The Liebster Award – Exploring New Blogs

As I mentioned in a previous blog post I am participating in a Blogging 101 course run by The Daily Post on Word Press.  Well, I am trying to participate as much as possible although school holidays fell right in the middle which is not conducive to keeping up with all the tasks!  I have come across some great blogs and have enjoyed reading and interacting with the authors.  The adventurous Saana from Live Now – Dream Later has kindly nominated me for the Liebster Award (Thank you!), which is a chance to let you all know a few interesting things that you may not have known about me and a chance for me to give a shout out to a few of the blogs that I am following at the moment and that you may enjoy also.

Rules of the Liebster Award:

Post the award on your blog.

Thank the blogger who presented this award and link back to their blog.

Write 11 random facts about yourself.

Nominate 11 bloggers who you feel deserve this award and who have less than 200 followers.

Answer 11 questions posted by the presenter and ask your nominees 11 questions.

So here are 11 random facts about myself:

1. I’m not a rule breaker….in fact I find it really difficult to break even the smallest of rules, like crossing that yellow line at the train station, can’t do it, or starting to cross the road when the little man is flashing red even though that green man was only up for a second!  Haven’t even smoked a cigarette cause my parents said I shouldn’t.
2. I’ve swum with mantarays in the Carribbean.
3. My wedding song was Black Betty by Spiderbait, well it started with Elton John’s ‘The Way You Look Tonight’ to satisfy protocol but after 2 minutes it cut away to Black Betty because we wanted everyone know we were there to paaarrttyy.
4. I have bunjy jumped twice – Once in Cairns on a Maths C excursion as a practical experiment of potential energy or something along those lines, and once in New Zealand.
5. I have shared in a $300 bottle of wine and I couldn’t tell you whether it was amazing or not.  That was back in the days when a $10 cask of wine and some orange juice was a standard drink! I know….
6. I was School Captain in high school. It goes back to that whole rule-abiding, good girl thing.
7. I have jumped out of a perfectly good plane over Trinity Beach in Cairns, three days before my wedding.  My dad wasn’t impressed but my future husband said I could….
8. I have ridden an elephant in Thailand.
9. I have attempted Cow Tipping in the dark of the night (c’mon I did grow up on a dairy farm) and just for the record they don’t really fall asleep while standing and you can’t just tip them over….who knew?
10. I ended up in the pool…after my reception…in my wedding dress.  You had to be there OK!  It was really hot, we had danced all night and were all hot and sweaty, everyone else was in the pool and swimmers were not something I thought to pack for my wedding night.  So I succumbed to peer pressure, took a running leap and dived into the hotel pool.  Thought my new husband would get cranky at me….turns out he thought it was a pretty good idea and dove in right next to me!   Ahhh true love.
11. My last labour was a 12 hour marathon of pain, no drugs, posterior position bub (his back to my back, read painful), VBAC, followed by a post partum haemorrhage.  So a memorable night for all the right and wrong reasons.  Why tell you this….cause I felt like such a bad ass for surviving that night with no drugs and it explains why I laugh like a crazy woman everytime anyone asks me if I am having another child (as if four kids in under four years didn’t challenge my sanity enough?).  Yeah….No.

So that is 11 things you may not have known about me and maybe wish you didn’t! On to the next step in this process which is to nominate 11 blogs for this award.  They can choose to accept or pass if they wish, but go on over and check out their blogs.

1. Are We There Yet?
2. Travelling is an Adventure
3. Aussie Daggs
4. Vital Mommy
5. The Likkleone
6. No More Can’t
7. When Life Gives You Melons
8. The Old Fellow Goes Running
9. Of Itchy Feet and Beyond
10. Tiff Gets Into Fitness
11. Body Transformation

Finally, time to answer the questions posed by Live Now – Dream Later

1. What is your biggest dream in life?My biggest dream in life is to build a sports club/or school/ or community building in a third world country with my husband and kids (when they are old enough to appreciate the experience) and extended family and friends if they want to.  I want to do something amazing, memorable, and lasting as a family.  Something that will make a difference to lives other than ours.

