Stylish Blogger Award--UPDATED

Thanks to Reading, Reading and Life for this Stylish Blogger Award.

Now I get to pass it along following these rules:

1. Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.
2. Pass the award to 15 or 3 other blogs that you've newly discovered.
3. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

UPDATED 8:30 PM 2/22/11:
Okay, since you asked for 7 things about me in the comments, even though this particular award did not require it, I will give you some:

1. We like summer much better than winter.

2. We do not enjoy traveling. We’d like to visit different places if we could just concentrate very hard on where we want to go, clap our hands and boom, we’re there!

3. Some places we would love to visit some day would be Boston, Red Pine Mountain in Vermont, Best Friends Animal Society, Chile to visit the boy we sponsor through Children International and our blogger buddies.

4. Neither of us really like to dress up.

5. We have 7 closets and use them all for just the two of us and we each have two dressers!

6. Karen’s favorite smell is freshly cut grass. Does anyone know of a perfume that smells like that?

7. We use an accountant to file our income taxes for us and still spent over 4 hours getting the tax organizer ready for him. It’s such a hassle getting all the information together! We certainly would not want to be tax preparers!

In no particular order I am sharing the Stylish Blogger Award with:

Dumb Little Man--Tips For Life
A well-written and designed blog with interesting content.

Fitness Prospector.com
Lots of exercises and fitness tips.

Marge's Pets 
Of course, the animal lover that I am, I had to choose one of the new animal blogs that I found and this is it.

First Commenter Award

Today I am honoring my first commenter ever on this blog. I couldn't remember who it was so had to check back. Do you know who your first commenter ever was? Mine was Anonymous and here is the comment left on my third post Missing My Cat Friends: "I love cats. Check out litterhouse.com to see my great invention."

The first commenter who left a name was BCarter and One Million Pet Pics and this was the comment: "How kind of your dad to take all of those cats in; that really touches my heart."

I found this idea at Tuesdays At Tonyas. You can join in too there if you wish.

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Thanks, Bumbles, For This Commenting Award!

The Bumbles gave me this award last week and wrote a very nice little synopsis about my blog so I wanted to acknowledge it here. I normally don't participate in awards, but since this one is easy to determine who to give it to, I decided to actually post about it.

So, I want to pass this award on to my following top commenters:

Daisy The Curly Cat: It's humbling to me that this busy cat takes time practically every day to visit and comment on my blog. She gets so many comments every day on her posts and I'm sure her day is very busy. My husband and I both enjoy reading Daisy's blog every day because it's so funny and cute! We also love her brother, Harley and enjoy trying to figure out the answers to her riddles. It's a very amusing blog.

Mountain Woman at Red Pine Mountain: My good blogging buddy who has beautiful pictures of her Vermont farm on her blog and who also is doing a fitness blog to encourage people to lose weight sensibly. She always writes so beautifully that you feel her emotions and the beauty she around her that she shares. She has also been a big promoter of the book I wrote in memory of my dad, "My Funny Dad, Harry."

Sandee from Comedy plus has a fantastic humor blog. If you need a laugh, stop by her blog. She is also a good blogging buddy of mine because we seem to have similar backgrounds and are close in age. She loves boating and is retired with a great sense of humor.

Beaded Tail has unique jewelry and a blog about two cats and a dog, just like our family! The dog even looks a lot like Abby. I love seeing the pictures of her beautiful cats and walks with her dog. We are both animals lovers as you can quickly see from the "Animal Rescue Site" and "Feed Hungry Cats & Dogs" widgets that we have on our blogs.

Lin at Duck and Wheel With String writes about all kinds of things and her posts usually bring out some sort of emotion, often laughter. I love her big fat orange stripey cat named Hobbes and the things she writes about him, but also everyday life situations. She has a very interesting blog.

Mrs.4444 at Half Past Kissin' Time is a secondary grade school teacher who has a funny, interesting, and helpful blog. She is constantly supporting other bloggers and hosts Friday Fragments. I enjoy her posts that she writes about her teaching experiences very much and am honored she comments so often on my blog.

Kathy at The Junk Drawer has a very funny blog because she comes up with the silliest things to post about and has a humorous writing style with lots of readers commenting all the time. It's also fun to read the other comments. I know she visits many blogs and am honored that mine is one of them and that she takes time to comment. She is very transparent on her blog and shares about her personal and embarrassing experiences.

