Just a Little Note

I know that Lisa and I just started The Blonde Moms: Giveaways and Reviews not all that long ago. However, most companies prefer to see the giveaways directly on my main blog. At least at this point. To me, it's the same thing whether they are here or there, but it's a numbers game, I guess.


When I started blogging, I never had any intention of doing reviews or giveaways. I didn't even know about things like that. But, I have had fun with them.


I do not accept every offer that comes my way; only the offers that I think is a good fit and will give you something that you will like out of it, too.


I'm going to try my best to do the majority of giveaways on the weekends, with the links over in the sidebar. So, if you love giveaways, you can easily find them. And, if giveaways are not your thing, well, hopefully they won't bother you too much.


Some of my favorite bloggers manage to keep a good balance on one blog of doing giveaways and their regular postings and I hope to be able to do the same thing.


I'm not giving up on Blonde Moms and there will still be giveaways and reviews posted over there, but I wanted to take a minute to explain why you are all of a sudden seeing them here again, too.


Ugh, I kinda hate doing FYI posts, but I hope you understand and are having a fabulous weekend!

I haven't been doing awards on my blog for a while. I just get behind on things and something has to give, so I prefer to do other things to recognize bloggers that I love. I still appreciate the mentions, though. :)

I'm making a little exception here because this "award" from Jen at A Daily Scoop of Chaos is just too hilarious to pass up.

Here is what you have to do: name 5 CHARACTERS NOT THE ACTORS BUT THE CHARACTERS that you would get down and dirty with!!! And then pass is it on!!

All in good fun, since it's not possibe for the characters to show up on my doorstep and want to take me up on this offer. Unlike the actors that I might stalk down if I could.

First is Peter Bishop from Fringe. He's intelligent, funny, and mysterious. If you are not watching this show, you are missing out: on a great show and on some yummy eye candy.

Next is Domenic Toretto from The Fast and the Furious and Fast and Furious. What genius came up with chaning the names of the movies like that? Confusing much? Anyway, he's a bad boy with a deep sexy voice, amazing arms, and a soft side that he tries to hide. Hubs laughs at me whenever we watch one of these movies and asks if I need something to wipe up my drool.

Then there's Michael Scofield from Prison Break. Again, those arms. And his eyes. And he's so freaking intelligent. And sensitive. Was the ultimate good guy until he was forced to fight The Company. Remember we're talking about characters here, not the actual actors who play them even though I secretly hope to run into him in his small hometown any time that I am there.

There is no pattern here whatsoever with the bad boy with a heart of gold. And nice arms. None. John Tyree from Dear John is my #4. Even though I HATED the way that end of the movie ended- it was even worse than the book ending, which I didn't think was possible. But, John Tyree, the bad boy with a soft side, who runs around with his shirt off for no other reason than that he's pretty to look at, is still on my list.

Finally, a blast from the past and possibly the reason for my Fringe obsession: Pacey Witter from Dawson's Creek.  I was never Team Dawson: always Team Pacey. His sense of humor, the way that he always stood up for what was right- even if it meant that he punched someone to do it. Bad boy with a soft side? I wonder. LMAO Since it's probably a little creepy and cougarish to even put him on my list, I'll at least say that it's the college-age Pacey who is on my list.

I'm not going to tag anyone in particular with this because I don't want to give you one more thing to do, but if you decide to do it, let me know so that I can read yours, too!

I Got My Crown!

I am a Project Runway junkie.

I kid you not.

I even watch the reruns.

Maybe it's because I'm so NOT fashionable. And so not creative enough to have any idea how these designers complete their challenges. I would hear those challenges and go "Um, what?"

So, I watch.

The person who was eliminated this past Thursday had the best exit line ever.

"You don't have to have the crown to be the queen."

Ooooh, I loved it.

But, now I have a crown.

That I nominated myself for.

Thanks to Elizabeth at Confessions of a Working Mom, I can be a queen WITH a crown.

Giveaway WINNERS and Some Blog Love

Thanks to everyone who entered the milkbands and udder covers giveaway!

To those who won, I hope you get lots of use out of these or have someone whom you can pass these on to. They make great shower/hospital visit gifts!

