Kreativ Blogger Award

I have Low Blogging Esteem, I think.  I don't get many comments, so I think, "Oh.  I must be the worst writer ever..." or I think, "I must be the most boring person ever...." Or even worse, "Nobody cares about me."  (I'm a sensitive flower.)  It's dumb, but there.  I've put it out there.  My blogging insecurity.

And it's so dumb, because I swear I do this for myself.  This is my journal.  My aware-of-my-audience journal.  I mean, am I going to write about my period on here?  No.  (You're welcome.)  Or am I going to rant and rave when I'm mad at Ben for something?  No.  It's a journal that I won't be embarrassed of when I'm up in heaven and my great-grandchild opens it up to read.  Which is more than I can say for the journals I kept in junior high.  I swear that each entry probably says [and you need to say the following in your head in Valley Girl Talk], "Oh my gosh, Mr. Cute Guy totally looked at me today!  Eeeeee!!!  He is so totally cute!  I wonder if he likes me!  Me, me, me, me, ME!!"  Duh.  Oh, and for the record, Mr. Cute Guy NEVER liked me.  Hahaha!  I reeeeeally need to go back and rip out all of those stupid entries from my junior high journals.  It's on my to-do list.

So when my cute friend Melissa nominated me for a Kreativ Blogger award on her blog, I was reeeeeeeeally surprised; it totally made my day/week/month/year.  And it made my Low Blogger Esteem creep a little higher. Thanks so much, Meliss!  And if any of you want to see the cutest-dressed gal around, or feel like cooking something healthy, fresh, and amazing, you'll have to stop by her blog.  She was doing the skinny jeans with ballet flats, like, 10 years ago.  While the rest of us were still in Boot Cut Land.  She has this innate sense of style that I just love.  And every recipe she has recommended on her blog that I have tried, I have fallen completely in love with.  I think she and I are Identical Tastebud Twins.  And she is just so dang nice.  Sincere.  Kind.  She lived in my neighborhood when I was in a hard place in my life.  My hubs had lost his job, I was working full-time, and I was hating my life.  I was kind of in this muddle of emotional pain that whole time, so I didn't reach out and get to know her like I would have liked to.  Sorry about that, Melissa.

And because I want to remember the nice things she said about my blog, I copied and pasted it here so that, every time I think, "Nobody likes my blog," I can read it and feel better:

"Last, but certainly not least is Kar. Karlenn is also a very talented writer, see a theme here?  Maybe that's because she use to be an English teacher?! (See my confession number 7 Kar, haha)  I love her stories and how she gives every detail so you feel like you are there.  I love the stories about her kids because they are always hilarious!  Even better are the stories about her neighbors...I'll leave it at that...you must go read for yourself!"

Ah.  Thanks again, Meliss.

So now I'm supposed to write seven interesting things about myself.  I hope I can think of that many...

1.  So I keep baby wipes in the bathroom, for those times when you need to feel a little more...cleansed than the toilet paper can do.  Do I need to paint a picture?  No.  I also keep Clorox Wipes in the bathroom.  I loooooooooooove those things.  If the sink is bugging me, I just whip a Clorox Wipe out of the box, wipey-wipey, and voila!  It looks like I just used comet and a washcloth!  With wayyyyyy less effort.  Anyways, the other day, I needed to feel a little more...cleansed than the toilet paper can do.  So I open the baby wipes box, and we were totally out.  Then I glanced at the Clorox Wipes box.  And then I went, "Nawwww...."  And then I glanced again at the Clorox Wipes box.  And then I went, "Nawwww..."  And then I succumbed to my need to feel a little more...cleansed than the toilet paper can do, and I wiped my butt with a Clorox Wipe.  So, for a little while, my butt was 99.9% free of flu/cold viruses.

Sorry.  That probably bordered on Writing About My Period Land.  But I think it's funny.

2.  Something that may have started me on the road to quitting my Bean Burrito Addiction - I had a horrible bean burrito yesterday.  I went to a different place than usual - same chain, but different location - and they had stuffed my burrito with the burnt scrapings of beans from the bottom of their pan, no doubt.  It was so disgusting.  I was so mad.  And traumatized. 

