In keeping with the protocol of this award, I will point you to some other blogs I have recently discovered that I enjoy reading. Check out:

The final requirement is that I share seven unique things about myself. Here goes —

1. I was a vegetarian for thirteen years, very happily. Then, on a trip to the Canadian Rockies, as I sat down to nurse my then-seven-month-old daughter, Eve, I caught a whiff of the neighboring campsite’s bratwurst sausages on the grill. I begged Bubba to get in the car, drive to the nearest town (Banff), and buy me some. Ever the frustrated carnivorous husband, he couldn’t get there fast enough. I ate three that night and have loved meat ever since.

2. I have half a tattoo. Luckily it is in a very inconspicuous place. As a freshman in college, I went along with my roommate and her friends to get their tattoos and allowed myself to be peer-pressured in to getting one, too. I finally agreed and then changed my mind halfway through and abandoned the process, telling everyone that it was too painful to continue.

3. I had so many kidney infections as a kid that the doctors thought I would have to get a transplant and be on dialysis. It wasn’t until I was in my thirties that I realized the infections “magically” ceased as soon as the neighborhood teenage bully stopped sexually assaulting me on a regular basis.

4. I love cooking dinner so much that I make a weekly menu every Saturday night, shop for groceries on Sunday (and fresh produce and meat again on Wednesday), and cook almost every night of the week.

5. Doing dishes makes me happy. It is this lovely, zen moment where everyone else in the house leaves me alone (they don’t want to be recruited to help) and I get to engage in something that has tangible results. Often it is the only project I get to begin and end all in one fell swoop the entire day.

6. My dream car is a 1962 convertible Corvette. Candy-apple red with white interior and a white hard-top. Always has been. Always will be. I got to ride in one once as a Homecoming Princess in high school and haven’t forgotten it since.

7. I love the sound of moving water. My favorite place of all time is the beach (any beach, cold or warm water – doesn’t matter), but I love lakeshores, babbling brooks, koi ponds with waterfalls and backyard fountains. It somehow brings me to my center.

I’m on one last vacation with Bubba and the kids at a lake this long weekend and right now, I’m sitting at the kitchen table overlooking the water with a sopping wet dog at my feet (he has fetched about 652 sticks so far today) and two girls with their noses stuck in books in the room next to me. I am blissed out. Have a beautiful weekend, all.