An award for a few of my bloggy friends

Thank you, Nicki @ The Kenningtons, for this awesome award! Nicki and Mathis are high school sweethearts who fell in love and got married. They are just the cutest young couple. Nicki is also a fellow Obama supporter so you know I love her. She is a daily read of mine. If you haven't yet, go check her out.

Rules I have to follow:

1) Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design.
2) Show the 7 winners names and links on your blog, and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with "Honest Scrap." Well, there's no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon.
3) List at least 10 honest things about yourself.

In no particular order, here are 10 honest things about me:

1. I sleep with a pig. Or I used to at least, until I got married. He is appropriately named 'Mr. Pig' and was given to me by my father when I was around 13 or 14. Every time Lucas would come to visit me (we were long distance, you see) he would poke fun at Mr. Pig and tell me I should have named him Bacon. I knew he was secretly jealous because he didn't have a pig of his own to snuggle up with. So I bought Lucas a piggy and a black leather spiked collar for him. Then, I bought him a little engraved name tag labeled 'Bacon'. Now Mr. Pig and Bacon live happily with an assortment of other stuffed pigs in one of our guest bedrooms which is now affectionately known as 'the pig room'.
2. This leads right into a perfect honest thing about me. We are living proof that long distance relationships work. Lucas and I were friends for several years when we lived in the same town, but we didn't take our friendship to the next level until he was off and living in Miami, Florida. We dated long-distance for almost two years before we got married and he moved back.
3. I am cheap. Very cheap. I have always been a bargain hunter. Then, I married Lucas and we set a budget. He taught me the difference between 'wants' and 'needs'. I still splurge by buying cheap 'wants' every once in a while but remain steadfast to the budget. We may not spend a lot now but we'll be sitting pretty (or at least that's the plan) when we're older.
4. My mother is my best friend in the whole world. Sorry, Lucas. I love you. But you understand.
   
5. Family is most important to me. Of course, this includes Lucas, my parents, and my grandmother and grandddaddy. But not all blood relations are 'family'. I consider family to be those who love you unconditionally, who truly care about your well being, and who would go out of their way to ensure your health and happiness. Unfortunately, I have a few 'family' members who don't fit that bill. I don't understand them and it is very sad. If they aren't interested in others then it is their loss and I pity them. My true family also includes those few very important friendships that will forever and always be a part of my family.
6. I am very passionate about politics. I love debate but despise ignorance.
7. I think I am Mexican. Really. I am a Mexican born in a Southern girl's body. How else can you explain the deep attraction that I have to all food Mexican? I think I could eat a fajita taco salad with a large margarita every day of the week and not have enough. Fortunately for my body and weight loss, I limit my Mexican to Wednesday nights - when the Mexican restaurant across the street from our neighborhood (there is one on practically every corner in Alabama) has 'Buy One Get One Free' specials on their entrees. Go before 7:00 and you get happy hour drink prices, too. See - I told you I was cheap.
8. I am fascinated with babies. You show me a blog with baby pictures and I'll give that blog another follower. I'm telling you, I'm a sucker. I have always wanted to be a mother, but I haven't always been like this. I think as the time for motherhood is approaching (not yet, ladies), my demeanor towards children has completely changed. Before I was a little bit scared of the unknown around children (I'm an only child). Now I just want to scoop them up in my arms or color with the older children or have whatever interaction I can. Note: I'm still afraid of my boss's seven year old triplet boys. They are terrifying.
9. Am I only at nine? Okay. I play adult league tennis and I absolutely love it. Although I enjoyed the team and trips in college, I love adult tennis more because it is so relaxed and stress free. Plus, there is no coach to make me practice at 5:30 a.m. Yes, 5:30 a.m. However, some of these women take their tennis very seriously. There can sometimes be quite a bit of drama involved in adult tennis which is just absolutely comical to me. Chill, people. And come on ladies. We're all adults. I'm the youngest one of you all. There is no need to cheat. Good gracious!
   
10. Hello. My name is Ashley, and I am addicted to blogging.
    

Of course, there are way more than seven of you that deserve this award. I'm going to try and spread out the bloggy love by not giving it to some of you who have already received an award from me (so don't get your feelings hurt if you don't get this one). Also, I would just like you to know that there are 100+ blogs on my reader so you know I'm loving you all. Alas, I must pick seven. So here we go....

1. Rachael @ Little Bites of Heaven - I told ya'll I am obsessed with baby photos and this girl has got three of cutest little babies you've ever seen. They are growing up quite fast but these 'peaches' are still as cute as can be.
   
2. Aubrey @ The Fam Five - Most of you probably already know Aubrey. But she introduced me to 'Think Thin Thursdays' and also has a rockin' new blog design so she is definitely deserving of an award.
   
3. Angie @ theArthurClan - This girl is a major photographer. Beautiful photos! And she and a friend just started iHeartFaces. Go check it out!
   
4. Jennifer @ The Fun House - Jen has a lot going on with five kids running around her 'fun house'! I can't even imagine. Her youngest little 'Pickle' is too precious. You have to see her in the cutest dress ever.
   
5. Caution Flag @ The Human Race 600 - Go cheer her on as she is on a quest to do one chin-up. She is hilarious!
   
6. Katy @ whatkatydid -So creative! And she lives in Australia. That's neat. So she gets an award.
   
7. Vicki @ Not So SAHM - So I said I wasn't going to give this award to anyone I gave the previous award to but I'm making an exception for Vicki for a couple of reasons: i) She recently gave herself an award for being 'mediocre' and I disagree. So I'm giving her this award in support of her non-mediocrity. ii) She lives here in Alabama but will be moving soon. So she gets an award as my signal to her that she will be missed. iii) She wrote a particular post which I happened to strongly disagree with so I voiced my opinions as such. But I want her to know that I meant no harm. I've tried very hard to be civil throughout this election season but sometimes my passion (that I mentioned above) gets the best of me and I lay it all out on the table. This is my show of solidarity that even though we may disagree we can all live together happily. So ya'll please go show her some love. Thank you! :)