Honest Scrap Award

Linda over at wandertothewayside.blogspot. com presented (drum roll) me with an award for writing from the heart. She is also a fellow writer-from-the-heart, so if you haven't read her blog before, check it out before you leave.

Thank you Linda! You are my first (and only) blog award and have set me to jumping around the house for joy. Now I get to pass the award on to seven more bloggers who write heartfelt prose, and then list ten honest things about myself.

So here's a shout out to some bloggers that tickle my heartstrings:

• Anna at http://nature-trail.blogspot.com/
• Jane at http://janefay.blogspot.com/
• Alicia at http://rosylittlethings.typepad.com/posie_gets_cozy/
• ZombieMom (my name for her) at http://www.mom-zombie.com/
• Angela at http://rawreform.blogspot.com/
• Toni at http://www.reclaimingmyfuture.com/
• Lee at http://l2l-lemons2lemonade.blogspot.com/

Now here's the part you can roll your eyes or scratch your head over:

1) Born cross-eyed, I had surgery and sported an eye patch for awhile but still have nystagmus—the involuntary rapid oscillatory motion of the eyeballs. I don’t normally notice it, and others don’t usually…but there are times. Nystagmus can make your eyes shake up or down, but mine do it rotating. An ophthalmologist once told me it was caused by one of three things; albinism, head injury, or brain damage. You figure it out...

2) I was once kidnapped, briefly. My father served in the U.S. Air Force and we were for a time stationed in Taipei, Taiwan. One day, around age three, I was playing on the swingset in our front yard while my parents watched from the kitchen window. They must have gotten distracted because one minute I was there, the next, gone. When my father ran outside, he saw me running down the street with two older Taiwanese girls on either side, holding my hands. They were finally stopped when they ran past the guards outside Chiang Kai-shek’s building. They stopped us because my father was yelling as he was chasing us. Fun times.

3) While living in Florida we often visited my father’s family in rural Georgia for Thanksgiving. My older sister and I liked to take walks around the countryside. One day we meandered past a farm, accompanied by a cousin and a neighboring German Shepherd who had befriended us on an earlier visit. As the four of us were passing the farm, we were spotted by a large, unpenned pig that decided for whatever reason he didn’t like our looks. Suddenly the pig came charging after us, trailed by his posse of Chihuahuas that were hanging out with him. We weren’t looking for a fight so we turned and ran (since our cream-puff German Shepherd chose not to defend us). Too bad some farmer didn’t come along then because we must have been quite a sight. Three frightened children, a goofy German Shepherd, an irate pig and several outraged Chihuahas, running down a dirt road as if Satan himself was behind us. We managed to outrun the pig-Chihuaha team because apparently pigs tire easily. Folks, you just can’t make this stuff up.

4) I once spent the night (camping in my car) in the company of many other strangers, on the grounds near Cape Canaveral for a Space Shuttle launch. When that baby lifted off, the deafening noise and mushrooming clouds coming towards us and the ensuing goosebumps tingling all over my body signaled one of the proudest, most exhilarating moments of my life as an American.

5) I participated in some self-improvement intensives during my marriage years. My then husband, our teenage daughter and I attended Peak Potentials Training camps where I learned to face my fears. A few years later I attended Byron Katie’s nine day School For The Work where I learned that there is nothing to fear.

6) I love animals and have raised a variety of pets: two finches, a small garden snake, generations of gerbils, four parakeets, various goldfish, two cats, a turtle, an iguana, a dog, and butterflies (a homeschool project). Currently petless-in-Utah, I yearn for a time when I’ll live in a cottage with a cat surrounded by birds and butterflies (yeah, I'm all about the simple things).

7) My office walls (currently in my closet--it’s large, though windowless) are decorated with large scenic beach posters. Time to save for that Fiji vacation…

8) The time I felt healthiest was the year I lived on raw foods, green smoothies, and juices. I loved how living in my skin felt then. Looked good too.

9) Quirk: I can’t stand having anything in the wastebaskets around the house. So I empty them if there are two or more items lounging in there, rendering them fairly pointless. Along those lines, I also don’t keep magazines past a day. I read them, clip out photos/articles and then pass them on. Or throw them away. In the wastebaskets. Which I then empty.

10) Whether stargazing in solitude when my oldest left home, or driving in the mountains when my marriage was at its rockiest, nature has been my come-back-to-center balm.

So thank you Linda, for the award, and thank all you wonderful bloggers who write from honestly from your heart. If you can't get the award let me know and I'll pass on the directions.