Liebster Award, My First Blog Award

 

Thank you Hillary from Threaded Life for nominating me.

Winners of a Liebster Award need to do the following:

1. You must post 11 random things about yourself.

2. Answer the questions that the nominator set for you

3. Create 11 questions for the people you nominate

4. Choose 11 blogs with less than 200 followers and link them in your post.

11 Random Things

 

1. I teach 6th grade at school and will begin teaching youth at Church in a week or so.

2. I love melted cheese!

3.  Dark Chocolate makes me happy.

4.  PJ pants, sweatshirt, ponytail Saturdays with a good book are my favorite.

5.  I'd love to be crafty, but I'm just average.

6.  I love to laugh, but need to do it more.

7.  I love Autumn Leaves and the change in the air.

8.  If I could pick I'd be a ranchers wife.  Like the Pioneer Woman.

9.  I like going to the movie theater.

10.  I've never been to Disney World.

11.  Nothing better than the smell of maple syrup over hot off the griddle pancakes.

My 11 Questions from Hillary:

1.  What's your favorite book and why?

I really enjoy reading Iris Johansen.  Any of her Eve Duncan series is my pick.  I love reading mystery novels and these keep me guessing.

2.  Give me your all-time favorite quote.

Eleanor Roosevelt "The only person who can make you feel inferior is yourself."

3.  What's your favorite animal and why?

The Loon.  Every time we go to MN to visit in the summer I make sure that I get to hear their melancholy sound. 

4. What do you collect?

I collect snowmen.... sort of.  I'm not an avid collector, I haven't bought a piece for my collection in years.

5.  Who do you most admire and why?

I admire the Savior.  I want to emulate my life after His.  When I do I feel the most joy.

6.  What's your worst vice?

Diet Dr. Pepper, I drink it daily more than once, twice, three times, you get my point! 

7.  What's your best trait?

I'm a doer.  I work on things until they are finished.  I like helping people.

8.  What's your favorite sport?

I like to watch football, especially live.

9.  What's your favorite color and why?

I like Earth tones.  Especially Yellow, Red, Orange and Green.  It depends on the day.  I enjoy the autumn.  The leaves, caramel apples, jeans and sweatshirts, walks in the woods.

10.  Name one of your pet peeves.

Not being in control of my life.  Chaotic moments of life.

11.  What makes any particular day special for you?
I love spending time with my family of four.  I love it when we all get to sit around the dinner table together.  Those days are rare anymore.

 

Questions for my nominees:

1. What is your favorite vacation destination and why?

2.  What is your favorite type of pasta?

3.  What is your favorite flower?  Why?

4.  What is your favorite out of a box of chocolates?

5.  If you could pick any profession what would it be and why?

6.  What is your favorite season and why?

7.  What is your favorite Disney Character and why?

8.  If you could change one thing about you what would it be?

9.  What do you collect?

10.  Books or magazines?

11.  Milk or Dark Chocolate?

 

These are some blogs I enjoy with less than 200 followers.  I am nominated them for the Liebster Award.

1. Whispering Pines

2. Suze's Corner

3. Eichhorn Nut House

4. Catbird Scout

 5. The Speckled Egg

6. My Journey to Joy

7. Nielsen Family

8. The Selvage Edge

9. Flying into the Light

10. Keepsake Moments

11. Planting Dream Growing Blessings

 

Thanks Hillary, this was fun!

 

Date to Warm my Heart

 

Saturday was the first time Dakota was too old to go on a Boy Scout activity.  Instead we went on a Mother-Son date.  We went over to Mansfield to the $1 theater as we call it and saw Skyfall for $2 bucks!  Can't beat that.  Before the movie we grabbed a hamburger at Burger King. 

Kota was driving because Kyle had our car and Kayla went to work.  Anyhow, we were heading into Burger King and we saw a man holding a sign.  Dakota looked at him and said, man that makes me feel bad.  I recounted a memory of a visit to Salt Lake City were we saw lots of professional beggars and said, use the Spirit to know what you should do.

We ordered our food.  And talked as much as a teenage boy with food in front of him does.  And he said again, boy that really makes me feel bad for that man.  Mom I have to do something.  Again I said, are you sure, sometimes people are just scamming for money. 

He said mom, I feel like I am supposed to help him.  I have a gift card in my wallet from Christmas that I haven't used yet.  Is it okay to give that?  I said sure.  I watched my son, tramp through the snow to the intersection next to Burger King with a warm heart.  He wasn't afraid to give the man what he had.

No matter the tough times in growing into adulthood, if he can take the time to listen to the sweet whisperings of the Holy Ghost and ignore earthly council to do what is right, we as his parents have done our job!

Thanks Moose, for a Saturday filled with a nice memory-making moment; where I learned a life lesson from you.

Give Away Winner

 

My winner is one of my new followers Bernadette. I sent you an email to send me your address.  I'll get that into the mail this week.

This is Oxyoke Lake in Backus, Minnesota.  It is about a mile or so from my in-laws.  It is such a beautiful place.  A slice of heaven in my book.

Whenever I'm overwhelmed and am in the right mind enough to think rationally (hard to do I know) I put myself here.  It was such a calm and relaxing day.  A time when everything was right in my world.  I love those days.

