Versatile Blogger Award

Huh???

Me???

Ok, well I am completely undeserving of any sort of "Blog Awards" but Nicole passed this one to me anyways!  I appreciate it, even though my blog is a totally unworthy "baby" blog.  I've blogged before but never to a "real" audience.  Mostly just to journal my own thoughts, maybe for a few close friends and family members to read.  So I am new to this but it still made my day when I saw it this morning!  We went shopping at the "big PX" today and my husband ran into a friend out shopping with his family. I was perusing the Halloween goods (which were slim pickin's, but mostly marked down - they are ALREADY moving the Christmas goods in!!  Can you believe that?? - and I did manage to find a few steals) and when I made my way back to the cart with my daughters trailing behind me, M's friend's wife immediately began talking about my bentos, even joked that she'd pay me to make them for her kids.  Mind you, I have never met her in person and my Facebook profile is set to private!  Turns out that she and I have a mutual friend who had been sharing the photos of A's school lunches with her and they were planning to spend a day together bento-ing in preparation for her son's first time in Japanese school.

So, long story short, A's lunches are getting around and even though I think they are absolutely subpar to some of the amazing meals I have seen blogged in my many quests for inspiration...  It makes me happy to know that I'm serving as some sort of inspiration, too.  A "real" inspiration, if you will, since Okinawa is such a small island community and especially within the military realm, we all somehow seem to be connected here.  I'm not far away, I'm a very real "normal" person and I manage to crank out an attempt at these cute lunches a couple of times per week...  Surely anybody can do it!

So back to The Versatile Blogger Award!

To accept the Versatile Blogger Award, the rules are:

1. Thank and link back to who gave you the award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass it along to 15 blogs you've recently discovered and enjoy.
4. Leave your recipients a note, telling them about the award.

My husband chuckled at me this morning as I read Nicole's post to him in shock that I had been included and said, "That sounds like a chain letter."  I don't care!

Ok, so seven things about myself...  I am definitely not the most interesting person, but here goes nothing!

1. I can't stand not wearing something on my feet.  I live in socks.  I hate bare feet on tile floors, for whatever reason, and my house has only tile floors.  Which is annoying.  Oddly, I can't sleep with socks on, and I won't wear the same pair of socks twice.  For example, if I put socks on and then take them off to nap, I must have a fresh pair of socks after the nap.  Even if I just sat there the whole time I had them on and did absolutely nothing.  You may be starting to agree with me now about my not being the most interesting person.
2. I love arts and crafting, but I'm kind of lacking creativity.  I can do a lot of things if I have thorough enough instructions but I'm not nearly as crafty as I'd like to be.  I'm not as organized as I'd like to be, either, which I think plays a role in that.
3. My husband and I have this goal that if he is making the military his career (which it appears he is), we should milk it and get as many cool experiences out of it as we can.  I made this deal with him the last time he reenlisted (nearly three years ago), and then the DoD moved us from California to Texas and then six months later from Texas to Japan.  I'd love to get as many overseas duty stations as possible in his remaining years of service - I love the opportunities available to my children while we live in foreign countries.
4. I'm not a people person.  We live in a 9-story tower apartment building and I can't stand the close quarters.  We're used to living in detached or semi-detached homes..  At the very worst an open-air apartment/multiplex-type set up.  Living with a shared hallway and elevators drives me crazy!!  A takes after my husband and is extremely social.  C, on the other hand, is like me and tends to immediately reject "new" people.  Warming up to people takes her quite some time.
5. I have a sewing machine and I love it, but I've only used it like ten times, total.  I made A a dress and a shoe bag, I've mended a few things, I helped my husband construct a ghillie suit, and I've sewn on name tapes.  The sewing machine - though it's super basic - intimidates me half to death!  One day I'd love to learn to quilt.  Particularly rag quilts.
6. I love Disneyland.  It is my FAVORITE place in the world.
7. My grandma is my best friend.  She's AMAZING!

Whew!  That wasn't as bad as I was expecting.

On to the 15 blogs I enjoy - hard to choose since I ADORE wayyy more than 15 blogs, but I will give it a shot:

1. Holy Cannoli Recipes
2. Café Groenhout
3. olive and ollie
4. A Bit Of This and A Bit Of That
5. BentoLunch.net
6. Sonoma Bento
7. Hawaii Kawaii
8. Sugar Bee - Craft Edition
9. Crouching Mother, Hidden Toddler
10. Bentobird
11. Adventures in Bentomaking
12. All About the Kids
13. A Pumpkin and a Princess
14. Mommy of Twins
15. Hawai`i's Bento Box Cookbook, Bentos and More for Kids