My first blogger award! I've been Liebster-ized!

I am loved. Liebed! Liebster’d!

This week, Lorinda from “The Rowdy Baker” bestowed upon me the honor of a Liebster Award. First, I was confused. What is this award? Then, I started looking around and found out that it’s an award bloggers give to one another. Lorinda found me on my link-up to Blogger Idol 2012. We all had the chance to link up for the “Play at Home” version of the top 11’s weekly challenge (those of us who applied and didn’t make it can still feel special by writing this and pretending we’re important).

The rules for the Liebster are to:

1. List 11 things about myself
2. Answer the 11 questions given to me by the person who gave me the award
3. Create 11 questions of my own and crown 11 peer bloggers with a Liebster title.

How fun is this? (From what I can tell, some people don’t participate. Why wouldn’t someone participate? A chance to talk about myself? Heck YEAH!)

So, here goes!

11 Things about Me

1. I’m afraid of crickets. Yup, people. Crickets.

2. I’m the 4th of five children. Two girls. Three boys. And I’m the favorite. Pretty sure I am. The rest may have something to say about that.

3. It’s fun to teach my kids to do quirky things. I want the Animal to say, “Good day,” to people instead of “Bye Bye.” I used to have Miss Sassy Pants telling people, “Peace out, homie.”

4. There’s this obsession with movies aimed at teenagers. I’m not sure why I like them so much, but I sort of hide it like one would hide their obsession with stuffed animals. When husband is out of town, I find as many as I can to fit into the time that the kids are asleep. I think I’ve seen She’s All That enough for it to be weird.

5. I’m also obsessed with cheesy romance novels. I have read the first two parts of Shades of Grey and must say that I like the cheesy, no-name writers much better.

6. Don’t tell me to calm down. Chances are, if I need to calm down, I know this. Stating the obvious doesn’t help me. Thank you, and good day.

7. There is very little that I don’t do quickly. Sometimes, this is a bad thing, and I goof up. But, most of the time, I’m moving at warp speed. Shopping, chores, writing, math. I met my husband in April, and we were engaged by June. I’m fast. (Hey – I mean QUICK. SPEEDY. EFFICIENT.)

8. Bad grammar annoys me. Sure, I act all nice and pretend that it doesn’t. But it really, really does.

9. When no one is around, or when it’s just the baby and me, I practice singing “The Star Spangled Banner” just in case I’m asked to sing at a ball game or something. Hey, you never know; one can never be too prepared.

10.“That’s what she said,” runs through my mind at least 5 times an hour. The hubster says it’s how he knew I was “the one.”

11. If there is a dessert in sight — especially chocolate — you’d better get out of my way. That is, you’d better get out of my way if you want to keep both your eyes. I kind of like sweets.

Now, I answer the questions from Lorinda:

1. Writing: catharsis or expression? Totally both. Sometimes, I’m writing because I need to let go of some sort of anger. Like, the time I wrote about the ridiculous and unneeded debate over gay marriage. Other times, I’m just expressing how funny I know I am.
2. Which writer has influenced you the most? This is not the educational answer that most would expect from an English/writing teacher, but Janet Evanovich is my hero. I love the way she turns a phrase, and I’m obsessed with her Stephanie Plum series. Someday, I hope to be as successful as she is.
3. How do you cope with constant distractions? I just barrel through. I have a 1 year old and a 7 year old. My husband is gorgeous. I enjoy playing on Facebook. So, I’m constantly distracted. Eventually, I just focus and get it done.
4. Are you still having fun with the blog? When it stops being fun will you quit? Yes! I’m having lots of fun. I’m not sure that I’m accomplishing what I need to accomplish, but I’m enjoying all of the networking and practice writing that I’m getting to do. If it were to stop being fun, something really bad would have had to have happened — and I’m just not going to think that will ever occur.
5. What cramps your writing style? The five paragraph essay does. I really hate that guy.
6. What is your worst habit? I’m a knuckle popper. It’s totally gross, and I know it. But, I can’t stop. Now, Miss Sassy Pants is learning to do it, and it drives me bananas.
7. Early to bed or night owl? Usually, I’m a night owl. I need to be early to bed since The Animal is early to rise, but I really like my TV shows.
8. Do you multitask when you’re writing or is it all business? Definitely a multi-tasker. For example, as I was writing this post, I watched Sesame Street, attended an UnReal Candy Facebook party, talked to my husband, checked IMDB to prove my husband wrong about an actor, checked my email, and wrestled the kid off the couch.
9. Do you play an instrument? I do. I play the piano (not well), I play the hand bells (direct them at church), I play the guitar (like, one song), and I sing. Some day, I’m thinking I’ll create a piano-hand-bell-guitar one woman band. That would be awesome.
10. What would you rather be doing right now? Right now, I’d rather be eating ice cream and birthday cake. But, since that’s not happening any time soon (because I don’t have any birthday cake), I’m happy to be answering these questions.
11. Do you laugh at your own material? All the time. This entire post has had me grinning from ear-to-ear.