A blog party, that is! I am very excited to join in this fun, annual blogging event for the first time! Be sure to read all the way to the end of this post, because I have a giveaway for this party too, and you can only have a chance at it by commenting on this post!

My name is Dawn, and I live in beautiful Eastern Washington. I blog about whatever strikes me, although I do focus on things like parenting, homeschooling, and faith a lot of the time. Since this is my first Ultimate Blog Party, let me introduce myself by telling you 15 Things About Me:

1. I have 6 kids. I know the blog title is 5 Kids… One is grown and gone.  They are daughters: 21, 18 & 15 and sons: 18, 9 & 7. We have a blended family, so E had 2, I had one, we had one together and adopted two more. And add one grandson, age 2.
2. I have Attention Deficit Disorder. Not the hyperactive kind. The extremely distracted, can’t finish anything kind. It’s annoying.
3. I enjoy cooking and I’m pretty good at it, but I fail at meal planning.
4. I am a 12 year homeschool veteran. With scars. I wouldn’t change one of them because I have learned over the years through the difficult times. I love homeschooling!
5. I am a compulsive proofreader. When I read your emails, your blogs, the church bulletin, whatever it is… I see every single typo, misspelling, and grammatical error. It’s a sickness. I don’t know how to turn it off. I wish I could earn a living proofreading, because it comes naturally.
6. My Dad was career Coast Guard, and we moved every 12-18 months. We lived in 4 states (Washington, Alaska, Massachusetts & California). I have been in Eastern Washington for 18 years, which is the longest I have ever lived any where.
7. I attended 13 schools in 12 years.
8. I drink tea all day, every day, year round. Hot in the winter and Iced in the warmer seasons. Constant Comment is my favorite, but I love to try new teas.
9. I am a Christ follower. After living a very carnal life through junior high and high school (I’ll blog about it sometime), I gave my life to Christ at the age of 23. We are members of an Assemblies of God church, and love it there very much. That being said, we go where we’re fed. No particular denomination is the deciding factor. The Lord has just not decided to lead us anywhere else.
10. I love my inlaws!! My husband and I have known each other since I was born.  My mom told me that his parent’s bed was the first one I ever fell OFF of. I grew up calling his parents aunt and uncle.
11. My first computer was a Commodore 64. My parents bought one in 1984, when I was in 8th grade. We used to take turns programming it: One of us would read lines of code out loud while another typed. Back in those days computer magazines contained coding for programs rather than floppy disks. One wrong keystroke and your Solitaire game might do something funky. You just didn’t know until you tried it.
12. I discovered that I actually enjoy running, after a lifetime of hating anything to do with exercise! Weird, I know. I run on the treadmill at the Y. Hoping to have one at home some day. Running outside is a whole lot harder!!
13. I love going to concerts. Pre-Jesus days I saw Metallica, Robert Plant, Dio, Ozzy, the Grateful Dead (9 times folks), Jefferson Airplane, Bob Weir, Living Color, and Bloodgood- who were a Christian metal band. (I’m sure I am forgetting some.) Since Jesus I’ve seen Third Day, Hawk Nelson, MercyMe, Audio Adrenaline (the Goodbye Tour, *sniff*), TobyMac, Point of Grace, Run Kid Run, Relient K, D1 Crowder Band, and the newer worship band Fee. And more, as they usually tour with 2-4 bands together. Our teens benefit from my love of concerts.
14. We were foster parents for 9 years, to 22 kiddos. Most were infants, several toddlers, one 5 year old and one 16 year old. We adopted our two youngest sons (now 7 & 9) after they were placed with us at birth. We loved foster parenting. We closed our license because we know that if we don’t, we love kids so much that we will continue to collect them until we DIE. Now it’s time to focus our time and attention on the ones the Lord blessed us with permanently.
15. You can follow me on Twitter, Google FriendConnect, and Facebook. In fact, I would love it if you would!

I’m supposed to pick a few prizes I would like to win, and it was so hard to choose! Here are my top choices:

First choice: Be My Guest certificate for one lucky winner, (2 night stay for a family of four) at any Hilton Garden Inn.

Second choice: Hand Stamped Personalized Necklace valued at $48 The Double Stacked A Lot Of Love.

Third choice: A big package of photography & scrapbooking books! Camera Creative, Found Art,A Real Women Scrap DVD, tshirt, and notebook!

Fourth choice: I know, four choices is a lot. I would be happy to win any of the awesome gift cards too! Target, Amazon, a Visa gift card… whatever! I’m sure many, if not most, of the bloggers listed the Toshiba Laptop Grand Prize as their first choice. Me? Nahh. I already have a way better laptop than that one and it is two years old! But my super-awesome-graphics-kick-butt Gateway Fx blows that Toshiba away. So someone else is welcome to it!

And since I love my blog readers, I am giving away the most awesome mom’s Bible I’ve ever seen! The Busy Mom’s Bible has everything you could ever want in a Bible! I have a brand-new one, just for you. To enter the drawing to win, you just have to leave me a comment here! Winner will be chosen by Random.org on Friday April 16. You can read my Review of the Busy Mom’s Bible here.

Come on over and join the party!!