Kreativ Blogger Award

Now you will all know the truth about how unbalanced I am. Wait, that doesn’t sound right. Awww, never mind. I guess it does.

Annnnnyway…

One of my favorite author friends, Heidi Willis, presented me with the Kreativ Blogger Award back in (cough) February. And I’m only just now getting around to officially thanking her for it and following the directions that go along with accepting it.

I’m supposed to write ten things about myself and then pass the award on to a few bloggers I enjoy. So, here goes!

Ten Random Things…

1. All my spices are alphabetized.

2.  I tend to “speak” in movie quotes. A lot. (I do it often enough that my kids and hubby can usually complete the next line of dialogue when I start it. I know, that’s bad, right?)

3.  I laugh really hard at my own jokes. Even if nobody else does.

4.   I ALWAYS read the manual.

5.  I’m a slow reader and try to make up for it by reading 2-3 books at the same time.

6.  The minute I finish a book I really like, I immediately do an Internet search for every interview with the author I can find.

7.  I’ve tricked my son into watching a variety of musicals as well as the first three Twilight episodes.

8.  I never got to perform in a play in high school, but got the lead in the first college play I tried out for.

9.  Um…I started running out of ideas here, so I just asked my daughter to give me a random fact about myself and she said, “You hold one-sided conversations with the dog.” Yeah. It’s true, I do. I say something. Then I make him say something. Then I respond. And so on. It’s sad really.

10.  Okay, this last one is going to make me sound really mean, but I purposely park next to cars that are poorly parked (like on huge angles over the line and stuff.) I park right in the center of my space which typically makes it difficult for the bad parker to get back into their car. I feel like I’m performing a public service when I do this, though. I’m helping that driver become aware of the need to park more considerately in the future.

Now, let me send you on to some blogs I enjoy--beside’s Heidi's, of course!

Teresa Robeson…telling tales

Teresa is über talented and funny. A writer, homeschooling mom and unlike me, she grows stuff her family can actually eat!

Writing Stories of Life

Freelance journalist and author Kristine Meldrum Denholm shares interesting posts and encouragement for writers.

Under the Loupe

Annette Piper is a talented jewelry artist who blogs about her awesome creations and her life on a cattle farm in rural Australia.

Boomers, Scribblers and Saints

Nancy blogs about her faith and life in the Midwest.

Unscripted Life

Ivy is a talented singer and writer. She blogs about her family, faith and living life to the fullest.

Blog Awards

I would like to publicly apologize for my negligence in thanking two lovely bloggers: Alexis and Annette. They each presented me with a Blog Award over the summer and I never acknowledged them! Please forgive me. I am now officially saying “THANK YOU!”

If you’re looking for a great blog covering the topics of writing and parenting, be sure to stop by Alexis’s blog, Bunny Ears & Bat Wings: Read. Write. Love.  

And I encourage you all to visit my bloggy buddy from down under, Annette Piper. She shares interesting stories about making jewelry (or as she writes it: “jewellery”) and family life on her Australian ranch in her blog, Under the Loupe.

Now, onto the awards…

I received the Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award from Alexis, and the Versatile Blogger Award from Annette. Thank you so much, ladies. I’m honored! These awards came with some rules. Now, I freely confess I don’t always follow the rules (gasp!). I know, I know. But I decided to follow at least some of them in this case. Recipients of these awards are supposed to:

Thank and link to the person who nominated you.
Done!

Recommend a whole bunch of other blogs for your readers.

I personally get overwhelmed when I see big, long lists of blogs. So I’m not going to do that to you. Plus, I like to share a bit about why one might want to visit a specific blog. So I think I’ll just stick with the two recommended blogs above to fulfill this requirement for now.

Contact that whole bunch of blogs to congratulate them.

Skipping this one!

Share seven random facts about yourself.

Okay, I’ll play…

1.     1.   I never told my children I couldn’t swim, until AFTER they’d successfully completed swimming lessons. I just wanted to make certain there would be more people around able to save me if I ever fell overboard.

2.       2.  I never performed in plays in high school, yet to my great joy I managed to snag the lead in the first play I tried out for in college, an 1880’s melodrama called, The Shame of Tombstone—it was a blast!

3.       3.  I have a cockapoo who requires weekly allergy shots from August through December.

4.       4.  My racial background is comprised of over 10 different ethnicities and I’ve been mistaken for an Egyptian, Spaniard, South American, Italian and most often, Mexican. (One summer during college, I worked for the W.I.C. program and I would overhear people asking to speak with “that Mexican girl who doesn’t speak Spanish.” And darn it all, I did speak Spanish--just not super well!)

5.       5.  I taught my children to make their own lunches starting in first grade because I dreaded making them so much.

6.       6.  I made it through high school and college without ever taking Chemistry. (Back in the day, my Photography and Advanced Photography classes counted instead for some reason, which was fine with me!)

7.      7.   If my younger sister and I stand far enough apart, we can be mistaken for twins. It’s only up close that the six inches she has on me is startlingly clear.

