Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Awards and the ABC's of Me!

If you don't know me well enough already, you are about to. :0)

Andrea over at "Arise to Write" has passed this along to me and I thought I would do it since it's quick and easy. Thanks, Andrea.

~~ABC'S of ME SURVEY~~

A - Age:43
B - Bed size: Queen
C - Chore you hate: Emptying the dishwasher
D - Dog's name: Fletch
E - Essential start your day item: Kiss goodbye from my hubby, quiet time, then coffee
F - Favorite color: limy green
G - Gold or Silver: Mostly silver
H - Height: 5'6"
I - I am: a Jesus Follower
J - Job: Homeschool mom and so much more
K - Kids: 5 ~ Austin, Braaten, Melanie, Grant, and Cooper
L - Living arrangements: Rented home in England
M - Mom's name: Carol
N - Nicknames: Honey, Babe, Ca
O - Overnight hospital stay other than birth: Tonsillectomy when I was 21
P - Pet Peeve: Loud chewing and noisy crinkling of candy wrappers
Q - Quote from a movie:? I'm not good at quoting movies
R - Right or left handed: Right
S - Siblings: 4 sisters and 2 brothers
T - Time you wake up: Between 6:30 and 7
U- Underwear: What else is there?
V - Vegetable you dislike: I love just about all of them, but brussels sprouts, not so
much!
W - Ways you run late: Trying to get too much done, but I am usually on time.
X - X-rays you've had: Both dental and spinal
Y - Yummy food you make: Italian
Z - Zoo favorite: Monkeys

I'd like to pass this on to anyone that hasn't done it and would like to. :-)

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I have received these three awards from the lovely Kat over at Art's Chili over a period of time. You see, I love being thought of and receiving awards, I just don't get around to posting them. So today, after Kat awarded me the middle award, she joked about how I would not get to accepting it any time soon. (hehehe) But with that little challenge, it was time that I got off my duff and put them up for all to see. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you, Kat.












The rules for "Share Your Flair" are to tell you 3 things about myself that you don't already know:

1.) I was a cheerleader from the time I was 12 until I graduated high school. It was so much fun to be a part of it. We were involved in cheerleading competitions and I was captain of the team at one point. I cheered for both the Mighty Mites and the Redwings.

2.) I grew up with 4 sisters, 2 brothers, and my mom and dad, in a 4 bedroom, 1 and a half bath apartment in New Jersey. My parents always had an open door policy for family and friends that might need a place to stay. They didn't have much money, but they had a whole lot of love.

3.) I became a Christian when I was 26 and am so thankful that God didn't give up on me.












For the "Gorgeous Blogger Award", the rules are to tell 6 things about myself, if I haven't told you everything already!, and award it to 6 other bloggers (If you follow my blog, it's for you if you'll have it). Here goes...

1.) I have my mother's name, but no middle name. My mom was superstitious and thought that if I was named exactly like her (Carol Ann), her mother would die. She believed this because when she was born and was named after her great grandmother, her grandmother died. I think I have that story straight. So anyway, though I love being named after my mom, I never liked not having a middle name.

2.) My daughter, Braaten, has my mother's maiden name. From the time I was 13, I knew that "one day" I would name a baby girl Braaten. It's a Norwegian name and my maternal grandfather was from Oslo, Norway.

3.) Living in England geographically puts me a lot closer to Norway which I would love to visit. With our limited time here, I don't know if that will happen.

4.) I am not a good swimmer. I never really learned how, but if I am in a swimming pool, I can swim from one side to the other in the deep end because I know there is a wall I can get to.

5.) Both my parents died during the summer of 2004 exactly one month apart. My dad died of a massive heart attack and my mom died of a long standing medical condition. I miss them both so very much.

6.) When I was 10 years old in 1976, during the Bicentennial celebrations, I was in a "standing broad jump" competition and took first place. I had never done anything like that before, and was so happy to come home a winner. Both my parents and some of my siblings were there with me. It was a great feeling. Shortly after that, I brought my trophy into school for show and tell.