Winning a milkband:
RN Mama
Brandi
Sunday


Winning a milkband and an udder cover:

Lisa(Kssnnikkel)
Nick, Ali, and Kendell

I will be emailing you soon, for your mailing info. If you want to help me and email me first....I love you for that! :)

And don't forget to come back in the morning for a giveaway with The Purse Blogger!

I have been totally sucking at keeping up with blog awards lately, so I want to take the time to thank some people for blog love:

I Heart My Chaotic Life
Messy Mommy
Raising My 4 Sons
The Freckled Bug
Two Little Monkeys Plus Hubby
Pursuit of Mommyness

The Master of Karate and Friendship Award goes to Kimberly at Pretty Pink Momma. We had an email conversation a couple weeks ago that had me in tears. The good kind, where you know that you are talking to someone who really understands a particular struggle that you have gone through. And you cry because it feels so damn good to talk to someone who knows what you are going through and is supportive. I've got to stop before I start crying like a baby again.

The Beautiful Blogger Award goes to Vanessa at Much More Than Mommy, another blogger whom I feel like I really know. It's so awesome when you can really connect with someone that you've never even met.

The Sunshine Award goes to Crazed Mama from Letters From Crazyville, who totally cracks me up. You should go follow her so that when everybody starts talking about her fantastic blog, you can say, "Oh, yeah, I've been following her forever." And be all cool because you were in the know first.

This hilarious award goes to the Grasshoppa, who was the giver of blinky-bling rings at Bloggy Bootcamp. Meeting her was like seeing her again, not like it was the first time we ever met. I loves me some Grasshoppa.

Comments are OFF. Go show these ladies some love and tell them I sent you. You'll love all of them!

It's that time again....

Awards time! You know I can't follow the rules for these things, but I still like to post them.

I'd rather tell you about some blogs that I think you should know about than tell you more random facts about me. I tell you all that stuff the rest of the time.

This award cracks me up. It's from Desert Rose Moments, who will also crack you up.

The official rules for this award are that you list 6 things that you are a master of and pass it on to 6 other blogs.

In case I'm passing this to you and you like to follow rules.

I'm going to pass it along to my oldest friend and then some newer blog friends.

Angie at In My Own Little Corner is my oldest friend. Not in age, of course. ;) But, we've known each other since we were in preschool together. We lost touch at different points, but every time we would find each other again, it was just like we'd been together the whole time. Her two boys are my two oldest boys' best friends. Most days, I'm pretty happy with our move, but I do have to say that it totally sucks that we now live 9 hours apart. I miss her. She's new to blogging and BIG THANKS to those of you who have welcomed her already. If you haven't, please go stop by.

I'm also passing this along to Sarah at For the Love of Naps, Mama B at Peanut Butter in My Hair, and Messy Mommy.

All newer bloggyfriends, but sometimes you can tell quickly just how fabulous someone is. I've already had countless email conversations with Sarah. Mama B wrote an amazing post on friendship yesterday, and I adore her. Messy Mommy is totally someone I would hang out with irl, if only she didn't just live in my computer; be sure to check out her new blog carnival, Movie Mondays.

Please go visit some of these fabulous ladies!

And tell them I sent you.

Comments are off. Go give these blogs your love instead

Today is the last day to enter my Color Cookies Preschool Game Contest.

Click HERE to enter.

*One extra entry if you go visit and follow one of the blogs I mentioned today.

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Some Truly Fabulous Dancing People

Are you done laughing at me yet?

Have you gotten over my mad dance skills? Click HERE if you have no idea what I'm talking about.

Are you going to be ready to DANCE YOUR BLOGGY OFF next time?

Because, OH, YEAH! There is more dancing coming! DETAILS COMING SOON.

Now that I've broken the ice and showed you that it's okay to laugh at yourself- you know you want to JUST DANCE, too.

There are a few people I'd like to thank for dancing along with me.

Kmama, from The Daily Dribbles, whom I just love. If you don't participate in her free therapy on Thursdays, you SHOULD.

