Leibster Award

My friend, Christine, nominated me for a Leibster Award (just a fun little blogging game) and asked for answers to the following questions: 

1. What's one thing you do really well?

I'm not the best photographer by any means, but I am pretty good at documenting our family memories through photos and keeping them organized.  I took weekly photos during both pregnancies and monthly photos of both babies during the first year. All of our photos are organized in monthly albums on Flickr and I've made yearly photo books through Blurb. On the blog, I've recorded all the girls' milestones and funny things said. I might be better at documenting our life than really living in the moment.

2. What's your favorite blog post you've written?

I'm not sure I have a favorite, but my most popular (and most controversial) is this one about getting married and having children young.  My second most popular post is my recipe for Quiche Florentine. Go figure!

3. What is one blog post or article by another writer that has stuck with you for a long time?

Gosh, this was a hard one. This post at Design Mom revolutionized the way I make chocolate chip cookies. Does that count? This week, I've been thinking a lot about Christy's post on declaring a cooking style.

4. Are you a "cat person" or a "dog person"?

I am not really a pet person, mainly because I am allergic to all furry animals. But, if I really had to choose, I would definitely say a dog person. When my sister and I were in college, my parents (who were previously very much not pet people) adopted a dog, which we named Waffle, funnily enough. He was pretty adorable, I have to admit. When my parents and brother moved to China, Adam and I thought about taking him in, but my allergies ultimately wouldn't allow it.  Instead, he was adopted by family friends who have six young children. Needless to say, Waffle now has a very different life!

5. How well do you get along with your siblings?

My sister, who is two years younger than me, are the best of friends. We shared a room growing up and have always been very close. Adam and I are trying our hardest to convince her to move to Seattle! I also have a little brother, who is seven years younger than me. We get along well too, but we're not as close as I wish we were. The age gap and the distance (he lives with my parents in Shanghai) make things hard. He is a senior year in high school and planning to major in computer science, so our hope is that he will one day end up in the tech industry here in Seattle. Then I think my parents would be happy to retire here and all would be wonderful. That's my dream, at least.

6.  Do you subscribe to any publications?

Not anymore. I used to love reading magazines - Southern Living and Real Simple were my very favorites.  Once I had children, when the latest issue would show up in the mail, instead of feeling excited I felt like reading it was just another task to add to my never-ending list. So I let my subscriptions run out and now I stick to blogs.

7. If your house was on fire, and you had time to grab ONE object to save (assume all other people and pets are already out safely), what would it be?

Well, I'm also assuming this is happening in the middle of the night, because that's always how it goes in my head, so I'm thinking that when we scoop the girls out of the cribs we grab their dolls and blankets too.  In that case, my one object would be our heirloom baptism gown. Adam's mom and all her siblings were baptized in it, then all of Adam's siblings and cousins. Claire and Maggie were the last two babies in the extended family to be baptized, so the gown is currently residing at our house.

8. Are there any kids' toys that you suspect you might enjoy playing with as much as/more than the kids?

I really enjoy setting up their Little People nativity set and Noah's ark. When I played with Barbies as a little girl, my favorite part was always just setting the scene!

9. What kind of candy will you be handing out for Halloween?

Hmm, I'm not sure yet. We're thinking about doing a Whole 30 between Maggie's birthday and Thanksgiving, so probably something that I'm not tempted to eat, like suckers. This will be our first year in a neighborhood with young families around (as opposed to a college campus or an apartment complex) so it'll be our first time passing out candy.

10. Have you ever seen or experienced something you suspect was supernatural?

Nope. I've definitely seen God's hand in things, like Adam getting an email that he'd won a scholarship (that he'd never even applied for) on the very same day that we found out we were stranded in London thanks to that crazy Icelandic volcano eruption and we needed to find the extra travel funds somewhere. But no angels or visions or anything like that!

Christine and I are friends from the Newman Center at Pitt. Since I would want to tag most of the same people she already did, I'm not going to continue the chain. But thanks for including me, Christine!