Here are the rules:1. Say thanks and link to the person who gave you the award.2. Share ten "honest" things about yourself.3. Award this to seven people whose blog design/content you admire or who have encouraged you, and inform them of their win and of the rules of this award.
1. I have perfected the art of procrastination. :P
2. Currently, I'm in the middle of at least 5 knitting projects.
3. I can read 630 words per minute and I plan on getting faster after going through exercises with my mom for a month.
4. I plan to knit at least half of the gifts I'll be giving for Christmas, and wish that I could do more.
5. My walls are awesome...they're covered in Lizzy's drawings, and now my sister's, too! :D I'm working on getting them all framed.
6. If I gave you the numbers of music files, photos, fonts, and Photoshop brushes that I have on my computer, you'd probably faint.
7. I teach more of my sister's school subjects than my mom does. I think they both prefer it that way. :P
8. I can use sign language in front of a large crowd with no problem at all, but ask me to use my voice and I'm a nervous wreck...even with a small crowd.
9. I actually enjoy it when the electricity goes out...I just wish that everyone else wouldn't complain so much and act like it's the end of the world.
10. I now have 3 different instant messenger programs on my computer. I mainly talk to 3 people, and each of them use a different one. I like Windows Live the best, and am glad that I can talk to Yahoo users with it. I wish that I could use it for Google Talk users too...maybe some day. :P
Lizzy also gave me a second award...
The rules are: I have to list 5 facts about her, and then 10 about me... Then award ten other people.
Is this payback for the previous tags I've given you, Lizzy? :P I've been sitting on #2 of the above award for a week! And now I have to come up with 10 more things?! Sheesh!5 Facts About Lizzy:
1. She has Russian ancestors and is proud of it...though sometimes I think she wishes she had Irish blood flowing in her veins. :P
2. She is the artist behind my wonderful new profile picture. :D
3. Her colored drawings amaze me, and I wish that she'd do more of them. (Maybe we could start a petition? :P)
4. She owns horses and is currently training one that was born on her farm not too long ago.
5. She's planning on having a Russian-themed wedding.
Now me again....
1. I hoard candles and have more than I know what to do with. I inherited that trait from my grandma.
2. I express my feelings through poetry, but more often when I'm sad and gloomy. Therefore, a lot of it has not been read by anyone but me. I also have a lot of little pieces that have never been completed. I'm sure my stack of post-it notes with little rhymes on them has reached 100 by now. :P
3. Saltine crackers are my comfort food, but I've become so addicted to them that they're often my lunch too, and my midnight snack. I once had a whole package without salt...and still ate them anyway. :P
4. It's very hard for me to type a line without a smiley of some sort at the end....or an extended line of periods.
5. I am extremely cold-natured and wear long sleeves throughout the summer. Yes, it may be hot outside, but that just means that the AC is on inside.
6. As a result of fact #5, I have a supply of blankets in every part of the house that I frequent. Since winter is coming, I'm going to have to re-supply the living room. My mom actually began getting cold last year, and skinny as my sister is, she's cold too, so my blankets get used. The thin ones that have always been there have become dog blankets...I guess everyone likes my thick fleece ones.
7. In the areas of books, coffee, and chocolate, I am my mother...I can't get enough of them.
8. I have what you could call a "second breakfast" every day. After the main part I have something that I can eat as I drink my coffee (or tea...depends on the day). Multi-grain bread with honey, toast with strawberry preserves, cinnamon graham crackers, cookies, etc.
