new awards and other random thoughts for a Friday

Hello all!
I hope that this finds you all doing well and having some fun on this chilly Friday night...
My allergies have kicked in full swing today...not sure why but they are killing me right now.
I left work early today.  I went in this morning and just decided that I needed an afternoon off....and I did pretty well...usually I set a time that I am going to leave and end up not leaving for at least forty five minutes after that time..today was only twenty minutes :) I came home and took a nap.  There is something completely luxurious about taking a nap in the middle of the day...
I have two awards that I feel incredibly honored to receive.
Caterpillar over at Musings and Confessions of a Wandering Mind gave me one a few Sundays back

I really do appreciate that you all read my ramblings...so thank you for this one!!  Caterpillar is one of those individuals whose posts make you think and delve into your soul.  She is a beautiful writer who lays everything out on the line for you to read. 

The next one is from Thisisme at Southhamsdarling. which I have never seen before

very sweet and I thank you very very much for it....if you haven't read her blog you should totally go check it out (although I think everyone reads it now) because she gives a great perspective on life, the love of family all in the backdrop of a beautiful English town.

So, as with most awards these have rules.  I am going to combine them and tell you seven random things about myself- forgive me if I repeat anything you already know..

1. I work in sales and am putting up killer numbers for the year, but really I would love to be working with teenagers who are aging out of the foster care system to make sure that they have resources and skills to make it on their own so that they don't end up in abusive relationships like many have seen family members in, mixed up with drugs, dependent on the system or in jail.  This is a huge gap in the way the system currently works.  Did you know that in the state where I live and thirty seven other states, the minute a youth turns eighteen they are kicked out of a state funded system that is all they have known for many years and told that they need to figure out how to make it on their own AND that in many states it is against the policies of the Department of Human Services (or what ever other system is in place in the particular state) for any worker to have contact with this child once they age out of the system.  And people wonder why so many of these kids end up perpetuating the cycle that they lived through as a child?
2. I live in a house that is almost 100 years old.  I fell in love with the house after looking at 47 others.  This house was the very first listing that my mother sent to me and i told her that I didn't want to go look at it because I didn't think i would like it.  Guess mothers really do know best!
3. I have been to 45 out of 50 states.  I am still missing Alaska, Hawaii, Kansas, Colorado and Montana.  I hadn't been to Vermont either until last year when my hubby and I went for our anniversary even though it took us less than two hours to get there.
4. I am very spoiled and mandate that we go on vacation for a whole week at least twice a year.  This involves leaving the house and staying somewhere that isn't someone elses house.  We do this with a time share that we bought about ten years ago.  Even though we have done this for the last ten years, we have never been back to our "home" resort, always trading to go somewhere else.
5. One of my favorite places that we have ever been is Moosehead Lake Maine.  In general, I hate the woods but this place gives me a chance to recenter myself and hubby and I try to go at least once a year.  Our favorite activity while we are there has nothing at all to do with the water.  We drive around for hours on the logging roads that run through the woods and look for moose.  We have driven on snowmobile trails, gotten lost in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone reception, gotten stuck in the mud and gotten a flat tire on there trails, but we stock up with junk food and drinks and literally will drive all day.  My husband gets a kick out of the fact that we will be deep in the woods with no one else around and I will get creeped out by the silence and swear there is a serial killer in the woods stalking us and waiting to kill us- think about what better place to hide a body that in the middle of the woods where people don't generally travel.
6. Piggybacking on the above fact, i have never in my whole life peed in the woods.  My husband tries his best to make that happen and has for ten years- but I have a bladder of steel.
7. I have a rule about visitors to my house.  They are not allowed unless they give me at least an hours notice.  Only once has anyone challenged this rule and I took them out for a very nice lunch and then made them stand outside because I hadn't had a chance to straighten up at all and my house usually looks like a bunch of unsupervised five year olds live in it.  I am not a good housekeeper by any stretch of the imagination and even with several days notice, my house isn't spotless (unless my mother is coming and then I will obsessively clean even though I know she doesn't really care but her house has always been spotless and I feel kinda bad that I didn't inherit that particular gene from her) but at least it looks like two adults live here.

I think that's probably enough of my rambling for tonight....I hope that you all have a wonderfully fantastic weekend, whether doing nothing or accomplishing a lot.  I am going to go take a dose of Nyquil and attempt to get several more hours of sleep. Peace and positive thoughts out to the universe tonight that hopefully settle on each one of you!!