One Lovely Blog Award

Thanks to the lovely Teresa from Where the *bleep* is our stork? who has nominated me for the One Lovely Blog award! She's another PCOS and infertility blogger who has been through a lot over the last three years, but has managed to stay supportive. She's doing an ornament exchange and even created her own blog award!

Here are the rules:

1) Thank the one that nominated you.
2) Put up the picture for the One Lovely Blog Award.
3) Tell everyone seven things about yourself.
4) Nominate seven other people and tell them that you have nominated them.

Seven things about me:

1. I'm a picky eater. I've gotten slightly better over the years but there are still a lot of things I refuse to eat, like anything with mustard on it. Yuck! 

2. I am in the top 1% of Sims 3 players on Raptr (which is based solely on hours played). I have played 477 hours since I signed up in January 2012. I even have a separate blog all about the sims. 

3. I don't care about girly stuff like purses and shoes and makeup or fashion in general. I usually wear leggings with a long shirt or a scrub top (for the pockets!) because it's comfy and I've been using the free backpack purse I got from Carnival. I don't wear makeup at all and usually have one pair of shoes I wear at a time, either flip-flops or flats. 

4. I have to put lotion on after I wash my hands or otherwise get them wet. I just can't deal with the way they feel if I don't. Probably has something to do with my eczema. 

5. My favorite pizza is chicken and jalapenos with barbecue sauce, but I always pick the jalapenos off! I love the flavor they add but I'm not so fond of the texture. 

6. I get very car sick unless I'm driving, which I haven't been able to do for quite a while due to my medications. Listening to music helps but listening to talking (audiobooks, podcasts, other passengers if no music is on) makes it quite a bit worse.

7. I am a night owl through and through and get super cranky if I have to wake up in the morning. I hardly ever go to sleep before 2 or 3 am.

I'm going to skip the nominations this time as I'm not really feeling up to doing anything else right now. 

Super Sweet Blogging Award

Aislinn over at Baby Makin' has nominated me for the Super Sweet Blogging Award! If you don't follow her already you should definitely check her out. I love this award because everyone gets the same questions and you don't have to come up with your own lol. Thank you so much, Aislinn! It really means a lot.

Here are the rules:

• Thank the blogger who nominated you. - Thanks again!
• Answer 5 super sweet questions
• Include the Super Sweet Blogging award image in the blog post 
• Nominate 12 other bloggers

Super Sweet Questions:

1. Cookies or cake?  Cookies! I don't like icing so it's a pain to scrape it off, especially when there are multiple layers. I love my mom though because when she makes cupcakes she leaves some uniced just for me.
2. Chocolate or vanilla?  Definitely chocolate!
3. Favorite sweet treat?  Ooh this is a hard one. I'm not sure I have one favorite. Maybe the Chocolate Xtreme Blizzard?
4. When do you crave sweet things the most? At night after dinner and when watching a movie. 
5. Sweet nickname? When Sierra was a baby she had a hard time saying my name so she called me Tashie. I think that's pretty sweet and it's stuck around, unlike Propecia which was her nickname for our other sister Felicia. =D

And now the nominations! First let me browse around and see who has already been nominated... 