9. If I had to pick one of the cleaning jobs that I'm in charge of that I like the most, I'd actually choose cleaning the toilets because it's quick and easy. Washing dishes is much worse in my mind because you actually have to put your hands in the dirty water. That's why my younger sister gets to wash them, and I get to dry them and put them away. :P
10. After working on this for nearly two hours, I need to wrap it up because I need to have dinner ready for when my dad and brother get home at five. Mexican Pasta with Texas Toast. :D
I'll tag Firieth and Unveiled Hope. If anyone else sees this that hasn't been tagged yet, then go for it! ;)
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Wenneveria
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Cadeyrn
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Next are some desktop wallpapers that I have made using screenshots from the movie and photos that the Burns family have posted on their site and on Facebook. :) Some of them also have quotes from the movie on them, and one has a poem that I wrote that was inspired by the movie. :)
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Artos Pendragon
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Wenneveria
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Cadeyrn
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~*~02. People who speak ill of those that you love or what you believe in. Don't allow it.
03. A Columbus Blue Jackets broadcast. The announcers are way too biased. No one but their team matters. I understand that they should favor their team, but they take it too far.04. Mountain Dew, especially Code Red
LOL, that's four...:P
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Again, if you haven't been tagged and want to be tagged...you're it. ;)
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To the left of the sage is a big Oregano plant that I've had for a few years. Right now it's more underneath the sage, though. :P Once the flowers on the sage die, I'll be cutting several of the branches. To the left of the oregano is basil (not pictured).
Off to the right of the sage is rosemary. I really don't feel like it's truly "mine" since I have to buy a new plant every year.
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All the way to the right are several little savory plants. They're all babies right now. :) To the left of the savory is parsley, but it's currently going to seed and isn't very pretty. :P
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In the back is orange mint. A very hardy little plant. Se how these branches are growing up between some bricks? :P
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All the way on the left is chocolate mint. It smells wonderful! :)
~*~*~In a small area to the right where we just dug up a 40+ year old rose bush that died over the winter are a few of my herbs that will grow into large plants.
Thyme. It's very hard to get a good-looking picture of this one. :P
Lavender. This plant is 3 or 4 years old. It's slowly getting bigger. I also have English Lavender in an area at the front of the house. It's new this year.
~*~Russian Sage. Probably my most prized plant. I love it! It gets tiny pale purple flowers on it later in the summer.
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To the right of that one is another area...
Chamomile. One of the easiest to harvest from. :)
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Parsley. We use lots of it, mostly in salads.
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More oregano, taken from the plant in area one.
~*~Watercress. Great in salads. It tastes kinda like radishes.
~*~*~Also in the back yard is tons of mint in several places.
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And chives in two places. Mom likes it in the garden to attract the bees.
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In the front I have a small area with rocks around it. One of my huge sage plants is there, as well as one of my stevia plants (I couldn't get a good picture of that yet). I also have a big ground cover between all of the plants that has pretty purple flowers on it in the early spring. Also there are:
Germander. It has tiny purple flowers later in the season. Notice that the majority of herbs have purple flowers...:P
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My biggest marjoram plant. Marjoram's an odd one...it's flowers are white. :)
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Lemon Balm. My biggest (the sage here doesn't get in it's way). It has a sweet lemon taste and scent.
Lifehouse's No Name Face and Stanley Climbfall. Definitely two of my all-time favorites. When I got No Name Face, my stereo had just died. :P So I was stuck with my little boom box. I think the only time that the album left it was when it was transferred into my portable CD player when we would leave the house. 
When we got back, it went right back into the boom box. :P Stanley Climbfall was one of the few albums that I pre-ordered on the Internet. It took nearly a week to arrive after it's release date...the wait was horrible! :P
Josh Groban's Awake. A more recent one. I've pretty much worn out all of his albums after getting them, but this one more so than the others, I think. My grandma has fallen in love with him. After watching his Awake Live DVD, she informed me that she had filed adoption papers on him and was waiting to hear back! :P Notice that all of his studio albums have gone platinum. Are we surprised? :P
Leeland's The Sound of Melodies. This was truly a great album. Leeland is such a great songwriter, and this album was recorded while he was only 17! Wow. Makes you think about what you've done with your own life, doesn't it? How many people can say at 20 years old that their recording their third album and have written songs with Michael W. Smith?
