I have been nominated for a Liebster Award! Next Life, NO Kids, my thanks for the nomination! Everyone go read her stuff! Right now, open it in a new window. I’ll wait here.

This is the very first blog recognition I've received, and it is very sweet. The Liebster Award is a way to highlight small, up and coming blogs. However, the award goes with homework. Here are the rules, as they have been passed on to me:

List 11 facts about yourself.
Answer the 11 questions given to you.
Ask 11 new questions to the bloggers you nominate
Choose 11 bloggers (with 200 or less followers) to nominate.
Visit each bloggers page and tell them about the award.
Thank the person who nominated you and link back to them
No track backs

Here we go.

List 11 facts about yourself.

I was born in Texas, but it doesn't really show.
I’m not an alcoholic, although it’s not for lack of trying.
I don’t look at fashion magazines. They are designed to make you feel bad about yourself, and I’m way ahead of them. Besides, I can’t afford to buy the stuff they’re selling.
I knew Husband for 16 years before we first kissed. Married him 4 years later. We were not children when we met.
I have two boys, ages 1 and 3.
Motherhood does not define me.
I work outside the home. Do men ever say that they work outside the home? Damn it. I can’t figure out a smooth way to say I have a job from which I draw a paycheck without offending people who are SAHMs.
Except I don’t have a job. I was laid off at the end of March. I responded by starting a blog and just hoping the job thing would work itself out.
My career does not define me.
I live in the DC area.
I don’t use a hair dryer.

Answer the 11 questions given to you.

1. If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
Great Britain, especially Scotland. I understand it’s beautiful. Or the Great Barrier Reef, before it’s gone.

2. Who in your life has had the most influence on you or your writing?
On me: My mother. I’m not saying that it was all a positive influence, but she certainly was the largest presence in my world for a long time. Is the biggest presence, I mean. Of COURSE you’re always so so important in my life, Mom. I love you, Mom. I’ll call you later.
On my writing: Richard Bach, 1,000 years ago. More recently, the Admiral who told me to write it. I think getting me to write was the biggest hurdle.

3. On a scale of 1-10, how attractive do you think you are? Please explain. :)
I would say maybe a 6? I would have ranked myself higher when I was younger, maybe as high as an 8 when I was in my 20s, thanks to inherited blond hair and long legs and the gift of youth. Now my belly has that lived-in look, the smiling has left its lines, and I’m not nearly sartorial enough to get a haircut with any kind of regularity. My husband would rank me higher, and that’s part of why I married him.

4. Horror film or chic flick?
Chick flick, if that’s the options. Horror flicks scare the bejeesus out of me, and I don’t enjoy that. I freak myself out enough just worrying about my children.

5. How long have you been blogging?
About two months.

6. What is your biggest pet peeve?
How little we pay teachers. And how we fail to support families with paid maternity leave. And how Congress has failed to do their damn jobs, so we get Sequestration, which leaves them essentially unscathed. And the whining! Enough with the whining already! I don’t care if you’re “only” 3 years old; pull yourself together, man!

7. Do you have any bad habits we should know about?
Nope.

8. What's your favorite blog to follow? Why?
I’m torn between motherhoodwtf and Suburban Snapshots. I love their attitudes and their senses of humor. They both seem to be as baffled by parenting as I am.

9. What is the best piece of advice you've been given?
To tell a Jesuit how I felt about him.

10. What's the worst piece of advice you've been given?
To become a single mother because my time was running out. I did not take that advice.

11. What is the first thing you would do if I gifted you a million dollars?
Pay off the mortgage and buy a new car. The rest goes in the bank for college and retirement, and I go to work the next day.

Ask 11 new questions to the bloggers you nominate

How old are you?
If you had twice the time and money that you have now, how many children would you have?
What are you wearing?
Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?
Would you please send me some money?
What did you have for breakfast?
Do you prefer mixed flowers bouquets or a bunch of the same flower?
How much time do you spend on Pinterest a week?
What’s your favorite blog to follow? Why?
Would you smoke cigarettes if they didn’t cause cancer?
Why do you blog?

Choose 11 bloggers (with 200 or less followers) to nominate.

I don’t know 11 bloggers with fewer than 200 followers. I’m pretty new to this. I combed through some new sites to complete the list, which was a great way to find some new good blogs, although most have over 200 followers. I will give you some deserving, small bloggers, though. They are listed here in order of followers, from fewest to most followers.

Check them out! You might find something really good!