And now, to demonstrate my cluelessness.

Hey there! So Lizzie over at Love Is An Action gave me this little online award thingie, and best I can tell, it's a way to share other bloggers' info and also to provide some fun writing prompts. I also got listed in Uwimana Hannah's post over at The Path Of The Carpenter, too! Neat! It's been fun reading everyone's responses, and now I guess I'll settle in to write mine, too. I don't feel like I can pass this along to anyone, since the blogs I follow have already "won" and answered the same questions! : ) So I will just direct you back over to the other three blogs I read:

Because of Shamim, written by Hannah H.
I love all of Hannah's posts! She always has the best info on Compassion, and I love reading about her sponsor kids!

One More = One Less by my friend Ashley
This is my friend  Ashley's blog about the adoption of her son from Haiti. I think most of her posts might be private right now, because of legal issues before the adoption is finalized, but hopefully after bringing her energetic almost five year old home, she will keep posting. Ashley is really awesome and I'm glad to call her my friend.

Blaire's Blog, by my friend Blaire
Blaire has a lot to say. I mean, she has a lot on her mind. Blaire has deep thoughts. I know this because she is in my Bible study group. Blaire is always ruminating on something from Scripture, or something that has popped up in her prayer life, or something. And yet, she updates her blog so infrequently! It's frustrating. She has good things to say, too, though- check it out!

And now, onto the writing prompts. First, I'm supposed to list 11 random things about myself.

1. My husband and I love to watch movies together! A fun date night for us is a good pick from Netflix and carry-out, if we're lucky. We don't get out much. 
2. I love cupcakes! They are my favorite food. I like to make them, eat them, wear them (on jewelry, t-shirts, whatever!) They are the cutest food, and I like that. One of my rats is even named Cupcake!
3. When I was in high school, I watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy so many times that I actually learned some Elvish. In fact, one day my family went to Walmart, and they were playing one of the movies on a model big-screen TV. They had the set muted, so I stood in front of it and recited the lines from the movie by memory while my parents got their shopping done. 
4. My usual breakfast is a slice of toast with peanut butter and a glass of chocolate milk. 
5. If college theater wasn't so weird, I might have become an actress. Despite my severe anxiety issues, I like performing and being on stage. I directed a production of Alice In Wonderland in high school, and I played Liza Doolittle in a production of Pygmalion. 
6. I carry a tiny spiral-bound notebook full of handwritten Bible verses in my purse for when I have anxiety issues. I wrote them in the book a few years back, when I was having a particularly difficult time coping with life, and they really help. I don't go anywhere without them. 
7. One day I ate a small bite of sand from the sandbox at my grandparents' house, and I threw up.
8. The same day, I accidentally swallowed some bubble stuff while blowing on a Donald Duck bubble pipe, and I threw up again. 
9. I was baptized on the same day as my friend Lauren. Her older brother and my dad were friends growing up. Then we started going to the same church, and sometimes the same school throughout our lives. She is my oldest friend. 
10. My husband was in my homeroom when I was in 8th grade, and he never spoke. We knew each other through mutual friends at our small school, and over the years, I had this running joke that I would try to get him to talk when we were at the same parties and stuff. Now I am pretty much the only person he talks to!
11. I found Sam Neill on twitter and followed him, and he followed me back. I was so happy that I never opened that email. It's still in my inbox, from two or three years ago. "Dr. Grant is following me on twitter! But I never post anything! DR. GRANT IS FOLLOWING ME ON TWITTER!"

I was also assigned 11 questions to answer, which is fun- it reminds me of those survey things that used to float around myspace way back when. If I were passing this award on to others, I think I would be required to make up new questions for them. Oh well. 

