It's a major award!

Frag-il-e, it must be Italian!

Blue Speckled Pup nominated me for a Versatile Blogger award.  Blue Speckled Pup is written by "Kay" as she documents her life anonymously (she is a teacher, and it makes sense to keep your name out of the press!).  I will admit that I hadn't read her blog before she posted on mine, but I've enjoyed the time I've spent over there the last week!

C/P from BSP: Recognizing my nominator is step one of the award process. See above. The second part is passing the award along to other bloggers I think deserve a little pat on the back: fifteen of them to be specific.  I'm also going to copy BSP and only nominate 5.  Jack's naps are my only time for blogging on the weekend, so I'm limited most of the time!

Quick note: I'm not linking any family or friend's blogs because many of them are private and I can't remember which ones are/aren't since I'm automatically logged in to all of them!

Northwest Edible Life - this woman and her husband crack me up, and I desperately want to be neighbors with them because they seem like good eggs.  I love logging on for garden and cooking advice.

KERF - Kath Eats Real Foods always has wonderful pictures, great recipes, and even though Kath is so positive all the time that she makes me look like Daria, I love reading about her exploits in opening a bakery with her husband.

The Nourishing Gourmet - I get so many ideas from this blog and everything I've made from her site has turned out wonderfully!!  But don't click on her site and then think I stole the post about broth that I'm doing later this week.  That has been planned on my end for weeks. ;-D

Food Farm Health - Great blog about family, garden, and is full of great ideas and recipes.

Small Measure - Ashley English writes books about everything I aspire to do - chickens, canning, small-home dairy, etc., and this is her blog documenting her life in North Carolina with her talented husband and adorable little son.

The third part of this whole versatile blogger business is to tell you seven things about myself.  I feel like I talk about myself quite a bit since, um, this is my blog and all, but I'll do my best.

1) Growing up, I wanted to be a teacher who owned a farm AND a restaurant.  And I was going to work at McDonalds part-time for free fries.  A girl has got to have plans!

2) I was so awkward and gangly growing up that I once stepped on my own arm after falling UP the stairs and had a splint/cast on for a week as a result.

3) I've manipulated my parents twice to get a pet:
a) In 5th grade, I saved some money and bought a gold fish and all the supplies at the local mall.  I told my parents that I was the store's 1,000th customer of the month and I won it for free.  A few weeks later, my dad took me back to get a little net for the fish, and said "hey here is your big winner".  I died inside, but to the store cashier's credit, she didn't tell on me.

b) Around 3rd grade, I bought an empty bird cage with a fake bird in it at a garage sale.  I talked to the bird until my mom was so concerned with my emotional well-being that she decided I needed a gerbil.

4) I've watched every episode of Law and Order.

5) I've been pepper sprayed before.  It was a friend, and it was an accident, but I'm fairly certain I used my year's allotment of snot that day.

6) Due to working at a batting cage for two years, I used to be able to hit a 90 mph fastball.  I'm not sure I still could though!

7) I can't touch my toes.  Never have been able to.