The Honest Scrap Award

Alexia from My Wicked, Wicked Ways has graced me with the Honest Scrap Award. *Blush, blush* I was asked to pass the award to five of my favorite bloggers and also to make a list of my "bests". So here goes nothing:

Best Meal Ever: Hands down, a cup of clam chowder on the pier in Kennebunkport, Maine. What can I say, I'm a simple girl.

Best Sleep Ever: The best sleep for me comes from sleeping with the windows open when I am near water and can hear the waves or during a thunder storm. Maybe I need one of those noise machines.

Best Cup of Coffee: Blue Mountain coffee served every morning for breakfast on a vacation in Jamaica.



Best Romantic Moment: My husband surprised me by arranging to have us renew our wedding vows while on vacation. He made all of the arrangements in advance and bought me a dress and sandals to wear. It wasn't our anniversary or anything, just 17 years and 7 months since our real wedding. We laughed and cried during the short ceremony which was held on the beach. People that we had met during our trip and even some people strolling on the beach stopped too share in our celebration. There was a cake and champagne to follow. One of the most memorable parts was that the minister officiating was a dead ringer for Randy Jackson from American Idol. LOL!



Best Childhood Memory: Sitting in the bathtub one night when I was about 7 or eight and thinking that I was absolutely filthy, but I had so much fun that day getting so dirty.

Best Moment of Life: Without a doubt, the best moment of my life was the birth of my daughter, Molly. I had been hoping for a daughter to complete our family, but my dreams were crushed when the doctor asked my 4 year old son Grant if he would "like to hear his brother's heart beat." (Grant had been asking for a baby sister.) Given that I had had an amniocentesis earlier in the pregnancy and they can definitively tell the sex of the baby, there was no doubt that I wouldn't be having my little Molly after all. I had accepted the fact that we were having another son and was getting excited to welcome "Mitchell" into our lives. When she was born and the doctor said it was a girl, I have never felt such a rush of joy. That is what you call a peak moment. (In case you are wondering, the nurses at the doctor's office later told me that the doctor tends to refer to every baby as "he".)

Best Moment of Revenge: Sorry, no story to tell. I believe that karma is a boom-a-rang. People get what they give.

Best Thing Someone Has Ever Done for You: It may not sound like much, but there was a time when my husband was traveling a lot and I was overwhelmed by a multitude of things going on in my life at the time. I called my mom to vent a little. Shortly after she showed up at my house with my favorite home made soup and a huge salad from the Olive Garden, one of my favorites. She took over with the kids and let me relax a little. It meant the world to me.

Best Thing You Have Ever Done for Someone: (I hope this doesn't come off sounding arrogant) Recently my brother was diagnosed with cancer. One day he called me and was very angry about the way someone he cared for was treating him since his diagnosis. This person had virtually disappeared from his life. I told him that he needed to concentrate on finding joy in his life. If he only had a limited time to live, he needed to focus on the positive and find what would make his remaining time happy. We can't control other people and how they treat us, but we can control how we react. Several days later he called me to thank me for those words. That was a really special moment for me.

Best Life Changing Moment: Meeting my husband Mark was the best life changing moment of my life. We have been married for over 21 years now and he is still my best friend. No matter what we do together we have a good time. I don't just love him, I like him too. He is without a doubt the most compassionate person I know. He gets my sense of humor. He supports me (even when I have crazy ideas!) He is generous and kind and a wonderful father to our children. I am so thankful that my older brother Thom invited me to a New Year's Eve party in 1982 or I never would have met my Mark.


Enough about me. There are way too many blogs for me to narrow it down to just five and I have given awards in the past to a number of my daily reads, so I am going to list some of my favorites and ask you to stop by for a visit. These are blogs that are as vital to my daily routine as that morning cup of coffee:

Project 365
Anonymous Fat Girl (Bobbie, I love you girl, I wish you would stop calling yourself fat though!)
Watch My Butt Shrink
A Deliberate Life
Loretta's Journey from 460 to 199
Panda Bites
Tammy's Tale
The Candid RD
TJ's Test Kitchen
Weigh to Go
Une Vie Saine...A Healthy Lifestyle
Getting Better and Better

If you haven't discovered any of these blogs, they are worth taking a peek.

Thanks again to Alexia for the award!