Don't let them know they made a mistake, or they might take it back.

There's been a big misunderstanding.

I think they got the wrong person.

Surely this was meant for Thea at Texas Word Triangle...

Somehow, I have been awarded a Hot Mamas award.

How did they know I get so warm?
As a teenager I loved to crank the AC down to arctic-like temperatures at night.
My favorite animal was a penguin.
Did you know that you can meet a live penguin at Galveston's Moody Gardens?

Sorry, I got sidetracked.

Anyway, I think the Hot Dads who bestowed this award upon me
must have gotten hit in the head.

So, don't tell them they made a mistake...
I'll take the award anyway.

You know, I did get called a hot mama once...
By this homeless guy outside a gas station...
actually, maybe he asked if I had "Pot, Mama."

hmmmm...

Have you taken the 10 steps to buying a home?

All the hot mamas are doing it.

Someone started a rumor about me.

Monogram Chick gave me an award.

Here are the rules.......

1. Choose...blah, blah, blah...brilliant in content or design

2. Show the...blah,blah, blah...can keep the nifty icon.

3. List at least 10 honest things about yourself




***************************



1. From a young age, I've had a fake name picked out in case I need to go into hiding. Does this make me paranoid?

2. When I was a teenager, I threw up on someone...in a rather awkward situation. Or should I saw a compromising situation? That's all I'm sayin'. Gingela knows the truth, as I confessed in her comments. She is NEVER allowed to tell what happened. (Ok, I just read her comment section where I confessed and she had a million comments. I'm so embarrassed!)

3. I spent most of my second pregnancy on bed rest. It was torture.

4. I've been inside a psychiatric hospital. But not as a patient.

5. I ordered beautiful earrings from Mama Dawg's Light of Her Life (her adorable ten year old).

6. I've fallen through a glass door before and severed most of the tendons in my right hand. I went through surgery and rehab and can now use that hand again. It has a big scar that's mostly faded now.

7. I work part time as a blog contributor for UpTake. I'm trying to make my boring attraction posts over there more exciting! Want to read about Texas' most famous whorehouse? Or read ten reaons why you shouldn't move to Austin? I love extra comments over there if you have the time.

8. In high school, I took an after-school photography course, and we went on a field trip to a junk yard. It was so cool. Normally I would insert a crazy, half-true story here, but I'm trying to stay honest, so I won't. Darn rules.

9. One of the hardest things I've ever had to do in my life was tell my parents I was pregnant. I was nineteen and totally freaked out.

10. In my profile picture, I'm wearing a pink cowgirl hat. When I was in high school I participated in rodeos, and at the Houston Rodeo one year, as I was riding barrels, the hat flew off into the crowd. The person who caught it found me afterward to return it, and you'll never guess who it was?! It was Brad Pitt. OK, I'm lying. I have a hard time telling the truth when I write. I'm a writer. I lie for a living. I can't help it...

Thanks for the award, Monogram Chick!



I love your online store.
And I really love the car decal you made for me.

I now present this award to:

All Things BD - She has a very dry sense of humor

Tiney's Froggy Bloggy - She always cracks me up

BedsideTalesMan - He's hot and hilarious

So, what was your favorite thing I shared today?
Any subject you want to hear more about (except #2)?

A Mama Lion's Pride

I'm so PROUD of my son Donny right now.


He's 11 years old and in the 6th grade.
His first year of middle school.
And he made the Honor Roll
with all A's.

He also told me that he would like to be a younger brother.

Curious, I thought. Why?

Turns out he'd like an older sister...


so he could read her diary and torment her with the info.

Here he is shaking his middle school principal's hand as he receives an award.
An award called the Lion's Pride Award.

When we received this letter in the mail last week, we were so surprised...

and so PROUD!

This is the beginning of our second year in this north Texas town.
The first year was hard on Donny.
He had good grades and did ok, but wasn't very happy.
He missed his old school and friends in Austin.
I don't blame him.

But, I think he's finally settling in here.

Look, a bumper sticker came with this special award.

heehee
(nope, not going on my car, sorry, although it's a nice quote)

Part of me is sad he is growing up so fast, but mainly I'm enjoying the person he's becoming.
He's such a great kid.

He saved up his money to buy a gun, he's learning to play the trombone & he's playing football.

He's smart too...

despite trying to walk down a flight of stairs wearing roller skates and holding a plate of food.
It wasn't pretty, folks.




Have you ever sneaked a peak at someone's diary?
Did you keep a diary yourself?

