One Lovely Blog Award

This morning I woke up feeling very humbled and honored because I have been nominated for the One Lovely Blog Award by four of my amazing blogging sisters: My Perfect Breakdown, Spirit Baby Come Home, Infertility U Suck, and Twelve Week Eternities! Thank you so much to each of you for thinking of me and for your continued love and support. Each of you and your blogs are the true definition of lovely. I honestly don’t know what I would do without these amazing women and the entire IF/RPL community <3

The Rules / Guidelines

1. Thank the person who has nominated you. Provide a link to his/her blog.
2. List the rules.
3. Include 7 facts about yourself.
4. Nominate 15 other bloggers and let them know that they have been nominated.
5. Display the award logo and follow the blogger who nominated you.

Here are 7 facts about myself:

1. I think most of you know this, but although I have been living in the US for 7 years now, I am and always will be a Canadian girl at heart. I was inspired to point this out by My Perfect Breakdown because of her comment about spelling words in Canadian/British English. Eleven years ago, when I first met my SIL (2 years before I met her brother, and my now husband), she brought me back a little present from a trip she had taken. It was this beverage coaster: She thought it was cute because the word colour was spelt with “u”. At the time, I didn’t realize this would become a cherished gift that I now keep on my desk as a reminder of my heritage while I now spell words like color without the u because most of my clients are here in the US.
2. My SIL and I were really good friends before I even met my husband. We worked together and became fast friends immediately. Little did we know that 2 years later, she would introduce me to her little brother when we were visiting LA for a conference and it would begin a 2 year long distance relationship that eventually resulted in me moving here and marrying the love of my life. My SIL was very sad to see me leave, but what we gained was so much bigger. We’re now family :)
3. I love nature and the sea, and always feel calmer and happier when I’m out exploring a new trail or walking by the ocean.
4. I miss fall more than anything. I cannot lie, living in Southern California is pretty much the dream they all say it is. For the most part, now notwithstanding, the weather is amazing and it’s sunshine and blue skies almost every day, but there’s something about fall and the changing seasons that really calls to me.  And seeing all the beautiful fall pictures people have been posting lately have really made me homesick. It doesn’t help that we’re in the midst of an insane heat wave right now. It’s not even noon here yet and it’s already 88 ° F degrees here  (+30’s ° C for my Canadian friends) and my AC is still not working! We basically went the entire summer without it because of a huge runaround between our home warranty and the 4 different contractors. We finally decided to upgrade the whole thing so it should be perfect soon, but probably won’t be fixed until after the heat wave is done. I would do anything for a crisp fall day right now :)
5. I’m echoing what Spirit Baby Come Home said and highlighting my absolute love for dark chocolate. The darker the better. I’ve had to really watch myself with it lately because of the higher caffeine content that it has over it’s far less equal counterpart milk chocolate, but I probably indulge in a few pieces at least once or twice a week :)
6. And continuing on food, I love spicy food. The spicier the better. I’ll never forget the first time I met my Indian in-laws. We went for dinner at a Thai restaurant and ordered everything extra spicy. My FIL looked at me with raised eyebrows and asked if I would be okay with that, and I said definitely. My husband came to my immediate defense and said, “she eats spicier food than I do”. I could tell my FIL didn’t really believe us, and I laughed when his jaw dropped when the food came and I added more spice to it because I didn’t find it spicy enough. He said, in my FIL’s very blunt manner, “but you’re white!”, I just laughed and added more spice. I’m pretty sure that was the moment when I was officially welcomed into the family :)
7. I discovered this weekend when I was shopping at Micheals for scrapbooking supplies for the baby shower, that I have an obsession with paper. I now have over 4 very full storage containers full of 12×12 scrapbook paper pads. I buy one every time they’re on sale. I will seriously never need all this paper! I need help! On a side note, if you’re into scrapbooking, there’s a coupon on the Michaels website for 50% off all Recollections stickers and embellishments for this week :)

Nomination Time

This is my least favorite part receiving these awards, because I always struggle to nominate only a selection of the blogs I follow. The truth is, I admire and am inspired by each and every one of you, and I think all of your blogs are truly lovely. So this is where I break the rules once again and nominate my entire blogroll to participate. That’s right, I’m nominating all of you!

If you want to participate and you haven’t already been nominated, please consider this your nomination and go for it!