My new commenters widget made this very easy to determine who my top commenters are. I found it on Mountain Woman's blog and it shows your commenters based on your last 500 posts (although now it's acting up and is not accurate--it would be nice if these widgets would work consistently)! However, I still kept the one that shows monthly top commenters too for those who are new readers to give them a chance too at getting on my list and I can see who the most current commenters are at a glance. These widgets are both in my right column under the popular posts.

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More Money From Blog Net Awards!

I won another $50 CAN from Blog Net Awards just by commenting about other blogs! It's so easy! You could win too. Why not start with voting for my other blog--My Funny Dad, Harry.

Thanks Mary, For This Queen Of Awesome Award

Mary at Mother Nos Best gave me this wonderful award. Really don't think I'm all that awesome though.

Here are the award rules:

* List 7 things that make you Awe-Summ and then pass the award on to 7 bloggers you love.

* Make sure to tag your recipients and let them know they have won!

* Also link back to the Queen that tagged you.

You can copy the picture of the award and put it on your sideboard letting the whole world know..... YOU are The Queen of Alll Things Awe-Summm!

OK...

1. I'm created in God's image.
2. God loved me enough to send Jesus to pay for my sin.
3. I look for ways to be a blessing to others.
4. I like to help people if I can.
5. I'm pretty generous with charitable contributions.
6. My cats think I'm awesome for being their mom, letting them rule the house and putting the cat tree right in front of the large front window for them.
7. My husband thinks I'm awesome for being his wife.

Now here is my bestow list:

Mountain Woman at Red Pine Mountain in Vermont--This is my good blogging buddy who writes about her life on her mountain and has a way of bringing you right there. She always seeks to help others through her blog, including promoting the book I wrote about my dad. She is my biggest fan and an amazing, wonderful woman. Her blog is fantastic!

Modern Mom--Gives fantastic household hints.

A Better Woman For God and Family--This is a blog I just discovered recently and I love it! It is well-done by a Christian woman who shares how God works in you life. UPDATED: Unfortunately, this account is suspended as of 4/29/09 but maybe it's only temporary--I hope so!

Heidi at Health nut Wannabee mom Gives tips on foods and fitness.

Melissa at The Erickson Looney Bin She has a fun blog here of random things that I enjoy reading. Her other blog is Your Fun Family which is also very good. Lots of fun things for kids to do.

Chris at The Cat/Dog Log. Lots of interesting posts, including guest posts about pets. I always like the pictures here too.

Maria at Maria Michelle's Furkids and Animal Rescue. This is a blog by a huge animal lover who posts funny animal pictures which always make me smile.

The Ad Master blog has been very helpful to me with many blogging tips and technology information. It's hard to read her blog posts without learning something.

My Funny Dad, Harry Blog Is Nominated as Best Diarist Blog!

I was so excited and happy when I checked my emails yesterday to find that Justin Germino (Dragon Blogger) nominated my blog about my dad, "My Funny Dad, Harry," for the Best Diarist Blog at Blognet Awards. Justin Germino is the blogger where I first found out about that site and who won the February 2009 Blognet Award so I am very honored that he nominated my blog. This is the site where I won $150 just for leaving a comment! It's really worth spending some time there!

This is the blog I initially started on March 1, 2008 to help promote the book I wrote about my dad. Having the blog just gives me so much pleasure in sharing more about him and keeping his memory alive. I'd love for you to stop by and visit my other blog about my dad and then go vote and leave a comment. Click here to go vote for my blog. Thanks so much for nominating my blog, Justin!

Nice Surprise--I Won Cash From Blog Net Awards!

Yesterday when doing my drops, I decided to vote for a blog or two and discovered that I won 1st prize ($150) for commenting on http://blognetawards.com. I did leave several comments but I will definitely be visiting that site to vote and comment more frequently now.

Let's Be Friends Award

Rene' at Designer Frog News gave me this award. She was the first blogger to read me book and review it. She too is an author of the first book in what she hopes will be the "Sonshine Girls" series called "Summer Secret." It's a great book for young girls that deals with bullying, cliques, peer pressure, forgiveness and friendship. Even I enjoyed reading it.