Feelin' the love

I've received two awards today that made me feel warm and fuzzy inside.



This is from Shannon @ Welcome to the Nut House. She's a daily read for me. Great blog.







And, this is from Susie @ Susie's Homemade, a new read for me,
and she makes some amazing cakes!





A big thank you to both these women for starting off my weekend in a great way! Thanks!
(If I've missed posting a thank you for an award someone's given me,
email me, because I don't mean to!)

Housekeeping, the fun kind

I've gotten a little behind lately, with the trip to Houston and all. I've received some awards lately that I need to acknowledge.

This one is beautiful. Thank you so much, Insane Mama and Amorette!!

Isn't this award sweet? Thank you, Krystyn and Jen!!

Thank you, Sidney, this is great!

And, last, but not least, thank you, Sherri!

I'm so flattered by all these wonderful awards!

I'm not passing these along though (Bad Rhea, I know).

I usually do, but I have a lot going on right now.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Also, there's a giveaway you should know about.

The SITS girls are giving away a:
A RED, totally spunky Sony Cyber-shot W150 ($250 value)...8.1 Megapixels, 5x optical zoom and 30m wide-angle lens.

Go check them out.

Queen of Random Drivel; Blogging without a Purpose

I have a very special award to give out today. It's for a blogger who surpasses all others in her inability to craft, her tendancy to poke fun at herself, her enjoyment of smutty books, and her lack of fear in blogging about it, and who manages hilarious posts without purpose.

Without further ado, I award this special award to a one-of-a-kind friend, KAT, from Sunshine and Lemonade.

She doesn't get offended by a certain Texas gal's dirty comments about Johnny Depp. She isn't afraid to say what she thinks. Most of the time she has great music rocking on her site. She has great advice and isn't afraid to use the word tostitutes. Watch out world, she's comin' for YOU!

Arte y Pico & an embarrassing moment

Angie at Angie's Spot has awarded me a wonderfully gorgeous award called Arte y Pico.




This is Arte y Pico award originated in Uruguay from a fabulous blogger who can test your Spanish comprehension skills if you pay her a visit. Here are the rules that accompany this esteemed award.


1. Choose 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogging community.


2. Each award has to have the name of the author and a link to his/her blog.


3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name of and link to the blog that presented her/him with the award.


4. The award winner and the one who has given the prize has to show the link of Arte Y Pico blog so everyone will know the origin of this award.


5. Show these rules.

So, I'm going to pass this along, but I like to break rules, so I may not give it to five bloggers. I'll give it to:

Sarah at Brit' Gal in the USA

Tressa at American in Norway

Tranny Head at Law School Sucks...and so do Lawyers

Jennifer at The Cotton Wife

And, just so this post isn't all about awards or leaving anyone out...let me share my embarrassing story of the week.

My house is a mess. Seriously. The kids have gotten every toy out and left it lying around. The dishes got a little backed up. Things were just horrible. So, I was finally sick of it, pulled out a trash bag, got the kids to listen and said, "It's time. Today we're cleaning." And, as I opened the trash bag to start pickin up trash...the door bell rang. OMG, who was it?!!

It was my employer. She had stopped by with her 4yr old to give me a gift certificate to a restaurant, to thank me for my hard work. Beyond sweet. However, the 4yr old Princess Dorothy, took off into my house and mom had to go in after her. INTO MY HOUSE. INTO THE MESS. I was mortified.

Needless to say, this house is getting cleaned up fast now. Just in case others stop by...so I can sleep easy at night. OMG, how embarrassing!!!!

Please tell me this has happened to you. I'm not the only one?!

Conspicuously Creative

Sandy at I Beati gifted me a wonderful award!! I love being called creative. Thanks, Sandy!!








So, we were in the car the other day, and Remy pipes up from the backseat:


"Mama, give me your finger."


Now, if you have boys, you know this is dangerous. Who knows what he has planned. He has a slinky in his hand at the time, and I'm driving. So, my response is:

"No way, Remy. My fingers are precious right now." (I have a hurt thumb at the moment that was sliced open by a broken bowl and then burned with silver nitrate at the ER. To say it's sore is an UNDERSTATEMENT.)


Remy turns to Donny.


"Donny, let me see a finger."


And, Donny responds, "Nope. I have trust issues."


My jaw drops open. Excuse me?! What?!


I burst out laughing. Remy wants to know what's funny, so I have to explain.

