You Are My Sunshine

  

         I am humbled and grateful on this one-week anniversary of the existence of my blog to be offered the Sunshine Award by Anna at The Silent Isle.  Thank you, dear Anna, for inspiring me to be creative and courageous as I step into the wide, wide world of blogs.

        

“The Sunshine Award is an award given by bloggers to other bloggers. The receivers of the Sunshine Award are bloggers who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogsphere.”

            I feel myself slipping into the prepared acceptance speech that I will now pull from inside of my coat pocket.  I would like to thank the academy, my parents, and most of all God. Ok, I think that’s enough. But, truly, if you are reading this today, thank you for stopping by and taking a few minutes out of your day to read my words.  My hope is that over time my blog will be as entertaining for you to read as it is for me to write.

         The conditions of this award are for me to share 7 facts about myself and to nominate 7 other blogs. So here it goes, in no particular order of importance.

1.) Growing up, I wanted to be Snow White. No, I don’t mean that I wanted to be a princess. I actually wanted to be the lady dressed in the costume and walking around Disney World acting as the character. I couldn’t imagine a more fun occupation than spending your days in “the happiest place on Earth.”  By the way, that dream never came true. But, I have been to Disney and it was really as magical as I had imagined.

2.) I am a super fan girl nerd when it comes to Harry Potter, Twilight, Game of Thrones, The Hunger Games and some others. I wear the t-shirts, drink from the coffee mugs and listen to podcast discussions on my way to and from work everyday. I’m probably just a blip away from writing fan fiction, and I’m pretty sure some of you will stop reading at this point.

  

3.) Pizza is my absolute favorite food of all time. I have been thankful on my few trips to Europe that this food seems to be universal and one of the least expensive things to eat. My husband jokes about my “needing” pizza when I was pregnant. I do believe that all three of my kids should have been born with swarthy Italian mustaches based on the amount of pizza that I consumed while they were in the womb.

4.) My husband, Stephen, is a Captain in the U.S. Army. That makes me a very proud Army wife who has lived in six different states in the last 15 years. I’ve learned to use Army terms and phrases such as “Hooah”, “Roger”, and “Shut up and color”. I’ve also learned that if you’re not five minutes early, then you’re actually fifteen minutes late. Despite these things, I can’t say the Pledge of Allegiance or listen to the national anthem without tearing up.

5.) I once loaded 400 pounds of sand by myself into the back of my husband’s truck when he was deployed. It was needed to weigh down the back-end to stop sliding all over the ice in the New York winter. My then four-year-old helped me stack and arrange eight, fifty-pound bags. I felt like She-Ra once it was done.

6.) My favorite author is Edgar Allan Poe and my favorite holiday is Halloween. I love dark and creepy. However, I refuse to watch scary movies or go to haunted houses because I don’t like to be scared. Don’t worry, I don’t understand the contradiction either.

7.)Whenever I am at home with the audience of only my immediate family, I like to turn whatever I’m saying into song, think opera.  My kids really love this (sarcasm) when I wake them up in the morning.

        So, there you have it. More things about me than you ever needed to know. Now, on to the best part.

        I have had this blog in the works for over a year, but I just didn’t have the courage to make it live on the web. The bloggers that I will nominate today are all very talented writers that have inspired and encouraged me to take that step forward.  Take the time to check out their blogs, you won’t be disappointed.

Molly at Molly Elizabeth Lee  
Lisa at lisavpires 
Alicia at On the Road to Authorship 
Brooke at Brooke Bullman
*Kate at Nested
*Drema at The Grammar of Painting
*Amy at Addled

*These wonderful ladies have already been nominated for this award by others, but since I read them daily and they serve as inspiration to me, I think you should visit them too.