This was given to me after a post I wrote about our dog, Fletch, that inspired Kat to give it to me. I wish I had thought to put a picture of Fletch on here. With Blogger, it's tough to put pictures exactly where you want them.

I hope you enjoyed getting to know me a little better, but more importantly, I'm thankful to Kat for blessing me with these awards and for holding me accountable to actually mention them. LOL


6 comments:

He & Me + 3 said...

Congrats on your awards and that was fun getting to know you better. I actually don't mind emptying the dishwasher...but dusting is awful.

robin said...

I've been reading your blog for a few weeks now. I right away noticed your daughter's name is Braaten, which reminded me of my hometown - Brooten, Minnesota. Brooten was named for someone with the last name of Braaten, but on the document (?? so the story goes) the handwritten a's were misread as o's and Brooten was born. There are a LOT of Norwegians in that area of Minnesota! Uff da!

McCrakensx4 said...

Congrats on all your blong!!! loved learning all about the little things! I am not a fan of emptying the dishwasher either!

Kat said...

So funny. I came here several times after your email expecting to see this and your previous post was up. And now here it is, as if it has always been here.

Anyway, as I said, and what you know, is that I was giving you a hard time... because I can't help myself, Carol!

There are so many things that pop out at me from this post.

Emptying the dishwasher is one of those jobs I will pawn off if I can, too. I don't mind loading it and I like hand washing the dishes but putting it away always seems to be a bother.

I was named after my mother, too. Who was named after her mother and her mother...

Hey! And what do you know? My nicknames include honey and babe.

Chewing with your mouth open and chewing with that obnoxious smacking wears on my nerves pretty quickly... and it is disgusting!

You know, the more of these I read, the more I realize that I didn't realize how much controversy underwear could cause!

Now you have me curious about where in NJ you grew up. The majority of my relatives settled in NJ when they immigrated. Most of them are still there. We ended up here because my dad was in the military. My family on my mother's side were in around the Amboys and my father's were/are in Bound Brook and surrounding areas. My mother graduated from Seton Hall. My brother lived in Colt's Neck when he was stationed at Earle in the early 90's. I lived in Parlin for 6 months in the very early 90's. My family had the same idea. There was always an open door policy and my grandmothers' homes were always filled with visitors and house guests, friends, family and strangers alike.

I had no middle name when I was born. My family were Catholic and especially some of the Italian relatives had long strings of names. My mother decided that she was not going to give us middle names when we were Baptized and instead when we took our confirmation we would choose our own middle name. This created quite a mess with legal documents, though. And quite often no one knows quite what to put.

I always wondered about the name Braaten. It is such a beautiful and unusual name. I like to study names and although I've read many books with lists of names and their origins, I had never seen this one. I think it is particularly neat, what "ME" had to say in her comment. How neat is that?

How long are you all in England? Perhaps you have said somewhere how you got there and why and all and you could point me to that post? Or you could just say it all again (wink) you are a mom and shouldn't mind repeating yourself.

I am not a very good swimmer, either. Which I think is the reason I am so terrified of water... and flying in an airplane over water. (Big gulp here)

I am sorry for the loss of your parents, and so close together, too. Even though I know it will happen some day, and sooner rather than later, I can't fathom life without them.

How fun to get to know so many new things about you. Thanks for taking the time to play along... I know it is not easy.

Have a great day!

Kat

Rachel said...

Great post! I've always thought that Braaten's name was awesome - and it makes it better that it's a family name! I love the idea of using family names as first names...but alas, I don't have any good ones to use :( I don't think anyone wants to be named Zannis!

Heart2Heart said...

Carol,

This was a great getting to know a lot more about you post in addition to mentioning some really great awards!

Congratulations and I hate people who chew loudly! Big pet peeve of mine too!

Love and Hugs ~ Kat