Archive for the ‘ Award! ’ Category

Awards and Contests!

Oh, what first, what first?!

I guess first of all I would like to let everyone in on a new blogger that is absolutely amazing to me. Her name is Amy and she, along with her husband and six children, live in Zambia, Africa running an orphanage. They have been there for seven years!

The name of her blog is Amy’s Assorted Adventures and boy, does it live up to it’s name!

It is fascinating to me what effort has to go into everything just to keep it going on over there. I mean everything! Anyway, I dearly love going here and reading about her and her adorable babies that are living with them and thriving due to their care. The babies get fat, healthy looking and out-going not long after being taken to them. The stories of how they end up with them are sometimes heartbreaking.  But everything she and her family is doing is adventurous, enthusiastic, and brave.

I would like to pass on the coveted “Loaded Diaper Award” to her and say right now that I have never given it out before.

Actually I forgot it was there and even when I did remember about it, I kept thinking that I should give it to someone with infants in diapers. Or, maybe an old lady they have hanging around keeping life interesting and diapers full. But, then I remember thinking, “Krissa,” (Yes I converse with myself like this… don’t you?), “what better reason to give a Loaded Diaper Award than giving it because someone has to put up with a lot of shit? I mean, isn’t that why you have it?” To which I answered myself, (Because it would be rude not to and I already know how out of hand I get when someone is rude to me.) “Yup.”

Well, Amy is a wonderful person that I have been having tons of fun conversing with and intend to have more, and she is not only doing diaper duty in spades, she is putting up with the shit of a difficult environment and laws and policies that make little or no sense, every day.

She deserves it. So go and read her. She is awesome, I tell you! AND new to blogging, so follow!

In other news…

Another of my favorite bloggers is having a wonderful giveaway! Jennymac over at Let’s Have A Cocktail, is giving away a Jimmy Choo handbag that is a lover-ly, luscious, chocolate brown, leather to the person drawn on Feb. 10, 2010. The rules and and all the goodies needed to enter are at her site and it’s easy-peasy, so go on over and enter! Plus, read her because she is all full of awesome and is the best way to make your few minutes of, “get away to another place through blogging”, the most fulfilling. Not to mention she is as sweet as pie.

So there! That’s it for me and you guys have got to get off and see these blogs!  Really! I wouldn’t lie to you! OK, that may or may not be true, depending on the situation, but still…. 😉

Guess what?!  You can’t?  Really?  Cause I think you should just give it a try.  OK, OK, geeze, I was just trying to have some fun.  (And isn’t that a rather sad commentary on my life… ;-))

OK the thing is that I have not only been awarded an award by a wonderful blogger that I love to read BUT, he has created it for ME!  Well, he was definitely thinking of me when he made it.

Predo, over at Spartacus Wore a Skirt, has bestowed upon me the coveted Dingle-Berry Award.  His reasons for doing so are varied and like everything he writes, very well put.  Let me just say that he has proclaimed me an expert in, “the world of Poo”.  And let me tell you, there is a lot of poo in the world.  I would know, as most of it seems to be here at this house.  Well, some days it is.  (Don’t be sending the health department out here.  They will run away scared.)

Anyway, as soon as my dear brother, Cam, gets the code-y thing for the award, he’ll pop that rascal right up here.

Thank You, Predo!

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Well, the dear little senior ding-a-ling  is home from her travels.  She went to Sea World in San Antonio over the weekend with The Boyfriend’s family.  Oh, and The Boyfriend.  They had a wonderful, if not sweltering, time.

Now, understand, Kessa is the biggest tightwad in the world and therefor, even if I had been sleeping with a hundred men when I got pregnant with her, no DNA test would be needed to prove she is her father’s direct descendant.   This is just the facts.  They are two of a kind.

Well, my darling daughter must love me a great deal because she brought me a coffee mug from Sea World that cost $10.00.  Ten dollars for a coffee mug.

Before I even even got to use it the first time, look what I did.

I am such a clutz.

I am such a clutz.

I’m sorry, Kessa.  John brought home a piece of salmon that was shrink wrapped in some plastic and when I picked it up off the counter to put it in the fridge the mug was sitting just a tiny bit on the edge of the plastic and it drug it off the counter and onto the floor.  Crash.

BUT, I still intend to use it!  I am going to get the bastard file out of the garage and file those nasty points down so that I don’t get blood all over myself every morning by slicing open my hands on it.  That would suck.  Of course that’s just a matter of opinion.

Bastard file

Bastard file

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And there are more happenings… let me think.DSC00734

Here’s the quilt that Mither gave me when we were visiting her.  Isn’t it beautiful?  My great-great aunt made it.

DSC00767John and I went to The Main Event the other day and went bowling!  Only the third time in my life I’ve been that I can remember.  Second time since I was grown.  Man did he beat me bad.  Don’t even ask me for a score… embarrassing.