2. Are you planning to make it happen and how?  I am not clear on all the details, not by a long shot, but it is something that sits at the back of my mind and ticks away , always looking for opportunities.  I figure I have another 10 years or so before the kids are ready for this kind of opportunity.

3. If you could live in any other country except the one you are from, what would it be?  I love Australia and can’t really imagine living anywhere else and to be honest I haven’t done nearly enough travelling to make an informed decision.  Canada would be a place I would consider though.

4. If you became a millionaire, what would be the first thing you bought/invest in?  I know nothing about money or investing so first thing I would do would be to pay someone to manage my money for me, lol.  The other thing I would use the money for would be to pay for one big family trip each year with the parents, sisters and cousins.  Love our family gatherings!

5. What is the most embarrassing moment of your life this far?  Hmmm, two situations come to mind, falling off my bike across the path of two oncoming riders, while I was stationary (as you do), and the other was almost fainting in a classroom after just moving to Perth.  No one knew me except as the crazy lady lying on the floor of the classroom while the paramedics checked me out.  Not embarrassing at all.  

6. What is your favourite sport (to do, not to watch)?  Would have to be Mountain Biking at the moment.  Love being outdoors and love the variety and challenge of different trails.

7. What is the weirdest thing you’ve ever heard/read of?  Couldn’t answer this question so I Googled it, yep, that turned up some crazy stuff and I may have gotten distracted, but anyway here is a link to the weirdest stuff that has happened in 2014. 

8. What is the biggest reason why you decided to accept this challenge?  Firstly I was a bit excited at being nominated for an award but then I realised it was a fun concept.  And I love reading about people’s random facts, so I thought why not?

9. What would be your dream job?  Something that combines, travel, outdoor activity/exercise, and my love of coaching/training people.  Wouldn’t mind running/owning my own gym one day?

10. What is the scariest thing that has ever occurred to you?  When I was 8 or 9 years old, my sister and I had to put the cows away in ‘the Far Away paddock’ which as you could imagine was the paddock the furthest away from the dairy and house.  It was right on dark so by the time we put them away we were running home in the dark.  We were already running holding hands cause we were a little wary of the dark, but our parents, while waiting for us to get back, thought it would be a little funny to hide behind a bush and jump out and yell ‘ARRRGGHHH’ at us.  We both screamed like the little girls that we were, I think I fell to the ground and my sister turned and ran the other way.  My parents tell us that they still feel guilty to this day…….all I can say is so they should!! lol

11. What would you do if you found a brand new iPhone 6 on the street that someone has lost?  As I know next to nothing about the latest gadgets I would probably have to ask my 8 yr old what it was.  Then I would try some of the numbers to see if I could contact anyone to let them know what I had found.  If there was no luck with contacts I would have to say I would probably say ‘Finders Keepers’.  Eeeek…is that bad?

Now I am supposed to ask a series of questions for my nominated blogs, however the rules are a little sketchy on just how many questions I have to ask,  I think it is 11 but I am only going to ask 5 questions as this whole process has taken me a lot longer than expected!! I kept getting distracted, reading blogs, googling things…you know how it is.  So five questions and I will hand the award on….

1. What are your top 5 exercise/health goals?
2. What is your favourite holiday destination?  Why?
3. Where did you find your favourite coffee spot ever??  (If you are not a coffee drinker, I don’t know if we can still be friends!)
4. What are 3 things on your bucket list?
5. Tell us about your most romantic moment?

Well that was fun, don’t forget to check out some new blogs and hopefully a few of those nominated will play along.  I know I haven’t played strictly by the rules as some of the blogs are not new or under 200 followers (but I googled the Liebster Award and the rules seem to change all the time, a bit like Chinese Whispers, so I don’t feel too bad!).  Enjoy and I will get back on task next time!

P.S.  I was also nominated for ‘The One Lovely Blog’ Award by the lovely Kylie over at Body Transformation.

As I was in the middle of doing this challenge I have decided to pass on the follow up of that nomination, but I wanted to thank Kylie for the shout out and don’t forget to head over and check out her blog on keeping fit and healthy after 40 (and after four kids).