Then, there was Freckletree, who doesn't even have the Wii Game Just Dance, but decided to go ahead and play along anyway! And some of you were telling me that I had balls!

And, our WINNER for this round is Sunday, from WYSIWYG! (What You See Is What You Get) She wins a fabulous prize that I am going to HAND-DELIVER to her in Baltimore at Bloggy Boot Camp. How's that for service? I'm not at all using it as a bribe for her to like me.

I'm going to pass along this Freakin' Fabulous Award to all three of them for being brave and FUN enough to dance along! Please go show them some blog love!

Thanks to Amy at Keeping Up With the Schultz Family for passing this award on to me, knowing that fabulous is one of my favorite words!

SO, who is going to be for the dance contest next time????

Come on, you know you wanna!

Just Dance!

Be sure to come back tomorrow- I'm hosting another giveaway!

Thank you!

Just a quick thanks to some bloggy friends who have left me some blog love this week!

These fabulous bloggers each gave me one of these awards this week:

A for Effort(B for Blog)

Adoption of Jane UG-Lbc

Letters from Crazyville

La Vita e Bella

Magically Ordinary

The Crazy World of Toddlers

Just Because My Pickle Talks...

Chapter Twenty Something

Imperfect Daisies

Thanks, so much!

Can I bribe my fellow Supah's Island contestants into not voting me out if I give you these awards?

No?

Damn.

Comments are off.

Good night!

Valentine's Love For You

Once again, I'm doing awards my way, telling you about some fabulous bloggers. Both the ones who gave these awards to me and the ones I'm giving the awards to.


Each link goes to a post that I think that you will enjoy. Please go visit some of these fabulous ladies! Once again, despite making me completely neurotic, I will turn comments off so that you can go visit instead!


To those I'm giving the awards to, sorry that I don't follow the rules. If you want to know what you are "supposed to" do with them, I'm sure you can find the rules out there. Or you can do whatever you want with them. I'll protect you from the blog police.




Suzanne at Incognito Soapbox Confessions, a fellow "secret blogger," gave me this Honest Scrap award. Whoever gave it to her knew what they were talking about, because that girl lays her heart out there for you to read. Every single one of her posts makes me think. I'm sending you to one where she confesses her heart's desire.






I'm giving this award to Becca at Drama for Mama. Becca is a "wonder" er, always thinking and wondering. Another blogger where every single post makes me think. Sometimes when I read her blog, I cringe a little at some of the fluff I post.

I'm also giving it to Julie at Foursons. She tells it like it is and is someone I have many email conversations back and forth with. Aw, my bloggyfriend! Be sure to check out her letters of intent. They are getting results!!!

****

Lee at A Like{Lee} Story gave me this Beautiful Blogger award. Lee takes BEAUTIFUL pics and has great stories to go with him. Click on her link to read a very sweet post and the amazing poem her husband wrote her the first night they met. *Stomping foot and shooting Hubs dirty looks for never doing something so sweet*


Guess this one was really going around this week because I also got it from:


Steph at A Grande Life: oh, can I relate to this post. My boys are constantly underfoot.


Babe_chilla at Bigger by the Belly is the coolest pregnant lady around. She'll keep that attitude and never be a motherbitch.


Mama Fargo at The Boogie Man is My Friend who is a woman police officer. Linking you to her story about some idiotic drunks.


Tessica at I Hate When He Steals the Covers: Hey Tessica, did you fall asleep already?


and


Tammy at Tammy's Two Cents, who is one of my fellow Supah's Survivors- GO TEAM, HEROES! Love you, girl! Don't vote me off. One day, she's going to show up at my house and get me organized. Even though we live across the country from each other.









I'm passing this on to Anna at Companion to the Wind. Go read her unique journey to parenthood.


I'm also passing it off to Elizabeth at Confessions from a Working Mom, who patiently helped me out a ton this week. Go find out what Chardon-NOT is.

****






Finally, from Lynn at Midday Escapades, I got another Sunshine Award. Be sure to check out all the giveaways she has going on, as well as her Friday Follow.

I'm giving this award to Danita at From the Land of Pleasant Living who always has the cutest ideas for projects that you can do with your little ones. Not only are they cute, but they are practical things that anyone can replicate. She has some yummy recipes, too.