1. Stacy at Dancing My Way Through Life, Loss, and Books - She's been through a lot with the loss of her son David William at 15 weeks and is now pregnant with her rainbow baby, but the blog isn't about her current pregnancy. She posts a lot of quotes and book reviews which I love, and sometimes about her loss. Occasionally she makes a pregnancy post (mostly dealing with pregnancy after loss) but she always puts a warning up on those incase you're in a bad place that day and want to skip it.
2. Dspence at Donating Hope - She's a former egg donor now on her own TTC journey using donated sperm! Over the last few months they've had one thing after another happen to put off their IUI cycle and I'm really hoping this is finally it for them.
3. Emily at Eat, Love, Procreate - She's recently had to deal with a failed IVF, reaching Advanced Maternal Age, and is just starting her FET cycle. She uses bold strategically throughout all her posts and I love that!
4. Rebecca at Life of an Army Wife - She's recently gone through her third failed IVF, this last one using donor eggs. She's a super strong amazing woman putting herself through this after the loss of six babies, all the while dealing with a frustrating clinic. It would be awesome if you would go show her some love.
5. Ryanna at A Method in the Madness - She's recently dealt with the loss of her first pregnancy and is awaiting her first AF to start the process all over again. I am hoping she gets her second BFP much quicker than last time and it's stickier than a jolly rancher left out in your car all day!
6. Amber at Old Lady and no Baby - She's recently gotten her BFP after 13 years of infertility! How amazing is that? She's also a softball coach and if her posts are anything to go by a wonderful roll model for those young ladies. Let's hope for blog name change soon!
7. One Day at a Time - She's just found out their last IUI failed and is having LP problems even with progesterone. Earlier this year they were approved to adopt through the state, and are also saving for a possible IVF in the fall.
8. Susan at Riding The Rollercoaster - She's hoping this Clomid cycle is successful and is looking forward to school being out! This is her second cycle TTC after loss, and I'm hoping she gets her rainbow very soon!
9. JoJo at Rollercoaster to Baby Bump - She's recently been in a TTC funk which we all know is too easy to fall into. It's hard to see so many mothers unappreciative of their kids or even mistreating them. On the positive side, last month she found a new RE that she loves! Honestly from the way she talks about the clinic I'm a little jealous. =) 
10. Rhonda at Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This - She's just been approved for private infant domestic open adoption! In her words they are officially "paper pregnant! It's taken nearly three years to get to this point so I am super excited for them.
11. Shelley at The Closet Infertile - She's currently waiting to get AF so they can start their FET cycle. After doing PGD on their seven embryos, only two were genetically normal. Thankfully as we are so often told, it only takes one. 
12. Lucy at TTCMA, Yet Again - She's new to blogging, so you should go say hello! We met on an infertility message board and she is definitely super sweet. Since we are not actively trying right now I've been absent from the boards and I'm so glad I can still get updates on her this way!

Okay I think I checked everyone to make sure they haven't been nominated yet, or at least if they have that they haven't posted yet. If I didn't nominate you, please don't think I don't enjoy your blog or anything! It's just impossible to get everyone.

Liebster Blog Award, Part 2

A few of you may remember that I was nominated for the Liebster Blog Award back in November by The Greek Housewife. Well I got sick (think I had the flu?) and never finished posting about that. I also apparently never finished my 30 Days of Thanks. Oops. Well now I have been nominated again by not one, but two lovely ladies: Danser Cheri from 2 Love Birds Building a Nest and Victoria from You Make Me Feel Like Dancing! Since I've already done the 11 Things About Me part, I'm just going to link you to that post. Everything is mostly the same as it was then, only I have a few more zebra items and I'm less confident my rainbow baby will be here quickly (I will have one though!).

Now on to the questions!

Vickie's Questions

1. What frustrates you about blogging? 
My ideas seem to come in waves. So I will have 50 things I want to blog about one week, and then nothing the next. I usually end up just not posting most of the stuff when I'm in the flood stage because I'm afraid I'm going to seem too inconsistent. I really need the schedule of posting every Wednesday or some weeks I might post everyday but then go a month without anything.

2. What do you love about blogging?
I love having an outlet, a space that is mine, to say whatever I want.

3. If you had 3 hours to yourself (no husband, no kids, no chores) what would you do? 
The same thing we do every night, Pinky - try to take over the world! Really though, as a SAHW I have a lot of free time as is. So I'd probably play around online, watch some Netflix, read, etc.

4. Apart from blogging, how do you spend your free time? 
Playing around online, watching Netflix, reading, etc. =P

5. What is your favorite music? Artist? 
I like what my husband calls Emo White Boy Music. My favorite artist is Anberlin.

6. Describe your ideal romantic dinner! 
I don't know. Romantic dinners aren't really my thing.

7. What is your favorite form of exercise? 
Pretty much the only exercise I do is yoga and pilates so I guess that. I liked dancing like stuff like zumba back when I could do it and not go into a pain crisis.

8. What is your favorite snack? 
Pickles! Also Honey Nut Cheerios.

9. Do you have pets? 
Yes, a 2 year old Yorkie whom I love super muches.

10. What is your all-time favorite movie? 
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

11. What could you really live without? (object)
A food processor. We have one but we rarely use it. There are only a few things I'd miss having it for.

