Everything has been so hectic lately.
My classes are kicking my butt, I work 50 hours a week and getting a work out in has been high priority. So naturally, my life is in disarray but the elliptical is getting some nice booty action.

I haven’t had a chance to blog, because I’m barely sleeping. My life is all work-class-tutoring-homework/study-cook/back-workout-nap-work…and repeat.

Part of my NYRs was to keep up with my blog, but I’ve been slacking. I’m so very sorry and will do much better, I promise!

Now…imagine my surprise when this wonderful bestie (my lobster, of sorts) nominated me for a Liebster award! How awesome right? How not-cool of me is it that I’ve been a cotton-headed-ninny-muggins and haven’t added my newest recipes and workout tips?
Yeah, talk about shameful.
On the flipside, what excellent motivation to kick things into high gear!
Thank you, Laura-dearest!

What is it?
The Liebster Award is given to new and upcoming bloggers who have less than 200 followers or so.  Liebster is German for “sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.” 

Nomination made by…
Laura at The Brightside According to Laura nominated me for the award. Muah! I love you bundles.

Liebster rules…
Learning more about each other is the name of the game. The Liebster blog award rules are as follows:

– Post 11 random facts about yourself. 
– Answer 11 questions from your nominator. 
– Nominate 11 other blogs with under 200 followers and ask them 11 questions. 

11 Random Facts About Moi!

  1. I am in love with my best friend. Thankfully, he loves me too. It’s a cheesy-dorky-quirky relationship that people only tend to read about; not perfect, but perfectly imperfect and completely wonderful.
  2. Sharpies! I can never have enough of them. I have them in every color and use them for my label-craziness, organization and even my class note cards.
  3. I am powerless to bookstores and coffee shops – especially when they’re in the same location.
  4. My dream car happens to be a Lotus Elise – there’s just a sexiness about cars and machines in general that draws me in.
  5. I have never, ever been drunk. I tried to once, but the beau put me straight to bed when I started getting tipsy. Apparently, I’m a riot.
  6. Running is my jam! In the past 29 days, I have run 92 miles. I’ve met my goal and surpassed it! Plus, I’ve got another 2 days to run my butt off!
  7. My mom is my best friend and she always has been. I never went through one of those “ugh-I-hate-you” phases. We fought, no doubt, but I always let her know I loved her.
  8. My parents had me at 21, consequently – I fully blame them for my love of all things 80’s and for raising me to appreciate great music, fast cars and real family time.
  9. I traveled to Paris, France and got my grub on! Seriously…I ate ants and snails! They were tasty, but since I’m not normally on a grub-hunt with Timon and Pumba, I don’t seek out bugs.
  10. I want to be a Pediatric Oncologist – and have wanted to be one since I was 5!
  11. I’ve been working on a novel for the past several years and hope that one day, it’ll be published.

Questions from my Nominator

    What is your favorite season? 

      • Winter. Hands-down. I have a too-short love affair with snowflakes, outdoor ice rinks, floppy ear-flap hats and salted caramel hot chocolate. As a girl from South Texas, I’m used to triple-digit heat and snow cones, year round. When I went off to college, I was beyond thrilled that Baylor experienced temperatures below 50 degrees, where I could watch the seasons change and hear the ever-wonderful crunch of gold, amber and rouge leaves beneath my feet. Naked tree branches and pale morning skies. I love everything about winter, including the transition into my most favorite season.

      What was your first concert?

      • I actually attended a TRAFFIC and Sade concert when I was 4…does that count? Maybe they weren’t performing together – I honestly couldn’t tell you. My first official “big girl concert?” Well, I flew to Minneapolis, MN to visit my aunt during the summer between my junior and senior year of highschool. I was gloriously in love with THE FRAY and guess who was playing? I was thrilled! I got to see The Fray, TRAIN, Trampled by Turtles and several other bands at Basilica Block Party. If you haven never had the pleasure of attending – get your tickets for this year’s show! It’s a big to-do, raises money for a great cause and they have deep-fried Oreos. Need I say more? 

            What is your go-to Karaoke song?

                • Carl Douglas’ “Kung Fu Fighting” – seriously…is there a better song to belt lyrics to?

                  What is your favorite quote and why?

                    • This is a tough one…I truly love quotes. I mean, you can’t begin to imagine how much I love quotes. So picking out just one is almost painful. Quotes are filled with pieces of wisdom and wonderful specks of truth. The quote most meaningful to me right now: 

                        • “Know your own truth and live by it.” – Mario Batali
                          Wonderful, right? Simple. Lovely. Thoughtful. So full of inspiration and deeper meaning. I’ve been contemplating this particular quote, lately. I’ve found that I haven’t fully formed my own person yet, I’m still trying to find my truth.

                        Who or what inspires you?

