Double Tag

I was tagged twice this week. The first one is from Kathryn. It’s the Six-Word Memoir. The rules:

1. Write your own Six-Word Memoir.

2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you want.

3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to the original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogsphere.

4. Tag at least five more blogs with links.

5. Leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.

My Six-Word Memoir: Live now, love passionately, forever free

The second tag is from Laura for Six Things About Me tag. I’ve done various versions of this before so I’m not sure I can come up with anything new that’s interesting. If I repeat myself, please forgive me.

1. I only started wearing flip flops a couple of years ago because I didn’t like the feeling of strap between my toes. Now I think they are comfortable.

2. I don’t buy popcorn when I go to the movies, but make a big bowl with plenty of butter when I get home.

3. I played Desdemona from Othello in a Shakespeare contest in high school.

4. I didn’t take biology in high school because I didn’t want to dissect a frog, but I can cut up a whole chicken like a pro.

5. I can’t drive a stick.

6. You may all know this, but it’s worth repeating… I’m madly in love with Tom.

© Nadine Z. 2008

Movie Quotes Game & Book Tag

I don’t know about you, but in my family we quote movies all the time. Tom often sing songs. For him life’s a musical. I was visiting Dust Bunny Hostage a while back and she did a post about movie quotes. This is my twist on it. Anyone who wants to participate, please do and let me know.

List at least five movie/TV quotes you’ve used in a regular conversation. Tell what movie/TV show it’s from and which character said it and how you use it. You can list more if you wish.

1. “Liar….liar!!” From the Princess Bride said by Valerie to Miracle Max. Anytime I think someone is stretching the truth.

2. “Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.” From the Godfather said by Clemenza. No particular reason, we say this all the time because we think it’s funny.

3. “You jump, I’ll jump Jack.” From the Gilmore Girls said by Rory. Every time Tom wants to do something adventurous I say this to him.

4. “Have fun storming the castle.” From the Princess Bride said by Valerie & Miracle Max. Anytime someone is leaving to go somewhere.

5. “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” From Godfather III said by Michael.

6. "How you doing?" From Friends said by Joey. It's a fun way to greet people who love your New York accent.

I could have done this with just Godfather quotes, but I wanted to mix it up a bit.

Book Meme – I was tagged to this by Happy Baker. The rules are simple – pick up the nearest book of at least 123 pages. Open the book to page 123. Find the 5^th sentence. Post the next 3 sentences.

When I did this, the closest book was a comparative study bible.

And he said, “God be gracious to you, my son.” Deeply moved at the sight of his brother, Joseph hurried out and looked for a place to weep. He went into his private room and wept there.

If you’re looking for something fun and easy to do, pick which one you’ll like to play with or just enjoy these. Have a great weekend.

© Nadine Z. 2008

Double click on the picture above to see a larger version.

123 Tag

This tag has been all over the place. I was tagged by Knitting Mania. I’m not sure I know anyone who wasn’t tagged to do this. Here are rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. No cheating!

2. Find page 123.

3. Find the first 5 sentences.

4. Post the next 3 sentences.

5. Tag 5 people. (So if you haven’t been tagged and want to play along, please do so.)

My book is Skin by Ted Dekker:

A railing ran the perimeter of the second floor. No sign of a killer. He faced the others, “You found a body?”

© Nadine Z. 2008

Three Short Items

First Palm Tree Fanatic tagged me to list seven weird things about me. I’ve done this tag a couple of times before and I’m happy to say that I’m running out of weird things to share. But here it goes.

1. I collect fancy Barbie dolls. (Yes I know I’m 46 years old.)
2. I can’t swim. (I had a bad experience.)
3. I curl my toes when I sit.
4. I can watch “I Love Lucy” and can tell you what the whole episode is about within seconds.
5. I’m a big geek and like to watch nature shows.

I know I only did five, but I can’t come up with anything else I haven’t listed before.

Secondly, thank you Shaundra for the You Make Me Smile Award given for bringing happiness to the world. Now I can pass it on to anyone I want. You all know me don’t you. Grab your award because all of you who read my blog make me smile and from reading your blogs I know you have brought happiness to the whole world. Yeah for you!!!

