The Other Nine

Still trying to claim my blogger award.

Totally unrelated picture. My kids on an elephant at the Shriner's Circus.

Only two of their faces are visible, but they're all there, I promise.

You saw #1 on Monday's post, right? I realized I did this totally backwards. I should have started with #10- I still spear brussles sprouts with a fork and pretend that they are lollipops. Because they still do not taste good. And then followed up each one with something a little more interesting until you got to number one, where you would wonder to yourself what I could share that could possibly top the previous nine? And then I could blow you away! But I didn't do it that way. So I hope this isn't a let-down. Are you going to read this anyway? Well, for myself then. Here goes.

#10 The brussel sprouts/lollipop thing

#9   When we were growing up, we had a cat, two dogs, a guinea pig, two or three turtles, a saltwater aquarium (including a snowflake eel that would eat a cube of brine shrimp from your hand. He did NOT like it when the cube wasn't defrosted all the way.), a rabbit, and for a short time, two ducks.

#8   Now I have one solitary sucker fish in a tiny aquarium on the bathroom counter.

#7   I plan to hike the Appalacian Trail with the family once our kids are old enough to carry packs.

#6   I have four wonderful kids, ages 9,7,5,3. Boy, girl, boy, boy. Their various interests include reading, fussing about who gets to be player one on Wii, and eating. Snack time. All the time.

#5   I've had some amazing birth experiences! The first one was especially amazing because I was...just kidding. I wouldn't do that to you.

#4   When Nathan and I met, I was barely eighteen and he was still seventeen. After almost three years of dating, we got married, just a semester before graduating from college. In fact, we had to come back for a few hours from our honeymoon in St. Augustine so Nathan could take some business class exam.

#3   I love rockclimbing. Except I'm too weak and chubby to do it.

#2   But I'm not too weak and chubby to complete a sprint triathlon. I finished a 500 yd swim, 10 mile bike and 5K run in about an hour and a half this past October. Two funny things- the swim is a free for all, and this lady kept bumping into me. Kind of annoying, but not a huge deal. Until I stroked just as she edged into my water and I got her in the nose with my elbow, very very hard. I was surprised when we both pulled our heads up that she didn't have a bloody nose. (She was behind me, so it was totally unavoidable on my end) She didn't bump into me anymore. Second funny thing- I was on my squeaky bike, just pedaling and cringing (the squeak hadn't been there before the start of the race. And Nathan oiled it for me, so I'm not sure where the squeak came from, but it was embarrasing to have all of these guys on their $2500 dollars bikes zooming past me, sqeak, squeak, squeak.) Most of my bike training took place in the gym on a stationary bike because I don't feel comfortable getting on the roads with my little one in a bike trailer. So I wasn't used to getting my water bottle in and out of the holder. And this Fast Biker came up behind me as I wobbled around while stuffing the water bottle back into the holder. Fast Biker told me Good Job for putting the bottle away. (I think he was happy that I didn't take us both down.) I said "I make this look easy." And he chuckled and blew by me. Everybody was really friendly and  nice and I would say, if you want to do a triathlon, go for it, because you can't feel more ridiculous than I did. 

#1  Still here if you want to see it again.

Thanks again for the blog award!
Glutton for Punishment?

Introductions to blog friends

Hey. I was checking out the friends of my blog and realized that I have personal relationships with less than half of you. Which is kind of exciting, not to discount the value of my physical-presence-friends. Part of the point of starting a blog was to meet new people, so I have this happy feeling of "It's working!" I want to know more about you, so if you'd like, please give us an introduction.

I live in South Carolina, am a full-time mom and full-time writer. I've made the transition from thinking that maybe one day I'd like to write to just doing it, and I'm in the next to last round of edits (I hope) on my novel before I send out query letters to agents.

Every good biography includes an embarrassing story, right? I'm trying to think of one I wouldn't mind sharing...okay. This is gross, but not too bad. When the husband and I were dating, we were playing Scattergories at my Dad's house. So you roll a 26 sided alphabet die, and you have to come up with examples in certain categories that start with that letter. Double word scores are possible- like stores that start with K=Krispy Kreme gets two points. So the die roll was K, and the category was food or restaurants maybe. And I said 'King's Kabobs'. Which is a real name. At the Sarasota Renaissance Festival it was right next to 'The Queen's Buns'. See, I'm not making this up. But Nathan (now husband, then boyfriend) didn't buy it. They voted me down and I only got one point. Totally Unfair. The next category was car parts and nobody could think of a K car part. Except Nathan. He said 'King's Muffler' and for some reason it struck me as funny. I started laughing too hard, and then I was choking, and I couldn't stop choking. I threw up all over the table. There was a distinct green pepper odor since I'd had a lot of peppers in my salad. The room had cleared in a nanosecond, but my stepmom came back and helped me cleanup. I remember Nathan was a teensy bit reluctant to kiss me that night, but we still got married.

You don't have to share an embarrassing story, but feel free to tell us about your blog, your writing, and whatever else we might like to know about you.  
Glutton for Punishment?