I'm also giving this to Aperture Mama at Stepping on Cheerios. She recently changed her blog to a more anonymous one, so please go over and show her some love. I'm sending you to a motherbitch post. She even gave me credit for the word.

****

Hope you have a fabulous Valentine's Day!

Despite what I said about the holiday, mil offered to watch the boys and gave us a gift card, so Hubs and I are headed out to lunch and a movie. :)

Sharing the Love

Looking for some awesome new blogs to follow? Once again, I'm throwing out the rules to awards, since you know I'm not scared of the blog police, and using these awards as a chance to tell you about some fabulous blogs that you should be following.

I linked up a favorite(recent favorite, since I'm still a little lazy) post of each of these bloggers to show you why I love them.

Please go and visit them!

*****

You're Looking at a Kick-Ass Blogger. Doesn't that award make you happy? It makes me happy. Samantha, from Apple Juice and Milk bestowed this one on me. The post of hers that I'm sending you to is how she deals with a child having a fit. I love it and am going to try this next time. It will keep me calm and entertained.

I'm giving this to Masala Chica and sending you to this post, where she confesses her "flaws," which I just see as all the reason I adore her.

I'm also giving it to Marymac at Pajamas and Coffee. The post I'm sending you to is a bit on the PG-13 rated side, but it totally cracks me up and is probably the way I'd handle a sex toy situation if I ever stopped being repressed and actually had one.

*****

I was given the Sunshine Award from three different bloggers this week. The Mommyologist, whom, you should know by now, is my bloggysister, so I'm assuming that if you follow me, you also follow her, but if not, go check out this post of hers and you'll see what I mean.



Diana from My Lifesong also passed this on to me. Go here to read about her 7 year anniversary with her husband. Awww.



My idea of a sippy cup is the same as Jessica's at Mommy's Sippy Cup: here's some great wisdom she's acquired as she has "aged."

I'm passing this one along to Brandi at My Three Bubs who makes me feel better that I freak out when I see a bug.

Kmama at The Daily Dribbles is also getting this award as a thanks for the free therapy she offers on Thursdays. Though, this thanks is sincere. ;)

*****

How cute is this puppy? This Awesome award came from Cole at I Heart My Chaotic Life. Click here for the most practical quick cleaning tips I've ever heard.

I'm giving this award to two of my very first bloggyfriends: Princess of Sarcasm and Lisa at Kssnnikkel Go read about the surprise party gone wrong at Princess's blog and the stories we tell kids at Lisa's(enter her giveaway while you're there- not many entries right now!).

*****

I have a few more to share, but I'll save them for another day.

Once again, I am turning off comments for this post because I want you to go visit some of these blogs and tell them that I sent you.

Just so you know, turning off comments makes me totally neurotic and I end up visiting all the links I left you, to see who actually did go visit- it made me happy last week to see that some of you did listen to my suggestions. :)



If you decide to follow one of them, you can come back and tell me on my 500 business cards giveaway post as an extra entry! And, if you haven't entered already, please do!

Enjoy these fabulous blogs!

More Fabulousness

I'm trying something a little bit different today. I was given a few awards this week and instead of following any of the rules that come with them, I am going to tell you why I love the ladies who gave them to me and why the ladies that I'm giving the awards to are fabulous, too.

I'm only giving each award to one person, so that there's a greater chance that you will go over and show them some love. I'm trying to spread some of these around: click on the "award" label on the bottom of this post- I've probably given you an award already if you're not on here. ;) Or will soon because I have the most fabulous followers....um, well, as long as I have awards to give out. Shameless request for more awards


Shandal (like "chandelier" and yes, she is trying to brainwash you into thinking of her every time you see a chandelier) over at My Life in 3-D gave me this Gorgeous Ladies of Blogging Award. Sort of. She said that it went to the first 10 to comment and then when I commented she told me I had to take it or she'd beat me up. No, not really, she's a very sweet girl and is probably appalled that I would suggest she would do such a thing. She's that nice...and yet, she likes me anyway.