Last, but not least…Go Giants!!! Being from NY I have to congratulate my NY Giants for beating Dallas. Nothing made me happier than that last interception. It was sweet.

© Nadine Z. 2008

The Nostalgia Meme

I’ve been tagged by Chappyswife to do a nostalgia meme. What is that you ask? I’m to tell you what I was doing ten, twenty and thirty years ago. I’m 46 years old and I hope I can remember that far back. I have trouble remembering what I ate for lunch the day before, but let’s give it a go.

Ten years ago it was 1997 and we were living in West Virginia. Tom and I were church planters. It was the first time we done such a thing and it was difficult. West Virginia was a hard place for us but we learned so much by being there. The lessons learned helped us to pastor the church God sent to us now. Just because something is difficult doesn’t make it bad (at the time you couldn’t have convenience me of that). During those hard days I often cried out to God, “Did you send me here to die.” Yes he did, but in a good way. I died to my flesh and learned to love people when it wasn’t easy to love them. I learned so much about who I was in Him and it helped me to grow as a person. The great thing is that I know I’m still evolving and I’m still learning.

Twenty years ago it was 1987 and I was 26 years old with two small children living in New York. When we started to have kids we made the decision for me to stay home. It wasn’t an easy decision because I had a good job. It was only a job to me and not a career. I only missed the paycheck to be honest. I never regretted it for an instant. I’m grateful for the times our families helped us out financially. God always knew when things were a bit tight and somehow someone gave us what we needed to pay the bills. I loved being a mom. I loved taking care of the kids and Tom. I was one of those overly prepared moms that took almost the whole nursery with me when we traveled. I was comfortable being that anal. I’m very grateful I was able to stay home with the kids until they started school.

Thirty years ago it was 1977 and I was 16 years old. What I didn’t know was that in a couple of months (February 11, 1978) my life would change forever. I would start to date the man I would eventually marry. The funny thing about that was I never thought I would fall in love so young. I remember having a conversation with my best friend. I told her I didn’t want to get married until I was about 25 years old. I paused for about a minute. I then said, “Something inside of me tells me that by the time I’m 18, I’ll be engaged and by the time I’m 19, I’ll be married.” That was exactly what happened. He’s a good man and I’m still passionately in love.

If anyone of you would like to do this meme, consider yourself tagged. Let me know so I can check out your answers.

© Nadine Z. 2007

Middle Name Tag

I’ve been tagged! Tina from Palm Tree Fanatic tagged me for the middle name meme. Here are the rules:

-You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
-Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
-When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts.
-At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

M – Married - to the love of my life

A – Author - what I would like to be called one day

R – Relational - I love people

I – Individual – unique in my own way like everyone else

E – Excited – about what life will bring next

If you enjoyed this tag then I tag you. Let me know if you do it.

© Nadine Z. 2007

8 Random Facts

My blog buddy over at Raising the Martins in Oklahoma has tagged me to give 8 random facts/habits about myself. I have a very vague memory of being tagged while I was blogging about my trip to California and it was along these same lines but I forgot who it was that tagged me. So if it was you, let me know.

Here are the rules:

1. Post the rules before you give your facts.
2. Players start with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged must write their own blog posts about their 8 things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog you need to tag 8 people.

Don’t forget to tell them you tagged them.

1. I mix my metaphors all the time. I wish that I could think of an example but I can only do it when I’m not trying.

2. English was my least favorite subject in school. I had terrible English teachers in high school. The worst was my senior year teacher – he chain smoked during class and would pause in mid sentence to exhale before finishing his sentence.

3. When I was a little girl I loved to play with Barbie dolls, play jacks, jump Double Dutch, play touch football and stickball - sometimes all in the same day.

4. I had a cat that taught himself to pee in the bowl. If we could only get him to flush it would have been perfect.

5. I love to laugh and try to find the humor in most situations.

6. I would never be caught wearing sandals without nail polish. I don’t like naked toe nails.

7. I’m a bit clumsy and I bump into things all the time. I often have bruises on my legs that I have no idea how they got there.

8. I often read the end of a story because I can’t stand the suspense.

So if you want to join in the fun, I tag you. Let me know if you participate so I can read your random facts.

Finally, I want to thank my blog friend, Cherrye from My Bella Vita for awarding me with the Schmooze Award. The following is the description for this award.

