I'm Versatile!

Hey! Cool! Melissa over at My Reading Table got her very first award and passed it on to me! So, of course I'm playing.

First, seven random (really really random) things about me:

1. When I was 16 I had a job playing the piano for a ballet school while they did their warm ups.

2. When I was in kindergarten, I was awarded two little plastic trophies at the end of the year, one for not missing any days of school, and one for not missing any spelling words the whole year!

3. When I was dating my husband-to-be, his company told all the employees that if they made so much (something like $100,000 million) by the next year, everyone would get a trip to Hawaii. We were married by the next year! (And yes, went to Hawaii on the company's dollar for our first anniversary.)

4.  Just saw Toy Story 3 today and loved it. Laughed and cried. (I knew that whole story line would get to me with my kids growing up suddenly and just the other day we were going through the toys and.... yeah.....)

5. I must confess now that when everyone is complaining about bad weather, I sort of enjoy it. I like storms, rain, snow (unless I really need to drive far in it), and gusty breezes. I like cooler weather, and get grouchy when it's too hot.

6. I didn't start wearing glasses until I was about 22 years old. I blamed it on eye strain during college!

7. I dream of going on a road trip across the whole US. That and a whirlwind European tour!

Second, to pass it along. I'm not going to try and do 15, as the "rules" say, but I'll just do a random list of new-to-me bloggers that I've lately discovered:

Girls Gone Reading
The Introverted Reader
Semicolon
Reading Vacation
Book Clutter
There's a Book
A Little Bookish
Sam's Book Blog
The Allure of Books

Sunshine On My Shoulders!

What? An award? I haven't received an award, or passed one on along for long long time it seems. So I decided... oh, heck, why not?


First, the interesting thing about this award is that it was given to me by Yvonne from Ink Spillers Attic... which is NOT a book blog! I find this interesting because I thought only book bloggers read my blog. Are you telling me that OTHER type of bloggers read this thing? (Besides the couple of so called "mommy" bloggers that show up now and then.) Anyway, nice to meet you Yvonne and thanks for reading! (She appears to be in the crafter type blogger circle...which I should get to know more of because lately my 11 year old daughter has been begging me to set up an Etsy shop, once and for all. But the crafts we make are CRAPPY. How could I ever sell them? But stop! Subject for another post I'm thinking.....)


Second, I will play and pass it along. It's been awhile, so I can handle it, I can!


Twelve blogs that make me feel all sunshiny:


Brodi Ashton's Blog: because she never fails to make me laugh
Michelle's Masterful Musings: because we both "get" the Muse thing
Books and Chocolate: because she is a sweet sweet commenter
Po(sey) Sessions: because she is crazy silly
A Small Accomplishment: because she has recently decided to share her bookish opinions more often
Page After Page: because she shares the cutest granddaughter pictures ever
Angieville: because she makes me want to read every book she ever talks about
Age 30+... A Lifetime of Books: because we like lots and lots of the same things
The Zen Leaf: because we don't like lots of the same things and that's fun and interesting too
An Adventure in Reading: because she is such a fun Bookword Game partner
Michelle Teacress: because she's the only one who's commented on my daughter's guest post! (so far)
Good Clean Reads: because she made my day at our Utah blogger party


Thanks to you all for the sunshine. Now, go forth and shine some sun on other blogs, if you feel so inclined. If you don't, that's okay too because to me, there's no such thing as rules where awards are concerned! 

Awards and More Awards!

Once again, I'm behind in my giving away awards duty. Kristina gave this one to me awhile back and passed it on by reward her last ten commenters... so that's what I'm doing to. So, here's to my last ten:

Melissa at One Librarian's Book Reviews

Trish at Trish's Reading Nook

Serena at Savvy Verse and Wit

Joy at Thoughts of Joy

Bybee at Naked Without Books

Chantele at Always Something to Read

Kailana at The Written World

Kim at Good Clean Reads

Jessica at The Blue Stocking Society

Nise at Under the Boardwalk

I've received several other awards lately too, most of which I've already passed along, so I just wanted to recognize the givers.

Thanks to Melissa (One Librarian's Book Reviews and Kim (Page After Page) for the Let's Be Friends Award.

And there was someone who gave me the I Heart Your Blog Award... but I can't find who it was. Arghhh... I hate that!

And now my question of the day: What do you think about all the awards going 'round and 'round the blogosphere? My opinion.... it's fun to get them and be sort of "singled" out, but it's hard to pass them on mostly because it takes a lot of time, but also because I like ALL my bloggin' buddies, and so I just want to give everyone an award. It's hard. And I'm especially bad because I don't go around to let people know they have one... they have to discover that on their own. But for me that's kinda fun to see who ends up finding it.