Donny tells me he heard that somewhere and thought it was funny. Oh,yeah, it was funny alright.


I just never know what these guys are going to say, I swear.





Another enlightening conversation in the car:


Remy: I know what "dufus" means.

Donny: Oh, yeah? What does it mean?

Remy: It means "moron."

Donny: What does moron mean?

Remy: It means butthead.

Me: Remy!!

We had to drive into Dallas today to take my dad to the airport. We have two airports in Dallas, the huge one, DFW and a smaller one, Love Field. We went to Love Field, which is in the middle of the city, and since we live north of Dallas, with traffic and all, it's a good 45 minute or more drive one way.

Before we left, I reminded both boys to pee, grab books and/or things to keep them busy in the car for two hours. Donny grabbed a book and Remy said he'd read a book that was already in the car. I told him to grab something else as well, because I knew he'd fly through that book. It was a search and find book he'd done over and over again. He promised me it would take him an HOUR to get through the book.

Yep, fifteen minutes into our drive, Remy says, "Mama, I'm done with my book!" Unbelievable.

Luckily I had packed markers, colored pencils, drawing pages and an activity book as well as his Nintendo DS. I know how to be prepared, I've learned it's essential.

If we end up somewhere without books or toys with us, then we pull out our trusty friends I Spy, which I can only play for so long) or work on making up our own stories.

And, my boys love to draw. They prefer to play board games (we just got Trouble & Jenga) and our favorites are Monopoly, Sequence and Blokus. They love to play sports or swim. But, every now and then, a little down time is required, and I keep a blank book in my purse that they occasionally add to. I'm going to scan some of those drawings and add them to this post. They're a little freaky, but very creative...

These are pretty much all Donny's drawings:

And, this last colorful one is Remy's.

Blogging with a Purpose

I recently had a post called Wanted: An Internal Moral Compass that garnered a lot of attention. I was given a blog award and a shout out. See below.

San, the lovely multi-talented artist in Santa Fe, from A Life with a View awarded me this sweet prize, and I thank her for that!! Check her out when you have a chance.

In the spirit of giving and having purpose, here are a few bloggers I feel deserve this particular award:

Blondie at Tales from Clark Street

Carrie at The Gremlin Wrangler

The Secret is in the Sauce founders, gals Heather and Tiffany, for bringing together bloggers and forming a sisterhood.

And, Kathy at Mama's Losin' It.

I also was a top contender for Post Of The Day on David McMahon's site. He's an Australian journalist, author, and internationally-published photographer. He also has a mean sense of humor in his "verse and worse" posts. Check him out when you have a chance!!

Dragon skin, chore charts & baseball, oh my.

This morning, my 11 year old came to me and told me he had learned about the coolest thing. He has started watching Future Weapons, a Discovery Channel show about new technology. Dragon skin, a new type of body armor, has him awed and amazed. Here is a clip of a test dummy wearing the dragon skin and surviving a direct grenade explosion. Lovely, huh? Surely this isn't as bad as a violent video game, right? It's educational...





Meanwhile, I have been a bad parent. Last week, in my 6 year old's second baseball game, he was awarded a "golden baseball." At the end of each game, the coaches give out one gold baseball and two gold bats. The bats go to kids who made great hits in the game and the ball to a kid who made a great play. Remy was over the moon and so happy to receive this ball. I was so proud of him!

He was on the pitchers mound (although they don't pitch at this age, it's coach pitch) and a player hit the ball towards him. Remy fielded the ball quickly and threw it to first base. The first baseman caught it and they tagged the runner out! This is a rare occurance at this age, let me tell you! We were so proud of him. This kid's a natural athlete, that's for sure.



The boys have been dragging their feet lately about helping out around the house, and I've decided we needed a new approach to chores. So, we made chore charts last night. I didn't put a lot of creative craftiness into, just enough to make it ok to look at. We put up a week's worth of chores on a poster board with marker. And, if they mark off a certain amount of chores within the one week period (allowing for a few chores to be skipped in case of problems) then I'll take them to Target (one of our favorite places to go).

Well, apparently this works. In the last 24 hours the boys have made beds, taken dishes to the kitchen, fed and watered the dog, taken out trash and recycling, etc. I'm amazed! Why didn't I do this sooner? Such a simple concept. lol




I see a trip to Target in our near future.

My family knows me so well.

I really had a great birthday yesterday, and I got gifts from my family that were perfect for me! It all started with these simple, casual shoes I bought for myself (blush). They're Dr. Scholl's, super comfy and really cheap! $28 at Walmart. Thanks, Carrie the Gremlin Wrangler, for telling me about them.

