I love this! I was nominated for the Liebster Award which isn’t really an award but it is a way to shine some (lime)light on new blogs. Thank you so much, Sheila at Sheila’s Potpourri, for thinking of me.
Here is a little background I found on the Liebster Award from Wordingwell.com:
- It is given to bloggers by bloggers.
- The word “liebster” come from the German meaning lovely, beloved, dearest.
- There are several variations of the “rules”.
- Accepting the award and playing along provides opportunities to market or promote one’s own blog while paying it forward for other up and coming bloggers.
The rules for this award are as follows:
- Acknowledge the blog who nominated you.
- Answer the 11 questions that the person who nominated you gave you.
- List 11 facts about yourself.
- Name 11 bloggers to nominate for the Liebster Award that have under 200 followers .
- Give your nominees 11 questions to answer.
I can do all of that except I don’t know 11 bloggers to nominate for the Liebster Award. Most of the bloggers I virtually hang around have been at this blogging business longer than I have. But I do know a few gals who are just getting started like I am and so I will nominate them for the Liebster and hope that we can all create more interest in our blogs together.
Sheila’s 11 questions for her nominees:
- Where are you from and where do you currently live?
I was born in Buffalo, New York. At the age of 4, my family moved to Boston, Massachusetts where we lived for six years. At the end of the fifth grade when I was 10, we moved to Memphis, Tennessee and I lived there until my sophomore year of college when I moved to Knoxville in the other end of the state. After my college graduation, I moved back to Memphis for a year then married a soldier and we were stationed in the Republic of Panama for over six years. In 1988, we moved to Ft. Bliss in El Paso, Texas and I have been there ever since.
- How long have you been blogging and why did you start?
I started blogging in the fall of 2014 as a place to put my thoughts and feelings since my retirement from a 25 year career as a public school librarian. I also found “therapy” in posting my fashion challenge photos. Hoping to expand to bigger and better blogging in the New Year.
- What is the meaning behind your blog?
Love this question. I came up with the title to represent the beginning chapters and ending chapters of a happily lived life, to indicate that I am finally living my fairy tale, and starring myself as Cinderella.
- What hobbies do you enjoy?
I enjoy writing, reading, blogging, scrapbooking and cross stitching. I like traveling – especially to warm, beachy places. I swim, workout at the gym, ride my bike but do none of them as often as I should.
- What book(s) is on your nightstand right now?
“How to Write a Book in a Month” which I have had for years. “Jesus Calling” by Sarah Young, “The Message” by Eugene H. Peterson and “Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin” by Liesl Shurtliff and a whole bunch of other books downloaded to my Nook.
- Chocolate: milk, dark or white?
Milk chocolate is my first choice, but I never turn down a piece of any kind of chocolate.
- What is your favorite color? Food? Pandora Station?
My favorite color is green, probably an olive or murky dark green. Wow, I love food…just about all food so to pick one favorite food is terribly difficult. For now, I would say I am really loving some sushi! I don’t know enough about sushi to say what I like other than I like spicy with a healthy helping of wasabi to jazz it up. I don’t have a favorite Pandora Station, I don’t really “Pandora”. But if I did, it would be a folksy-country-contemporary blend of Carly Simon, Carrie Underwood and Katy Perry.
- What is one thing that you like about yourself?
I like that I am a very hard worker, more than a bit OCD (obsessive compulsive) and a perfectionist. I am hard on myself and often do more than is required or necessary. And expect everyone around me to do their best at whatever they do.
- What is one thing you splurged on that you are happy you did?
Can I share two things that I splurged on? When I was a freshman in college, I worked at a very nice department store for a Christmas season. I fell in love with a dress in the junior’s department. It was black with a small orange flower print, ribbons tied in bows on either side of the waist, long sleeves with lace at the cuffs. It was very gypsy-looking. The dress cost more than any other piece of clothing I had ever worn. I saved one of my paychecks and bought the dress and loved the way wearing it made me feel. Years later, my daughters played dress up in it and fought over who would get to wear it. The other thing I splurged on was an in-ground pool and spa when my girls were in elementary school. I wanted them to become confident swimmers but I also wanted our house to be the place where my daughters and their friends gathered. I wanted to be able to meet the friends, and later the boyfriends. I wanted my daughters to want to have their friends over rather than going to their friends’ houses where I couldn’t keep an eye on things. And it worked.
- Where is the farthest place you’ve traveled to?
Paris and other points of interest in France. Over 5,000 miles from my home in El Paso.
- What church/denomination do you attend?
Non-denominational Christian right now…Abundant Living Faith Center. Have attended Hillcrest Baptist Church in El Paso somewhat regularly and The Church of the River Unitarian Church in Memphis as a teenager growing up in Tennessee.
