It was about a month ago.  It was early in the morning, and I was checking my e-mails when I noticed a notification that mentioned, “The Exercise Hitlist was now following my blog”.  This ALWAYS makes my day when I get new followers.  🙂  I checked some more e-mails, which notified me that “The Exercise Hitlist liked this post, and that post”, and in other e-mails “The Exercise Hitlist commented on this post and that post”. (many comments awaiting moderation).  🙂  WOW, this was like a blog reading marathon!  🙂

Obviously very intrigued, the next thing I did was check out this person’s blog.  Who is this person behind “The Exercise Hitlist”? Where is she or he from?  What is this “Exercise Hitlist?” Well, I fell in love with this blog right away.  It was very creative.  Beth is the mastermind behind this blog.  She comes from Australia.  She is an Exercise Psychologist, having worked in the health, nutrition, and exercise field for many years, Beth now is a stay at home mom with 4 children (which is pretty cool, I have 4 children, and my wife was a stay at home mom for our children for many years).  The blog is to share her love for exercise, scratch some items off her Hitlist, and take us along for the ride.  🙂

Not long after we started following each others blogs, I receive a message from Beth that I have been nominated from her for “The Liebster Award”.  The word Liebster is a German word, in a rough way means, “valued, enduring, welcome, dearest, kind, and pleasant”.  It is an internet award, passed from one blogger to another to show support, and encourage those who follow your blog, to check out your nominees. (Who knows, you might just end up following these blogs as well)  🙂

Before I introduce the rules, and my nominees, please check out Beth’s blog, my new Australian blogger friend who nominated me at “The Exercise Hitlist“.  Thank you so much Beth.  I have been honoured that you thought of me to receive this award.  🙂

Rules of the Liebster Award:

Post the award on your blog.

Thank the blogger who presented this award and link back to their blog.

Write 11 random facts about yourself.

Nominate 11 bloggers who you feel deserve this award and who have less than 200 followers. (have read elsewhere less than 1000 followers)

Answer 11 questions posted by the presenter and ask your nominees 11 questions.

Next are the 11 random facts about myself.  Here goes!  🙂

1.  I am one who likes to arrive early for work, or any social function. (preferably 10-15 minutes early).  This was the way I was raised, but annoys my     children big time.  They prefer to arrive right on the dot.  For me, I am in a much better frame of mind if I do arrive early.  🙂

2.  My favourite month of the year is September.  In Canada there are 4 distinct seasons.  Summers can reach temperatures of 34C, winters can reach -34C.  Septembers are very pleasant, with temperatures of 15C-20C depending on which end of the month. This is a temperature for great hiking, cycling and running.  🙂

3.  With major life decisions, I am not very impulsive.   I really takes me a lot of time in research and weighing the pros and cons, but sometimes this indecision works against me.  An example being missing out on a 35 acre dream property, with a million dollar view, all because I was dragging my feet trying to decide.  Since then property values have skyrocketed, and a property such as this are no longer within my reach financially.  😦

4.  While on the same topic of my indecision on major life decisions, way back when my wife Lynne and I were dating, Lynne noticed I was dragging my feet trying to decide, whether she was the one to spend the rest of my life with.  So she took it in her own hands, and asked me to marry her. I said yes!   🙂

5.  My most “extreme” sport I have ever done is ice climb (climb frozen waterfalls).  Absolutely LOVED it!  🙂

6.  I am a Christian, and also a lay minister for a wonderful, small church in my community. The church work is on top of my regular job, so life is VERY busy. With my blogging I have endeavoured to remain very low key regarding my faith. (Did not want to scare off anyone).  It is incredible to have such a wonderful group of bloggers, from all walks of life….marathon runners, artists, photographers, Christian writers, stay at home moms,  fashion writers, inspiring writers, political writers, food writers, fitness writers, health writers, travel writers and writers who at times struggle with health and mental health issues. You have all come along to follow my little blog.  In return, I have learned SO much from each one of you, and call you all my friend.  Thank you for taking me as I am!  🙂

7.  I graduated from a 2 year program in college, when I was 53 years old.  I was one of the “older” students, but there were a small handful of students older than myself.  The program was Social Service Worker.  I never got direct work as a result of the training, but it has been very helpful on many occasions with my church role.  There has been grief counselling to families who have just lost a loved ones, social support, advocacy, and acting as a liaison between established community groups.

8.  My earliest memory in life, was when I was 4 years old, which is quite late compared to some people.  We were building an addition on our very small farmhouse, and my brother who was two and a half years older lifted a cement block.  “Mom and Dad, look at how strong I am”.  Not to be outdone, I did the same, but dropped the cement block on my foot, which resulted in 2 broken toes.  Ouch!!