I'm giving this award to Juliana at A Blonde Walks into a Blog. I found her blog after she visited here first and I'm so glad that she stopped by. She is just the cutest thing, has amazing drool-worthy giveaways, and talks about everything and anything: the serious, the silly, the sweet. It's like talking to one of your best girlfriends. I was totally intimidated by her enormous number of followers at first and thought that she'd never even notice yet another one, but she is a fantastic commenter, too! The post I'm linking at her blog is so very sweet- I got tears.

The Circle of Friends Award came from Arizona Mama at Our Daze in the Desert. The post I'm sending you to is one about all the random things that have happened to her dh and how he handled them. I was totally cracking up. She's another down-to-earth person that I can add to my list of people I wish lived anywhere near me.

The Mommyologist is practically my bloggy sister, so I'm giving her this award even though I am pretty sure I've given her an award before, oh well. We have so much in common that sometimes I think she might be my twin that no one told me about. We were born in the same year in the same city(where neither of us lives now), so who knows. After all, I've yet to figure out how two non-browned-eyed parents can produce a brown-eyed child and my blood-type doesn't match either of my parents either. Hey, wait a sec...Anyway, back to The Mommyologist. Since she's so much like my sis, if you like reading my blog, well, you'd like reading hers, too. I am sending you to a butt post, but it's so hilarious, not really disgusting, I promise. It shouldn't make you gag if you are eating, but it might make you spit out your drink from laughing.

Karin from Mommy Matters gave me this Happy 101 Award. She is one of the most put-together mamas I know. She's doing a series on organization that has me so jealous. She's a Christian, homeschooling, gorgeous blogger. I purposely did not send you to her recent post about her mommy makeover because you might be too jealous of how incredibly freaking gorgeous she is to see that she has the most beautiful heart, too. If I didn't know that, I would probably label her a motherbitch out of pure jealousy think that we have nothing in common, but really I just ♥ her.

I'm giving this award to Helene at I'm Living Proof That God Has a Sense of Humor. She has two sets of twins, close in age. Just add her to my growing list of people I wish lived closer to me. We could put all of our kids together for a playdate and be perfectly okay with the ensuing chaos. I love how her kids will do something crazy and she stops to document it in a picture or a video for her blog. Can't really do anything about it then, anyway, so might as well get a few laughs out of it. The story I'm sending you to- well, let me just tell you that she still hasn't found that lizard.

I'm actually going to turn off comments for this post. I'm struggling with this because I love talking back to you(btw, if you comment on one of my posts and DON'T get an email in return, fix your profile for me, pretty please so that I can email you back!).

But, I really want you to go visit one or more of these ladies and tell them that I sent you.

If you decide to follow one of them, you can come back and tell me on my 500 business cards giveaway post as an extra entry! And, if you haven't entered already, please do!

Enjoy these fabulous blogs!

Yes, I Did THAT

I know, I know, some of you are so over awards. But, I can't help it, I still like getting them!



But, for your trouble of reading all this, I'll tell you some random stuff about me along the way: the stories that I don't usually tell. You know, the goofy stories that you tell about the stupid things you did back when you were a "kid," most of which you try to pretend didn't happen.

Sara at Sarah Spelled Without an H gave me this Stunning Award.

What can I tell you about a Marilyn moment? Hmm. Back when I was 24, I was dating a LOT. But, usually not seeing the same guy twice- that is what happens when you are a single girl in a town with a gigantic military base. I was at a bar with this guy(no idea what his name was now) and he started talking about not wanting to see anyone else. I was like whoa, slow down, we don't even know each other. It completely freaked me out. So, I excused myself from the table, walked over to a group of guys, threaded my arm through the arm of the best-looking guy and whispered, "You have got to save me," while squeezing his big arm muscle, batting my eyes, and giving him my best flirty look. We ended up leaving and going to a different bar to get away from the other guy, who kept shooting our group pissed off looks. I shot him a smile as we walked out of the bar, though. That's probably as close as I get to Marilyn.

I'm giving this blog award to Alexis at Running Away? I'll Help You Pack. She's one of my newer blog buddies, but I already feel like I've known her forever and we'd totally have each other's backs in the battle against the motherbitches.