3.  I would rather just throw away a burrito and go hungry than go back to a fast food place and complain about the food.  Dumb, I know.  I'm not only a sensitive flower, but I'm a timid flower, too.  I'm working on it.

4.  My friend lent me her Insanity DVDs this week.  I put it off for a few days, mainly because I was seriously intimidated and scared.  And I had heard that there is a lot of jumping in Insanity, and me and jumping aren't best friends lately.  Um, ever since I had my fourth child.  Jumping is a no go, apparently.  As is sneezing, coughing, and laughing too hard.

I'm a damaged flower, too. :)

But I actually did it yesterday!  I just kind of modified the jumps so that I was crossing my legs and jumping, instead of doing jumping jacks, and I was able to do it.  And I actually did the planks and the crazy-hard push ups and everything else.  There is no way I looked as good as Tonya-the-buff-Chris-T.-protege did, but I did it!!!  And I felt good about myself.  I can't really walk or hold Gage or anything today - I'm mega-sore - but I'm excited to try the second DVD tomorrow.  And a little scared still.

5.  I designed a new card yesterday.  Wanna see it?  Okay.

My mom said she wanted to buy some cards from me that could be used for any occasion.  So I designed this one.  What do you think?  I've been dying to use those stamps for a long time.  So cute.

6.  Micah peed in his bed, like, a week ago.  So I pulled off the sheets and washed them, and I scrubbed the mattress itself.  And um....I haven't re-made his bed yet.  And it's been a week.  I keep telling myself I haven't had the time, but let's be honest -  I've probably had the time, but I choose to use it in other ways.  Like designing cute cards.  Or gardening.  So my poor son has been sleeping on a mattress with a blanket on top of him for the past week.  No sheets.  No padding.  Probably not very comfortable.  I'm a jerk.  Every time I remember to do it, he's asleep already, dang it.  But I'm giving myself a few points for having changed Gage's sheets today.

7.  I really hate calling my daughter's friends to arrange play dates.  My brother-in-law mocks me for arranging play dates.  He says that only yuppies arrange play dates for their kids.  He's like, "Why don't you just have her go to her friend's house and ask if she can play?"  Which is a good point.  That's what Dylan does.  But there's a good reason for my yuppy play-date-setting-up practice.  She's at that age where she can't remember how to get to her friends' houses.  Even if they're only a few blocks away.  Secondly, I feel weird about having her walk by herself anyways, you know?  Ever since I read The Lovely Bones, I've freaked out about that.  I won't let her walk anywhere alone.

So anyways, she is always up in my grill about playing with friends.  "Can I have a friend come over?"  She says that, like, seventy times per day.  And I really like Sadie's friends.  I just, for some reason, hate setting up play dates.  It's the setting up that I hate.  Which is so dumb.  I guess I just feel like I'm bugging people when I call them to set up play dates.  Almost like a solicitor.  I don't know why I feel that way.  It's just how I be.

So when Sadie is like, "Can I have a friend come over?"  I say, "I'll call a friend if you ____________."  And then whatever I need done goes in that blank.  I know that she's less likely to make me set up a dang play date if it means she'll have to clean something first.  And that's why I do it.  Which is really mean of me.  But don't you go thinking she never gets to play.  Inevitably, she ends up cleaning her room or changing her sheets or putting the dishes away or whatever, and then, as much as I hate doing it, I do my part and call a friend and set up a play date.  Once, I told her I'd set up a play date if she would clean her room.  And her room was a pit.  It really needed cleaning.  But she was not about to clean it.  So we were at a stand-off for three days or so.  She would say she wanted a friend over.  I would tell her that I couldn't do something for her if she couldn't do something for me.  Back and forth.  Eventually, I won. She cleaned her room and I called a friend.

