Sunday Surprises

A bird outside my window
Sunday mornings are sweet times of quiet and reflection. They are my time to ease into my day with coffee and the newspaper enjoyed from my bed while outside my window, birds twitter and tweet at the feeder.

Sunday mornings are also my morning to sit with my laptop in bed and write.

And this morning, Sunday morning became even sweeter when I opened up my blog list to check up on my favourites and discovered I'd received an award!

How sweet is that?

My blog sister Maureen over at Writing without Paper bestowed the award upon me.

I feel very special, and honoured to receive such acclaim!

To honour this lovely gesture, I'd like to pass it on and encourage each of you to do the same!

These are the guidelines.

Acknowledge the award. Say thank you to the "bestower". "Thank you Maureen" and link back to their blog -- Writing without Paper.

Another way to say thanks is through your blog -- like here :)

And then,

► Pass on the award to 15 other bloggers.

► Let the new recipients know you've selected them.

And, if you like...

► Share seven things about yourself that your readers or followers might not know.

► Post the badge to your blog.

My Fifteen Versatile Blogger Awards Recipients are:

1. Naturally because she is so amazing and gracious and giving -- Maureen at Writing without Paper.
2. Joyceann at Peaceful Legacies
3. Diane -- Contemplative Photography
4. Glynn -- Faith, Fiction, Friends
5. Liseanne -- One girl. One backpack. Too many shoes (she's funny, doesn't use grammar, misspells lots and... she's my daughter :)
6. Alexis -- How I survived myself. (she makes me envious with her writing ability. She's talented, deep and profound and she doesn't write often enough so I'm hoping this will encourage her to do more -- oh... and she's my daughter too!)
7. Brandi -- Drama, Conspiracies and just general Awesomeness
8. Bobbi -- Creation in the Round
9. Storm -- Beautiful Girl Inside
10. Jeff -- To my children, if they are listening
11. Jesse -- Vine Arts: Wine Made Simple
12. CZ -- The Narcissistic Continuum -- like my daughters, CZ doesn't write often enough, though she does use good grammar -- and when she does write, Wow! people listen!
13. Christine -- Abbey of the Arts
14. Kathleen -- Almost Paradisaical
15. Okay -- so I haven't mentioned everyone in my blog list, and the one's I have listed are not in any particular order because... everyone in my blog list deserves this mention. so... Check out the others in my blog list. They're all amazing and worthy of your attention!

And... Seven things about me...

1. My deepest, darkest secret... I played the accordion as a child. Grade 8 Royal Academy of Music in fact -- who knew accordion playing had such esteemed worth? ha! I wanted to play piano, my father said, "You can't take the piano to parties." I said, "I wouldn't be caught dead taking my accordion to a party." I still had to study accordion.

2. I spent two years working with a group of street teens, writing and producing two separate plays. I brought in professional direction to work with the teens as the actors and created a concert to showcase the plays at -- On Soul Street. It was one of my most profound moments. I spent months researching teen street life and prostitution, even stood out as a prostitute one night to understand what it felt like to go eyeball to eyeball with a John. As my daughters like to say to shock people... Our mom hired teen prostitutes to be our baby-sitters!

3. I do not like olives. Don't know why not. I just don't. I do like Tapenade. Go figure.

4. I wrote and was the producer of an hour long documentary for Global TV called, At the Heart of Centre Stage. It's the story of the Young Canadians of the Calgary Stampede -- My daughter Alexis was once a singer/dancer in The YC and had already left the troupe to go to college when I produced the doc but I did manage to get her pic in it :) -- oh the lengths a mother will go to promote her brood! The YC perform every night during Stampede in front of 22,000 spectators as part of the Grandstand Show -- a multi-million dollar spectacular that rivals anything Vegas or Disney produces! (just ask me)

5. I was once a Ski Instructor while studying at the University of Strassbourg. When the students went on strike, I went skiing for two months. I got a great education! And they didn't miss me on the picket lines I'm sure.

6. I ran the Calgary Marathon. All 26 miles in 4 hours 8 minutes. I got to ride on a float in the Calgary Stampede Park Parade because I was on the organizing committee and my co-volunteers thought it would be funny to make me do that. They even made a sign for me! Imagine. Western duds, cowboy hat and flip-flops. My feet were so swollen I couldn't get them into my cowboy boots. But my smile was huge and I felt great.

7. I love to cook. I once ran a cooking school with a girlfriend and I had a cooking show on TV. I love the history of food and focused much of what I did on threading a historical perspective through the meals I concocted. Did you know Christopher Columbus used ginger to counteract seasickness?