                          • Right now, I’m reading Katie Couric’s “The Best Advice I Ever Got: Lessons from Extraordinary Lives” and it really has some amazing advice from many wonderful people. I highly recommend you get yourself a copy. The stories it holds are so powerful and one of them struck a particularly powerful cord.
                            • Katie Couric, my new hero. I grew up knowing who she was, but I had no clue she’d been through so much until I read her introduction. How unbelievable is it that she had a “cookie-cutter childhood” and kind of expected the same for her adulthood, only to have everything flipped topsy-turvy. She married the love of her life, had two kids, loved her job and then lost her husband to cancer. Then she lost her sister to cancer, too. But she kept going, moving, fighting, doing – that’s why she’s amazing. Despite facing extreme adversity and insurmountable loss, she’s learned to keep loving and looking toward the bright side. We can only hope to learn such courage and strength. 

                            What is one thing you cannot do without in the morning?

                            • You’re expecting me to say coffee, right? WRONG! I leave for work at 6:15am every day, and am gone until about 6pm. That said, I absolutely cannot leave my apartment without kissing my boyfriend goodbye and leaving him with a simple sign of the cross (Hispanic-Catholic-habits…they die hard) on his forehead.

                              When are you at your happiest?

                              •  There are these moments of pure, unadulterated bliss I am lucky enough to experience when my entire family is together. Those milliseconds in time, rare as they are, leave me replete with happiness and longing for seconds or minutes more of those stories, smiles, embraces. I live for the sounds filling the rooms in which we spend our time but, mostly, I miss having my entire family in one place.

                                List three strengths and three weaknesses about yourself.

                                • Three Strengths:
                                  • Confidence – I’ve got it oozing out my pores.
                                  • Resilience – I am kind of the human equivalent of a cockroach. I can come back from just about anything and always have plan a and b and c…all the way to z. There’s always a solution and I’m programmed to find one. 
                                  • Rainbows – There’s a brightside to everything. Would you expect anything less from the best friend of Laura, at TheBrightSideAccordingToLaura? I believe everyone has a good side and because of that, I help everyone in any way I can.  
                                • Three Weaknesses:
                                  •  Humility – I’m not quite sure I ever learned how to harness this superpower. A Mother Teresa, I am not. I am trying to be better about this but it’s a daily struggle to keep my ego in check. 
                                  •  My tendency to over-give – I give past the point of hurting. I want to give until everyone is happy and peaceful but this sometimes leaves me exhausted, sad and beating myself up over whether or not I can help more. 
                                  •  Ambition – At times I think it’ll swallow me whole. I want to do so many things and help so many people, but there isn’t enough time in a day.

                                  What is your all-time favorite song?

                                  • There isn’t just one. Music is as much a part of my life as literature. I need it to breathe, to love, to learn, to laugh and to feel more deeply than an empty soul because without music, life would be empty. Right now, my favorite song is a tie between:
                                    • Tracy Chapman – Give me one reason
                                    • The Lumineers – Dead Sea 

                                    What are three blogs you read regularly?

                                      • I absolutely love to stumble across new blogs. It’s kind of a weekly habit, and really hard to kick. The problem with new blogs, is that I have trouble keeping up with them all! I do have a few favorite (or a couple dozen, who am I trying to kid here?) bloggers, which a faithfully follow. One of them is my bestie, Laura. Her blog is sweet, lovely, inspirational and usually chock-full of fun bright thoughts. Light-hearted, funny, occasionally overly-Texan (as if there’s such a thing possible!) and always loveable. She is always presenting you with a brighter side to everything, with a heaping helping of warmth. How could you not want to read her thoughts? Visit her here!
                                        • We all know that I’m a serious foodie, hence the need to workout and write this blog. What you may not know is how hard it was for me to keep up with a decent diet. Why?  I love chocolate, cake, frosting…all three of them combined is just brilliant – don’t you agree? I am constantly searching for ways to get my sweet-tooth fix, without breaking my calorie budget. I tend to find much inspiration over at FitFoodieFinds.com. She’s great and goes through fun phases where she’s addicted to certain ingredients, it’s fantastic!
                                          • Have I mentioned how much I wish I had sisters? These wonderful ladies make it look like sooooo much fun! They’ve got ideas on just about everything and are all about wholesome family values. I am always inspired by them and love reading about their excursions. These sisters are wonderful, find out more about them at Six Sister’s Stuff

                                            Not surprisingly, many of these are similar to Laura’s. What can I say, we have great taste! 🙂

                                            Here are my questions for these lovely bloggers:

                                            1. What is your favorite book?
                                            2. Which food to you run to when the world seems like it’s crumbling around you?
                                            3. Who is your favorite artist and why?
                                            4. What is the one thing you can’t go a single day without?
                                            5. What one person has been the most fit-fluential for you?
                                            6. Where do you feel most at peace?
                                            7. What one act of kindness do you strive to perform each day?
                                            8. How do you like your coffee? 
                                            9. If you had to choose the way in which you’d leave this earth, how would you go?
                                            10. What are three of your quirks?
                                            11. Name your three greatest accomplishments and three greatest failures.   

                                            Muah!
                                            Much love to you!