Tune in next week for my first post on our family adventure in Paris!

Spreading Some Sunshine

I apologize! I've been a bit remiss in formally accepting and thanking a few of my fellow blogging writer mamas for presenting me with the Sunshine Blog Award. Just the right Rx for me this time of year!

The Sunshine Award is presented to bloggers whose positivity and creativity inspires others in the blog world. (Awww, shucks!) I was blessed to receive this award from three different bloggers within a few weeks of each other.

First, I'd like to thank to my friend Vivianne from Vivianne's Vista. Vivianne is a talented writer who walked away from an abusive marriage, experienced the life of a single mom and has just recently remarried. She has a very powerful and descriptive writing style that is sure to draw you in.

I would also like to thank Meagan Frank. Her blog is What the Blog is Going On Around Here? Meagan is an extremely prolific and perceptive writer who blogs about life experiences that cause her to grow as a wife, writer and mother.

And finally, I received this award from a lovely writer I've only recently discovered, Lisa Lawmaster Hess. Her blog is The Porch Swing Chronicles. Lisa is an author of two books in the educational market: Diverse Divorce, stories for use with children of divorce, and Acting Assertively, an assertiveness program for children in grades 4-8.


Now the rules of this award state that I'm supposed to pass it on to ten other blogs. But I'm breaking the rules. Yup, that's me, I'm a radical! I'm paying it forward to three blogs I really enjoy reading and encourage you all to visit.

I'm officially passing the Sunshine Award onto…

C. Hope Clark, who puts out the awesome Funds for Writers newsletter, she's got a great post on her site right now about the future of the publishing industry. Be SURE to watch the Youtube video link she has included in the post. Watch the full 2:26 minutes of it for the full effect!

Linda Formicelli's The Renegade Writer blog is excellent as well. She is co-author of the book by the same name. I've gotten some really helpful writing info from her blog and teleconferences and I'm saving up to take some of her online writing classes. She's awesome!

And I encourage you to visit Kristine Meldrum Denholm's blog, Stories of life: One writer mom's odyssey. Her blog is always chock full of great advice as well as terrific interviews with a variety authors. I'm always encouraged in my writing after a visit to her blog.

That's it for now, folks. Have an excellent "sunshiny" weekend everyone!

Gratitude Challenge - Day 7 Photograph

As part of the Gratitude Challenge, I was technically supposed to post this picture to my social network on Day 7, (I'm way past that!) but the important thing is that I've gotten it out here now, right? I took this photograph during our amazing family vacation to Hawaii three years ago. It inspires gratitude in me on several levels.

For starters, all my life I've wanted to see Hawaii. I secretly think I was supposed to have been raised there. My mom claims my father passed on a job opportunity when my siblings and I were really little, and instead of the Hawaii job, he selected the Midwest. But that's okay, because I wouldn't know all the incredible people I know right now if he hadn't done that. (Guess that makes for gratitude point number two!)

Another reason this picture inspires gratitude in me, is because I'm NOT a professional photographer by any stretch of the imagination. But I carted my tripod and camera over treacherous terrain, set it up and messed around with the shutter speeds until I achieved this awesome effect of the waterfall.

I'm grateful that when we took the trip, our kids were old enough to always remember it. I'm grateful that we took the time to travel on Maui's stunning Road to Hana, and used the detailed guidebook of island secrets our friends suggested. I'm grateful we were all healthy and fit enough to traverse the top-secret hazardous trail of slippery rocks, which ultimately led to the discovery of this incredibly beautiful hidden waterfall.

When I look at this photograph, it brings back all the memories of that remarkable trip…

• Standing on black volcanic rock and witnessing the formation of the earth as glowing hot lava seared its path through the rain forest, dropping with a steaming hiss into the Pacific Ocean.

• Hiking over that same black volcanic rock in total darkness, with only the stars (& our GPS unit) to guide us back.

• Daily rainbows.

• Exotic flowers and plants.

• Fresh pineapple and delicious Hawaiian cuisine.

• And the most beautiful views we've ever seen.
We had some of our most memorable family vacation moments on this trip. Some great, and in all honesty, some not so great—but we can laugh about those moments now. And finally, I'm grateful for this picture because it also represents a hope that one day, we'll get to go back there and experience it all once again.

Now, on another note…

I'd like to give a great big thank you to Amy of Moving On From the Drama for blessing me with the Lemonade Stand Award for my gratitude attitude!

The rules for this award are:

*Put the Lemonade logo on your blog or within your post.
*Nominate at least 10 blogs with great attitude or gratitude.
*Link the nominees within your post.
*Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
*Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

Here are the ten blogs I'm nominating for their own Gratitude Attitudes:

3 Little Ones
A Walk in My Shoes
All in an Iowa Mom's Day
At Home with Heather
Baby Steps
Diary of a New Mom
Everyday Mama Drama
Holli's Ramblings
Megan Rebekah Blogs…and Writes
On My Way to Barnes and Noble

And another thank you goes out to The Girl Next Door Grows Up for presenting me with the One Lovely Blog Award. She has a "lovely" sense of humor and you should check out her blog for a good chuckle when you have a chance.

