i am quite simply tickled pink – my lovely and stylish bloggy friend allie of it’s a wonderful life has nominated me for a ‘beautiful blogger’ award!  and whether i deserve this little bit of internet honor or not (no comments nessecary, kthanxbai) she is a total sweetheart and i’m way too excited that she thought of me and my humble little blog!  thanks so much, allie!

miss allie hall-marr is a brand new mama to a gorgeous newborn boy named henry.  she lives in savannah, ga but was originally from here in washington (which explains how she has actually heard of my favorite-ever band, carissa’s weird.)  it was a pleasure to read along with a’s posts throughout her pregnancy as a young first-time mama – she is so cute, bubbly, creative and sweet!  now that her little man is here, she and her awesome hub seem to be making the very most of every second of new parenthood, and i just can’t wait to see what comes next for this little family.  allie, you are a dear and i’m so glad to be in touch!  cheers!

ok, so according to allie’s blog, what what comes next is:

1. thank the person who nominated me for this award
2. copy the award & place it on my blog
3. link to the person who nominated me for this award
4. share 7 interesting things about myself
5. nominate 7 other beautiful bloggers

m’kay, soooo here’s my attempt at the seven interesting things about yours truly:

*  i have never in my life, not even once, tried a taste of tuna fish, a-1 steak sauce, or relish.  now, i realize these are very common foods to the general public, and possibly even tasty to some people, but i have always been so freaked out/turned off by the scents of these substances that i just couldn’t muster up the courage to give them a chance.  i also didn’t like ketchup until i was 20.  maybe it’s a ‘youngest child’ thing??  at this point, who knows…

*  i have a borderline-obsessive, um, issue concerning my eyebrows.  while they are not always perfectly groomed (hi, i have a freaking BABY to raise here!) i run my fingertips over them multiple times in a day, and if i’m going anywhere people might actually see me they are the first feature i’ll attack with cosmetics in a pinch for time.  one of the worst sensations i can imagine is someone holding me down and scruffing my eyebrows in the opposite direction they grow (actually just thinking about it kind of makes me queasy!)  “hi, my name is emily bilbrey, and i suffer from eyebrow-specific o.c.d.”

*  my husband and i may have kinda, sorta, broken up with people we we dating & living with so that we could start a relationship together. i know!  I KNOW!  we are terrible people!  but to be fair, the guy i had been dating was a douche to the max, and d’s ex is now happily married to the guy she started seeing post-david.  we have always considered it our one “get out of jail free” card.  but if david ever dumps me for another girl, i suppose i’ll have had it coming!  (good thing i don’t believe in karma??)

*  i might have touched on this once or twice before, but i think it’s at least kinda interesting – when i was 21 i bought a little clothing store in downtown tacoma, and ran it for 2 1/2 years.  it was buy, sell and trade, and we specialized in vintage.  it was a lot of stress, but the rent was cheap, i got amazing clothes, and it waa a thrill to be owning and managing a business at such a young age!  literally every single time i unlocked the door and flipped the “open” sign, starting my first day there right through my last, i took a moment to remind myself how lucky i was to be able to be in such a position.  i’m also glad that i was able to end things on my own accord, by selling the shop to another owner so i could travel and then start a family…  it was a great life experience, and  i’ll always be proud to have done it!

*  i don’t know how to whistle or snap.  but i can flip small objects over my knuckles like val kilmer did in ‘tombstone’ and ‘top gun’.  at least i have a skill (question mark?)

*  i was considered a HUGE GEEK throughout pretty much my entire school career.  starting in about 3rd grade, i was definitely one of the least popular kids in school – i was seriously right above the kid who only got to spend half his day in the regular classroom because he had violent outbursts, and the kid who had a stuttering problem and bad b.o.  i was picked last for everything, from gym sports to group assignments, and things didn’t get much better in high school…  i was bullied because i rumor started that i was gay (i hung out in the art room and had short hair = lesbian?  and why for the love of god is being gay still taboo to so many people?!  pffft.)  i still don’t know exactly what it was about me that rubbed people the wrong way, but i don’t think too much about it because the minute i got out of high school i started making amazing friends and haven’t stopped since!  plus i think that being on the outside socially made me into a much more interesting, self-assured person.  score.

