Blog award

Alicia just gave me my first blog "award" -- thanks!! I'm supposed to share seven things I love, and then pass the award to seven friends whose blogs I enjoy reading.

Seven things I love:

1. Motherhood. It goes without saying that I love my daughter -- all parents love their children. But I love Maggie with a depth and unconditionality I didn't know I possessed. I love the things I learn from her -- the way she notices everything, the way she finds wonder in small things, the new things she learns each day. And I love the person I have become since having Maggie; I'm much more laid back, more content to live in the moment and take each day as it comes, rather than attempt to plan every part of my life. (What's ironic is that this life I have now is not how I, the self-professed master planner, planned things. Bobby and I debated never having kids, and when I got pregnant with Maggie, I was sure that I never wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. Those Johnson & Johnson commercials are right. Having a baby changes everything.)



2. Travel. I love to travel. Love, love, love it. (Must be why my favorite TV show is The Amazing Race.) I love seeing new places, learning the histories of different lands, hearing -- if not speaking -- new languages, and experiencing other ways of life. I think it must be genetic; my parents are currently trying to hike every national park in the U.S. (and they've done A LOT), my brother spent two months solo in Argentina and rode from Knoxville to Portland, Oregon, on a motorcycle, and my brother and my dad spent a month in Europe together. Me, I've traveled to New York City, the Big Island of Hawaii, Canada, out West (Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, and the Utah national parks), various cities throughout the South, the Bahamas, Italy, Paris, and Belgium. Nothing was more eye-opening than the trip to Europe Bobby and I took in 2003, our first trip overseas. I gained a lot of confidence in myself on this trip -- whether it was learning how to navigate the European rail system on our own, type on an Italian computer keyboard, communicate with someone who didn't speak a lick of English, or figure out how to get soap in a Parisian laundromat. And I learned that people worldwide are generally friendly, helpful, and proud ... and not in any hurry to trade passports with Americans. We dream of returning to Europe one day, maybe even retiring there! Other places I'd love to see include the Pacific Northwest, Germany, England, Greece, Montana, the Amazon rainforest, Africa, and the Holy Land.



3. Classical music. In my junior year of high school, I joined the band. I needed two performing arts credits to earn an honors diploma, I could read music, and I had lots of friends in band, so I figured, why not? Our band's star student was Keith Bean, a trumpet player who refused to date until he perfected his trumpet-playing (this perfectionist attitude earned him a full college scholarship, and I've heard he's a professional musician now ... no word on marital status). Beaner and I had AP U.S. History together, and I remember many good-natured jokes between the two of us regarding his musical loves. He was always irritated that our school bell was out of pitch, and I made fun of him constantly for admitting he liked classical music better than whatever was popular in the late 80's. Now, I have become that person. I love classical music ... I listen to it all the time! My car radio rarely leaves WSMC 90.5, and my personal CD collection features way more Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart than anything else. My general favorites are Baroque music (Bach, Vivaldi, and Handel) and the early Classical period (Hayden, Mozart), and my favorite pieces are Beethoven's 9th Symphony and Elgar's Enigma Variations. The first is my stress-reliever; I play the 3rd movement (the "Ode to Joy" part) as loud as I can stand it and drum along to the tympani parts. Enigma Variations is cool because each variation is a musical picture of one of Elgar's friends.



4. Photography. There's something about a moment captured in time. Video is great, but I'm always drawn to still photos. (Maybe that's why I've spent so much on pictures of Maggie!) A couple of years ago, we bought a good camera, and I love playing with it. I take, on average, several hundred pictures each month, and I think I've gotten better. But I'd love to learn more. (Casey, are you reading this? You still owe me camera lessons!)
   
   
5. Words. The written word is art. I love to write, I love knowing the rules that govern writing, I love reading good writing, and I loved teaching writing. Writing is my outlet ... what more can I say? And the grammar thing? I'm a true dork. I have friends who will call or email me with grammar questions, always prefacing their request with, "If you don't have time for this ..." Are you kidding? I LOVE going through my three grammar handbooks to find the right answer or reasoning behind something. One of my favorite books is my really good thesaurus -- there's just something fulfilling about finding the exactly perfect word -- and one year I asked for (and received) an unabridged dictionary for Christmas. When I type a blog post, I often edit it 20 or 30 times, adding a comma here or finding a better word there.



