Awards Times Two

One of my transplanted British buddies Maddy, who hails from across the pond but now makes her home in the San Francisco Bay area and writes two (yes, two!) fantastic blogs, recently awarded me with two (yes, two!) lovely little awards on her blog Whitterer on Autism. The first is this adorable little "You Make My Day" Award that she herself received from Tara over at tlcillustration. According to Maddy, "Linda is a real gem. How she manages to juggle career, family, blogging and the pressures of work I can hardly imagine." Well, thank you, ma'am - I wonder how on earth you juggle your homelife with two rambunctious boys and two blogs and all that you do, too. Perhaps we've all just become mistresses of talented multitaskings?

Speaking of talents, I'm going to pass this award on to Connie at BrainFoggles who amazes me with her ability to blog every day while battling a laundry list of ailments that would put anyone else down for the count never to blog again; Pinky at Cheese in My Shoe because she always says the nicest things both in her posts and in her comments as well as posting about foods that make my mouth water; and Mighty Mom at My Wonderful Life because there's another talented woman who juggles home, work, and her blog with a sense of humor and adventure. All of these ladies truly do make my day!

The second award that Maddy was more than kind enough to pass along to me is "The Royal Banana For Blog Yumminess" Award which she in turn received from Slouching Mom. I can't say that I've ever been awarded a banana before but in her presentation of this cute little award Maddy said about me, "Now there's a woman who is a real trooper [now that I think I understand what a trooper is supposed to be - it always sounded like an insult!] There are so many different aspects to Linda's blog but if you've not visited before then her posting here called "Count five things" is a great introduction. [and I'm sorry I called you a sausage, I know that should have been 'hot dog'!]

... Uh, I'm not so sure I'd want to be called either a sausage or a hot dog but I think I get what Maddy was trying to say in that transplanted vernacular of hers! Thanks bunches (pun intended, bananas - bunches, get it??) Maddy for this cute little award and I shall pass it along to a couple of other bloggers that I find particularly yummy - Morgen of It's a Blog Eat Blog World and Captain Jean-Luc of Captain Picard's Journal. Not only do these two fine gentlemen have outstanding blogs but they both play damned fine Scrabulous games, too!

Do you know anyone who makes your day or exhibits blog yumminess? If so, then snag these awards and pass them along!

Taking Time Out to Acknowledge a Couple of Awards

I was recently presented with a couple of very nice awards from some very nice bloggers and wanted to make sure that I got them posted before this brain of mine, which seems to be doing a lovely imitation of swiss cheese and being full of holes lately, completely forgot!

First off I got this lovely - and deceptively heavy! - award, which I was unable to find the origin of, from Pinky @ Cheese in My Shoe. Pinky is still fairly new to the Blogosphere but she's a lovely person with a lovely little blog and she really writes from the heart. Case in point - she recently wrote a post about the loss of her newborn daughter five years ago and it was a post that really touched my heart while she wrote of a loss that no mother, or father, should ever have to go through - ever. Please take the time to go over and read Babies ... Memories ... and you'll see exactly what I mean.

In closing her post, Pinky wrote:

"This was terribly scary for me to post. I hope I didn't scare anyone away, but if I did, I guess I don't really care. I'm tired. I'm sad. I'm worn out. Let me just say ... this is part of who I am. I want to be transparent. I want to be who God made me to be. I'm posting this because I've felt conflicted since I've started blogging. I've been afraid to talk too much about Angel and losing her, but then I felt guilty for not talking about her. So I post this for myself, I guess. To be true to myself and to honor my daughter and what we went through together. I'm not ashamed of it. I'm not afraid to talk about it. I choose when and where, but I'm not at all ashamed. I'm proud of my girl and I'm proud of what God has done in my life through her. There. I'm done."

I admire Pinky for having had the courage and conviction to share such a tremendously difficult time of her life and I hope that by opening up like she has, that she will be able to draw strength and comfort from some of the many wonderful people who can be found online. I think that she most definitely honored her daughter and, at the same time, she honored herself. It should be I who is passing an award on to her.

Thank you, Pinky, for this award and please know that your blog is a treasure to me also!


Another award that I recently received, the You Cheer Me Up Award, originated from Ann @ A Nice Place In The Sun and was given to me by two other fantastic bloggers - Dixie @ Dixie's Heart & Soul where you'll find the proud mother of a United States Marine (Semper Fi, Matt!), and Captain Jean-Luc Picard himself @ Captain Picard's Journal. It was so sweet of Dixie to stop cheering for her University of Memphis Tigers Basketball Team long enough to present me with such an honor and as for Jean-Luc ... well, what can I say there but I am flattered and honored and am hoping he'll go just a little easier on me in our next game of Scrabulous on Facebook! Then again, going easy on me won't help me with my vocabulary so ahead Warp Factor Eight, Captain!

It is always very nice to receive an award from a fellow blogger and to know that somehow my writing either made that person smile or think or laugh or maybe even cry every once in awhile. You all honor me by reading my posts and leaving comments and having made me a part of your cyber-world.