Thomas Wigington, http://astrangertoheavenandearth.com/, has nominated me for the Beautiful Blogger Award. I am honored for the nomination and I accept. Thank you, Mr Wigington poet, essayist, fellow blogger for this generous nomination. Please take a moment to check out his site!
The rules for this award are:
- Thank the person who nominated you
- Post the award image to your page
- Tell seven things about yourself
- Nominate up to 15 other bloggers and let them know
Imagine my surprise at seeing this nomination in my email! Heck, I’ve only been blogging for less than 2 months. Wow, has it been 2 months already? Time really flies when you’re doing laundry. I am very grateful to Mr Wigington for reading my blog, (clarification, I’m grateful to *anyone* who reads my blog!) let alone nominating me for this lovely Beautiful Blogger award.
The ‘Share Seven Things about Yourself” reminds me of the “16 things about you” that went around back in the beginning of my days on Facebook. It always gives me pause. I can’t help but wonder what 7 things about me other people would actually find interesting, “normal”, ‘you can write about them publicly’ things. I mean, everyone has quirky interesting things, right? But PG13 ?
1)When I was a little girl, I wanted to be President. Not first lady, I didn’t want to assist anyone. I wanted to run the world. And if I couldn’t run it, I wanted to save it. My mother has always told me that from the time I was about 3, I thought I could save the world. Over the course of my life I have tried to save so very many things. Causes, people, expired relationships, animals, old clothing, struggling businesses… you name it. I’ll try to save it. There has to be some sort of disorder name for this. And I don’t mean in the hoarder sort of way , I mean in the “rescue it” sort of way. I spent a rather grueling heat wave week once trying to get a kitten to trust me enough to come out of some arbovitae trees and allow me to care for it. I moved a few feet/ inches closer to her every day, every hour. I even slept outside next to those trees, fearing that some mean creature of the night would eat it. I succeeded in my efforts and was ultimately left with a kitten that I couldn’t take in , as my son is allergic. Called all the local shelters and no one would take her as there was apparently some heat wave rush of feral cats, so I convinced my parents to drive the kitten to Maine to live with my brother. Yes, I am that bad.
2)Much to the dismay of my family, I celebrate everything. EVERYTHING. Got an A on a test? Let’s celebrate! Great season? Celebrate. Successful treatment for me? Let’s celebrate. I believe that birthdays should be celebrated for at the very least a week. Minimum. I decorate our entire house for the Birthday-ee’s occasion. Balloons, signs, streamers, the person gets to pick a menu for a week with all of their favorites. With so much bad in the world, why not find as much joy as you can in the simple things, right? Last night we celebrated the end of Natalia’s first HS Cheer season and Nick’s Showcase Season.. and some other stuff I’m not at liberty to talk about yet. Kids in general should be celebrated. They are such a privilege and a joy.
3)In my life I have seen people very close to me overcome some of life’s greatest challenges. My big sister, my parents’, my best friend, my husband’s best friend, scores of RSD pals, each of whom have been dealt some of the worst of what life has to offer and have somehow held out with amazing grace , heads held high and have gone on to inspire myself and countless others. These people are heroes ( heroines) to me. Not the NFL/NBA or actors & actress who get paid millions of dollars to do what they do. I’m talking real life people living life struggles and living large living hard. I wish we glorified that more for our children. *Values*
4)Nicholas Michael and Natalia Marie are by far the greatest accomplishments of my life. Yet they continue to be works in progress. I pray every day I get to continue to see them grow up. I am so thankful that I have made it this far. So thankful that they have turned out as good as they have. Having a parent with a chronic condition is sooo difficult for children. They could’ve gone to the complete opposite end of the scale. Somehow, I got lucky and they didn’t. They are over achievers, honor students, good friends, amazing athletes, and more importantly good people and wonderful children. Yet sadly, growing up far too quickly.
5) Our universe baffles me. Though I , too, was an honor student, space baffles me. I am over 40 and I still cannot understand how we can see stars that are no longer there. Do not try to explain it to me, I will never ‘get it’.
6) In case you’ve missed it, I’m a redhead. I’ve always been a redhead. If it hasn’t been one shade of red, it’s been another. Of course, I have a little more help now. My daughter was born with the most gorgeous shade of red hair and I was completely jealous. I have recently decided that it is no longer worth trying to make my red hair look natural , so it is currently the brightest most vibrant shade we can make it. Why not, right? I’ve threatened to go brunette, but my family says that they’d never be able to find me anywhere. One time at a gymnastic competition, my daughter shouted to me ” What’s that mom ? I can’t hear you over your hair!”~ well, you get the idea… 
7) Six degrees of separation was something I never heard of until Facebook. Yet Six degrees of separation affects my life almost daily. Almost always in a good way, thankfully. It is also mainly responsible for my blogging experience. I am blogging because of a man I will call Joe. I didn’t know Joe, but my husband did. Joe is another kind of American hero, Mr Joe is a teacher. He encouraged me to try my hand ( or keyboard) at blogging. Stubborn gal that I am, it took me a year, but I eventually listened. I tried to thank Mr Joe but he was too humble to be thanked. I just want him to know how much I appreciate him.
And I appreciate you, too. You being anyone who takes the time to read what I write, or look at the photos I post. ~ There! I didn’t even get into my addiction to scarves, my weird food habits, the fact that I am left handed but do almost everything with both, my bizarre little ‘envy’, my shoe collection, my penchant for taking pictures of anything and everything, my daily need for cappuccinos, or all those other bizarre Hope facts! However, I really am thankful Mr Wigington!
I hate when I prematurely blog..
In my original entry, I forgot to write that the reason I have selected these folks is because their work moves me. They have all taken me to places I have never been. Probably will never get to see. Be it through their writing or their art or their photography. They are all artists. They enrich my life and make getting out of bed every morning just a little bit less painful each in their own unique way.
I had trouble linking one of my favorites on my first go round. I’m going to try again.
My nominees for the Beautiful Blogger Award are:
http://grishmanphotography.com/
http://peterknightphotography.wordpress.com/
http://www.cathykuhlmanphotography.blogspot.com/
http://krahnpix.wordpress.com/about/ ~
http/milnersblog.wordpress.com/
allsortsofhope 
if you here a quiet kind of clapping sound, it is me, here in this land of facebook, where I know you, I think of you as a dear friend, and I congratulate you on this wonderful award , I humbly agree, and I am here clapping for my friend , the beautiful blogger award, how appropriate , this girl, Hope, does everything that way !!!
Thank you for the award nomination. In whatever way your kind words apply to my photos and ramblings, I am deeply honoured. My blogging experiment has never had a clear focus but to think I could assist with a tiny bit of your pain is the highest praise I could imagine. Your journey of hope is amazing given the challenges thrown your way.