But someone somewhere recently said that they think of them as the bloggy version of chain letters. What do you think? And the biggest question of all, who starts them anyway!?! :)

It's Raining Awards!

Wow! It's been raining awards around here! This week, I was deemed worthy to get both the Splash Award from Coversgirl, and the Zombie Chicken Award from Serena! And then a week or so ago, Kristina passed on the Sisterhood Award. Ah, you guys make me smile! Thanks so much.

But now the hard part, picking and choosing who to pass the award onto from here! Last time, I gave it out to some of my new blogging buddies. The time before, I celebrated some of my long time favorites. Hmmmmm... so who to choose this time?

The Splash Award

1) Put the logo on your blog/post.2) Nominate up to 9 blogs which allure, amuse, bewitch, impress or inspire you.3) Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.4) Let them know that they have been splashed by commenting on their blog.5) Remember to link to the person from whom your received your Splash award.

Kim from Sophisticated Dorkiness

3M from 1 More Chapter

Alyce from At Home With Books

Lisa from Books on the Brain

Jill from Fizzy Thoughts

The Zombie Chicken Award

"The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken - excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all..."

Jeane from Dog Ear Diary

Kristina from Kristina's Favorites

Bybee from Naked Without Books

Lisa from Books. Lists. Life.

Jackie from Farm Lane Books

The Sisterhood Award

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate up to 10 blogs which show great attitude and/or gratitude!
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Remember to link to the person from whom you received your award.

Susan from Bloggin' 'bout Books

Heather from A High and Hidden Place

Kim from Good Clean Reads

Heather from Age 30+: A Lifetime of Books

Trish from Trish's Reading Nook

Many of you probably already got this award! If so, congrats again! :) I love reading all your blogs. Keep it up.

Kreativ Blogger Award/Seven Things I Love

I got tagged/awarded/ given the Kreativ Blogger Award from Kristina at Kristina's Favorites the other day! I like this one because I can make yet another list! :)

The idea is to list SEVEN things I love then tag SEVEN people.

Random things that I love:

1. I love those great big huge brownie sundaes you can get at some restaurants, with a big soft very chocolaty brownie and a huge scoop of ice cream, dripping in hot fudge sauce!

2. I love the sound of teenagers coming home, late at night, and knowing all are safe and well for yet another day. And that I can relax and go to sleep finally!

3. I love it when my mom gets in giggle fits, and then we all get the giggles, then we all start laughing so hard the tears stream down our faces, then when we realize we don't even know why we are laughing, we laugh even harder!

4. I love pulling away from the dock at the beginning of a week long cruise!

5. I love comments!

6. I love downloading new songs from iTunes and playing them over and over and over again until we are sick of them. Then again, maybe we never get sick of them!

7. I love the smell of new books. And old books. And in between books.

Seven people to tag even though one thing I don't love is tagging. Getting tagged is GREAT, tagging back, not so great:

Megan at Thick and Thin Things

Chantele at There is Always Something to Read

Brit at Confessions of a Book Habitue

Emily at The World Inside My Head

Katie at Buzzing About

Molly at My Cozy Book Nook

Stephanie at Books n More Books

So have at it people! :)

Weekly Geeks 2009.01: Blog Love... (and passing along some awards too)

Weekly Geeks is back! Yeah! Thank you to Terri for posting the first assignment which is:

1. Link to blogs you love.... and/or

2. Post your 2008 wrap up, or your 2009 goals if you haven't already done so.

Since I have done my wrap up... and a little bit of my goals (though there will be more on that later too) I will do the first option and list my favorite blogs... or some of them, since, sheesh, I have a lot.

Blogs I Love:

Melissa at Book Nut because I love her fresh opinion on books. She cracks me up a lot.

Becky's Book Reviews because even though I'm always behind on reading her posts, I love the variety of books she reviews.

Joanne at Book Zombie because she is such a great commenter... and her blog is great fun too.

Bookfool at Bookfoolery and Babble because she does Wahoo's that I love and she's also a great commenter.

Chris at Book-a-rama because I've just been reading her blog forever and can't imagine the book blogging community without her.

Natasha at Maw Books Blog because she invited me to a fun party and now we can be IRL friends... oh and because she has an amazingly well done blog too.

Stephanie's Confessions of a Book-a-holic because I love to see what books she's reading at what she thinks about them.

Amy at The Sleeper Reader because she's another one of those blogs that I've read forever and love to keep up with.

Boy Mom at Boys-R-Us because she writes some amazing poignant posts that either make me laugh like crazy or make me cry and cry.

Raidergirl3 at An Adventure in Reading because she is so nice and I've just been reading her blog forever. And she's the creator of "Where in the World Are You?"

Julie at A Small Accomplishment because she's an amazing blog writer and she is going to be the next up and coming popular book blogger AND YA author.

