To Be Adored

Guess who was just picked for her very first blog award? Yes, you guessed it and it's no surprise since you, dear blog reader, are visiting my blog again--I may be your favorite blog as well--who doesn't love me? Anyway, Lara--who is a fabulous writer--who writes almost daily--who recently lost 30 pounds--who has more talents than any one person should have--awarded me this. She said something like my blog was her favorite in the entire universe and she pretty much lives to read my blog or something like that. Then, she gave four other people the same award. Huh? Well, she has to follow the rules of course, so she had to figure out four other people who are almost as fun to read as me.

Anyway, along with this award, I'm supposed to list five of my favorite things to love and bestow this honor on five bloggers that I love. I'm not going to get sentimental here and list the obvious choices like my family, the US of A or milkshakes. Those are givens. Here are some other faves:

1. My grandma's salads--she makes her own dressings without any measuring and they are to die for--mmm-mmm good!

2. American Idol--I love to watch them sing their hearts out and then see what Simon is going to say. We all know Paula's going to love it, Randy will say it's pitchy or he wasn't feelin' it, but Simon will be honest.

3. fresh squeezed orange juice--it's that time of year again. It's in the 70s here right now and we have citrus fresh from the tree. My husband squeezed me a whole pitcher of it last week and I was in heaven.

4. post exercise feeling--after I do a really tough exercise tape--and I do them five days a week--I feel awesome. I feel like...well..like I could live the rest of the day not eating junk food and watching the weight fall off me. Unfortunately, that feeling leaves me at about 3pm and then it's a battle with my will until about 8 pm when I give in and eat some Ben & Jerry's.

5. a warm bath--ahhhh, I love to run a really hot bath and read a good book and drink ice cold water. Sounds a bit contradictory. In fact it sounds a bit like the converse of what I used to do as a teenager: buy Dairy Queen and eat it outside with my winter coat on. Hmmm...

Now, for five of my favorite blogs (and I love you all, but I could only pick five):

1. The Haphazard Life: This incredibly witty and very hilarious writer and I actually became acquainted through another real life friend. The first time I decided to look at her blog, my husband was sitting by me and he took one look at the first entry we saw and said, "Wait! I know that guy! I TA'd with him at BYU!" (It was the blog writer's husband.) Yes, it turns out that we had actually met once upon a time at a BYU party. I really do love to read her entries. She is a smart writer who always makes me chuckle and think, "Dang! Why can't I be that funny when I write?"

2. ...and then some: I discovered this blog through reading a really hilarious comment posted on a friend's blog. This girl is so brutally honest about her life--all of her quirks and crazy incidents--and she's had more than her fair share. She makes me laugh outloud sometimes. Alas, she hasn't written since December because she's writing a book. I'd been telling her that she should for several months now, so I'll be expecting a portion of the earnings when that fat check comes to her door.

3. Prize for Posing: This girl actually discovered my blog before I discovered hers, but she is too funny as well. Her phrasing of situations and past conversations between herself and her kids always makes me smile. I do think she's too hard on herself imagewise though. Reading her blog you may get the impression she's a candidate for The Biggest Loser, but I've met her and I aspire to be as skinny as her. However, don't we women just need to have a friend who relates to our body image issues?

4. a day in the life............: I have never actually met this writer, but I feel like she's a close friend. She recently had her fifth, beautiful baby and she blogs mostly about her kids and her deep reflections on life. She has so much wisdom and is so good at phrasing those deep thoughts that I keep finding myself saying, "Amen-sista!"

5. The Zoo (The Zimmerman Family Blog): I won't bother with the link because it's private. I have only met Erika once or twice in real life, but she's the girl you're always jealous of--tall, eats and eats and eats and never excercises and is gorgeous, super stylish, brilliant. She's married to one of my great friends from BYU. What makes her blog one of my faves is her sass. Seriously, she is one of the sassiest writers I've ever read, but she pulls it off so well. Hilarious and clever and completely honest. We all need a sassy friend like her when someone makes us feel bad. You know, that friend that always has the comeback ready that we come up with about twenty minutes later? That's her.

So girls, enjoy your blog award. Post it with pride--you're awesome writers!