Back in the blogosphere…

…and here to stay – I PROMISE! 🙂
My wish from the last post about being done with bugs and stuff did not come true, combined with busy times at work and in the family – hence my absence from the blog. Ok, maybe all that is not the only thing I can blame it on – I really should be able to be better organized too! Working on that…
However – nothing like some appreciation and kindness from fellow bloggers to bolt you right back into it – look what I got – The Versatile Blogger Award from Bea!!!

THANK YOU BEA!!! I am honored and humbled – totally blushing here!! (specially in light of my recent absence!) The fun part will be going down the list of things to do as a recipient and here they are:

1. Add the award to your blog.
2. Thank the blogger who gave it to you.
3. Mention seven random things about yourself. (see below)
4. List the rules.
5. Award to 15 bloggers.
6. Inform each of those 15 by leaving a comment on their blog.

Since I did 1, 2 and 4 already, here it goes with number 3 – seven random things about me:

1. Like Bea, I wasn’t born in US either – came from former Yugoslavia, (exactly 20 years ago!) with my husband and kids. Haven’t seen a quilt in my life until then (they really didn’t exist then, but slowly, quilting is spreading there too! 🙂  ), but soon after I came my now best friend and quilting buddy introduced me to quilting and…the rest is history, as they say. This is Belgrade, where I was born:

2. Despite no quilts and quilting, sewing was a big part of my childhood and life – learned how to sew at age 9, (my dolls and teddy bears were the best dressed dressed in town!) and – get this – always had way more fabric than I can use – sounds familiar? LOL So when I discovered quilting, I finally knew WHY I always collected fabric! 🙂
3. My name, Marija, is really the same as name Maria here – “j” in it is because Serbian is a completely phonetic language – every ONE letter in ONE sound. That means there is no spelling or pronunciation in Serbian – you simply “read as it is written and write as you speak” – that is a golden rule of the language. So the sound for “j” in Serbian is really like the sound for “y” in English…In other words, if I would change the spelling of my name to Mariya, you would be more likely to pronounce it correctly, right? I hope I explained that well….
4. My dad was a vet and I always lived with dogs and cats – my first dog was wirehair fox terrier named Sandra, then Hungarian Kuvasz named Belle, German Sheppard named Rex, then Pulli named Peggy….cats Milica, Cheda, Puffy…and now we live with the most lovable Alaskan Malamute named Marley, rescued Pit bull/Boxer (or something) mix named Rocky and now 18 year old silver tabby cat named Marko  (he is the boss of course). Animals teach us how to be human so well, don’t you think?

5. My day job is in research – I am a biologist, working in cancer research and now also new drug discovery (and so is my dear husband). As much as I sometimes wish I can quilt, quilt, quilt all day and – you know how every now and then you dream of what you would do if you win millions in lottery so you have that “freedom” to do whatever you want? – if I think hard, I am not sure I would quit my job…I do love science and research, pride and gratification of contributing to the important goal of human health AND I do LOVE everything about quilting, I dream about it, I really, really enjoy teaching it, I see a “future quilt design” in so many things….OK, am I a split personality? Ha, ha. I bet so many of you have a similar dilemma? Would love to hear about it! 🙂
6. Here is one more thing you might not know – quilting does have somewhat specific and very important meaning for me: coming to US as an adult, quilting isn’t just a great hobby or a creative outlet – it really was, and still is, an “open door” for me, door through which I entered this country, got to REALLY know America, it’s history, culture, people, door to true and beautiful friendships, door to come in and instantly feel at home. You might think this is a bit sappy or melodramatic, but I know so many who immigrated here as adults and stayed somewhat “isolated” even after many years.  Oh… I feel very strongly about this and could write about it for a long time… 🙂 so I better stop now, before you fall asleep reading, LOL!
7. I have somewhat “global” family – my sister lives in Australia, my brother lives in Africa, mom and aunt still in Serbia – yes, Skype is my best friend!! 🙂 As much as I miss my siblings and parents, I am so very blessed to have my wonderful husband and kids around me. Our three children are all grown up now and I am soooo proud of all of them: the oldest son is newly married (so I got a wonderful, second daughter too! yay!), got his PhD in analytical chemistry and has a good job (wow!), middle daughter is an epidemiologist with the degree from prestigious Columbia University and currently working in area of global health disparities (in Bangladesh and Nepal) and the youngest son is still in school finishing his dual degree in social science and computer science.  Most importantly, they have such good, good loving, generous hearts – did I mention I am so very proud of them? 🙂
Come to think of it – I already won that “lottery” I mentioned above, didn’t I?

OK, this was way longer that I thought it will be! But I did stick to “random” part – just wrote what came to mind! Yeah – I should also mention, I do talk a lot…LOL
I think I will finish now and go on to the fun part of visiting my favorite blogs to give them this award! I do have a lot more quilty stuff to tell you – so I will be back shortly! 🙂
Have a wonderful Saturday,
Marija