The soundtracks to The Lord of the Rings movies. I wore these out when I got each of them, and have since gotten my hands on copies of the complete recordings. Howard Shore 
created a wonderful soundtrack for this trilogy. I would often listen to a single album all through school in the mornings, and after I got my computer and had them all on it, I listened to them all the way through. :) These were the ones that began my obsession with movie soundtracks. I now have an extensive collection on my computer, and I love to listen to them all on shuffle. It's really fun...you'll hear a song from LotR, then from PotC, Narnia, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, then back to Narnia...and so on. :P
Falling Up's Crashings, Dawn Escapes, and Captiva. I love the music that this band makes. It's very unique. And...you can spend hours trying to 
figure out how in the world they come up with the song titles that they do. :P Also, who can't love a band who's lead singer thanks Legolas in his first album? :P I'll never forget the interview that I saw on TV of the band. As they were introducing themselves and what they do..."I'm Jeremy, and I play the bass." "I'm Josh, and I play the drums." "I'm Jessy, and I play the singer."
Third Day's Offerings, Offerings II: All I Have To Give, and Come Together. I've picked out these three of theirs because I remember them being in the living room's six-disc player a lot, along with the Michael W. Smith and 
All Together Separate albums that are coming up next. :) I think, out of these, I enjoyed Come Together the most. Most of the songs are still in my favorites list. :) I love everything that Third Day does, as does my grandma (the same one that's filed adoption papers for Josh Groban :P). They're her favorite. For the longest time, I couldn't get her to listen to anything but Third Day! :P
Michael W. Smith's This Is Your Time, Worship Again, and Freedom. The first two were albums that were in the six-disc player, and Freedom is a wonderful instrumental album. I
would listen to this one during school a lot. Recorded in Dublin, it has an Irish sound to it. :) Very, very good. I would love for him to record another instrumental album. Smitty writes wonderful lyrics and music, and he's been at it for more than two and a half decades. That's longer than I've been alive! :P
All Together Separate's Ardent Worship Live. This is a live worship album that the band recorded. It's much different than their studio albums. This album has some great praise and worship songs on it. I fell in love with "Did You Feel The Mountains Tremble" after hearing it on here for the first time. It's a rather long song, though. The lead singer says "One more time" for the chorus about three times, I think. :P And he has the audience go through it by themselves once by saying "You sing, I'm gonna dance. Go!" :P
Sanctus Real's Say It Loud. This is another one that everyone but me was sick of. :P This was the band's first major album. I heard the first single, the title track, on the radio when it was first released, and I saw the music video for it, too...a very neat one. :) When trying to find the album to buy it...it was very difficult...I searched in several stores before finding a copy. Most places were sold out. Interesting cover photo, isn't it? :P
Music Inspired By The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. A great CD. My siblings and I all love this one, and were constantly borrowing it from one another. :P I remember playing pool with my brother while listening to it. We also listened to it while working on a wardrobe mural for school with drawings from the story in the doors of it...it's really neat. Again, I still have songs from this album in my favorites list. I especially love the songs that Jars of Clay, Chris Tomlin, and Kutless recorded on it.
DC Talk's Welcome To The Freak Show. I bought this album while I was in Branson. I remember spending hours listening to it over and over, pretending that I was a part of the live show, singing and playing the drums. :P Yes, I was quite young. LOL. 
Jeremy Camp's Stay and Carried Me. I remember when Understand debuted on RadioU and TVU. I loved it and immediately bought the album when it came out. Carried Me is probably my favorite of his, though. :) Though, Beyond Measure has my favorite songs on it...go figure. :P
Avalon's Oxygen. I bought this one because I was asked to sign the last song on the album (using sign language) in church. I really liked the whole thing, as did my Mom...so it was played a lot. In the living room player, in the car...everywhere. :P
Building429's Space In Between Us. An awesome album! I remember listening to this album while playing badminton outside. My sister and I would take my boom box outside and plug it in to a huge extension cord and have it sitting on a chair in the middle of the yard...yes, we're weird! :P