Contest Winner, Beautiful Blogger Awards, & Food

And the winner of the very first EMW contest is...

Post #18 Erin, of Travel Eat Repeat!!!!

Email me, Erin!!!

Thanks for participating!!! It was fun. I'll probably do another contest again soon.

This morning started with something different. I had two small turkey-sausage patties and a smidge of cheddar on a toasted english muffin. It was okay. Meh...

Loved the green tea my hubby picked up for me last night. It was my reward for getting through my first 5-hour school night. Ugh. :D

Did you notice anything interesting about these pictures?

I'm in bed! I decided to work out of my bedroom today. I don't know why. Just because I can, I guess!

My room isn't really that fabulous. It's small and we have so much stuff that it tends to look messy all the time. We're hoping to get our own place in April, though!!! (Right now, we live with a roommate.)

This is my side. See my trusty red water bottle?!

But, look what I started!!! (It was Ryan's idea.) The coolest part of the room, for sure.

It's a goal/inspiration board.

I love looking at my board. It reminds me why I'm so busy... I want EVERYTHING!!!

Anywho... around 10ish, I had a snacky. A weird snack for me, actually. A cheese stick and these little 100 calorie cookies.

Honestly, they're more like cookie-flavored crackers.

Now... for the Beautiful Blogger Awards.

I was given the award by Angie of Angie's Appetite for Life. I truly love her blog. She's a dietician with a mission. A girl after my own heart.

The way this works is that I give you 7 Things You Might Not Know About Me, and then pass on the award to 7 other bloggers. We all know there are some bloggers on here that have near-fame status. I love them, and definitely read them every day. But, I deliberately chose other bloggers, because there's plenty of beauty to go around, right? :D

7 Facts You Might Not Know About Moi

1. I was 4 lbs at birth. My parents have this cool picture basically of my dad holding me in one hand. I wish I had that pic for you guys. So weird.

2. I’m the oldest. I have one younger brother. He’s 20 years old. I’m seven years older. He wasn’t an accident though. My parents just had trouble having a second baby. I was extremely annoyed when that second baby was a boy.

3. My husband is 13 inches taller than me. I’m only 5’1, which was one of the reasons being 343 pounds was even more of a hardship on my body. It put me in the “super morbidly obese” category, also called “the heavy weights” (I’m not joking or teasing. That’s another name for it.).

4. I cannot touch a dry potato. I have to use a towel to wet the potato before I touch it. If I touch a dry potato, I start to shudder and I get actual goosebumps up and down my arms and shoulders.

5. I hum incessantly to the point that I annoy everyone around me. What’s worse is that I don’t know I’m doing it and I will hum the same few bars of a song on repeat for DAYS. I’ve done it all my life.

6. I have performed at Disney World three times. Growing up, I was in show choir and I always had a solo. Some people thought I would make a career out of singing. Instead, it's my brother that has made a career of music. He's a guitarist.

7. I flunked out of college. I came out of high school with a 3.8 GPA (having never studied in my life, really), and flunked out of college my first year. My weight made it hard to walk around campus, and I think it was also a quiet rebellion, but I'm not going to psychoanalyze here (that's my hubby's job). I re-started classes again 5 years later. Since that time, I’ve earned straight A’s. Last semester, I went to school full-time and worked full time. I got a 4.0. :D

I pass on this blog award to 7 (of the many) deserving bloggers...

1. Jen, of A Prior Fat Girl. I don’t know Jen in “real life,” but I have been more inspired by her than any other blogger. She’s lost an incredible amount of weight, and works still each day to maintain that loss. But, more than that, she is a pillar of strength that just takes my breath away. In August of 2009, she lost her mother in a tragic accident that truthfully shocked me to my core. She has emerged from tragedy, tattered and shaken, but also strong and incredibly beautiful to continue inspiring her readers. She deserves this award and all the others she’s received, undoubtedly.

2. Kailey at Snackface. Adorable is the right word for Kailey. She’s a journalism student already putting her mark on the world. She’s the foodie college student you wish you had been. She’s wild, crazy, smart, and incredibly beautiful. Check her out.

3. Emily at A Nutritionist Eats. Emily’s blog will make you hungry. She combines real-life food choices with the knowledge of a nutritionist. Great recipes and a spunky personality make this a really fun-gry blog stop.

4. Sarah of Running to Slow Things Down. I love Sarah. She’s a nutrition student and runner. She has a spectacular “This I Believe” about me. You can’t read it and see her cute face without becoming a follower. I promise.

5. Still Life In... This ultra-private blogger writes about her life as an ex-pat. It used to be Still Life in Buenos Aires… Now she’s in Southeast Asia. Blog readers get to follow her as she eats and gallivants across the world with her incredible camera skills. Um… Awesome?!? I swear I’d pay to know her in real life. What an interesting conversationalist, right? Lol.

6. Susan of Open Mouth, Insert Fork. Okay… This is a very cool blog, and you know it from the moment you visit. Unlike a lot of us foodies, Susan doesn’t necessarily document every single bit she eats. Instead, she writes about amazing meals, and you get a picture of her life, her wisdom, and her wit. This was one of the first blogs that I just fell in love with and that inspired me to start my own.

7. Bella of Feed Me I'm Cranky. A fellow SoCal blogger, Bella has a beautiful weight loss story of her own. She offers readers her spunk, incredible wit, and some very tasty eats. This girl is a sharp one, with a lit background that I totally identify with. She also has a rockin musical side career. A fun blog read.

It was SO hard to pick just 7 blogs. I read SO MANY, but it came down to choosing the ones I've been reading the longest.

Thanks for the award Angie! It's my first!

What makes a blog or blogger "beautiful"?