she has some super creative ideas!
The First Grade Parade - again great freebies and fun ideas!

Thanks again Mrs. Bee!