This lovely award is to be given to up to 15 blogs you have newly discovered and, of course, think are just lovely. I'm encouraging aspiring writers to visit the following writing-related blogs. I get "lovely" encouragement and inspiration from them all:

Alice's CWIM Blog
Writer Mama
Mridu Khullar
Daily Blog Tips
Nathan Bransford Literary Agent
Newbie Blog
The Wealthy Freelancer
The Well-fed Writer
There Are No Rules

I'm Grateful For...These Blog Awards!

I'm so honored! I've been blessed with two--count 'em two--blog awards within one week. And right smack in the middle of my 21-day Gratitude Challenge. How cool is that? Now I have even more for which to be grateful.

My grateful thanks to Laura of Ziggy's Blog  for presenting me with the Honest Scrap Award. She gave me this award which is typically "given to others whose blogs you find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged you." Aw shucks, I'm blushing! Thanks so much, Laura. As a fellow mom of teens, Laura's blog is chock full of great information about teen trends. I encourage you to check out her blog.

This award comes with some rules:

1. Thank the person who gave the award and list their blog and link it.
2. Share "10 Honest Things" about yourself.
3. Present this award to 7 others whose blogs you find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged you.
4. Tell those 7 people they've received the Honest Scrap Award, and inform them of these guidelines in receiving the award.

So here are 10 Honest Things about me:

1.  My kids will be surprised to learn this about me, but I tend to be a little uptight at times. I know, I know…shocker!

2.  I hate change.

3.  My children are constantly forcing me to grow. (Emotionally & spiritually, not height!)

4.  I can get lost while driving in my own hometown.

5.  I'm supposed to be wearing my glasses for driving at night but I use my son's eyes to see street signs instead.

6.  My first two years of college, I lived on Doritos, M&M's and Mountain Dew. (All the stuff mom and dad never let us have when we were kids!)

7.  I'm a secret control freak. (Guess it's not so secret any more. Heh, heh!)

8.  I graduated from high school and college without ever taking Chemistry or Biology. (I took photography and astronomy instead. Can't get away with that today!)

9.  I'm writing a novel.

10.  I have bug-phobia.

I invite all my blog readers to check out the following blogs that I am in turn presenting this award to:

1.  Julie at Foursons
2.  Brandy at You Don't Know
3.  Chef Eureka at Two Peas in a Pie
4.  Christine at Propeller Head Mom
5.  2 Toddlers and Me
6.  Natalee at Raising Normal Kids
7.  Kristine at Stories of Life: One Writer-mom's Odyssey
I am also the grateful recipient of The Heartfelt Blog Award, given to me by Kristi of Moms Own Words. Thanks so very much, Kristi!

The rules of the Heartfelt Blog Award are:

1. Display the logo.
2. Nominate up to 9 blogs that make you feel comfy or warm inside.
3. Link to your nominees.
4. Let them know they have been nominated by commenting.
5. Link to the person from whom you received the award.

Soooo….here are the 9 folks I'm presenting with The Heartfelt Blog Award.

1. Yonca at Yonca is Cooking
2.  Missy at Two Little Monkeys
3.  Lauren at Thinkspin
4.  Marisa at Mama Needs a Hobby
5.  Tami at Diary of a Mad Woman
6.  Molly at I'm a Sleeper Baker
7. Vanessa at A Military Wife's Mayhem
8.  Amy at Moving On From the Drama
9.  Christina at hooey! critic

My Very First Blog Award

I’m so flattered! I just received my very first Blog Award. One of my fellow mom bloggers, Theta Mom, has kindly honored me with the Over the Top Award. Thanks so much, Theta Mom. As I discover more about the world of blogging, I’m learning that each of the various Blog Awards being disbursed in cyberspace comes with a specific set of rules.


As a writer, I’m particularly challenged by the Over the Top Award because the rules in accepting this award are to answer the following questions using only one word.

The Rules
USE ONLY ONE WORD! It’s not as easy as you may think. Copy and change the answers to suit you and pass it on.

All righty, deep breath in. Let it out. Okay…bring it!

1. Where is your cell phone? Purse


2. Your hair? Spirals


3. Your mother? Interesting


4. Your father? Active


5. Your favorite food? Chocolate


6. Your dream last night? Kaleidoscopic


7. Your favorite drink? CaramelMacchiato (yeah, yeah I know it’s really two words!)


8. Your dream/goal? Novel


9. What room are you in? Office


10. Your hobby? Photography

I am passing this award on to some fellow mom writers & bloggers who I feel are definitely up for this “over the top” challenge. Congratulations go out to:

My Little Patch of Sunshine
ACU’s Stiletto Shoes and Pretty Pink Tutus
Manda Blogs About…
Brickhouse Mama 2
A Simple Wife
Unscripted Life
Gutspilling 101
My Mommy Needs a Life
Think Spin