Mmmkay.  So those are seven things about me.  Now to the fun part - my seven favorite blogs to look at:

1.  Patsmo La Ratsmo.  Patty is really, really good at putting feelings into words.  That's my biggest weakness as a writer.  I can tell a funny story, but when it comes articulating my feelings, I just can't hack it. Which is why writing a little something sentimental in greeting cards is a nightmare for me.  She makes fun of me for that.  I also love how tongue-in-cheek she is.  Oh, and Patty has some kind of karma where complete strangers start fights with her.  It's ca-razy.  And really funny.

2.  Chris Loves Julia.  This is actually Patty's sister, who I don't know.  But I stalk her blog, because I LOVE it.  She likes to remodel and redecorate houses.  She's done fantastic, amazing things with her house this past year.  I always get excited when I see that she has posted, which is almost daily.  It's my daily fix.

3.  The Daybook.  Love, love, love this blog.  I also don't know this gal - her name is Sydney.  She is a stylist.  She puts outfits together and has her hubs take photos of her in them.  I struggle a little in the personal style area of my life, and she always knows just what goes with what and what looks good.  She occasionally posts pics of her adorable, chubby baby, and that's just the cherry on top for me.  I looooooooove babies.

4.  Can You Stay for Dinner?  Um, I also don't know this girl.  Sorry; these are just honestly the first posts I like to go to when I log onto my blog.  The gal that writes this blog - dang it, I can't remember her name - is a food writer.  She lost somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 pounds a few years ago, and she's managed to keep it off.  She shares recipes for low-cal, but very, very delicious food, but she also often writes about her relationship with food and with exercise.  It's a breath of fresh air to read her writing.  She's inspiring and very cool.  And her food photography is amazing.

5.  The Red-Headed Hostess  I first looked at her blog on recommendation to a friend who, like me, teaches Gospel Doctrine.  The gal who writes this blog has some fantastic ideas for scripture study.  I've used two of her "visual maps" for my class - one on the book of Mosiah and one on the book of Alma.  The different characters go all over the place in those books and it's easy to get confused.  Her drawings and notes really helped me (and my students) to make sense of the confusion.  But I'm also really enjoying the other things she posts about.  Like today, she wrote a post with some really fantastic ideas for Father's Day.  She's so creative.

6.  Crafty Meggy  Heyyyy!  Someone I know!  This is my friend Megs' crafting blog.  I seriously need to figure out where she gets all of this energy.  One day, she'll be like, "Look at this room that I completely organized!"  And then the next day, she's like, "Look what I just sewed!"  And then the following day, she's like, "I went jogging today!"  And on and on.  Give me some of your energy, Megs.  I need it.  Her posts make me want to get my butt up and move.  Which is a good thing.  And I'm coveting her frog bean bag she made.  I'm always needing bean bags for my Sunday School class.  I should commission her to make me some...

7.  The Education of Miss H.  This is my sister's sister-in-law, Mindy.  She is a riot.  She teaches 7th grade English, so I feel a definite affinity toward her.  She is an amaaaaaaaaaaazing teacher.  Those sevvies are so lucky to have her.  She writes the funniest, funniest posts.  She will find a common thread that runs through the things she's done for the past couple of weeks and tie her activities all to that thread so seamlessly.  She's an amazing writer.  And a funny one.  Every time I read her blog, I keep thinking, "If she lived in my town, we would be besties."  For now, I have to settle with seeing her every Fourth of July for a few minutes and telling her that I stalk her blog and how much I love it.  Which must be a little uncomfortable for her.  She's very gracious about it. :)

Aight.  So for you seven who I nominated, and only if you want, you do the following:

1.  Copy the Kreativ Blogger Award logo and place it in your post.
2.  Thank the person who nominated you and link back to her blog.
3.  List 7 things about you that people might find interesting.
4.  Nominate 7 other bloggers for their own Kreativ Blogger Award.
5.  Leave a comment on the blogs you nominate to let them know about the award.

Man, that last one is going to be so embarrrrrrrrrrrrrrassing.  Because most of these ladies don't know me.  Ah well.

And now I'm off to work on my lesson for this Sunday.  Ka-chow!