My Eleven Facts:
- I am actually pretty shy and was very shy as a child.
- I am a crazy driver – not so much now but in my younger days. Have had probably close to a dozen wrecks, many of them resulting in my car being totaled. In one case, I picked up my car from the body shop after practically totaling it and in driving it home, had a wreck that did total the car.
- I lived in the Republic of Panama for six years as an Army wife.
- I love animals. I have had many dogs (mostly Siberian Huskies) and many cats (mostly adopted strays) all of whom claimed a piece of my heart.
- I created and hosted a televised reading show for ten years in El Paso. I “starred” in over 100 episodes of “Come Read with Me”.
- In high school I was anorexic. I went from approximately 128 pounds to 85 pounds in my senior year. My first year of college I gained the typical freshman 15 and held my weight steady at around 100 pounds. In my sophomore I got over it all and ballooned to over 160 pounds.
- Approximately 20 years ago I fell about 15 feet from my attic onto my concrete garage floor below while organizing my Christmas decorations. My seven year old daughter almost fell right behind me but caught herself by holding onto a piece of attic flooring/garage ceiling. I jumped up from the floor of the garage and caught her just as she lost her grip. All these years later, I am experiencing a number of health problems that I attribute to that fall.
- In the fourth grade in Brookline, Massachusetts I used to pretend that I was a run-away slave boy or Anne Frank on the playground every day after lunch at John D. Runkle Elementary.
- I was selected the El Paso Independent School District’s Elementary Teacher of the Year in 1997. The first and only librarian ever in the district to receive this recognition. I also competed in the state of Texas Teacher of the Year competition (but I didn’t win).
- As a single mom, I worked as many as five jobs at a time to support my baby girls. I waitressed, cared for an elderly terminal cancer patient, worked in a vet clinic, watered lawns, tutored, hosted my TV show, counseled troubled children all while working full-time as a librarian.
- The first Christmas the girls and I spent in our one and only house, I bought them new bedroom furniture from Santa. They had been sleeping on mattresses on their floors with their clothes folded in piles beside the walls. On Christmas Eve, I put them to bed downstairs in my bedroom. Once I was sure they were asleep, I carried their new furniture upstairs, made their beds with new sheets, blankets and bedspreads and hung curtains on their windows. I had purchased pictures for their walls, porcelain dolls, baskets with silk flowers to decorate their rooms. Once everything was fixed to my satisfaction, I carried each girl up to her room and tucked her into the new bed. Their reactions that next morning were priceless.
Eleven Questions for My Blogger Nominees:
- Describe a favorite childhood memory.
- Share your bedtime beauty rituals.
- Which room in your house is your favorite and why?
- In what ways is your life different from the way you envisioned it would be when you were a young adult?
- If you could wake up with a new career tomorrow, what would you like to do?
- Do you like your name? If you could change your name, would you? If so, what would your new name be?
- If you could have Christmas dinner with one person who is not currently or may never have been in your life, who would it be? (Historical person? Fictional character? Someone from your past?)
- Describe an activity you do just for you.
- How do you relax?
- Describe one of your biggest successes.
- How do you stay organized and accomplish everything set before you each day?
Here are my nominees: Tiffany at Eat at Home and Lana at Two Teens and Their Mama and Karen at She Thought She Could and Michelle at Sprinkled Just Right and last but not least, Brenda Reyna at From Plaid to Pearls. Hope these gals will accept the award, enjoy participating in this ‘getting to know you’ award and then pay it forward. Can’t wait to get to know them better!
Hugs and sticky kisses,
Tiffany
Thank you so much for nominating my blog! I love seeing your photos in the GYPO Facebook groups and reading your comments on my blog. And congrats on the new blog too! Blogging is such a fun way to make new friends 🙂
Leslie Roberts Clingan
I am so glad to nominate you! Love your blog and your delicious recipes. Look forward to learning more about you, Tiffany, through the Liebster Award.
Deena
I loved learning these new things about you
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Thank you. I am just a crazy old bird. Been crazy a long time. Doesn’t seem like I am going to get over it any time soon. Hugs, dear Deena!
Gina Sharpe
Wow Leslie, you have accomplished so much! I enjoyed learning about you and feel a special connection because I am an elementary school librarian.
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Gina! Thank you for stopping by my blog and saying hi. I love love love that you are an elementary school librarian. Would you want to share lesson plans on a certain subject or curriculum area? Maybe we could do a tag team post about our favorite library lesson? Let me know. That would be so fun.
Lana
So fun to read about you – I knew you were an amazing woman, but this took you up another level!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
You are so sweet, Lana. I feel very close to you just because you say the nicest things and make me feel so uplifted and encouraged. Thank you so much for being so good to come by my blog. XO