9.  I have been attacked by a dog on 3 occasions over the years.  Twice was while cycling in the countryside, and once simply walking at a crosswalk in a local city, when a dog on a leash lunged at me and tore into my leg.  Even though I am an animal lover at heart, dogs new to me, I am ALWAYS cautious around, even when the owner will say “Oh, she’s friendly.”

10.  Even though I am 6’4″ now, growing up in school, I was one of the “smaller” students in stature.  When I was in Grade 12, or the final year of high school, at 17 years old, I grew 7 inches in those 10 months.  My closer friends gave me a new nickname, because of  that growth spurt.  It was “Lurch”.

11.  I am a Canadian (canuck), and my wife is a New Zealander (kiwi), and Lynne’s car has a licence plate that reads “CANUKIWI”.  For the 7 months leading up to our marriage, I was in Canada and Alaska, and Lynne was back in New Zealand.  It was the 1980’s, before e-mail becoming a way of life, before texting, and the telephone was literally $3.00 a minute between our 2 countries.  We “dated” those 7 months through the good old fashioned letter writing.  My most memorable letter I received was in Alaska.  I was leading a wilderness outpost camp for teens, in a remote area.  The main camp was a few miles away, and even it was remote with mail pickup once a week.  One day  I was cooking supper over a fire with a couple of the teens, heard a bit of commotion, looked up and 8 horses came galloping over to where I was.  In the mail was a birthday card from my sweetheart in New Zealand, and my friends wanted me to get the card right away instead of getting it 4 days later, when I returned to the main camp.  Talk about “Special Delivery”!  😀 I arrived in New Zealand 2 weeks before the wedding, meeting Lynne’s family for the very 1st time.  Five others came from Canada for the wedding, the rest (over 150 guests) were all New Zealanders.  I was a real novelty to everyone with my Canadian accent…ehh!  🙂

So there you have 11 things you “probably” did not know about me.  The next part is that I have chosen 11 nominees to receive the Liebster award.  To accept the award or pass on the award is entirely up to you.  Please do take the opportunity to check out these blogs.  🙂

1.  Journey of My Thoughts

2.  The Drawing Page

3. Refractory Readings from the Darkside

4. One Hundred and Twenty Three Days

5.  Is There Anyone Listening

6.  PhoTrablogger

7.  B Is For Blessed

8.  Salt Life and Clemson

9.  The S’sense of Me

10.  Running Boston and Beyond

11.  The Travelling Kind

The next part, I will answer the questions sent to me from Beth, my Australian friend of The Exercise Hitlist.

1. What are your 5 top exercise/health goals?  A.  Get my blood pressure a bit lower.  Through a better diet, and lots of running, my blood has dropped considerably.  Just recently I have learned is that an “ideal” blood pressure changes with age.  According to this Chart, my ideal blood pressure would be 131/86.  B.  Get more sleep.  Fact of life, I am not a very good sleeper.  Working 2 jobs, family responsibilities, household and yard work, and training for a marathon, I have come to realize there is not enough hours in a day.  When I wake up in the middle of the night for a bathroom break, I go back to bed, and if can’t get back to sleep right away, I get up, and am soon replying to e-mails, preparing for Sunday church services, and even checking out a few blogs.  Before I know it, that “supposed to be” 7 hour sleep is now 4 hours, and sometimes ever 3 hours.  It happens all the time, and it is not healthy.  C.  Eat more vegetables.  I have no problem eating my daily requirement of fruits.  I enjoy vegetables, just need to make sure I meet my daily requirements.  D.  Bring my body fat to 20%.  Currently, I am at 24%, and according to this chart, for my age group I am the “good” range.  To bring it into the “excellent range, I would need 20% or less.  E.  I have done the full marathon thing now, and am thinking what my next exercise goal is.  My new exercise goal is a “Century Ride”, which is a bicycle ride of 100 miles (160 kilometers) in one day.  I would like to set that goal for 2015.  Here is a simple training plan, for a person for someone who is able to ride 20 miles comfortably.

2.  What is your favourite holiday destination?  Why?  My favourite holiday destination would be New Zealand, simply for the fact is that is where I got married, and spent a 7 week backpacking honeymoon.  For myself, I have not been back in the 26 years since I have gotten married.  My wife Lynne has returned 4 times.  Unfortunately 2 of those times were family emergencies, and not under the most favourable conditions.  To return to New Zealand with my wife for a holiday would be SO cool.  🙂  For a simple holiday destination that I have preferred to return to frequently, it would be my cousins secluded property, and which I blogged about in this post.