I got the Sunshine Award from Ms. Bibi at From Misery to Happiness in 365 Days and from Tammy at Tammy's Two Cents.

Sunshine? There was this guy once, who was always calling me his sunshine. He wrote some cheeseball song about it. When my apartment was flooded from a hurricane, I stayed with him for a few days(in his guest bedroom, people!). But, I went out on a date with another guy and had to stop in at the apartment to get my id. It was late and I didn't wake up the guy who was letting me stay there, just grabbed my id and dashed back out the door. But, he heard me and ended up chasing the car down the street, in nothing but his boxers, yelling at me to come back. I found another place to stay the next day. I did NOT want to be his Sunshine.




I'm passing this Sunshine Award along to Chelle at The Winey Mommy, because she spells her name the way that Hubs spells my name AND because her husband is in the Air Force and is going to Haiti to help(or already left? I'm off on my timing here). But, I think she could use some sunshine.

I ♥ your blog award from Kmama at The Daily Dribbles.
Let's see. Hmm...here's something that I loved to do, that I've only ever done once and probably won't ever do again. On my 28th birthday, I went skinny dipping in the ocean at night. It felt wonderful. It was a little scary since it was a public beach and I kept thinking of getting caught and having it end up in the paper and all my students' parents knowing. Don't know what I thought was going to happen- maybe that they were going to put a pic of it in the paper and then I'd never get my teaching job back due to that fun little morality clause in my teaching contract. Yup, I was paranoid. But, I still loved doing it. Only Hubs was with me, btw.


I'm passing this along to Stephanie at The Blue Zoo. She's another mama in a house full of boys and I can so relate to her.

Finally, I got the loyalty makes for blog royalty award from The Wifey at The Wifey Blogs.

Royalty: I used to put on my tiara when I was teaching middle school and tell my students they must listen to the queen. My assistant principal saw me wearing it, rolled her eyes and said, "Out of all my teachers, if I had to guess which one of you would walk around with a tiara, I would have picked you." I decided to take that one as a compliment.

If I'm ever on a blog and someone gives an award to all their followers, I never take it. I would probably make an exception for one that had the word fabulous in it, though.

But, really, this last one is for all of you. If you feel like you need to have done something for it: if you commented on one or more of my posts this week, this award is my thanks.

Okay, now that I've told you some embarrassing stories about me, I'm signing off.

Be sure to check out some of these fabulous blogs!

Stay tuned for a video of Hubs, Bil, and my Just Dance marathon from last night.

More Bloggylove and Weird Facts

I was given this award from Secret Mom Thoughts, who, like me, had to start another blog so that she didn't have to censor what she was writing due to her audience. Go check her out.

As the rules go, I now have to tell you 7 things you probably don't know about me.

Like I keep secrets from y'all. So, I'll just go with odd.

1. Ketchup completely freaks me out. I don't even like to touch it.

2. I have super long toes. Hubs calls them "fingers" or "monkey toes." I can use them to pick up stuff off the floor. It's the only thing that you can easily see that my boys inherited from me.

3. The last time I tried to color my hair myself, I ended up having to go to a salon and get "corrective color" done. My hair was ORANGE. Never again. Corrective color is expensive and I don't like looking like a clown.

4. Speaking of...I'm afraid of clowns.

5. My feet didn't grow during my first or second pregancy, but they did with my last. Hubs thinks I 'm totally making this up. At least my toes didn't get longer.

6. I used to be super-flexible-yoga-pretzel girl. Now, I doubt I could touch my toes.

7. Everyone who knows me from back in the day says that sometime around age 24, I changed so much that I "mutated" and look nothing at all like I did before then. I find this hilarious. Maybe when Hubs gets the scanner hooked up, I will put up some old pics and let you be the judge.

I pass this on to these bloggers and ask you to share the love(don't I just sound all warm and fuzzy today? Really, no one took over my blog, it's really me, Shell):

A Grande Life

From the Land of Pleasant Living

Hope Radio

Incognito Soapbox Confessions

Musings of a Moxie Mama

Our Daze in the Desert

WYSIWYG (you know you want to go find out what that means!)

