A lovely award!

I am very flattered that I have received an 'I love this blog award' - thank you very much to The C's for the nomination

Here's the award -

Here's the guidelines--

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award. (thanks again to the lovely C's)

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers.

4. Make sure you contact these bloggers to let them know about the award.

So, 7 Random Things About Me:

1. I like a list for everything I do. Not much of a shocker to anyone who has read a few of my blog posts as a bulleted list is a regular occurrence on my posts.
2. I have a great memory for song lyrics but song names and artists (as well as book names and authors) escape me - this is an enormous annoyance to JourneyMan
3. I like to be covered both in bed and sitting on the couch - this is pretty uncomfortable in summer when I must have a sheet over me in bed and even when sitting on the couch, I will hold a cushion or something and have the airconditioner on.
4. One of the things that I am most proud of is my mental toughness. Once I set my mind to something, I keep going and going until I achieve it. This helped when I ran the half marathon as well as when I did the 100km walk in 48 hours for Oxfam.
5. I luuuurrve amusement parks - especially ones with waterslides!! JourneyMan doesn't know it yet but I have found a water park that we can go to in Thailand when we go over there later in the year - whoo hoo, I loves me a water slide!!
6. I really want to run a marathon one day. Melbourne hosted the Commonwealth Games a few years back and JourneyMan and most of my family were at the finish of the marathon that was won by an Australian woman Kerryn McCann - the noise as she entered the stadium in front of 100,000 was absolutely amazing. She was a mother of two kids when she won that marathon. She subsequently died of breast cancer but I after seeing her amazing feat, I always thought I would like to run a marathon once I was done having kids.
7. I hate showers and have baths instead. Melbourne has had water restrictions for years without count so I try to have it as shallow as possible so as not to waste water. This is also prime reading time for me. JBB's nighttime routine includes a bath with his mum, and then his dad will dress him for bed and read him a story whilst I have a little read in the bath, then I get out and wrap him and put him into bed.

Here are the blogs that I nominate for this award:

These are my recent discoveries:

1. Mrs Gamgee at Hobbitish thoughts and Ramblings
2. Silver at Hope for the Best
3. Cherbear at In a Nutshell
4. Dora at My Preconceived Notion
5. EBC at our new plan A
6. Roccie at Roccie Road
7. Mrs La La at Empty Uterus Syndrome
8. Elphaba at Runny Yolk

These are some old friends that I would like to nominate, cos I loves ya's all!!

9. Lifeslurper
10. Chelle at Once an Infertile
11. Wifey at Journey Through Infertility and TTC
12. Circus Princess at Circus Children
13. Jill at All Aboard the Pity Boat
14. AL at Mission: Motherhood
15. Miss Tori at The Winding Road to Parenthood

There are so many others - I hope that you don't feel left out!!

A Flattering Gift....

Thank you to Chelle and TIO for nominating me for:

I am VERY flattered! If you don't know them - Chelle is Mum to the gorgeous Baby Bean - if you get a chance, check out her post remembering BB's birth - it is very special. TIO - or The Impatient Optimist is a fellow Melbournian and is in the 2WW at the moment - pop in and keep her company!

The rules of this award are:

* Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
* Copy the award and place it in your blog.
* Link the person who nominated you for this award.
* Tell us 7 interesting things about you.
* Nominate 7 bloggers.
* Post the links to the 7 bloggers you nominate.

7 (vaguely) Interesting things about me:

1. My most crippling fear is of a window without curtains at night – I absolutely hate it!! I think it stems from watching too many horror movies because my fear is that I will see a face at the window. JourneyMan thinks this is hilarious though gets frustrated at my hysterical demands to close the curtains – even if only a crack is open. Last year when we went to stay in the country for a long weekend – I remember nearly having a heart attack when I went to the toilet and the curtains weren’t closed on the window – too scary!

2. I was a good swimmer when I was a youngster. When I was in grade 3 I competed against the grade 6 kids at my school and won. I love the water and feel that it is really healing to me. So much so that despite the fact that I am not supposed to be having baths, I have been having them (though they are quite cool) because it just makes me feel a lot better.

3. I have seen four of the seven natural wonders of the world, including the Great Barrier Reef, the Grand Canyon, Mount Everest and Victoria Falls. I nearly died after climbing up to Everest Base camp as I had altitude sickness and our guides were pushing us to go further and further – it was only because my bestie put her foot down and made them take us back that I am here today. To make this trip worse, two weeks after I got back I was hospitalised for a blood clot in my lung, which had collapsed, I could barely breathe.

4. I luuuuurrrve books with a passion. I can read them over and over again. At the moment I am re-reading The Lord of the Rings – it is different every time and I get something new out of it at each new reading. I have so many well worn favourites, they are like old friends that I go and see and enjoy their company. Instead of a painted feature wall in our loungeroom we have a wall of uniformed shelves of books that JourneyMan put up for me – it makes me happy just to look at it.

5. I am a lifeguard and a swimming teacher. I worked as a lifeguard at an indoor water slide at a hotel in Banff, Canada. I taught swimming lessons to children when I was working at an indoor pool at a cross country ski resort in Colorado. I’ve worked behind a bar in London and as a cleaner at a hotel. I have worked as a receptionist at a youth hostel in Las Vegas.

6. I have realised that when I am really scared that I freeze and cannot move a muscle. I found this out on a trip to Africa when I was in a tent camping by a river and a hippo came and pushed up against my tent in the middle of the night. Hippo’s can’t see very well but when it felt the tent it trundled off. I can tell you, lying on your back looking up at the bulk of a hippo – it looked 10 stories high!

7. I am a noisy sleeper, I talk in my sleep, laugh in my sleep, walk in my sleep (though I haven’t done that for awhile) and I grind my teeth. On a trip from the north of Australia back home to our city in the south, my bestie and I had stopped off in a motel overnight. I had a dream that the room was on fire but was startled awake by screaming. I said to the bestie ‘did you hear that screaming?’ – she responded ‘yes, it was you, you dickhead, you nearly gave me a heart attack!’

Here are my 7 nominees:

Tireegal at Happy Go Lucky

Jill at All Aboard the Pity Boat

Circus Princess at Circus Children

Deaga99 at Are we There Yet

Lifeslurper

Wifey at Journey through Infertility and TTC

Miss Tori at The Winding Road to Parenthood