DSC00773Pardon the really bad picture quality, but I couldn’t use a flash very well when people were trying to bowl.  I mean they could all see my score and would immediately be convinced that I was so embarrassed that I was trying to sabotage their games to make mine look better.   Picture lynching and shoot outs.  You know- Texas.

Anyway, does this chick not have the hugest hair you have ever seen?  And it wasn’t just huge on the top and back.  No, no, it was… built way out on either side of her face.  And she was a young skinny little thing, too!  She had a couple of little kids with her that looked totally normal with normal hair.  It was kind of like a train wreck.  I just kept finding myself looking at her when she bowled.  I wish the picture was better.

Are you seeing this Angie of Big Hair Envy?  Cause, day-yum!

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DSC00753I got new Crocs!  And aren’t they cute?!  I hardly take them off!  Plus, Kessa, who is on her feet all day as a pharmacy tech at the drug store, tried them on and immediately went out and got some for her to wear to work.   Tell me true! You’d never think these were Crocs, would you?  Ree, at Hotfessional, sold me on them and I’m glad I tried them on as I was instantly hooked.

DSC00754Well, that’s it for me, you guys!  Henrietta is gonna want to poo anytime now and I gotta go get that  bedpan ready!

Free toes, everybody!

I had a perfectly wonderful good decent acceptable post pulled together that was going to go up today, only all this other stuff happened that was MUCH better to talk about!

First of all I have been honored with a distinction of unequalled measure.  Witchypoo from over at Psychicgeek, has bestowed the coveted, (I’m guessing, cause gee, it’s really neato), Charming Award on me.  Yup.  It’s right here on me… trust me.  No, not really, you should probably never do that… at least with anything important. 😉

Aaaaanywho, there are directions with it to confuse my mushy little brain astound and amaze us all.  Prepare to applaud, whilst I exersize my copying and pasting skills.

Charming Award!

Charming Award!

Charming Award!

This award is given to the writers of blogs that “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.”

Now, I am going to name my eight peeps and you really should stand and applaud.  Go ahead, nobody’s looking!  NO!  A golf clap will NOT do.  These kind souls deserve better than that!  I want to be able to hear it in south Texas.

That’s better.  (Cause I know you’re doing it, right?)

Ahem,

Angie of Big Hair Envy fame

Janet From The Planet of Janet

Tink at Pickled Beef

Kori at See Kori Rant

Predo at Spartacus Wore A Skirt

Karen at The Rocking Pony

Jean at Working Momma 247

Marylin at A Little Space For Me

THEN, as if this humongous privilege wasn’t enough, good ol’ Angie of Big Hair Envy tells me that she has drawn my name as one of the two winners of her “Pay it Forward” contest.

I am delighted about this and it’s going to be so much fun!

Here’s the exact, (cut and paste), wording of the famous Angie, herself, explaining the details of Pay It Forward.  It’s really quite easy.

I’m going to Pay It Forward to two commenter who leave me a message saying they would like to participate. I will randomly select the winners, and each will receive a gift from me! YAY! The only catch is that YOU must Pay It Forward on YOUR blog. Easy. Peasy.

Who’s in?
So there it is!  Just leave a comment saying you’re interested in playing and I’ll enter you into the contest!
Soon I’ll be receiving a gift from Angie and I’ll take photos and post all about it!
I’M EXCITED!
ALSO!  While delivering all this good news I have one more thing to toss out there!  I received an email from my dear brother, Cam the other day saying that there are new and different things available with his Periodic Table of Typeface on it!  I particuarily love the moleskine book cover!  There is a myraid of other things on the site that have been done with it.  Go check it out!
Stay tuned for an episode of “Stupid Criminals” next time! :-)

Oh man… where were we?  Oh yeah!  The second child was about to graduate high school!

Done.

Moving right along…

NO!  I am much too much of a proud mom to let it go like that.  No, I want you all to experience ALL the glee and joy I did as my darling daughter told us that there was a chance she may not get to graduate due to too many absences.

I stared at her with a thousand questions going through my head. “How many do you have?  How many are OK?  Did you play hooky?  How many times did you play hooky?  How did you make good grades while missing all this school?  Where did you go while playing hooky? WHO WERE YOU WITH, PLAYING HOOKY?  DID YOU COMMIT ANY CRIMES WHILE PLAYING HOOKY?  ARE THE COPS OUTSIDE RIGHT NOW?  YOU’RE EIGHTEEN NOW, SO THAT MEANS YOU GO TO JAIL…. NOT ME, RIGHT?  heh.  Not really.

But I can kinda understand other parents thinking that.  We really were blessed with very good kids and very well behaved ones as well.  They’re a tad lazy and self-centered, (teenagers), but they ARE good. (Thank you, God.)

