I have substance? I have substance!

It's been one of those weeks where it was hard to find five minutes for myself.  Five minutes that didn't involve finally getting to the dishes or washing bottles or putting away laundry or throwing together something for dinner.  It's probably been one of the hardest weeks yet since Nate was born.

So imagine my surprise when this is the week in which my bloggy friend Liza from Blahggy gives me the Blog With Substance award. 

I particularly adore Liza because she had her baby daughter, Sailor (cool name, right??), just three weeks after I had Nate so we're both newly adjusting to the whole "new little person" in our lives thing - and the babies will be on track with each other so I think we're always going to have a lot to talk about.  Plus, she's funny, seriously funny.

But so here are "The Rules":

•Thank the blogger who awarded it to you. (done)

•Sum up your blogging philosophy, motivation, and experience using five (5) words

•Pass it on to 10 other blogs which you feel have real substance.

Only five words to sum up all of that?  I have a hard time being concise, period - but here goes:

1. Honesty

2. Approachability

3. Community

4. Memories

5. Humor

I'll have you know I am fighting - seriously fighting - the urge to explain how each of those terms applies to my blogging experience.  Gah.  But I probably only have minutes before Nate wakes up again, so I have ample motivation to move on.

I know it says award this to ten blogs, but I'm just going to do five because... well... because that's what I want to do.  So there.  Take that, blog award creating people.

These five folks have got serious substance going on:

1. Lori at I Can Grow People - I know, I've given Lori awards before but she seriously has substance going on, especially these days as she's planning a 1000 mile move (with a toddler!), leaving her job, trying to sell her house... it's really more substance than most of us even want to take on often... and she's doing it all well, with her head on her shoulders and a good sense of humor.  And her son, Porter, is too cute for words.  I would just want to squeeze him if I met them.

2. Operation Mommyhood - She's been anonymously blogging her experience about trying to get pregnant . . . and is now blogging her pregnancy experience!  I always marvel at people who blog anonymously.  I would love to do that but just can't keep that much to myself.  (See: inability to be concise.)

3. Lissa at Tales of a (Recovering) Disordered Eater - Lissa is one of my fellow bloggers at We Are The Real Deal (well, okay, she blogs there a zillion times more frequently than I do) and I love seeing what she has to say on both of those sites and Twitter.  She and her husband recently adopted an adorable puppy named Rocco . . . and she also recently announced her pregnancy!  For those of us who have struggled with food issues, pregnancy can be a nervous time.  I love reading her thoughts about the experience; it always makes me think even more about my own experiences (a trait of a great blogger).

4. The Honey B - Funny.  Creative.  Silly.  Thoughtful.  Her blogs moves so easily between these various types of topics; it's admirable.  And she has a Baby Bucket List.  I had never heard of that before, but I'd bet a lot of people have one in their heads when they start thinking about starting a family.

5. The Stylish Thirties - I love blogs of people in their thirties.  The incredibly broad range of experiences is always fascinating to me.  This blogger is considering picking up and moving her whole life, starting a new career in a new city.  Now if that isn't substance, what is?  I love reading about huge life changes (or even just thinking about them).

As I spend so much time with Nate, these blogs remind me of the outside world - and when I go back to work, they'll continue to do that, just in a different way.  I really do treasure my blog reading.

So thanks again to Liza for this award!  And I promise to live up to it after this low substance week.  There's some substance coming!

7 Quick Tuesday Takes - randomized for a change

These Tuesday posts have frequently taken on themes recently.  I'm happy to have one that isn't so narrowly focused for a change.

1. Check out my latest post, "Keeping It Real or Minding Our Business," about plastic surgery, Hollywood, and what exactly is our business or not over at WeAreTheRealDeal.  As I head closer to birthing The Force, I can't help but keep thinking about how my choice to have elective plastic surgery is now affecting the birth of my son.  (I didn't write about that aspect of it on WATRD, but I think I might write about it here.)

