Honest scrap award acceptance speech & more

Thanks, L, of Baby Making Journey-fame and Gil over at the
The Hardest Quest for tagging me with an Honest Scrap Award.

It's my first blog award ever, and although I probably don't deserve it, I'll accept it anyway. I'm totally chuffed. I'd like to thank:

1) The Academy

2) Stirrup Queens, Lost and Found, and ICLW for connecting me with the IF community

3) The IF community for blogging so eloquently about the impact of infertility, the obsession to conceive, and how life comes to a grinding halt when you're TTC.

4) My parents for not pressuring us to make grandbabies

5) My fertile friends for their compassion

6) My "pet" squirrel and chipmunk for the daily entertainment outside our living room window, and my dogs for being so goofy that I forget I'm supposed to be sad, angry or both.

7)Oh, and of course, unlike Sean Penn who made a cute speech but forgot to thank Robin Wright-Penn, I'd like to thank the love of my life, my soul mate, my buddy, my long-suffering Dh, for everything and then some. Mostly for having sperm, but he's useful for other things too. ;-) Honey, if you're reading this: don't.


The rules:
1) Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design.

2) Show the 7 winners names and links on your blog, and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with "Honest Scrap." Well, there's no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon.

3) List at least 10 honest things about yourself.


And the 7 winners aaarrrreeee:
1) Mustard Seed Baby
2) Invitro Veritas
3) Strong Blonde
4) Infertile Myrtle
5) Yes, We're One of THOSE Couples
6) Inconceivable?!
7) Baby OCD



Here are my ten honest things. Honestly!

1) I'm scared that I've waited too long to have a baby. Having a family is the only thing that matters to me now and I'm completely, utterly obsessed by it.

2) Flying reminds me that anything is possible. I love the rush of a plane becoming airborne, but after 9/11 I'm anxious every time I fly. I have taken to the skies in a hot air balloon, a military helicopter, a twin engine plane, a prop jet, small chartered flights, and of course, large commercial airliners.

3) Traveling is my number one passion. It feeds my soul, and energizes me.

4) I'm drawn to fire like a moth to a flame. Big bonfires, small cozy fireplaces, BBQing with real wood. I love watching a contained fire, and find it meditative and relaxing. My fertility clinic has a fireplace in the waiting room... Good sign, no?

5) I dreamed of a big church wedding all my life, but Dh and I were married in a very small ceremony, on a secluded, pristine beach, with just our closest friends and family. It was perfect, but sometimes I wish I hadn't done my own hair.

6) I'm afraid of getting lost. I can read maps, but have no sense of direction.

7) I have met Nelson Mandela and the XIVth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso. I know this sounds pretentious, but it is true. Both of these encounters were in very small inner circle gatherings, where I had the opportunity to speak to them. Their humility and faith in mankind despite their own suffering astounds me.

8) I believe our loved ones in the afterlife are sending us subtle signals. There have been too many weird coincidences to explain it any other way.

9) Genealogy intrigues me. I've traced my mom and dad's ancestors back 13 generations.

10) I have never been to South America, Antarctica or Australia, but have set foot on the four other continents: North America, Europe, Africa and Asia.