I'd like to thank the academy.....

For those of you that follow Mary, The Food Floozie, you will know that she has taken a much needed break away from blogging for the summer.  BUT, bless her heart, she took the time to accept an award that was given to her on 7/11!  A well deserved award, too, I might add. Like with any award, she was asked to answer questions, to tell us a little about herself and to give the award to 11 other bloggers.  I, if you haven't figured it out yet, was one of the very grateful recipients of this award!!   The only downside is that I haven't had the time to do the full request that comes with the award.  I can't let that stop me though, so I'm going to graciously accept the award (thank you sooooo much, Mary!!!!) but I'm going to ask that Mary forgive me as I will not be following the exact rules.....

The rules state this:
1.  Link back to whomever awarded the prize (check, already did that!)
2.  State 11 random facts about yourself (I'm going to state 5, sorry)
3.  Answer 11 questions from the award giver (This is the part I am definitely doing!)
4.  Nominate another 11 bloggers and come up with 11 questions for them (I'm going to skip this part all together... well, I might ask YOU all 1 question, but that's it)

Okay, so with that out of the way, here we go:

Five Random Facts About Me (and all new facts.. no repeats from previous posts):

(Picture courtesy mrwallpaper.com)

1. I am afraid of heights.   Well, maybe I'm not so afraid of heights as I am the sudden stop when you fall, but still... I am sticking with a fear of heights.  I get light headed, I get really sweaty palms and I get the shakes.  It's a strange feeling.  I took up rock climbing when I first moved to Arizona in hopes that it would help me overcome this fear.... alas, I think it might have made it worse!  lol

(picture courtesy www.tumblr.com )

2.  I am a very shy person.  I know, for most of you that have known me for some time, you might not believe it, but it is true.  When I was younger, I was so shy that I would go to a friends house and their parents would say hello to me and I would immediately turn bright red and I couldn't look them in the eye.  Oh, I always said hello, but man, it about killed me!  It's gotten easier as I've gotten older, but it's still there.  I try and pretend I'm not shy and crack a lot of jokes, but on the inside... OMG, I am freaking out on the inside!!

(picture courtesy 100redflags.com) 

3.  I am a sweet-oholic.  My name is Jenn and I am addicted to sweets.  Cookies, chocolate, ice cream, cake, pie... you name it, if it's sweet, I want it.  I have a bad habit of always having one of those said things in the house at all times.  I've tried to go without them, but I just can't.  I find myself rummaging around for an opened back of chocolate chips or something.... soooooo, to stop that humiliation, I just make sure I have stuff in the house all the time.  Now, with that said, I try to be very good about it... I try to stick with just one or two cookies at night, or one or two pieces of chocolate.  So at least I can say I have my addiction under control.... for the time being at least :)

4.  I am always early.  There is no such thing as on time or late with me.  I am notoriously at least 5-10 minutes early no matter where I go.  And I HATE it when people are more than 10 minutes late to something.  It's one of those things that is a huge pet peeve of mine.  To me, if I'm on time, I'm late.  Now I don't expect everyone to have that attitude, all I expect is that people are ON TIME :)

5.  I want to see Mt. Everest - up close and personal.  No, I do not want to climb it, I will be okay with just standing at the base of it, but I really want to see it.  I have been fascinated with that mountain for years and years now.  It's interesting to me the pull that it has on people and the amount of people that are willing to risk their lives to get to the top... only to spend about 10 minutes there and work your way back down... that's just crazy!!  Anyway, there is a trek that you can take from Katmandu to Everest base camp and someday, someday.... I am going to do it!

Now, the really fun part - the 11 questions Mary asked me to answer: 

1. What is the first thing you'll ask God when you get to Heaven? (We're all going to Heaven, we're just taking different scenic routes)?  This was a tough one for me to answer.  I had all these silly questions immediately pop into my head... you know like - "Where's Jimmy Hoffa?"  or "Who was the gunman that fired the shot from the grassy knoll?" or "What's up with the platypus anyway?"  or better yet "What the heck just happened to me?"  But after getting past those silly thoughts, I really tried to think seriously about it.  And after some thought, the first thing I would ask God when I get to Heaven would be... "Will you take me to see my grandmothers, please?"