Danser Cheri's Questions

1. What is your favorite color and why?
My favorite color goes back and forth between green and purple. I don't know why, I guess because they are pretty?

2. So, you have a blog. Why? 
I wanted to start documenting our TTC journey so hopefully I could look back on it one day and think about how far we've come.

3. What is your goal for this year? 
Read 30 books. I read 27 books last year so an extra three shouldn't be too hard.

4. What is the best song to describe your mood today? 
Down With The Sickness

5. Who are the 3 most important people in your life and why? 
Oooh this is so hard! DH would be the first one, then probably my mom, but I'm conflicted on the third one. I have two sisters so I really don't want to say one over the other.

6. How did you meet your significant other? (if single, what do you look for in a significant other?) 
I met him on WoW. You can read more about that in my 11 Things About Me post.

7. If there was a $100 bill laying on the ground, would you take it? If so, what would you buy with it? If not, why? 
Heck yeah I would take it! Only reason I wouldn't would be if I could easily tell who it belonged to, and then I would give it back. Otherwise I would take it and put it in the bank with the rest of our money.

8. Compare yourself to your 15 year old self. What would you tell him/her? 
Honestly I can't remember what was going on when I was 15.

9. What is your worst vice? 
Carbs. They are oh so good, and yet so bad.

10. Take your age and double it. Where do you see yourself at that age? 
I would be 48. By then I see myself with a couple of kids one way or another, living somewhere other than Florida, but other than that it's hard to say.

11. What is the best life advice you can give your followers?
If the world didn't suck, we'd all fall off.

Victoria's Questions

1. What was your favorite TV show growing up? 
I Love Lucy

2. What is it that you "get" out of blogging? 
A sense of release.

3. What is your favorite book? Why? 
Probably Anthem by Ayn Rand. I'm a fan of dystopias in general. It's so short you can easily read it in one afternoon so I don't even know how many times I've read it.

4. What made you decide to repost this and nominate others? 
I figure three nominations is a pretty good sign I should actually get around to doing it haha!

5. What is your favorite memory? 
Seeing my DH in person for the first time.

6. What do you do when nobody's watching? 
Dance around in my computer chair.

7. If you won the lottery, what would you do with the money, and why?
I would of course bring out the big fertility guns, injectibles at the very least and IVF if that didn't work. I would buy a new-to-me car. I would get a much nicer apartment/rented house, but not buy a house as we are looking at moving away from the area in 2014. I would update my wardrobe slightly and get some really nice, supportive bras. The ultimate goal though would be to invest the bulk of it so it could supplement our finances long-term.


8. If you could donate to any charity (any specific charity, or a general cause), what would it be?
Something to do with PCOS or Endo I would imagine, or the Methuselah Foundation.

9. If you could do any job in the world, what would it be? 
I just want to be a mom.

10. What do you love most about yourself? List five reasons why. 
I am my own person. I like the things I like, and don't like what I don't. I'm a nerd, but I like Doctor Who because it is entertaining not because I feel I should. I also like Fall Out Boy and Panic! At The Disco even though I know I shouldn't. I don't care if my decisions are popular or not. For the most part I don't even care if people like me or not.

11. Chocolate or vanilla?
Chocolate!

My Questions

1. What is your favorite blog entry (posted by yourself of course) and why?
2. What is your favorite quote?
3. What is your goal for this year?
4. If you could live anywhere, where would it be?
5. Do you know a second (or third, etc) language? If so, what?
6. If you had to pick between bringing 100 books or 100 movies to a deserted island, which would you choose?
7. Apple or Android?
8. What's for dinner?
9. Coffee or tea?
10. If you were to adopt, would it be open or closed?
11. What's the best advice you can give to your followers?

(Yes I know, I stole some of the questions. So sue me.)

