Seconds Please…and Thank You!

This week has been full of seconds. Along with our second foster came another second for us, a blog award! This time we were nominated by Our Waldo Bungie for Beautiful Blogger and One Lovely Blog Awards. We really can’t believe it. Blogging is hard work! It’s not easy finding time to write, in between living life and taking care of dogs. It’s something that hundreds of people do and do well. So, for us to be put in that category is just amazing and we couldn’t be more thankful.

The requirements for the Beautiful Blogger and One Lovely Blog Awards are:

• Copy the award logos and place it in your post
• Thank the person who nominated you and link back to them in your post
•  Nominate other bloggers you admire
•  Contact your chosen bloggers to let them know
• One extra requirement for the One Lovely Blog award requires you to share 7 things about yourself

I already pasted the logos and thanked Our Waldo Bungie for the nomination. Here are four blogs that I admire. I am not sure if they’ve already received these awards, (I can’t imagine they haven’t because they’re awesome!) but if they did I’m nominating them again:

A Heartbeat at My Feet: Curtest blog title, ever. The list of things I love about this blog (which include Cooper, who I would steal if I lived in Nashville!) is way too long to list here. Just trust me, the blog is great and you should all read it.

Kate with a camera (Formerly Twenty-Six to Life): My dad is a photographer, so all my life I have gained appreciation for great photos, and this blog does not disappoint. I aspire to take photos of my dogs that are as nice as Kate’s. And, her dogs are cute to boot!

The Rufus Way: I have a thing for brown/bridle dogs with white chests and big ears. Hence, my love for Rufus and the blog.

Adventures of a Dog Mom: Food + Dogs = Blog love.

And lastly, here are seven things about myself:

1. Purple is my favorite color. As you can tell from my blog header, I love it. People tease me because even if you didn’t know me at all you could tell what my favorite color is- Nola’s collar is purple, and her leash, and her bag, and my cell phone cover, my purse, the pen I use at work, my water bottle, iPad cover…I could go on and on. It’s kind of embarrassing that my love is borderline obsessive.

2. French fries are my all-time favorite food. I could eat them at every meal every single day. Sometimes I actually make them my entire meal, like when we go to Pier Fries in downtown OOB.  And, when I am eating them my motto is “no potato left behind.”
3. My love of photography is deeply rooted in my family history. As I mentioned above, my dad is a professional photographer. He teaches it at a local high school and also does wedding, sports photography, portraits etc.If you walk into my parents’ house it looks like an art gallery of photos of my brother and I. Every wall has a framed photograph on it. The entire process, from capturing the exact moment, to waiting for the actual photos to develop from the film (well in the ‘old days’ now you just put them on a computer and edit them), to looking through the stack of 4′ x 6’s and then framing and displaying them, is something that brings me an indescribable amount of joy. As an adult, my house is similar to my parents’ in that there are photos everywhere. The idea that a moment in time was captured in a very tangible way that you can relive every time you look at it is amazing.

4. I basically grew up on the beach and as an adult it is one of my favorite places to go. I grew up in a town called Old Orchard Beach (or OOB as I referenced above) where there are 7 miles of pristine sandy beaches right in my backyard. Plus, my parents are teachers so they had each summer off, and that is where we spent June through August. I even have my “summer beach family,” the people who have been going to the same spot at the beach every summer, since I was a child. I hate sitting around the house doing nothing, but I can sit on the beach for hours and not get bored. It’s a place that I love and will always be part of who I am. I someitmes think I might even have sand and salt water running through my veins.
5. My favorite movie as a child was The Little Mermaid. I wanted to be Ariel and have red hair. I still know all the words to “Under the Sea” and “Part of Your World.”

6. The Mr. and I love to travel. We make it a point to go at least one place new every year. So far we have been to: Washington, D.C., Durham, NC (the Mr. is a huge Duke Basketball fan), Las Vegas, Bahamas, New Orleans, Rome, Sicily, Athens, Turkey, Amsterdam, Nashville, Key West, Philadelphia and Miami. Other places on our must visit list are: London and Paris (I have been to both, but not with the Mr.), Hawaii, San Diego and San Francisco.7. I played field hockey all through middle school, high school and two years in college. I had several injuries, including a broken thumb, a concussion and a career ending knee injury. I play every year in my high school alumni game, but haven’t really played competitively in a while. I am a huge sports fan, both watching and playing, and try to stay fit through running, walking, hiking and I generally just like to be active.

Well there you go. I hope my seven things weren’t to boring and that you’ll continue to read about our adventures with Nola and whatever foster we have at the time. Thanks again Our Waldo Bungie for the award and congrats to the other blogs for being Lovely and Beautiful!