6. Animals. Gandhi: "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." Albert Schweitzer: "Until he extends the circle of compassion to all livings things, Man will not himself find peace." My friend Deborah: "I love all animals - the only creatures I believe are capable of true unconditional love. They deserve to be treated with love and respect. I believe there is a special place in hell for those who mistreat them." My own choices reflect my love for animals; I don't eat them, carry their skin on my shoulder, wear their fur (or their skin), or sit on them on my couches or car seat covers. I believe that if slaughterhouses had glass walls, we'd all be vegetarians.
   
   
7. Education. The older I get, the more I love to learn. I loved college so much that after a two-year foray into the field in which I majored, I went back to a college to work. I never could wrap my brain around a new year starting in January; instead, I celebrated in August with the beginning of each new school year. One of the perks of working at UTC was the ability to take classes for free. I earned a master's degree in English and took other classes in public administration and foreign languages -- for fun. If I ever have unlimited time and money, I'll go back and learn, really learn, foreign languages (I especially want to learn French) and study history.

Seven friends I'm "awarding":

1. Haifa. Haifa is my oldest friend. We met in August of 1986 when my family moved to Morristown -- on her birthday, no less! -- and we lived across the street from each other. (She likes to say that our friendship was the best birthday present she ever received.) We went to different colleges and later lived in different parts of the country, but our friendship is one of those rare and precious gems that allows us to pick up the phone and, no matter how long it's been since we've talked, pick right up where we left off, without any awkwardness or small talk. In many ways, she's my polar opposite -- she's the type of person who will jump into the car at a moment's notice and just take off, not knowing where the road will take her, whereas I want to have the whole trip mapped out in advance. Maybe that's what makes her so fun ... some of her impulsiveness rubs off on me. She recently started blogging, and her site is really cool -- her boyfriend designed it for her, and the design changes throughout the day, as does the quote on the sign up top.
   
2. Kimberly. When I lived in Morristown, Kim lived next-door to Haifa (see above). She was a year ahead of me in school, and we were friendly (I think we attended the same church) but we weren't super close. Fast forward about 20 years ... she found me on Facebook and it turns out we have a TON in common. She's a fellow Democrat in a really red state, and she's very into animal rights, conservation, and environmentalism -- her blog is even titled "Tree Huggin' Mummy." She spent time living in England and is married to a Brit, both of which I think are way cool. She lives in Knoxville, and we're hoping to get together one of these days.


3. Kristin. I've never met Kristin in real life, but she's a great internet friend. Her oldest son was born the same month as Maggie, and we met on a message board. She loves to cook, garden, and grow veggies, and she takes really cool pictures of her boys and of the things she bakes!


4. Shari H. The BEST lactation consultant in the South! Shari helped me so much when I was struggling to breastfeed Maggie those first few weeks. She is a genius at what she does; if I had to go back to school and learn an entirely new career, I'm pretty sure I would want to be Shari. Her job combines three of the things I feel most passionately about -- motherhood, breastfeeding, and education (she teaches lots of the Lamaze and other childbirth classes). I'm so glad that we've kept in touch through the years, and now she has a blog!


5. Varinia. We worked together at UTC and met while working orientation one summer. We've bonded over many things -- our love of books and the English Rose tearoom and our dislike of stupid people, to name a few -- and she is an amazing mom. Bobby jokes that she is his parenting mentor; sometimes when we're dealing with something with Maggie (especially when Maggie was an infant), he would ask, "What would Varinia do?" She's a super encouraging friend, and she happens to be one of those moms who's managed to remain ultra-cool and gorgeous through the years. She also NEVER updates her blog; maybe this will be the inspiration she needs? :)


6. Jessica. Jessica and I also met on the aforementioned message board; the only difference is that we are friends in real life too! She moved to Chattanooga from Florida a few years ago, and she happened to post a message asking, "Does anyone live in Chattanooga?" She has a daughter four days older than Maggie, and the two girls have become great friends too. We go to church together and have become really close over the last couple of years.


7. Stephanie. Stephanie lives in Atlanta and has two of the most gorgeous children you'll ever see! One of the things I love about Stephanie, in addition to the fact that she's just really cool, is that she seems to really take life by the hands. When her son, who is Maggie's age, was born, she was unhappy with the lack of fashion options available for boys, so she started her own website selling cute boys' clothes. (I think she's expanded it to girls' clothes too, now that she has one of her own!) Her blog might be private ... I can't remember ... but be sure to check out MonkeeMoos.

If you see your name above and want to play along, please do so (and let me know so I can read yours!). Write a blog entry about seven things you love, and award seven friends whose blogs you love reading. Don't forget to provide links to the blogs!