1. Describe yourself in 8 words or less. I honestly don't know how to answer this. Watch me go over 8 words. Anyway. I could probably think of 8 words to describe myself, but they would be a jumbled description. I am a wife, a daughter, a Christ-follower, a book-lover, and a friend. "Christ-follower" was two words, and so was "book-lover." That put me at 7. Also, you can add "loquacious" to the list. : P
2. If you could be remembered for one thing, what would it be? I hope I am remembered for being nice. For a long time, a lot of people thought I was kind of a mean person. Well, if you had to put up with some of the stuff I put up with, you'd be a little grumpy, too. I think I am actually a pretty kind, compassionate person. I hope people will remember my personal little crusades for social justice, for helping people however they might need it, for all the important stuff like that. I hope they remember me as a person who never likes anyone to be hurt, whether it's another human being, someone in a movie, an animal, whatever. I hope I am remembered as being kind-hearted. 
3. Who has had the most impact on your life and why? I'm going to answer this semi-honestly and say Jim Henson (because if I pick someone I know directly I will hear about it secondhand later on, I'm sure. "Why'd you pick this person? Why not this other person?" Because it's my blog and that's that.) When I was very small, I was enamored with the Muppets. I still am. Jim and his legacy have had a big impact on my life culturally, in the movies that I watch, the songs that I sing, and stuff like that, but it goes deeper than that. We share a lot of the same ideals. We like to make other people happy. We want learning to be fun. We like to entertain. We're both kind of funny. We both doodle. We both love imagination and wonder and dreaming. Jim died when I was a little kid, but I still remember it, very vaguely. That memory is enhanced by memories of watching a taped television special about his life over and over again. I still watch his memorial service on youtube about once or twice a year, and it still makes me sob. I wonder what things would be like if he were alive today? 
4. If you could be anywhere right now, where would you be and why? Walking back from The Village to Johnson's Inn in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, with a bag of doughnuts and an iced coffee from The Donut Friar. I have a lot of good memories of that place. I think I felt happiest in my life walking back from that area of Gatlinburg along the cobblestone street, passing the wrought iron fences and the little creek where there were baby ducks sometimes, feeling really content after a fun day of vacation. Other vacations were fun, sure, but Gatlinburg vacations were almost entirely peaceful, and all my memories of those vacations are peaceful, too. 
5. What is your favorite TV show or movie, and why? I think I would have a really hard time picking just one. For TV show, I would pick either The Office or Arrested Development, because laughter is important to me, I can watch those shows over and over again and still find them funny, and I have good memories watching them with my friends. If I were to pick a movie, I would probably have to say Jurassic Park, because I loved it as a kid and I love it as an adult. I have watched that movie more than any other- and I have seen a lot of movies, and I have a big list of movies I've seen lots of times. 
6. What is the best compliment you've ever received? This might be one I should keep to myself, but whatever. I have an older cousin named Melissa, whom I spent a lot of time with growing up. We went to the same school sometimes, too, and several of the teachers she had later taught me. Melissa and I were- and in some ways still are- quite opposites. She is lean, athletic, hard-working, good at math, and made perfect grades. I am not-so-lean, sedentary, a procrastinator, math-challenged, and only made perfect grades in spelling. I didn't try very hard. I didn't fail, but still. I digress. Many teachers who taught Melissa, who was well-behaved and studious, kind and friendly were really surprised when they got me- an occasionally loud-mouthed snarky pop culture addict who memorized Trivial Pursuit cards for fun and who had a habit of making fun of others before they could make fun of me. She played volleyball, I had sword-fights with my friends after school. We were opposites. Well, remember that play I mentioned that I got the lead role in? That year, I was also a teacher's aide for a first-grade teacher, and I got to spend some fun time in the teacher's lounge making copies and stapling things. One day, after the play, one of my teachers who was also really involved in the athletic department cornered me in there and told me how proud she was of my performance. She said that it was so nice to see what I was good at, since all those years my cousin had been the one excelling at things. She kind of said "it's nice to see people paying attention to you being you." She didn't say it to put down Melissa and her accomplishments (she has her Ph. D. now and is pretty much working to cure cancer, or at least treat it better, while I check out library books for a living and never finished college.) She made me feel really good, though, because all of my life, I've never thought I was good at much of anything. Sometimes I still don't, to be truthful. Anyway, that's the most meaningful compliment that I've ever received, and I'll never forget it. 
7. What is the most memorable letter you've ever received? A card I got from Brandon on my 18th birthday. I still have it.  : )
8. Who is the most important person in your life? I am going to say Jesus here, because it should be my first answer, and I want it to be true. 
9. What would you do with a million dollars? I would pay off our student loans and our house, trade my car in for a mini van and submit an application to adopt internationally while pursuing an adoption from foster care. And I'd donate half of it. And everyone would get really meaningful Christmas presents this year. : )
10. What is your favorite memory? I honestly don't know. I guess I'll say my honeymoon to Disney World. It was a lot of fun, and I want to go back. Brandon and I haven't been on vacation together since then, and that was more than three years ago. Add that to the list of things I'd do with a million dollars. I'd go on vacation. And visit my sponsor kids. 
11. What is the most encouraging thing you've ever been told and have you shared it with others? I saw a pin on pinterest one time, and the phrase keeps coming back to me lately. It said "God has three answers to prayer: 1. Yes, 2. Not yet, and 3. I have something better in mind." I saw it a long time ago but I've been thinking about it a lot recently, and I did have the opportunity to share it. It sounds like such a bumper-sticker phrase, but it's true. 

So there you have it. A little bit about me. That was fun- let's do it again some time, shall we?