The “Let’s Be Friends” Award represents:

These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

Mountain Woman: A dear lady who has helped me with blogging tips, Facebook and is my best book promoter. She promotes the blogs of others as well as the things different people make and sell.

Kathy at the Junk Drawer entertains me with funny stories on her blog and leaves comments on mine as well. She has become a real friend who lets me know I'm not the only one who does stupid things. We shared some of our elementary school horror stories with each other.

Ana at Chica & Pumuckl and Chica & Pumuckl Blogger Designs
has been very nice to me. Out of the blue one day, I got an email from her with a sample new design for this blog which I immediately took her up on her offer. Several months later, I asked her to do one for "My Funny Dad, Harry" blog as well and she did a great job for that one too. She patiently walked me through step-by-step telling me what I needed to do. Her blog was one of the first ones I visited when I joined Entrecard because of those two cats of hers on her EC card. I immediately was impressed with her blog, with the cats actually touring Egypt and now Germany.

Daisy, the Curly Cat, her mom and her brother, Harley have become our friends too. She is so amusing and entertaining but also a very nice cat who blogs. Her mom helps at an animal shelter and also enjoys watching "The Bachelor" like we do.

Sandee at Comedy Plus feels like a real friend just because I've learned so much about her through a post she wrote about her mother and is a regular commenter on my blogs. It seems we have a lot in common and I also enjoy her humor blog.

Abelle at Only In Silence lives in the Philippines and was the winner of my book give away contest. She was so patient in waiting for the book to arrive and then read it immediately and wrote a very nice review on it (See for yourself at "Contest Winner, Abelle, In The Philippines Reviews "My Funny Dad, Harry". She often leaves kind comments on my blog.

Tina, Creative Nerd, was one of my very first blogging friends who was kind enough to creative both my EC cards for me because I didn't know how to get them to be the right size. I wanted something unique and original with my blog name on it and she was very gracious in making them for me with the pictures I emailed to her. We are both readers and are friends on several sites.

Polly at Random Ramblings was another blog I visited when I first started and who has become a friend to me. She is the one who finally convinced me to join Twitter and sent me several detailed messages about it. She also gave me a "star dropper" badge which I really didn't feel worthy of and had so many awards that I did not post it. I explained to her I didn't want to post it and she wasn't mad.

It's hard to just pick eight to pass this award on to because I've made so many friends through blogging. I am tempted to go ahead and list all their names here at least, but it would be a long list and I know I would accidentally forget someone and they may have their feelings hurt so I'm going to refrain from doing this. Just know that I do consider many of my readers online buddies.

I know these things take a lot of time to do and if any of you do not wish to accept it and pass it on, I understand. I'm sure the longer you've been blogging, the harder it would be to choose your eight.

Life Is Grand Award from Stay At Home Mom

Sue at Stay at Home Mom gave me the Life is Grand award. I am supposed to list 5 reasons why life is grand and then pass it on to 5 other bloggers.



1. We do not have any debt--our home is paid for and we both still have jobs.
2. God is good and is at work in our lives.
3. We have two nice cats that I enjoy immensely.
4. We attend a good church.
5. We are in good health (even without that yucky green tea!).

The 5 blogger's I am passing this on to:

Simple Married Life
Zoo Crew
Cheaper By The Half Dozen
Mountain Woman
Mom With The Brownies

Thanks, Liza, For The Make My Day Award

Liza, at Mommy's Little Corner gave me this award which I am passing on to the following blogs that I really look forward to reading every day or where I found something very special:

Daisy, The Curly Cat
Retired and Restless
The Junk Drawer
From A Cat's Perspective
Friends Furever
Mieze Katzen

I know some of you have very popular blogs and may be awarded out or already received this one, so if you don't want to bother with it, I understand. But, I wanted to give it to blogs that I really look forward to reading every day so that's why I picked yours.

Thanks, Angel, For The Lemonade Award!

Angel, at Health and Happiness and Signe Says recently nominated me for the Lemonade Award. Thank you very much for the nomination, This is one, I really appreciate because The Lemonade Award is for sites that show gratitude and a wonderful attitude. I think that’s a good group to belong to!