Then, my mother-in-law gave me this fun beach/overnight bag below with matching towel. It also had a matching make-up bag and wallet and hat! I liked the colors...not something I would have bought myself, but very fun to receive!

Then there is this beautiful bag from L.L. Bean with my name on it! (Ok, I ordered it for myself and had the kids give it to me) I have a little bit of a tote bag addiction...and I love all the pockets on this one.

My mother-in-law knows how much I love to read, so she gave me this wonderful gift certificate to Barnes and Noble for an exorbitant amount! And, she knows how much I love Harry Potter, so the card theme is obviously...you got it, Harry Potter!

My mother, my stepfather, and my father all chipped in together and bought me...drum roll please...a new camera and Photoshop Elements!!! I am beyond excited. I am estatic!! I am high on life and ready to take some REAL photos. I can't wait to get started!!! The new camera is an updated version of one I have and love, but the newer, improved model. I've never had Photoshop before, and I think it's high time I start cleaning up and having fun with my photos. My mom is a photography nut as well and has all the software...so she understands my obsession with it as well. I'm working on converting my children over to the shutterbug side now as well.

My parents are so wonderful, all three of 'em. My mother also cooked a yummy dinner and cake, feeding my whole fam, which is no small feat.

And, then, my hubby and boys gave me the final gift right before bed tonight...a new all-in-one photo pinter, scanner and copier. Yippee!! I've never had one of these babies before. Can't wait to start scanning in lots of fun, older pictures!!

I am beyond happy, can't wait to start playing with my new toys. It's been a great birthday! I also made it back into the fitness center (which I somehow avoided for the last month or so). It felt great to work out again. Those endorphins really kick in!

Giggle from Giggles (formerly known as VBF from Motivationless) gave me this sweet, adorable award recently, and I wanted to thank her!! She's my new awesome friend from Australia, a real live wire with lots of fun energy. We discovered our shared passion for the TV show LOST. Here is my award:

And, I want to pass this award along to everyone who took the time to stop and say Happy Birthday to me yesterday in the comment section. You guys were all so sweet to stop and say hello and help make my day even more special! Thanks!! And, enjoy this award...you know who you are.

I give good chat.

Well, I don't know if you knew this or not...but apparently, I give good chat. Or, at least VBF, my new blogger friend from Down Under, at Motivationless thinks so! Thanks, VBF! She is a riot, a bubbly blonde with smart mouth, and a LOT of fun to read, so check out her blog when you have a chance. Here's my award:

Now, I feel the responsibility of passing on this award to others. I have a few people in mind:

Mary a.k.a. Crystal Chick, at Mary Says, needs this award, because she was one of the first to welcome me into the Blogosphere and leave me a comment! (Besides, she threatened to make her blog go naked if she didn't get an award soon!) You give good chat, Crystal Chick!

Kat at Sunshine and Lemonade has a wonderful sense of humor and is willing to put up with my chat at her site nonstop and at mine. So, Kat, you give great chat as well!!

Valarie at Valarie Lea From Tennessee, Now in Alabama is celebrating her 100th post today! She is a loyal commentor on my site, and I want to thank her for her constant support.

Uburburber at Tales of an Uberburber is another loyal commentor with great things to say and always up for a good comment.

Tearese at Trees With Leaves accidently got left out of this original post, but she has been a wonderful and faithful reader and commentor since I started!! Thank you, Tearese, you give great chat!!

And, finally, Mimzie at Mimzie's Muzings is a crazy commentor who has lots to say. Very entertaining! I know she has lots of awards, but here's another one. You give fabulous chat, Mimzie!

Thanks, guys, for your support and wonderful comments!

Blog with Bling

Jules, from Just Because, just made my day! She gave me this award:

It's an award she gives out to new bloggers to encourage and make them feel special. Well, Jules, it worked, because I feel special!! Thank you!!

This award will have a home on the right side of the page from now on. I love how bright and colorful it is, brimming with excitement, and I'm so honored! Thank you!

My Awards

Thanks, Jules!

Thanks, Giggle!!

Thanks again, Giggle!!

Thanks, San!!

Thanks, Sandy!!

Thanks, Angie, Insana Mama & Amorette!

Thanks, Jeff!!

Thanks, Krystyn and Jen!

Thanks so much, Sidney!

Thank you, Sherri!!