“They effortlessly weave their way in and out of the blogosphere, leaving friendly trails and smiles, happily making new friends along the way. They don’t limit their visits to only the rich and successful, but spend some time to say hello to new blogs as well. They are the ones who engage others in meaningful conversations, refusing to let it end at a mere hello - all the while fostering a sense of closeness and friendship."

Thank you Cherrye you are too kind. Check out her blog it’s always interesting. She is an American living in Italy and engaged to an Italian man and is opening a bed and breakfast. Some of her stories just make me laugh.

Have a great weekend all.

© Nadine Z. 2007

I’ve Been Tagged – Part II

Cherrye tagged me for this four things meme.

Four jobs I've had
1. Receptionist for my dad
2. Secretary at Price Waterhouse
3. Monogram shop
4. Medical receptionist/assistant

Four movies I can watch over and over
1. Anything Cary Grant – especially Arsenic & Old Lace, His Girl Friday
2. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
3. West Side Story
4. Braveheart

Four places I have lived
1. Haiti
2. New York City
3. West Virginia
4. Washington

Four television shows I love to watch
1. Heroes
2. Lost
3. I Love Lucy - classic
4. Everyone Loves Raymond

Four places I have been on vacation
1. Pocono, Pennsylvania
2. Alaska
3. Miami, Florida
4. Montreal, Canada

Four of my favorite dishes
1. Anything made with avocados
2. New York pizza, bagels, Nathan’s hot dog with sauerkraut (I miss these from back East)
3. Lobster, crab, shrimp – I love anything seafood
4. Chocolate – cake, ice cream, candy – okay so it’s not a “dish” but it’s chocolate

Four websites I visit daily
1. Blogs of course
2. Fox news
3. MSN - hotmail
4. Google

Four places I would rather be right now
1. On a big boat cruising the Mediterranean with Tom of course
2. In Paris, drinking a latte, eating a croissant and writing on my laptop about the all the people walking by (with Tom sitting in the chair next to me)
3. In a villa in Tuscany (see picture above) drinking a nice glass of wine (toasting life with Tom)
4. Cooking a nice meal for friends (with my favorite kitchen mate Tom)

So if you want to play along, post the answers to these questions on your blog and let me know so I can check it out.

© Nadine Z. 2007

I’ve Been Tagged

I’ve been blogging for almost a year and this is the first time I have been tagged – not once, not twice but three times since Thursday. Two of them are basically the same things - list seven and ten random things about me. I can’t come up with seventeen but I will list ten. I will do the other tag in the next couple of days.

Before getting to the tag, I’ve been nominated for the Thinking Blog award again and to tell you the truth I’m more honored than I can say. There are so many people in our church that blog and my heart could not choose someone over another. With that in mind, if you want to participate in this tag you are free to post ten things about yourself and then let me know so I can check it out.

1. I was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. I lived there for only two years before coming to New York. I am French, Arabic and German. My wonderful husband is Polish and Italian which make my kids the U.N.

2. I have to be careful around people with heavy accents. I have a thing about picking up accents and I find myself imitating them. I’m not trying to be mean, it just happens. After watching Steele Magnolia, I came out of the movie theater speaking with a southern accent for over an hour before I could stop.

3. I had a pet squirrel monkey (see above picture) named Charlie, when I was kid. He got out of the house one day and went up in a tree. I drew a crowd trying to get him to down.

4. I hate to wear shoes. Once I’m home the shoes come off.

5. I have a weird pet peeve about Christmas decorations. They have to go up the day after Thanksgiving and come down the day after New Years. The Christmas lights being on in February just makes me crazy.

6. I can’t go to bed at night unless the bed is made first.

7. When I was seven, I was on the television show Bozo the Clown. I got picked to do a stunt and won a coin collector’s kit. Does anyone out there remember Bozo the Clown?

8. I played Desdemona in Othello for a Shakespeare contest. I didn’t win but I was fantastic - at least my sister said so.

9. I failed my first driver’s test as a teenager and didn’t try again until I had my daughter at 22.

10. I’ve saved the best for last. I started dating my husband when I was 16 and we will be married 26 years next month. The interesting part is that after 29 years of being together, I love him more today than ever. He’s my best friend.

© Nadine Z. 2007