Honest Scrap

I've been given the Honest Scrap Award by Mirne, mother to two angel babies and a third baby we're all waiting to be introduced to after his (soon!!) birth. I'm grateful to Mirne for her friendship and support as I've only recently discovered this sad sorority of babylost mothers who blog. I wish it was something else that we had in common but I'm ever so grateful to find other mothers who share their journey through grief and infant death.

The Honest Scrap Award, Mirne says, is given to bloggers who post from their heart, those who write from the depths of their soul. I'd give Mirne the award back but I'm guessing that would be cheating. It was so hard to pick just seven women because I've read so many touching posts during my sleepless nights and restless daytime spare moments.

There are some simple rules to accept this award. First, pass the award to seven other bloggers and, second, list 10 honest and hopefully interesting things about yourself.

I would like to pass an Honest Scrap Award to these seven women, whose words resonated with me and whose honesty is admirable:

Monica at Knocked Up, Knocked Down
Peyton's Mommy at Once A Mother
Lachlan's Mum at The Path I'm Walking
Sally at Tuesday's Hope
Molly at The Unlucky Lottery
CLC at Please give me back my heart
Paige at Hirsh's Happenings

Now for 10 honest and hopefully interesting things about me:

1. I always wear skirts, except for yoga and horseback riding (the latter only because I never found anyone to teach me side saddle - mind you I have not ridden a horse in years). I even skate and cross country ski in skirts. I don't like pants. Never have. I used to cry as a little girl when made to wear pants. They bunch and pull.
2. I like tea, preferably Earl Grey. I like the pot hot before I brew a steaming cuppa from tea leaves. And milk, never cream. No sugar. Never coffee; I don't like the taste.
3. My husband and I have owned two Old English Sheepdogs in our married life: First was Duncan, who died in 2004 when he was nearly 12. Second is Albert (for Einstein - the hair, not the intellect), who we got last November and will be one on September 16.
4. I could happily eat chocolate for breakfast. And lunch. And dinner. And snacks. But it has to be milk chocolate, not dark.
5. I like to knit. My husband says knitting is perhaps the least sexy hobby anyone could ever undertake.
6. I had burgundy hair in high school and hid it from my military officer father by staying in dimly lit areas of our house for about two months. It was only when my sneaky little sister switched on a bright light that I got caught out.
7. We stole something once when we were first married in our university days in Ottawa. It was a rabbit that was being abused and had been put out to die in a cage with no food or shelter. She was lame, emaciated, and lived out her final days with us and our sheepdog, Duncan, who loved her like she was his lamb. The people who had been so cruel raged at our apartment's caretaker that someone had stolen *their* rabbit they no longer wanted and had left out to die of exposure.
8. I like beer, preferably Guinness. I can't stand other alcohol or mixed drinks, which people find hysterically funny because I'm a small-framed person. I guess I look like I should drink foofy drinks, not a pint of stout.
9. I was once a guest on The Shirley Show, a really lame and long defunct Canadian talk show, because I had written a story about bad roommates (including former ones of my own - now there's a story and a half) when I worked for a daily newspaper. I went because it was filmed in Toronto and they paid for my trip there, a room at the Royal York Hotel, and meals. My husband was at film school in Toronto and so we got to be together on our wedding anniversary (which is Halloween - only date in October we could get the church and the Officers Mess for the reception my father wanted) in a swishy hotel rather than the place he shared with a buddy.
10. My husband and I met in university. An elderly woman I took care of told me (and I hadn't said I was going on a date) that the boy who had just asked me out would be the one I'd marry. She was right, remembering that conversation with her still gives me goosebumps, and DH and I have been together as many years now as we were old (gulp) when we had that first date. And almost married 17 years.