First link-up!

I'm linking up with Kendra at Catholic All Year for the Liebster award. I wasn't nominated (clearly) because my blog is three days old and Kendra doesn't know I exist -- although she did offer up her drug-free superhero labor with her youngest for my special intention -- but maybe she will now! (Hi, Kendra!)

So this Liebster thing: it's a way to get some smaller blogs out there, it seems (read about it here). So I'm going to try to overcome my natural inclination to shrink from this sort of thing and link up anyway.

1. Where do you live? And why do you live there?
I live with my husband and daughter in Northern Virginia. We live here mostly for our jobs -- my husband grew up in this area but I moved here at 22 for my first job out of college. We're getting to be less enamored of it all the time; it's crazy expensive, Virginia is rapidly purpling politically, and we're just longing to live somewhere more free (in every sense of the word). It's possible that my husband will be transferred to Texas for his job, and we're praying that it happens.

2. What's are you currently watching and/or reading?
I just started re-watching Doctor Who for the nine millionth time. I can't do Doctor Who classic, though, because I just find them to be too weird, so I'm a couple of episodes into the Christopher Eccleston series on Netflix. And, unusually for me, I'm between books at the moment. If anyone ever reads this -- hellooooo out there, screaming void of the internet! -- and has suggestions, I'm looking.

3. What kind of Catholic are you: cradle, or convert? (Or considering?)
I am a cradle Catholic. My parents did a wonderful job raising seven very theologically aware Catholics. There's always a lot more to learn, but we had a great foundation from childhood. I hope I can do the same for my daughter and any siblings who might come along.

4. Can you point to one moment or experience that made you a practicing Catholic? (Or want to be?)
This is tough... I've always been Catholic and I never really questioned it. (Which is not to say that it's always been easy; I just never had serious doubts that it was right.) I would say that in my efforts to get pregnant I really appreciated finding doctors who were Catholic and thus bothered to find out about the underlying causes of my infertility issues and helped me pursue a Catholic-friendly route to pregnancy. My experience with 100% secular doctors led me to realize that most of the women in this country are being vastly underserved by the medical community.

5. How many pairs of shoes do you own?
Entirely too many. My flip flop collection alone would boggle your mind. I thought about getting up and going to the closet to count but I decided to just leave it at, "TOOOOO MANY." 

6. Are you a good dancer?
Pretty good. I took dance lessons for eleven years as a child and teenager, which isn't any guarantee of skills, but dancing is just feeling the beat. I'm musical, I'm blessed to have control of my body. That's all there is to it. 

7. Who usually drives, you or your husband?
Usually he does, but he's about to get fired. Why are men so aggressive behind the wheel?!

8. What's your favorite holiday and how do you celebrate it?
Christmas, believe it or not. I mean, who likes Christmas? (Ha.) I adore being snuggled up warm in the house with all the lights off except for the tree and just drinking in the quiet. We are not a "no Christmas music or decorations until Christmas" family; I struggle to make it to Thanksgiving before cranking up the tunes. I would leave the tree up until March if my husband would let me. We are fake Christmas tree hoarders -- we have three trees of varying heights and widths in storage because we've moved a lot and every home has different space requirements.

Our actual celebrations include plenty of family time, plenty of Mass, and too many presents. 

9. Which is correct? Left or right?

Left. Left left left. I don't understand people who put the roll on so it pulls from underneath. What goes in your head?!

10. Do you have any scars?
I scar easily, so yes. My biggest is a four-inch-long raised keloid scar on my back from a broken-glass accident when I was fifteen. It looks like a giant caterpillar and it is gross. Actually, it's shrunk a lot over the years, and I mostly forget it's there.

11. What's the most famous thing you've ever done? 
Uhhhh... I am a nobody. I was published in a book when I was 8, but they misspelled my name. A high school choir I was in was on TV on Christmas morning when I was 17, but I didn't even see it. I got nothin'. I am not famous.