2. What is your favorite "me time" indulgence?  Reading.  Might sound silly to some, but it's my favorite thing to do for me.  I devour books - so yes, I definitely indulge :)

3. What is the word or phrase you overuse the most?  I'm pretty sure that would have to be "Fantastic" or "Suck It."  I say both quite a bit... and don't worry mom, the last one I say out of pure fun, not to be mean or hateful :)

4. What is your favorite side dish at Thanksgiving?  I must admit, my favorite Thanksgiving side dish is homemade cranberry sauce!  Not the canned stuff.. never the canned stuff.  But fresh, homemade cranberry sauce.  And although I like it flavored or spiced up, I adore just plain old cranberries cooked in water and sugar....mmmmmm!

5. What is your most cringe-inducing, most appalling, most ridiculous dating story?  Ha!  Good thing for me, I did not have a ton of really appalling and ridiculous dating stories.  I think probably the worse date I was ever on was with this guy that a friend of a friend set me up with (I should have known something was wrong at that point.. sigh!).  Anyway, he called me up and told me that he'd pick me up the next night and to dress nice, as he would take me some place nice.  Okay, so I'm in AZ, and it's summer, I didn't get too dressed but, but I put a summer dress on.. and for me, that's huge!  Anyway... so he picks me up and we end up at Denny's.  Yes, that's right, he asked me to dress up to go to Denny's.  Okay, whatever, I like Denny's, they have pretty good breakfast and maybe he was taking me someplace nice AFTER dinner.  We sit down and order drinks... he proceeds to talk non-stop about himself for the next hour.  When I try to say something, he literally holds up his hands, shhh's me and says "I'm not finished yet, wait your turn".  Needless to say, after an hour I went into the bathroom and called a friend of mine to come and pick me up.  Ten minutes later, he enters the restaurant and walks to the table.. meanwhile this guy is STILL talking about himself.  I stand up, look him straight in the eye and said, please don't call me again.  He looks at me and yells at the top of his lungs.. BITCH!!  Ahhhhhhhh.. those were the days!!  hehehe

6. What has your greatest accomplishment been so far in 2013?  This might sound silly to some, but my greatest accomplishment so far this year has been to get grass to grow in our front yard!! WOOHOOO!!!  Anyone that knows my struggles over the last two years will understand my joy over this and for those that do not know the history, just know, I started with nothing, got weeds to grow, killed everything, got grass to finally grow.  Whew!! :)

7. What website do you check most often throughout the day?  Gmail.  I really don't have much time during the day to surf the web, but when I do have a moment, it's to check my email.

8.  It's Christmas in July; in your letter to Santa, what are you asking him to leave under the tree for you?  Honestly, I would ask him for money right now.  I haven't made this a bit announcement yet on here, so I guess now is as good a time as any:  Chris and I are getting married in May of next year.  Soooo, you see, if Santa could bring me a little money to help with the cost of the honeymoon, I would be a hap-hap-happy girl!!

9.  Have you ever been to Michigan?  Sadly, no :(

10. If so, when, where, why?  If not, why not???  I don't know!  I mean I have no good excuse other than I don't really like traveling and I haven't had the funds to do any sort of traveling up until just a few years ago.  But, Thanks to the blogging world, I have met Mary and hopefully the next time I'm asked question number 9, I'll be able to say YES!!!

11. What is your favorite kind of pie?  Yikes, this was another hard one for me because it is a toss up between chocolate cream pie and apple pie.  I might lean more toward chocolate because that is usually always the same.  Apple pie, however, tends to be different from time to time.. and when I say different, I mean how the apples are cut.  I'm particular about that...they have to be thinly sliced or chopped small.  No big chucks, no thick-thick pieces.  Basically, it has to be a lot like my moms for me to really enjoy it :)

Whew.. thanks for sticking around to read all of this.  I actually really enjoyed answering Mary's questions.  Some of them definitely made me think!!  Now, since I have already bent the rules, I'm going to just go ahead and break them all together.  Instead of picking 11 bloggers to give this award to, I'm just going to ask you all one question in hopes you will answer when you comment.

This is a question people have been asked before, but it's one that always fascinates me:

If you could have dinner with anyway... alive or dead.... who would it be and why?

So there you have it.  Again, a HUGE thank you to Mary for this award.  And for all of you for being such loyal readers!

Happy Cooking (and Grilling)!!!!