Liebster Blog Award

Erin over at Diaries from the Dirt Road nominated me for the Liebster Award today! I've never been nominated for something like this before, so it's exciting!

Rules

This award is given to new or up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers...the award is then passed along to other bloggers in the same category to help spread the word and support one another.

What to do: 1. Each blogger should post 11 random facts about themselves. 2. Answer the questions the tagger has set for you, then create 11 new questions for the bloggers you pass the award to. 3. Choose 11 new bloggers (with less than 200 followers) to pass the award to and link them in your post. 4. Go back to their page and tell them about the award. 5. No tag backs.

Random Facts

1. I could only listen to 90's country for the rest of my life and die happy. 

2. When I was little I had a black dog named Bear, and when I met Dustin I found out he had a black dog named Bear too. 

3. I'm really only terrified of two things in life - maggots and weird sticky stuff like old tape. 

4. I'm almost completely blind if I don't have my contacts in or glasses on. My brother is the same way. 

5. I love mushrooms so much that I'll eat them straight out the can. 

6. I get weirdly obsessed and attached to the sci-fi shows Dustin watches (Stargate, Battlestar, etc), and then get really upset when the show ends and we run out of episodes.

7. If I go too long without eating I get grouchy and sometimes cry. I'm not proud of it.

8. I'm in love with all things Harry Potter - I have the box set of movies and am re-reading the books. 

9. I have blonde moments all the time, just ask my husband, I provide him with constant entertainment. 

10. I was the oldest grandchild on both sides of my family, and the only girl until my sister was born when I was 13. 

11. I was extremely shy as a child and still consider myself to be really socially awkward. 

Questions from Erin

1. Where is the coolest place you have been? - Our recent anniversary trip to Texas was the favorite vacation I've ever been on, just because it was so amazing to take a trip just the two of us. I also loved Washington DC though and also when I volunteered building houses with my church youth group in Mexico.

2. What is a hobby you enjoy? - I love photography, but don't do it as much as I should. I guess my main hobby would just be reading...

3. If you had a million dollars what would you do with it? - I'd be boring and put it in savings, and then live off the interest. Probably buy land with some of it. 

4. If money were no object what would your dream job be? - I'd love to work at home on the farm. Ideally, I'd like to have my own pig barns, where I could farrow out just gilts, but not have to do the breeding work and it be a small enough operation I didn't have to hire much help! 

5. What is your favorite book? - This is hard. I'm re-reading the Harry Potter serious right now, and those are some of my favorites. I also love The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. 

6. What is your favorite movie? - I don't think I can pick just one movie either. It really depends on what kind of a mood I'm in, that tends to determine my favorite at the time. 

7. Name a person dead or alive you would want to meet. - I'm literally in love with Dierks Bentley, so I'm sure if I ever met him I'd honestly die. I'd be too awkward to talk though and I'd probably just make weird noises and freak him out. But I'd like to meet the men and women in the past generations of my family. Many of them were farmers and I'd love to learn more about my history. 

8. Who is your biggest role model? - Right now it would have to be my grandpa who passed away this past summer. He was the nicest, most humble man you'd ever meet. He had a simple life, but made such a difference by blessing everyone he met, he was never too good for anyone. I wish I could live life like he did. 

9. What is your favorite sport or sports team? - I'm honestly not a sports person, and neither is Dustin. However, I loved watching my brother play football, basketball, & baseball. 

10. Do you have any special talents? - Haha, no. I like to think that I can write, and take decent pictures, but that's about it. 

11. What is your favorite quote? - Hard one again! Not really a direct quote, but I try to live by the phrase "everything happens for a reason". I really believe that, even if it's hard to accept sometimes. 

My Nominees! 

1. Elizabeth from Circle the Wagons

2. Jessy for Westeastern

3. Robyn from The Ranch Wife Chronicles 

4. Kathy from Hasekamps of Tulip

5. Darleen from The Farmer's Daughter

6. Deena from Camouflage and Lipstick

7. Rosie from Unpolished Boots

8. Katlyn from Midwest Farm Girl

9. Stephanie from Life of a Farmer's Wife

10. Carla from Truth or Dairy

11. The Farmer's Wife

Questions for my Nominees! 

1. Why did you start blogging?

2. If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

3. If you could have the perfect day, doing anything at all, what would you do?

4. What would your dream car (or truck) be?

5. What's your favorite type of music?

6. What one thing would you be completely lost without?

7. What's your biggest pet peeve?

8. Are you an early bird or a night owl?

9. What was your favorite gift you received last Christmas?

10. Mayo or Miracle Whip?

11. If had to live out the rest of your life as an animal, what would you be?

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2/18/13 Update - Jessy over at Westeastern also nominated me, so I'm going to add the answers to her questions below.

1. It’s an oldie, but a goodie – describe yourself with three words. - Yikes, I always suck at these kind of questions. Ok, here we go - passionate, emotional, & stubborn

2. What book are you currently reading (or the last one, if you’re not currently reading anything!) - I'm re-reading the Harry Potter series right now, I'm on book 4.

3. Which season is your favorite? - Definitely winter. I'm always cold anyways, so I'm not a fan of cold weather. Although I don't particularly care for the mud in spring either.

4. Why do you live where you do? What makes it so special? - I moved to where I am now when my mom got remarried when I was ten. My husband also grew up here. Now he's taking over his dad's hog barns and working with him on the farm, so we're here to stay, which is fine since we both do better with family close by. Although if we weren't so tied down I'd have been open to living somewhere else, just to see what it was like.

5. Do you have any animals? - In addition to my 23 pigs at work, and our 20+ cows at home, we have our three-legged inside cat (who drives us insane) and our 1-year-old Siberian Husky Tucker.

6. Do you make New Year’s resolutions, or just goals (please share any you’re working towards!) - Really just goals. This year I'm just trying to focus on one word for the year - being intentional. I wrote about it here as well.

7. Do you value “me” time, or do you surround yourself with as many people as possible? - I think I'm a mixture of both. I like to be by myself at times, but not for long because our house was always filled with kids growing up. At the same time though, usually I'd much prefer to be just with Dustin or with just a small group of family members as opposed to loads of people.

8. What did you want to be when you were little? - The only thing I really remember wanting to be when I was little was a nurse for premature babies. I never really pursued that though, and when I got to college I figured out I was much better suited to work with animals instead of people.

9. What value do you find in blogging? - Many times it's therapeutic for me to write, I find it easier to express myself in written words than by talking with people. It also is an outlet for my passion for advocating for modern agriculture and farm animals - if I didn't have a way to let that passion out I think I might explode!

10. Sweet tooth or salt tooth – which one do you have?! - It's usually about a 50/50 chance with me. The worst though is I usually end up craving one right after the other - so if I eat a bowl of ice cream I'll then need some popcorn, or vise versa.

11. If you could master one skill, what would it be? - I'd love to become better in my photography. I really love it, but it's been put on the back burner and it's hard for me to remind myself to continually take my camera out and look for things to photograph, when it's so easy to just pull out my phone instead.