Here are The rules:

Put the logo on your blog or post.

Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!

Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.

Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

Share the love and link to this post.


Now for the blogs that I wish to pass this award on to:

Word Journey
Julie's Daily Inspirationals
My Thoughts, Ideas and Ramblings
Everyday Adventurer
Is 8 Enough
Justin Germino
The Zoo Crew
Health Nut Wannabee Mom
Stay In Love
Only In Silence

Daisy Is the Best!

If you like to laugh and/or like cats, you should really give
Daisy, The Curly Cat a visit. This is our favorite blog of all because it's often funny and Daisy's brother, Harley, looks kind of like our Moe. We both read this every morning before work.

I Got An Award--Sisterhood In the Blogosphere

In my short time of being part of the blogosphere I have come across many great blogs and nice people.

Mary, at Mother Nos Best has bestowed the Sisterhood award upon me. The Sisterhood award is inspired by the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and was created by Diana to be given to your best bloggy girlfriend(s). You give them the award to thank them for their special friendship.
I now bestow the "Sisterhood" award upon:

Mountain Woman
Cindy
Rene
Ana
Doylene

Now go check my "Sisters" out.

P.S. This is my 300th post!

My Blog Is Fabulous Award--Thank You

Thank you at Mother Nos Best for the Fabulous Award!

The rules for this one is to admit my 5 addictions and then pass it onto another 5 blogs…

Hello, we are Karen and Gerard and we are addicted to…

Karen is addicted to:
1. Blogging
2. Entrecard
3. www.pogo.com games
4. Pizza
5. Cats

Gerard is addicted to:
1. Watching Boston Sports
2. Cleaning
3. Cookies
4. Ohio State Football
5. Exercising

We pass this award on to:
Jodi's Journey
The Junk Drawer
Maria Michelle's Furkids and Animal Rescue
Modern Mom
Lady Banana

I Got Another Award--Uber Amazing Blog!

Thanks, Chris, at Living Well for this Uber Amazing Blog award.
The rules:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate at least 5 blogs (can be more) that for you are Uber Amazing!
3. Let them know that they have received this Uber Amazing award by commenting on their blog.
4. Share the love and link to this post and to the person you received your award from.

So here is my list of blogs I think are amazing (there are so many, but I try to pass on awards to those I haven't given any to before):

Your Fun Family: Lots of good ideas for fun things to do with your family.

Lesson In Life: Lots of in-depth, well-written posts about things that are helpful to know.

Investigations and Ruminations: Well thought out posts that deal with spirituality, philosophy that really make you think.

Learning Activities For Children: Great blog for parents with young children that gives lots of good ideas for how to teach them things.

Christianity With Tracy: A Christian blog that promotes ways to benefit others.

Thanks, Bola, For the Butterfly Award

Bola at Mums Dads Children
gave me this award for the coolest blog. I don't know about that, but I appreciate it.

The rules are quite simple;
You pick ten people and pass this award to them.
Then contact them and let them know that you have chosen them and their blog for the award.
Also link back to the person who gave you the award.

So,here are my picks for this award:

Daisy, the Curly Cat
Ruthi at A Carpenter Wife's Tool Box
Hadias at Proverbs Wife
Trophy of Grace at Real Christian Talk for Real Christians, Consecrated to Him
Sue at Stay At Home Mom
Carole at Carole's Thoughtful Spot
Retired and Restless
Mike at livelife365
Happy Family Matters--Father Blogger Dot Com
I Do Things So You don't Have To

Love Your Blog Award

I want to thank Tahtimbo at Everyday Living for this nice award. It's always encouraging to hear that people like my blog and I am honored to accept another award; however, I have received so many now that it's hard to find different blogs to pass them along to.

Here's the rules for this awards:

1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog;
2. Link the person you received your award from;
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs;
4. Put links of those blogs on yours; and
5. Leave a message on the blogs that you’ve nominated.

Here's some more blogs I love reading that I will pass on this award to. I tried to pick ones that I haven't given any award to before:

1) Hipp is My Middle Name Although this blog does not have an Entrecard, I found it indirectly through Entrecard. This is the wife of Tony at Seeking Things Above. Her blog is about their family with cute pictures. I enjoy reading about other families so I like it.