3.  Where did you find your favourite coffee spot ever??  (If you are not a coffee drinker, I don’t know if we can still be friends).   Well Beth, I don’t REALLY have a favourite coffee spot, but we’re still friends though………right?????  I do drink coffee occasionally, but it is usually brewed from home, after I have spent the wee hours of the night replying to e-mails, doing Sunday sermon prep, and checking people’s blogs out.  🙂 It is to keep me awake while I drive to work…lol.  I do on occasion grab a coffee from “Timmies”, short for Tim Hortons, which has become a Canadian icon.

4.  What are 3 things on your bucket list?  This is a fun one.  🙂  I have actually started a bucket list on my blog, but it is still being worked on.  (something about not enough hours in a day)    🙂    These 3 items are not yet added to the mentioned bucket list.  A.  Become an inspirational speaker.  I am up speaking in front of an audience every week, and I absolutely love it.  Everybody in the world has SO much potential, and to be able to inspire others to dream and then have them work to achieve those goals would be SO incredibly rewarding.  B.  Visit the Amazon rainforest.  Sadly rainforest destruction continues at an alarming rate at the hands of profit mongers.  Rainforest tourism is relatively new, supporting it may be the link to prove there is much value and worth to preserve this amazingly precious, biological diverse, ecosystem.   C.  I only thought of this one since I started blogging.  Some people have bucket lists to visit each country of the world,  for me this would be way beyond reach.  What I thought would be cool would be to visit and hang out for a day or more with one blogger friend from each of the 6 inhabited continents.  We could go running, go for a walk along a country road, chat in a coffee shop, go backpacking, climbing, cycling or any other option.  It would be so cool to meet a few of my blogger friends in person!  🙂

5.  Tell us about your most romantic moment?  Well, I am sure what I will share will probably be MUCH different if my wife were asked.  🙂  For me, it would go back to our honeymoon.  We spent 7 weeks travelling the south island of New Zealand.  Some bus travel, some train travel, sometimes in hostels, other times in our tent, but the majority of the time we were on a backpacking trail.  New Zealand has AMAZING backpacking trails, in which you can go hut to hut.  Our final backpacking trip was on Stewart Island (an island below the South island).  It was rugged and incredibly beautiful, but it also happened to be the rainiest on record.  The trails were flooding, and we were dealing with MAJOR mud issues., which really slowed our progress big time.  I was an experienced backpacker who has travelled in previous expeditions with some EXTREMELY driven individuals.  Lynne was completely new to this experience, and with the dire conditions it was really taking it’s toll on her, and eventually she told me I needed to slow down.  It was important for me to listen.  Our destination for our turnaround was Mason’s Bay, a very isolated stretch of sand and sand dunes that extended for miles.  The only access would be boat, or that 3 day arduous hike, like we did on foot.  When we arrived we took off our heavy packs, and just the 2 us walked together along the sand. (such a change from all that mud) It was like we were the only 2 people on earth.  I was SO proud of my new sweetheart wife.  She accomplished by backpacking, what many regard as the most difficult, challenging and rugged trail in all of New Zealand,  during some of the the most inhospitable conditions on record. I loved her SO much!  After 26 years, I still do!  🙂

Well we have made it.  It has taken me a lot longer than I wanted, I think Beth nominated me for this award nearly a month ago.  And one last thing is to ask 11 questions of my dear blogger friends that I have nominated.  Here they are?  🙂

1.  What got you into writing a blog?

2.  What do you hope to achieve in the next 5 years?

3.  What is your choice for favourite exercise/sport?

4. What countries have you travelled to?

5.  Early bird, or night owl?

6.  What was your favourite childhood toy?

7.  If you were to choose 5 toppings for a pizza, what would they be?

8.  What is one of your proudest accomplishments?

9.  Are you a country person, or a city person?

10.  How many times have you moved in your lifetime?  Were they difficult?

11.  If I were to fulfill my bucket list item, and come to visit YOU…..what would you like to do?

And that concludes this Liebster Award post.  Please take time to check out these blogs, which may be new to many of you.  If you’ve been nominated, it is entirely up to you, if you would like to play along, or not.  I am so fortunate to know you as a blogger friend.  🙂

P.S.  Ashley from The Girl in Long Shorts had nominated me for “The Lovely Blog Award”.  I had just previously accepted this award a few weeks before that, but was really honoured to be nominated.  Ashley is an incredibly, gifted writer.  On top of blogging, she is an contributing writer for Elite Daily. Please also do check out Ashley’s blog!  🙂

 P.P.S.  One last thing, if anyone could show me how to add this^^^^^into my blog as a widget, it would be deeply appreciated!  🙂