*  as much as i completely adore being a mother and raising my wonderful girl, i am not sure if david and are going to have any more kids…  it’s so weird for me to even express that openly, because when i was pregnant i never even considered the idea that it would be the only time i’d experience it.  i always figured that if you have one, you have more than one…  but d and i have been through a lot of tough times the last year; not with our relationship (which, forgive me for sounding snotty, is always great!) but with other life stuff that was totally out of our hands.  the stress we’ve been through has really made us analyze and re-evaluate our future plans, and for now we are landing on just really focusing on poppy and giving our all to her.  plus, i’m honestly no where near ‘over’ the trauma and pain i went through with my labor (that’ll have to be another post entirely!) not to mention the physical recovery, pain and stress of breastfeeding, hormonal troubles, and sleep deprivation!  of course there are plenty of years ahead for plans to take shape and change, but for the moment i am honestly settling into the idea of miss magoo possibly being an only child.  however, if we have an “oops” in the future, promise me no  hate mail, ok?  ;D

soooo, now it’s time for me to share the love and nominate seven other lovely lady bloggers to enjoy this little prize.  if you haven’t visited these fine women yet, please be sure to do so!  they are all fabulous!  here they are, in no particular order:

1)  the unlikely mama!  amber and i like to joke that we are each others’ mama-doppleganger, not only because our daughters are asian-american, but also because our mothering styles are consistently so similar.  like me, amber decidedly leans towards an attachment/natural parenting style, but doesn’t adhere so fiercely to the granola side of things that she’s unrelatable.  her blog is honest, her daughter is strikingly beautiful, and i’m just plain glad to know this lady!  yay, amber!

2)  emmiebee dot com!  holla back, my fellow “emily b!”  miss emily brandt is a total sweetheart, mama to an adorable 1-year-old son and (get this!) is pregnant with TWINS!  my witty, stylish friend does an amazing job handling it all – staying at home to raise her lovely son and laughing at herself through her crazy back-to-back pregnancies.  i can’t wait to hear what comes next for this little family.  em, you are wonderful and kind and i just hope hudson, truman and sawyer take it easy on you!  plus, let’s face it, you have officially earned the world’s biggest martini…  (:

3)  about all things life!  my good bloggy friend kerri gave birth to wonderful ella on april 12th, 2009 – the day after i had poppy!  kerri is a sahm and photographer, and tells funny, heartwarming tales about life with a new baby.  and baby ella is simply a stunning little creature, with strawberry-blonde hair, and impish smile and a sweet, playful personality.  i can seriously relate to pretty much 100% of what kerri writes about, and she manages to make the mundane entertaining.  i love this blog; i love these girls!  go kerri, go!

4)  baby in broad!  hi, noelle!  :::waves frantically:::  people, this girl has it all:  she is a seriously good writer, mama to an adorable (and whip-smart!) toddler boy named westly, and displays a sensitive, thoughtful perspective on mothering without the slightest hint of pretension.  basically, i just want noelle to have more babies and never stop writing so i can always enjoy her fun personality and great stories!  love this girl.  love.

5)  cozytimes!  yay, cozytimes!  heather is rad chick and great photog, and her baby son august is, well, you’re just gonna have to go take a look yourself.  and then promptly crap a rainbow because he’s so cute.  i think i actually met heather on flickr, and i’m glad to know about her blog because it takes the level of preciousness in my life up, like, several notches!  love your blog, lady!  it’s good to know ya!

6)  little baby bateman!  desi is a proud new mama to beautiful olivia carolyn (liv, for short.)  i’m so glad to be in touch with this lady – she’s endlessly sweet and her photos of her gorgeous, powder-blue-eyed daughter always make me smile.  and the outfits – oh, the outfits!  this is one of the most stylishly dressed babies i can think of.  the girl, the blog, and the baby are all fantastic.  period.

7)  my bottle’s up!  oh, nic, where do i begin?  i actually remember initially being a little intimidated to comment and introduce myself on this blog, simply because nic is a for-reals writer, has so many readers and has been blogging for so long.  so i lurked silently for some weeks, enjoying her witty, sentimental writing and photos of her handsome son jackson.  but when i finally did muster up the courage to comment, i was pleasantly surprised when nic responded with a very nice personal email to me, thanking me for my words and complimenting me blog!  and i’m so happy that we’ve been in touch ever since!  i always appreciate nic’s honesty on tough (no, seriously, TOUGH) issues; on things that, as we have joked, are considered taboo by the mainstream but totally shouldn’t be!  take one good look around her page, and you’ll see right away what i’m referring to.  nic, i am just plain glad to know you.  i hope that your book is coming along well, and i want to once again thank you for putting your words out there against adversity.  you rock.  that’s all there is to it!

whew!  that was FUN!  another great big thanks to allie for nominating me, and for giving me a great platform to pay tribute to some of my wonderful blog friends!  this was a fun post.  plus, i mean, who doesn’t love winning?!

cheers!

9 months old, WIN!

February 5, 2010

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