I hope when you look at this that you get that same calming peace.

18 Years Old

 

Dakota turned 18 today.  He is pretty excited about that fact.  We decided the best things we could get him right now were warm clothes for his college stay in Minnesota.  He is planning to go to Vermilion College in Ely, the one we visited last summer.

He is about a 1/2 hour from the city with the lowest temperature in  the lower 48 states (according to Kyle).  We have him all decked out with this lovely hat you see him dog eared in.  (crazy nut)  We got him a carhart jacket, nice leather work gloves, thermal underwear, and shirts to wear in layers.  Oh and maybe a few tools to add to his tool box since he won't be able to raid his dad's stuff when he is in the middle of no where.

 

To welcome in Kota's birthday today he got yummy cupcakes from his seminary teacher.  Then got to come home and watch a movie because school was delayed due to cold temperatures.  It was 12 degrees today with a wind chill of -35 degrees.  (Minnesota won't delay school for these temperatures, this is a normal day Kyle told Kota today.)  Yep, definitely needs those thermal underwear.  (hehe)

To celebrate we went to our favorite Chinese restaurant the Lotus in Ashland.  Then came back to have cake and ice cream with grand parents.  Great-Grandpa Steigerwalt even made it over.  He enjoyed looking at Tina our version of Garfield the cat.

It just seems like yesterday we brought the colicky baby home from the hospital.  Now he is all grown-up and making preparations to fly the coop and begin preparing for his career.  I'm proud of that fact, but still sad.  We just finalized the plans on taking him up to MN, Including the date we will be coming home; son less. (That is going to be a hard trip home.)  But for now, he's here and I'm going to enjoy every moment.

Happy Birthday Moose!  Last one at home for awhile. 

P.S. Don't forget to put in for my give away in the Grow My Blog post.

Grow My Blog

Crawford Clan Weekly is just my way to make a personal journal about my family.  I am excited about this blog party.

I share what it is like to be a mother of two teenagers.  One of which turns 18 this week.  I will be transitioning into adult children and the things that go with that.  I am a teacher.  I teach sixth grade and will blog about that on occasion.  I volunteer through my church a lot and work on just being a good Christian woman.

My hobbies are photography and genealogy I post about those experiences as well.  I love reading about the people I follow on my blog.  I have treasure their comments and reading about their lives.  People I have never had a verbal conversation with have helped to change my life.  This has been a great therapeutic source for me.

I hope to make many new blogging friends through this party.

My give away will be a 4x6 print of one of my original pictures.  You may choose this one or any that I have in my blog.  Just leave a comment and you'll be entered into the drawing. I will choose my winner on Saturday, January 26th!   Happy blogging.

Untraveled Roads

Life is at a turning point.  One that is new, scary and different.  One that no matter how much planning, preparing, and fretting is beginning to come to pass.  Gentle reminders have been plaguing me over the past few weeks.  In one week my son will turn 18.

Although we have four more months of high school, we will never have another first day of school.  He will be attending college 1200 miles from home.  He will be in a different time zone.  He will be left to make decisions on his own.  Some of which will have long lasting consequences, which could be in his favor or not.

What a weird transition from child to adult.  Even weirder is that tug of grief, a sense of loss.  Yet knowing that at every end there is a new beginning.  Oh the possibilities of the places he can go.  Who knew eighteen years could go by so quickly?  What a bittersweet crossroad I am at.  I hope that all those lessons taught will have made an impression on his heart.

Personal Progress

This young lady has been working hard at getting her personal progress done.  Personal Progress is equivalent to doing an Eagle Scout project for the young women of our church.  Kayla has been working on 52 small projects and eight 10 hour service projects to get this done since she turned 12.

Kayla has babysat children without charging fees, she learned how to cook meals, she tackled learning how to do laundry including temperature setting and so forth.   She has learned how to make her wardrobe modest.  She made scarves for women with breast cancer, she read the entire Book of Mormon.  She is on her last leg, and has only 1 more 10 hour project to do.

She is working on her Choice and Accountability project.  She is going to have For Strength of the Youth parties and give the youth a good "choice" of an activity.

Kayla came home from Young Women last night and said she is 97% completed.  She is proud of herself.  I wanted her to be done when she was 16, she didn't think she could do it, but she should be done well before she turns 17 in August.

We are very proud of our "Fidget," she has such a spunky, fun spirit. I can't wait until she gets to get her medallion.

More Like Him

After careful consideration my resolution for the year 2013 is to be More like Him.  I am going to work on loving like the Savior does.  I think this will in turn give me more joy in life.  Some of my most choice experiences I have had in my life are when I am serving.  Not only serving my church family, but in the world too.  

I know that I will not be as great as the Savior, but I can be More like Him.  This is a goal that brings tears to my eyes as I type.  I know it is the right thing for me at this point in my life.

I know that the Savior was the Master at loving those whom no one else considered to.  I want to emulate this behavior.  In doing so, I can only become a better, more understanding and patient person.  Who couldn't benefit from these character traits.

I look forward to seeing where this goal might go.  Welcome 2013, I'm glad to have a new start and focus for the year.