Trish at HeyLady! Whatcha Readin'? because she is so funny! And she's brave enough to tell the world what she thinks about certain books! :)

Jessica at The Bluestocking Society because now I can be IRL friends with her too! Besides that I love her blog. She gives away lots of stuff and sometimes I even win. She's also the host of the fun LitFlicks Challenge.

Andi at Tripping Toward Lucidity because she also very funny and has a fresh perspective about life and I love to read about what's going on with her.

Okay, well. I could go on and on. I'm leaving a ton of people out. That's what I hate about these "Blogs I Love" lists, because it's impossible to include you all.

Anyway, and to kill to birds here, I give everyone listed above (even though many of you have received them already) the following two awards, which were lately given to me by Ruthie at Books, Books and more Books.

Book Blogger Appreciation Week

I've jumped on the Book Blogger Appreciation Week band wagon. Go check out the details and decide if YOU don't think it looks fun also!

Passing Along Some Blog Awards!

Amy over at The Sleepy Reader awarded me with a couple of blog awards. How cool is that? So now it's my turn to pass the awards along to others. I'm not sure these award started out together, but somehow, they are together now!

Here are the rules for passing this award along:

Put the logo on your blog.
Add a link to the person who awarded you.
Nominate at least seven other blogs.
Add links to those blogs on your blog.
Leave a message for your nominee on their blog.

And so here's my list for some blogs I've been enjoying a lot these days.

Michelle at Hay in a Needlestack: I totally enjoy seeing what she has to say so many things, books and otherwise. Excellent blog for sure!

Julie at A Small Accomplishment: She's an excellent writer with lots of funny insights about lots of different subjects.

Kristi at Passion for the Page: A an excellent looking blog I've recently discovered (probably through Weekly Geeks or something, I can't remember!) Kristi writes wonderful reviews, and is involved with a gazillion challenges and rates her books with roses. Cool.

Kim at Page After Page: Kim also has an excellent looking blog, with lots of stuff going. I love to read what she has to say about all the books she's reading.

Lisa at Books on the Brain: I started loving her blog because of the highlights she did on her readers' book clubs. Very interesting. But she does TONS of other fun things too.

Bookfool at Bookfoolery and Babble: Another excellent blogger on all fronts, but she is especially known for her Wahoo Wednesdays! A perfect thing to read to see the postitive in life.

Jessica at The Bluestocking Society: Jessica does so much at on her blog that it makes my head spin! I love it. I think someone beat me in nominating her for this excellent award, but that's all right, I'm adding her to my list anyway.

Go check them all out and you'll see what I mean!

Passing On the "You Make My Day" Award

Last week I got my first blogging award,(twice even) given to me by Amy at The Sleepy Reader and Kristina from Kristina's Favorites. Thanks guys! I was quite surprised because when I see these award things going around, I truly never expect that anyone would be thinking of me and my humble little blog, so... wow... thanks. It makes me want to keep on bloggin'!



So, even though this award has pretty much been given to every blog I read I'm going to pretend I don't know that and list a few of the bloggers that Make My Day....




Kookiejar at A Fraternity of Dreamers... of course! Everyone loves Kookiejar! Not just because of her fun Wednesday Links, or because she's fanatical about Jemaine, and Lost, and Oil, but because she's simply an amazing writer all across the board and I look forward to each and every post.


Melissa at Book Nut.... she writes fabulous reviews and makes me laugh a lot and I love to hear her opinion on things.

Serena at Savvy Verse and Wit.... I like reading about what she's been reading. I feel like we've become great bloggin' buddies!

Meg Cabot and her Diary.... she doesn't know I exist, but still, her blog makes my day and I get so excited when she posts, which is quite often actually. I know she'll have something to make me smile, or laugh, or even cry like it did the other day.

1morechapter by 3M.... one of these years I'm going to be able to keep up with her reading pace and all the challenges she does! I love to see what she's up to next.

Ditto that for Becky, who reads so much it boggles my mind! I can't even keep up with her Becky's Reviews page, but I know if I want to learn about a book, it's going to be there, especially if it has anything to do with Orson Scott Card!


I also look forward to posts from Bybee over at Naked Without Books. She's always got a great story or two to tell.

Stephanie's Confessions of a Bookaholic always has lots going on too! Her blog is so COOL looking and she's just... cool.... too!

Another amazing blog is put out by Literary Feline at Musings of a Bookish Kitty. Wow, she puts a TON of work into blogging and it shows. I love reading her stuff.

And last, but not least.... Lisa at Books.Lists.Life makes my day. Another great book blogger on my list of many!


There's so many many more! Thanks to you all for the great book discussions! I never knew blogging about books could be so fun!