Liebster Blogger Award:  Grass Oil gave me this award.  Thank you so much Molly!  She's my friend from high school, and we reconnected at our ten year reunion and have been friends again ever since then.  For a while I was lucky enough to live near her, and we had our youngest kids not too far apart from each other.  She inspired me then that having three kids wasn't too much of a handful.  And she inspires me now to blog and not care about what people think about it.  I'm not a writer primarily, but I do like to write and I do enjoy blogging.  She's the proud mom of three boys, and she's an introspective, funny, and opinionated writer.  I appreciate being recognized by someone with her talent!  So again, thank you Molly for mentioning me!

The Rules

1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves.
2. Answer the 11 questions the person giving the award has set for you.
3. Create 11 questions for the people you will be giving the award to.
4. Choose 11 people to award and send them a link to your post. Go to their page and tell them.
5. No tag backs.

11 Things About Me:

1.  I'm allergic to fragrance and cigarette smoke. I'm really sensitive to smells.
2. I'm half-Korean.
3. I have a goldfish in my bathroom and another fish tank in the kitchen (not goldfish).
4. I am learning to play electric guitar.
5. I hate mornings.
6. I don't eat wheat, corn, sugar, or eggs.
7. I wanted to be a sleep scientist when I was a kid.
8. I've had sixteen surgeries
9. I hope to live to be 100 years old.
10. I fly in my dreams.
11. My back hurts.
    

My Questions for the future Liebsters:

• Are you a dog, bird or cat person? Why?  I'm definitely a dog person because I'm allergic to cats! Plus you can't take a cat for a walk.  And they poop and pee in a litter box then walk around the house...yuck!  I have two dogs now, boston terriers (brother and sister), named Tom Brady and Marley respectively.  Before them, I had a boxer and gave her away because she kept knocking my kids over.  Before her, I had a husky/rottweiler/wolf mix named Jordan. She lived to be almost 14. She was the best dog ever!  I also had Jordan's mom, Kelsey, before that.  Kelsey gave birth to a litter of pups, and I kept Jordan and her sister, Freya.  My boyfriend kept her son, Orion.  When we got back together, we had four dogs together.  On my 23rd birthday, he accidentally ran over Freya with my orange VW van while we were staying on a commune in Northern California.  It was a traumatic experience.  We went to replace her with another wolf-hybrid and ended up with two females, Lupus and Gray Cloud.  We had five dogs at one time!  I love the feeling of hiking/walking with dogs without leashes. It makes me feel free and part of nature!
• Favorite ice cream presentation: hard packed or soft serve? Cake cone or sugar cone?  I don't eat ice cream anymore due to food intolerances.  But in the old days, I used to like hard packed ice cream in a cake cone! My favorite flavor was chocolate mint chip.
 
• Favorite time of day: dawn or eventide?  Sunset (evening) is my favorite time of day.  Sunny afternoons are a close second. I am most definitely NOT a morning person.  I take pictures at sunset all the time. I love how the sky is illuminated with patterns and colors!  It's never the same thing twice. 
 
• What do you like most in others? I appreciate kindness and compassion in others.  We are all one people walking through our lives on this beautiful planet.  I wish we could all live in peace and in respect of one another. 
 
• What is the most frustrating part of your craft?  That takes me defining my craft. I have a few crafts, so I will focus on my professional craft:  teaching math.  The most frustrating part of my craft is the negative attitude toward mathematics.  Kids get frustrated. Parents are frustrated. People give up on math because it is too hard.  I call BS!  If we increase rigor in the elementary and middle school years, I believe our students would be better prepared for the abstract nature of the high school years.  Kids need exposure. Kids need practice. Kids need encouragement. That's what my craft is about, and I'm hell bent on affecting change for the better!
 
• What do you do for exercise?  I swim, do yoga, light weights, the rowing machine, the arm bike, walk, and bike.  I also stretch and do squats and all manner of PT type exercises in random moments.
 
• What is your favorite personal quality in yourself?  My favorite personal quality is my gregariousness.  I have always been outgoing. My mom used to joke that I can make friends with a telephone pole.  I do appreciate a wide spectrum of people and do my best to get along and find common ground with others. 
 
• Is where you are right now in your life where you expected to be?  Yes. Exactly.  Well, almost.  When I was young, I would look into the future and see myself as a comfortable married woman with children wearing diamond earrings.  I am comfortable (thanks to my husband's glowing career as a health care lawyer), and I have beautiful children, and I have diamond earrings.  I lost the backing of one of them, and I still haven't gotten it replaced through my insurance.  Once I do it, I will be able to wear them again!  Besides the material things, all I ever wanted was a husband and family.  I have all that. I am eternally grateful!
 
• What would you change, if you could, about your life per your answer above?  I would only change my current physical state.  I don't want to be in pain every day. So I'm learning how to change things as best I can. I go to PT. I get massages. I work out. I rest.  I focus on nutrition.  I do what I can. 
 
• What is the greatest sorrow you have experienced?  The greatest sorrow I've experienced is losing my father and many other friends.  See this blog entry about the one I feel the most involved with.  I hate how death takes people away unexpectedly.  Especially when they are young people who haven't lived full lives.  Knowing that someone I once cared about and whose company I once enjoyed is now a lifeless corpse either buried or cremated is a horrible thought.
 
• What is your greatest joy?  My children are my greatest joy.  All I wanted to be when I was a kid was a wife and mommy. My dreams came true, and I am blessed with three children of my own and a stepson. 

11 Blogs Receiving the Liebster 2012 Award (in no particular order):

• https://www.facebook.com/woman.wild.photo
• https://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=hp#!/AdventuresInWunderland
• https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mary-Tyler-Mom/159776680754263
• https://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=hp#!/goodacorn
• http://taylorsgift.org/taylors-place/taylors-place-blog/
• http://dragonflysamadhi.blogspot.com/2012/09/santosha.html?spref=fb
• https://www.facebook.com/MomBloggingForDummies
• http://www.elizabethfoss.com/
• https://www.facebook.com/pages/Its-a-Dome-Life/203144843081219
• https://www.facebook.com/CassandrasCorner
• https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dana-Ellyn/176599042352240

11 Questions for award recipients:

• What are your pet peeves?
• What's your favorite meal?
• What do you think about climate change?
• A friend of yours texts you one day and you don't answer. Then the friend dies the next day. What do you do?
• What can you do to make the world a better place?
• What's your greatest strength?
• What's your greatest weakness?
• What do you love about yourself?
• What do you hate about yourself?
• What dreams do you have for the future?
• Think of someone who needs your positive thoughts and energy.  Write a note to them and send them some positive wishes.