Five Question Friday!

Since I am new to the whole blogging world, I hope I am doing this right! I've read Five Question Fridays for a while now, and today I'm excited to finally be able to do one of my own! On my very own blog, too! Woo hoo! (If you have any suggestions for how I can do the links better or more effectively or anything else about my blog, please let me know! I want to learn!)

So now, thanks to Mama M here is my very first Five Question Friday!


1. Would you ever vacation alone?

Well, hmm, would I or have I? I have not ever gone on an entire vacation by my lonesome, although I have gone on day trips by myself (to the beach, to the city...), I have traveled by myself to go visit or meet up with friends (Emily!), and I have struck out on my own for the day while on vacation with others (in Scotland, for example).

But the thing that strikes me most about all of those times is that at the end of the day, I knew there would be people for me to be around. I wouldn't have to spend the entire day by myself. I knew that I would be able to sit and chat and tell them all about my solo adventures. I knew that when I get off the plane, the train (or the automobile) there would be a familiar, friendly face to greet me. I knew that once I meandered back to the hotel, I wouldn't have to eat by myself, entertain myself, or end the day alone. And, to tell the truth, those times when I reunited with others were some of ones I enjoyed the most!

During the day when I was on my own, I'd continually be thinking of things to share with my friends or family once we were back together. Sometimes I'd take pictures or even jot notes to remind myself of what I wanted to tell them about. And knowing that they were having different adventures at the same time, and that when we got back together we'd be able to discuss our different experiences, made it that much more enjoyable.

So, considering all of that, I think that taking an entire vacation by myself would mean neglecting the part of traveling and experiencing new things that I enjoy the most: sharing them with the people who are closest to me. Whether or not we experience the same things, at the end of the day we are there for each other, and retelling our adventures makes them that much more exciting and meaningful. So, I suppose my answer would be: No thanks :) But if you want to share a hotel somewhere while we each explore in our own ways, sign me up!

2. Do you go the speed limit?

I try really, really hard to! I must admit that I found quite the kindred spirit in Mama M when I read her answer. I, too, can fall off the wagon on those beautiful back roads with no other cars in sight. I, too, will set my cruise control to try to "control" myself. And I, too, think that many of those speed-changes are set up just to trap us unsuspecting motorists who are possibly too busy enjoying the beauty of God's creation around us to pay attention to silly little things like speed limits! How can you fault us for that?!

Just kidding, of course. I do value our speed limits and do my very best to follow them. However I do think that airplane surveillance, cop cars that look like completely normal vehicles and red-light-cameras are tipping the scales just a bit towards the police. As my mother would say, that's hardly sporting! ;)

3. Why did you start blogging/following blogs?

Because all my friends are doing it! :) Just kidding (sorta)! I started my blog (just this week!!) so that I would have a convenient venue to let my friends and family know what is going on in our life (have I mentioned that I sometimes feel isolated out here in the country all day long by myself??), as well as to keep and share a written record of all the blessings God is giving us, the challenges that we face and overcome, and all the ways that we are slowly growing into the people He wants us to be. We are also going to be starting our family sometime soon (Lord willing) and I love the idea of creating something that my child can one day look back on and read how much we were anticipating their arrival, and how they changed our lives for the better (Lord willing!! :).

Oh, and cause it looked like fun :) I have my friend Patti to thank for that. Her two blogs make me smile and often make me laugh, no matter what kind of day I might be having. I feel closer to her by following her blogs, and love learning so many of her quirks and what makes her tick. It gives me an easy way to know how to pray for her, and to encourage her on things she is working on. I also love the way she shares her heart regarding what she is learning in the Word and how she is growing in her walk with Christ. I thought if she can influence me for the positive just by reading her blog, there must be something to this blogging business!

4. Where do you shop for yourself?

That's a tough one. I shop at WinCo for groceries but I do tend to share those with my hub. I often shop at Target for one or two things, and end up leaving with a few bags, usually including something for myself. But I'd have to say the top two places I shop just to make myself happy would be Hallmark and Craft Warehouse. Yeah...happy sigh.

I love Hallmark because I love giving people gifts as well as cards. Not only can I find lots of both there, but being at Hallmark just fills me up with ideas of how I can bless those close to me.

(However, if I don't happen to go to Hallmark for a while, I can sometimes forget the most obvious times for a card. I have given my husband dozens of cards in our 2 & a half years of being married, but, true story, I completely spaced getting him a card for his birthday this year! I did buy him presents, but a card just did not occur to me, which is SO odd, I cannot even tell you! Thankfully he thought it was funny, not offensive, and I rooted around in my well-stocked supply for a card that would work. Didn't really matter that it was originally an anniversary card...)

And Craft Warehouse is just a happy, happy place! I love being creative, and whenever I step through those doors I know I will find some new way to express myself creatively, whether it is thru making a scrapbook for someone, finding some adorable fabric to use (I am a beginner to the world of sewing but have high hopes for myself!), or just finding a new item or technique to use in decorating my home. It makes me so happy to find something that I have just the right place for, or learn how to re-use something I already have in a new and fun way. I can literally spend hours in Craft Warehouse, and fittingly, it was the first place I went to by myself once I got the clearance from my surgeon to drive again after I broke my leg. And it was lovely!

5. What was the song that you danced your first dance with your spouse to at your wedding...or...what song would you like your first dance to be to?

My husband I had a difficult time picking what song to dance our first dance to, since there were quite a few we loved at the time. The song we ended up picking still makes me tear up when I hear it, but in a very good way. It is Lost in This Moment, by the country band Big & Rich. It had just been released a couple months earlier, and even though it has now been used at many of our friends' weddings, I was happy that we were the first. One of our other favorites, that we actually used in our wedding ceremony, was Keeper of the Stars by Tracy Byrd, a really great song.

Our wedding really was simply perfect. Even after 2 1/2 years, I am still in that silly newlywed phase of gushing about how wonderful our wedding was. Neither of us would have changed a thing about it, even though there were a few sizable blunders such as the rental company not showing up with the tents & tables until one hour before the wedding (thankfully they were for the reception only, and we had some great friends who skipped the ceremony to be sure everything got ready), and the generator we needed being accidentally sent back home, leaving us with ZERO power about halfway through the evening reception (thankfully we had already gotten the main dances in before the music went away, and the rest of the night we just did our best under the candlelight!).

My mother worked for months to give me, actually to give both of us, the wedding of our dreams, and it payed off! Everything was magical, and it was the most amazing way to start our lives together. Even after attending dozens of other weddings together (some costing much more than ours), both my husband and I feel that none of them could hold a candle (no pun intended...) to ours. (Thanks, Mom!)

Okay! So, friends, this is my first official blog hop! I think the last step is to post this link to the hop? If I'm not doing this right, feel free to let me know! Have a great Friday, folks!!