There she is!  On the right side of the stage snatching the sheepskin with one hand and shaking hands with the other.

There she is! On the right side of the stage snatching the sheepskin with one hand and shaking hands with the other.

Oh dear God, please let us see it through and grow them completely up to be “real” adults, where they can take care of themselves and be contributing citizens of Texas, and the United States.

OK, just this household?

Amen

Anyway, OVER.  The whole entire high school thing is done with.  It’s really weird to think, but you know what’s weirder?  I’ll tell you.

You knew I would.

I always swore I would NEVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, have a snake in my house.  Voluntarily.  The girl child named Keelan decided she would graduate and spend a bit of her money on a “ball python“.  And, *sigh*,  this was OKed by her father and I.

I must admit that I do indeed like her new reptile and she is a “nice snake”.  She’s fun to hold and young and curious.  And, come to find out, not the least bit creepy feeling.  Very soft.  She has teeny, tiny scales and this is why she is soft, Keelan says.

She fell asleep like this with her head on my boob.

She fell asleep like this with her head on my boob.

Yes, that is me with her crawling in and out of my shirt.  Like I said, curious.  She eventually went to sleep, I guess, (They, apparently, don’t close their eyes, and yes, that’s a bit creepy.), Anyway she got very still and balled up against my skin, (Where it was warm?), and… slept.

Here's Keelan and Mither... aka Nana.

Here's Keelan and Mither, aka Nana.

Kessa and Pop

Kessa and Pop. She grabbed his hat and put it on... it was backwards, but I don't think she cared. 🙂

Kessa and The Boyfriend.

Kessa and The Boyfriend. Hat still backwards.

The Proud Graduate!

The Proud Graduate! And she's sure of the way she's rocking those sunglasses!

As anyone would guess the proud grandparents have come down for the graduation and the discussion of snakes ensued.  Mither brought to mind a snake story from years ago.

The girls and I had been visiting with Mither and Pop for a few days when they lived in Trinity, Texas and we had gone to a plant nursery.  Mither and I had purchased some bedding plants and while we were there, we planted the ones we had gotten for her.

Then we were packing up her car to go back to my house.  Mither picked up a tray of the bedding plants I had bought and plopped it down in the back of her car.  A startled snake slithered out and went in between the seats.

Crap.

Now what?  Well, a neighbor came over to do some damsels-in-distress work only he couldn’t figure out how to get the seats out and neither could we.  Mither called Pop, who wasn’t home and asked him how to do it and he told her.  Thank you, God. Amen.

The neighbor took out the seats and we had already carefully removed all the luggage and whatnot.  Somehow, he got the snake out.  I don’t remember how, I don’t remember what kind it was, I don’t remember how long it took, I don’t remember if it came willingly or not.  A traumatic experience, my brain won’t let me recollect?  Probably.  😉

I see these fairly often on other people’s sites and they are always much fun to do so I thought I’d try one, but I’m making up my own words.  Well, OK, not making up words, you know, but doing my own list of new words.  Well, OK, not new words, but a new list…

Oh for Pete’s sake, just give it a try.

Copy and paste the following words into the comment box and put your answer next to the given word.  You’ll find my answers below the list.  But, if you’re like me you won’t want to read anybody else’s answers until you put down your own because it makes me you focus on their answer and not as able to think freely of my your own.

Whatev.

1. Book:

2. angst:

3. drama:

4. paper plates:

5. toothpick:

6. leaves:

7. self-portrait:

8. sister:

9. light:

10. carpet:

OK, here are my answers results:

1. Book: Long hot bath with John Grisham… er, you KNOW what I mean.

2. angst: teenager

3. drama: teenage girl

4. paper plates: put dishwasher soap on the grocery list

5. toothpick: skinny

6. leaves: Rake!  Front yard looks like a bunch of Mexicans live here.  (Oops… I forgot.)

7. self-portrait: VanGogh

8. sister: argue

9. light: lamp

10. carpet: Flor catalog

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And if all this fun and frivolity wasn’t enough, get this.

I was reading Ree’s blog, Hotfessional yesterday and came across this worthy information:

Along with a good sized list of giving people who are making valuable contributions out there, Robeez is making donations for every eCard that is sent.  So for heaven’s sake send an ecard, heck, send a lot of them!  The money goes to K.I.D.S, (Kids In Distressed Situations).  It’s free to send them and they’re really cute.

And then!

My dear friend, SSG over at Confessions of a (Sometimes) Serendipitous Girl, has awarded me with a shiny new award!  Good old brother, Cam has already got it all squared away in my sidebar.  Love the love!  It says I’m a “Superior Scribbler”…What I think she meant was “Demented”, but, I’m not gonna split hairs.  It was very sweet and I loves her for it!

Thanks SSG!

That’s it for me.  I gotta go wipe H’s butt.

Oh.  You think I’m kidding?

I’m not.  😉