2.  After today, I only have one more "Time and Learning" class session and two more "Diversity" class sessions (the grad classes I'm taking this semester).  Depending on how I feel, I might not even go to that last Diversity class.  I'm really excited to think that I only have to deal with the guilt over how long Buster is home alone on Tuesday for just one more week.

3.  On Sunday, my sister, her husband, and their two kids came over with the crib that was TJ's (he's now in a toddler bed).  Before that, the crib was used by my cousins Max and Erik, so it's becoming this family heirloom type of thing - there are even plaques on it with Max, Erik, and TJ's names... and soon there'll be our son's (as-yet-undetermined) name on there, too.  I love it.  After I put the sheets on and set up the mobile, I sat down and just stared at it for a few minutes.  I really can't believe that in a few weeks (if all goes according to schedule), I'm going to have a little baby boy to put in there.  As real as it is, it's still so unreal.

4.  Murphy's Law: you decide to not use any hair products or make-up on Sunday since, well, it's Sunday.  It's a day of rest for your follicles and pores.  With a sweatshirt on to fight the slight chill outside (so, truly inhabiting slobdom), you proceed to your local Friday's for dinner, only to be greeted by one of your students, who works there as a host.  To boot, you never put on your wedding rings that day, but your husband put his ring on, so now it looks like you're out to dinner with someone else's husband.  Love it.

5. I got a new title at work effective yesterday.  Since I was hired, I've hated my title.  It was... "Assistant."  Ew, right?  I always thought it should be Coordinator or Supervisor since that more accurately described what I do (I supervise the tutoring center at a campus of a school that has several campuses; the tutors there report to me directly, so I really am a supervisor, and I also teach classes sometimes).  Well, as of yesterday I am now a "Learning Coordinator."  Much better.  Small things can make a difference.  (Although, no, no extra money is involved with the title upgrade.)

6.  I currently hate wearing socks and shoes because even the teeny bit my feet and ankles have swollen is noticeable and annoying.  Let's bring on maternity leave and flip-flops, please!

7.  The wonderful Lori at I Can Grow People has bestowed the Kreative Blogger Award upon me.

Ooooh, pretty

Here are the award rules:

1. Post the award on your blog.  (Done.)

2. Give a thank you shout out to the lovely person who bestowed the Major Award upon you.

Thanks again to Lori at I Can Grow People (and also at Wife.Mom.Artist.Geek!) for this spiffy award. :)

3. Pass the award on to seven people who you think deserve the title of Kreativ Blogger.

I've given out awards before and since I can't remember who I gave what to and I don't want to give too many awards to my same fave people over and over again, I'm just listing five folks here.  In no particular order, I happily pass this along to:

Operation Mommyhood

Blahggy

The Stylish Thirties

Delightfully Sweet

Say Something Stacey

4. Name seven things about yourself that others don’t know.

This is hard because I can never keep track of what I've mentioned and what I haven't, but here's a go at trying to find seven unknown things:

1. I remember the exact time and circumstance under which I received my first "F".  It was a fourth grade math test where I thought nine times seven (9x7) was 62 instead of 63.

2. I have terrible spatial intelligence. I can never look at something unassembled and have any accurate idea what it should look like assembled.  I don't even like cooking without a picture of what it should look like at the end.

3. I'm totally not into most of the music on my iPod right now and I don't know what to do about this.

4. I want to move.  I really really really want to move.  We seriously need more space.  I look at real estate rental listings every day and try to figure out how it is that people our age can afford to buy homes.

5. I get super nervous when the hubby jokes about how since I've only gained 6 lbs during this pregnancy, I'm going to lose 30 lbs like nothing after the baby is born. I fear losing nothing and being a total disappointment.

6. I can figure out a restaurant tip in two seconds but sometimes still need to count on my fingers for other things.

7. I played Frau Schmidt in our high school production of The Sound of Music (my faaaave musical ever).

5. Don’t forget to notify your seven bloggers about their award and post a link to their blog.

Toodle-oo 'til Wednesday!