Liebster Award

I was pleasantly shocked when LD Masterson decided to honor me with the Liebster Award! It’s nice when someone recognizes another person’s weekly (more or less) blog toil.

Here’s the link to her place, and a HUGE THANK YOU, LD!: http://ldmasterson-author.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-liebster.html. (That was Rule number 1.)

Rule number 2, answer 11 questions from her, list 11 random facts about myself, and make up 11 questions for the ones I nominate. Whoa! That’s 33 questions, if my math is right. My math is pretty bad, but I think this one is right. This didn’t turn out to be as hard as I thought it would!

Liebster Award Rules:

1. Thank the blogger who presented you with the Liebster Award, and link back to his or her blog.

2. Answer the 11 questions from the nominator; list 11 random facts about yourself, and create 11 questions for your nominees.

3. Present the Liebster Award to 11 bloggers, who have blogs with 200 followers or less, whom you feel deserve to be noticed. Leave a comment on the blogs letting the owners know they have been chosen. (No tag backs.)

4. Upload the Liebster Award image to your blog.

OK, down to business with #2, 3,and 4!

Eleven Questions from LD to me:

What is your favorite...

1. ...room in your house? You might think it’s my office, since I spend so much time there, but it’s really  the sunroom on the back of our new house. I can watch the bluebirds building a next in the hollow tree, cringe as the squirrel tries to get inside (I don’t think he can!), rejoice at the trees blossoming and leafing out more every day, and try to catch a glimpse of the deer my husband saw at dusk the other day.
2. ...flavor of ice cream? Chocolate. That’s the proper flavor for most things.
3. ...holiday? Christmas! I love decorating, putting out the stockings I’ve made for everyone in the family, baking. I buy gifts all year long.
4. ...vacation spot? The mountains. I think the Rockies are my favorite, and of those, the Canadian Rockies--most beautiful mountains on this planet, I’m pretty sure. But we now live very close to the Smokies, so that may change.
5. ...genre for reading? Mystery, in general, but I love true crime. I also like biographies of interesting people, and some literary works.
6. ...breed of dog? Golden retriever. We had two and adored them.
7. ...time of the day? That’s hard. Early, when the sky is starting to get light is night, but so is evening when the world is settling down. I guess I like both ends of the day.
8. ...sports team (any sport)? My favorite to watch is ice hockey.
9. ...book from your childhood? Maybe THE BOXCAR CHILDREN. I only read the first one, although it went on to become a series. I sure loved that book. After that, my favorites are every horse book in the children’s section of the public library.
10. ...sleepwear? That’s a little personal! What if I said nothing? Sometimes, if it’s very hot, that’s it. But otherwise, cotton or silk.
11. ...year in your life so far (not counting this one)? I’ll have to say the decade when our kids were being born and growing up. I fell into bed exhausted every night and didn’t realize what a wonderful time I was having.

Eleven Random facts about myself:

1. I was born shy. Very, very shy.
2. When I went to college, I was miserable being shy and decided to change that. I forced myself to hello to random people and was startled when some would smile and return the greeting. I decided that people were more interested in themselves than in me anyway.
3. I was born in Los Angeles. I stayed there for 3 months, they tell me.
4. My hair is barely turning gray and, believe me, it should have started decades ago. My former hairdresser says it’s because I’m partly Scottish.
5. I’m more than Scottish, though. My official list is: Scots, Irish, English, Welch, German, a little bit of American Indian, and Swedish.
6. My mother’s father, who died when I was 4 (I don’t remember him at all) said the American Indian was on the wrong side of the blanket. I suspect we’ll never track that down.
7. I’m almost always humming, or having tune run through my head. A lot of the time it’s just a piece of a song, a few measures that go over and over. This doesn’t bother me as much as you might imagine.
8. One branch of my family, the Swedes, came over with my grandmother’s generation. Another branch, the grandfather who was married to that grandmother, has been here since the Revolutionary War. I was told the Virgil Hughes lied about his age to be a drummer boy and join the troops. So my illustrious ancestor was a liar, most notably. His descendants ended up in the Ozarks in Missouri.
9. I love to garden, but haven’t had a chance to for several years. Now I have a big yard and wonder if I really DO want to do that again.
10. I’ve been to a lot of European countries, but never to Asia, Africa, South America, or Antarctica. I’d love to remedy that--all except Antarctica.
11. I’m having hot flashes for the 23rd year. One doctor told me I’d have them the rest of my life. I’m beginning to think he was right.

Eleven Questions for my recipients to answer:

1.   Do you like your name(s)?

2.   Are you living where you expect to stay, or will you move some day?

3.   If you have pets, what are they? If not, why not?

4.   Are you neat of sloppy? Do you have a mate who is the opposite?

5.   Are you a morning or night person? Again, are you living with the opposite?

6.   Would you rather be outside or inside?

7.   Do you ever get giddy with happiness? If so, what does it?

8.   Are you a glass half-full or half-empty, or is your cup full?

9.   What’s your favorite color? Do you wear that color or decorate with it?

10.  If you could be anyone else, now or in the past (or the future), who would that be?

11.  Who do consider the greatest writer ever?

Okay, this should be easy.  But no one-word answers. Details or explanations required.

Here are my eleven choices for the Liebster Award:

Pamela and Terri at http://mayhemandmagic2.blogspot.com/

Librarian at http://librariandoa.blogspot.com/

Mason Canyon at http://masoncanyon.blogspot.com/

Novel Adventurers at http://noveladventurers.blogspot.com/

The group at http://writerswhokill.blogspot.com/

Barb Schlichting at http://bschlichting.blogspot.com/

Ellis Vidler at http://theunpredictablemuse.blogspot.com/

Sasscer Hill at http://sasscerhill.blogspot.com/

Kaye Wilkinson Barley at http://www.kayewilkinsonbarley.com/

Judy Hogan at http://postmenopausalzest.blogspot.com/

Earl Staggs at http://earlwstaggs.wordpress.com/

I have one request of my eleven award recipients. Even if you chose not to accept this award - meaning if you'd rather not do the questions, random facts, etc. - please take the time to visit at least a few of the other blogs listed here. We're all looking for readers and you might find a blog or two you really love.

Of course, the same goes for anyone else who comes by.  Take a minute and check out a blog or two you haven't visited before. You never know who you'll find.