Sunshine Award

My sweet friend Kathy over at 9PeasMom gave me a blogging award. Being as I'm sporadic at best...who knew such things existed! But anyway - she did...and here are the rules for what to do about it:


1. Use the award logo in your post. (check)
2. Link to whoever nominated you. (see above - check)
3. Tell us 10 pieces of information about yourself (see below)
4. Nominate fellow bloggers who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogsphere
5. Leave a comment on the nominees' blog to tell them of the award.


Ten Things About Me:

1. I began my stage career as a 3 year old in a church choir. I lifted my dress up for the whole church to see my bloomers. They let me up there again at Christmas when I was a little older. I rearranged the light bulbs in our Living Christmas Tree. I was in a few plays at the church (once as the lead!) and then in High School I auditioned for Zaneeta in Music Man. The director laughed at me and put me in the Chorus. I was devestated and committed to be a PATRON ONLY. 11 years later a friend talked me into auditioning for Sound of Music. I was cast as one of the singing nuns, but due to a series of fortunate events I was Elsa. I messed up EVERY performance! But I LOVED it. Since then I have been in 14 other shows (4 plays and 11 musicals). I LOVE the stage!

2. I have lived in 6 cities and had 14 different addresses in my lifetime. While I couldn't remember all the addresses if I tried, I can list the cities and how many addresses I had per city:
-Garland (1 - don't remember...was an infant)
-Waco (1 house)
-Brownwood (2 dorm rooms, 1 house, 1 apt)
-Fort Worth (3 apartments - all in the same complex!)
-Granbury (1 duplex)
-Waco (1 apartment)
-Sherman (1 apartment, 2 houses)
(plus a Carrollton address for a while)

3. I collect spoons. Not the kind you can eat of off...that'd be gross. The cute decorative ones that you buy in souvenier stores and airports. I have them from all over the world. One from every place I've been and several from places I'd be lucky to go see. Friends bring them back for me when they go places. My first 4 spoons were from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. My Grandmother bought them for me on a trip because she thought they were cute. She started a life long collection! Ironic that one of my first spoons is from the same country as my husband!

4. Alan and I met in 2001, but weren't impressed with each other. We later met again in 2009 and the story was much different. It's amazing how God orchestrated the entire thing!

5. I'm addicted to Candy Crush and other stupid FB games. Honestly...I'm on level 325. I LOVE to play...I LOVE to beat levels. It's sad.

6. I learned how to sew this summer. I would have NEVER thought I'd enjoy it -- but I did! It's so satisfying to create something wearable. My next project is to make the girls pants for Paddy's Day! EEK! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it.

7. I started out as a kindergarten teacher. My major in college was Elementary Ed with an Emphasis in Pre-K/K. This is my 13th year teaching and only 4 of those have been Kindergarten. Another tid-bit. I cried almost daily the week leading up to my first year teaching because I didn't feel like I knew what I was doing. Seriously - daily! I now work with Hearing Impaired kiddos. That happened because my principal was really bad my first 3 years and I was getting ready to quit teaching when one of my friends who is Deaf asked if I'd consider teaching Deaf students. We talked about it and I started course work. And here I've been for the last 9 years. :)

8. I tend to advocate for adoption. It is my belief that EVERY child should be loved and cared for appropriately. I'd never really thought much about adoption other than the knowledge that I babysat for a family who adopted twins when I was a teenager. Until a family friend adopted from China a few years ago. I followed her story on a blog have blog-stalked adoption stories since. I love seeing picutres from 'Gotcha Days'. Sadly - there are many orphans world-wide who need a Mommy and a Daddy. Currently we are not in a place to consider growing a family in this way - however I try to get the word out in case one of YOU can. As I've said before EVERYONE can do SOMETHING.

9. My dogs are spoiled rotten. Seriously. The last 2 nights Lily's slept in our bed because it's 'too cold' in the kitchen. She burrows under the covers and stays there for a while then wakes us up as she re-situates herself. Repeat. ALL.NIGHT.LONG. But she's warm! :) Mercy is my little baby. She has a complete wardrobe (though not as complete as some other friends....). She gets to go places with me just becuse she's small, cute, and my baby. Not spoiled at all. My dogs favorite place to be is my lap, which can get annoying sometimes, but mostly I just love em!

(Saved the obvious one for last)
10. I am a twin and we have twin names...but she might kick me for sharing her middle name with you - so I'll share my full name and you can guess the rest! My mom found out she was pregnant and told her dad as she took him to the airport for a mission trip to Scotland some 35 years ago. He looked at her and said "Twins. Red headed, skinny legged boys. Twins." She laughed and told him he could have one if it was twins. Hugged him goodbye and off he went. Fast forward a few months and mom goes in for a sonogram where they tell her she's having twins. 1 boy, 1 girl. So she calls GrandJack and tells him to get ready b/c he's having a baby because she's having twins! Fast forward a few more months and mom has us. But she had a C-section and had to be under anesthetics for it. When she woke up the nurses told her she had 2 beautiful girls and she argued briefly since it was supposed to be a boy and a girl. So Allison was named Allison L. Meppen and I was Baby B while they decided on a name. I was then named Alissa Leanne Meppen (Leanne for Amy's favorite babysitter at the time, and Alissa becuase it sounded good). My dad dutifully wrote our names on the birth certificate and then realised we had twin names. Then, to make it more fun - he realized we all 3 had the same initials. Amy L. Meppen, Allison L. Meppen, and Alissa Leanne Meppen. Good fun. (As an added aside - Amy and Allison dropped their middle names legally when they married becoming Amy M Neal and Allison M Hutchins. I couldn't do that since I go by my middle name and had to drop the Meppen to appease USCIS so I am officially Alissa Leanne Duigan...no Meppen in site.)

And there you go....I will see about nominating other people later...That's alot of typing for me! :)