Nominations

A Passage to Baby
Donating Hope
Bits and Pieces
Sarah's Corner
My Life with Porh and Other Craziness
Dancing My Way Through Life, Loss, and Books
Every Little Beautiful Pieces
Waiting for my Bun
Our Journey from "Us Two" to a Family
Against All Odds We Did It
My Violet Thoughts

Liebster Blog Award, Part 1

source: Mean Mommy Academy

Vickilicious at The Greek Housewife has nominated me for a Liebster Blog Award! For those that don't know, this award is given to up and coming bloggers by other recipients. During my research I found the cut-off for follower numbers to be between 200-2000. The rules are that I must now state 11 things about myself, answer 11 questions written by my nominator, and then nominate 11 other bloggers who will answer my own 11 questions.

11 Things About Me

1. I am partial to zebra print. I have zebra print converse, a zebra print cowboy hat, a zebra print pillowcase, and a zebra print wallet. I used to have a zebra print purse but it fell apart on me. I'm always looking for a new one though.

2. I have a cotton phobia. Cotton clothing is usually okay unless I think about it too much. I cannot deal with cotton balls though. Certain blankets or warmer clothing can be problematic. I have to do a feel test for socks before I buy them. I think this is probably because I had really bad eczema as a kid, and the cotton snags on it. I'm going to stop thinking about it now before I have to change my clothes.

3. I have a low tolerance for alcohol/medication. I can't drink because I'm a super light weight. Like, really really lightweight. I wouldn't anyway because I think it tastes terrible and don't see the point, but this is a nice back up reason. Some people like to say "oh, well sure, every other drink tastes terrible but this one tastes awesome! TRY IT!" So then I can tell them I can't because I would probably pass out. I also have to be really careful about things like pain medication. Now that I've been on so much of it things are a bit better, but at first I would have to cut my lortabs in half. It's really helpful because I can usually take something a little less heavy duty than what others would need.

4. I love I Love Lucy. No, I wasn't stuttering. It's one of my favorite shows. Just recently my husband bought me three seasons on DVD from Walmart which is awesome. I even dyed my hair red so I could go as her for Halloween one year.

5. I (used to) play the flute. My older sister took up the flute when she was in sixth grade, so I decided I would as well two years later. I was terrible at it for most of school until I became best friends with someone who was one of those child prodigies (and now is a band director). With some tutoring I became one of the best flutists in my high school band. I haven't picked my flute up in years though, actually I'm not sure where it is...

6. Pickles are my favorite food. I really, really like pickles. One year I got a 5 gallon bucket of pickles for my birthday. It was awesome. I like to eat them as a snack. Walmart makes some of the best pickles, which is fortunate since they're pretty cheap and I go through a lot of them. Claussen, the brand kept in the refrigerated section, will always be my favorite though.

7. I met my husband on WoW. Yes, that's right, the video game. We're pretty nerdy. I met him by accident while trying to kill dragons in a sunken troll temple. We became friends and he eventually convinced me that we had something more. He moved from when he lived 8 hours away to my town so we could be together.

8. My favorite author is Peter S. Beagle. I met him once at Dragoncon and it was an incredible experience. Some people you meet and your opinion of them goes down, but not him. He's an amazing story teller. Really he's the picture perfect grandpa that you just want to tell you stories every night before you go to sleep. He sang to me a Russian song about a girl named Natasha (my first name) who would dance and try to sing on bar tables after she had a few.

9. I love musicals. I've mentioned already my love for Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Fiddler on the Roof, Phantom of the Opera, Wicked, The Book of Mormon, Sweeney Todd,   1776, Rent, The Producers, The Pirates of Penzance, Jesus Christ Superstar... I think you get the picture.

10. I'm self-conscious about my writing. I don't like people to read the stuff I write. This isn't too bad because it feels so informal, I mean stuff like fiction or term papers. I just know people are going to hate it even though I mostly received good grades and compliments. The fear of being a terrible writer actually keeps me from writing.

11. I think I will get and stay pregnant. Until the loss last cycle I really didn't think I would ever conceive. I figured we'd go through this song and dance a few more months, I would eventually get a hysterectomy, and our focus would move to adoption. I didn't have any hope of having a biological child of my own or getting to experience pregnancy. Now I do. now I really think that within the next few months I will get my sticky Rainbow Baby. My new outlook is "it's only a matter of time". I hope I'm not let down.

Wow, this list was harder than I thought it would be! It's also pretty long all by itself, without answering any questions or nominating anyone myself. I think I will save that for another post.