To accept your award, post it on your blog, link back to me, list your 7 facts, and then pass it on to 7 other blogs.

I also got the Lemonade Award from Vivianne's Vista and Triplets Plus Two Mama.

This one sort of makes me laugh, since it goes along with attitude and gratitude and I'm hardly a ray of sunshine, which you probably know if you were here last week for my pity party.

But, maybe they were just laughing at my pain. No really, I guess some of my craziness makes people laugh.

I pass this one on to other people who make me smile- some with great attitudes and some with attitudes more like mine. ;)

ATL Mom Guide

Beyond the Pale Mother

Busted Plumbing

Cultivating Rosebuds

Eternal Lizdom

I'm Living Proof that God Has a Sense of Humor

Two Little Monkeys Plus Hubby

The Stroller Ballet

The Mommyologist

This Isn't Getting Any Easier

To accept your award, post it on your blog, link back to me, then pass it on to at least 10 other bloggers that show great gratitude/attitude.

It's Sunday- lots of people taking the day off from blogging, so go check out some of these fabulous blogs!

Happy Thoughts and Bloggylove

I was given this award from The Wifey Blogs and The Mommyologist, two awesome bloggers whom I would totally hang out with irl...if only we lived anywhere near each other.

*I'm editing this right now because Jessica gave me this award this morning, too. I feel thrice-loved.

The rules that go along with this award say that you have to list 10 ten things that make you happy. I'm going for the little things here, not even going to list Hubs and the boys, though of course, they make me happy.

1. Sleep. A full night's sleep, sleeping in, a nap. You can probably tell how much I've been dealing with babies and small children, to value sleep this much.

2. Reading a good book, watching a good movie, or watching bad tv: uninterrupted. Anything that I can do where I get to sit on my butt and zone out for a while, preferably with a glass of wine.

3. A well-fitting bra. Not that I've had too many of these, but when I can find one that doesn't make me think all day "when can I take this damn thing off?" - it's magic. And if it makes the girls look perky again, that's even better.

4. Butter. Yes, I know that just yesterday, I resolved to go easy on dishes made with insane amounts of butter- and I am trying to stick to that. But, it does not weaken my love of butter.

5. The beach. Cheesy as it sounds, I love walking on the beach- or even just sitting out there. I'll even take sitting on the deck and just being able to see it. The vastness of the ocean, the sounds of the waves crashing, the smell of the air: I love it all.

6. Getting my hair did. I find it near-impossible to fix my hair, but when I just get out of the hairdresser, I feel like I have FABULOUS hair and am reminded why I didn't choose to shave it all off. Just a note to those of you who think my ponytail challenge from yesterday is impossible: just want to point out that I didn't "ban the bun"- not even the messy one.

7. Date night with Hubs. So we can be reminded that we love each other and we aren't just partners in the war against our kids...I joke, I joke...partners in raising our children, but that we actually love AND like each other.

8. Girls' Nights Out!!!!

9. Losing weight(not the dieting or exercising part of it, but seeing the numbers on the scale go down makes me extremely happy)

10. Bloggyland and all of you. I used to not get it. I remember seeing a onesie that said "My mommy is blogging this" and I rolled my eyes. But, now I get that it is a wonderful community of people that so easily embraces others' stories; it's friendship.

Soooo, now I'm supposed to pass this award on to 10 other bloggers....but since I was given this twice in one week, I'm making my own rules and saying that I can therefore give it to 20(though now I could give it to 30....hmm....nah, I'm too tired for that!)

Hiding From the Kids, Supahmommy, All You Need is Love, Drama for Mama, Everyday in Gray, Foursons, Pickle Talks, kssnnikkel, La Vita e Bella, Ma What's for Dinner?, Mommy Wants Vodka, MommyBrain, Choo-choos, cars, and lipgloss, Stir-fry Awesomeness, The Daily Dribbles, The Mother Load, Princess of Sarcasm, Think Tank Mama, Mommy Matters, and Lessons Learned.

Be sure to check out some of these awesome bloggers!