2) Love, Romance and Relationships This is a blog I just recently discovered through Entrecard that I enjoyed reading because of all the suggestions it has to strengthen relationships. I thought it was quite interesting!

3) Cat on My Head I enjoy reading this blog because of the very unusual posts that happen to this person. It's very humorous and I really love her header picture--you've got to see it!

4) Life Blog Magazine This is another new site I recently discovered through Entrecard that has some interesting Christian related posts.

5) Doug at Retired and Restless This is a relatively new blog I discovered through Entrecard and enjoy reading because it's about everyday things and is well written. He just posted his 100th post!

6) Holy Cuteness This is a great blog if you like animals. It just has cute animal pictures every day.

7) Measure Twice, Cut Once I like this one because it's written by a dad who works hard and lets his kids help. Some of the things I've read about remind me of my dad.

Why Do We Need Friends?

This friendship award came from Liza at Mommy's Little Corner. Thanks, Liza! This is a wonderful poem.

We need friends for many reasons,
all throughout the season.
We need friends to comfort us
when we are sad,
and to have fun with us when we are glad.

We need friends to give us good advice,
We need someone we can count on,
and treat us nice.

We need friends to remember us
one we have passed
sharing memories that will always last.

Spread the poem of friendship.

1. Everyday Life 2. Words of Love 3. Sheng's Simple Thoughts . . . 4. Insights from the Grocery Cart 5. Moms... Check Nyo 6. Mommy's Little Corner 7. Karen & Gerard Zemek 8. your blog here

I am passing friendship poem to the following:
Jemi at Live, Laugh, Love
Tina at The Creative Nerd
Rene' at Cheaper by the Half Dozen
Jude at Mature But Not Senile
Monique Renae at Blogging More

Thanks for making my blog life fun.

Thanks for the Brilliant Blog Award, Sara!

My blogging friend, Sara, at Red Pine Mountain passed on the Brilliant Weblog award to me. I thank her so much for doing so. The rules of the award are as follows:

1) Add the logo of the award to your blog
2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you
3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4) Add links to those blogs on your blog
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs

In addition, here are links to seven blogs I've passed this award on to that I enjoy reading:

Nerdy Parenting
Life With Rog
Kathy at the Junk Drawer
Cromley's World
Lisa at Work At Home Mom Revolution
2 & 2 = Nine (tips and ideas for children from toddlers through teens from two moms with nine children between them)
Life as a Mom
Kaydee at Spirituality Guru

Thanks again Sara.

My First Blogging Award!

I never expected to get an award for blogging, but I did! One of my new blogging friends is Jewels of Being Number 5. She also writes the Arduous Nincompoop blog which I enjoy as well and entered pictures of my cats in her 4th of July contest. She is one of my nice blogging buddies who has an interesting blog about her life.

Thanks Jewels, for including me in your special group of recipients of the Arte y Pico award. (HUG)

This award was created and to be given to bloggers who inspire others with their creativity and their talents, also for contributing to the blogging world in whatever medium. When you receive this award it is considered a "special honor". Once you have received this award, you are to pass it on to 5 others."

What a wonderful way to show some love and appreciation to your fellow bloggers!!!

The rules for passing this honor on:

1) Pick 5 blogs that you would like to award this honor to. (This is the hard part--there are just so many good ones around it was diffcult to choose just five.)

2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

3) Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.

4) Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y Pico" blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award. http://arteypico.blogspot.com.

Here is my list of recipients:

Jazmin's blog: More Than Just Cat
This is a humorous cat blog that is so interesting for cat lovers because there is interaction by interviewing cats of other bloggers.

Banji's blog: Lesson in Life
This is a very good site for learning a lot of useful information. It's so interesting that I spent quite a bit of time on this blog. I think you will too if you check it out.

Melissa's blog: Learning Activities For Children
This blog has many, many different learning activities for all ages of children. It is a wealth of ideas.

Tony's blog: Seeking Things Above
This is a wonderful Christian blog by a family man that has a lot of good articles on it and many interesting things. Definitely one of the better ones I've come across in the spirituality category.

Guardian Angel's blog: Happy Family Matters
This blog contains effective parenting tips, successful marriage tips and other family issues, as well as news and views on how to maintain a happy family.