The “Write”chus Blogger Award!

right·eous – Adjective/ˈrīCHəs/ – Morally right or justifiable; virtuous. Perfectly wonderful; fine and genuine

That’s a good word to describe this prestigious award that I found out I was nominated for. Thanks to a group of wonderful bloggers, this award came to be and people like you and me get recognition for all of our hard work;-) Never in a million years did I intend to receive such high recognition, yet Kimberly of Kimberly Inspired felt I deserved it. How wonderful to think I made someone feel that good to nominate me! I inspired the inspirer! How cool is that?

Just type Versatile Blogger Award in your google bar and hit search. There are countless numbers of bloggers being recognized across the internet and the comments are all so positive and happy! What a great way to show other bloggers just how wonderful their stories, poems, life, photos, art, etc. actually are!!

The Rules of the Versatile Blogger Award:

1.  Thank the person(s) who shared the award with you by linking back to them in your post. 

2.  Pass this award to 15 recently discovered blogs and let them know that you included them in your blog post. 

3.  List 7 things about yourself. 

Now for my part in this endeavour:

#1 – Great big hugs to Kimberly Inspired for nominating me for this award! How wonderful to find out how much someone appreciates my blog! Thanks Kimberly!!

#2 – This was the hard part. I did not take this award lightly. I wanted to make it as special as Kimberly did for me. That meant I had to sacrifice some of my writing time and homework time to get it done.  After researching the award on the internet and finding out just how many people were honored by receiving it, I knew I couldn’t just put together some half-hearted list. After 2 days and several hours of research and reading blog after blog, these were my picks for this award:

http://kimberlyinspired.wordpress.com/ Yeah sure, this is the blog that nominated me, but she too has something to say that should be recognized. Her happiness gleams through her posts which pours over into the world of bloggers. I love reading about how happy someone is and her blog should not go unnoticed. She is amazing. She also loves photography and is very good at it. Pictured above is one of her beautiful shots.

http://laughteriscatching.com/   Aka: Tinkerbell I am impressed when I read her blogs. She is young, smart and to the point. Great blog!

http://astoryeveryday.com/ This blog shares our work, if we so choose. They have a great amount of followers that read these stories and it is a wonderful way to share a variety of stories to the public.

http://belchdini.wordpress.com/ Aka: Stabs in the Dark A great blog for reviewing horror with a side of humor. Love it!

http://mdweigand.wordpress.com/ Aka: Tales of a Fairy Lantern  His stories and poetry and absolutely wonderful. Every word draws you in more and more.

http://www.homesteadersheart.blogspot.com/  What can I say, this blog inspired me to start blogging a couple of years ago. She is sweet, funny and makes you feel the comfort and laughter that is shared in her own home. Her latest challenge….to join her in giving up the one thing we all love so much….SUGAR:-)

http://riverunderwater.wordpress.com/ Aka: Colleen Ponce The art work on this blog has to be seen not described. Stunning! I love horses and this drawing touched my soul.

http://diaryoflifeloveandme.wordpress.com/  I just love this blog. She shares her every day through a diary. Very cool!

http://nmichaelhawe.wordpress.com/ Aka: The Realms Between  From beautifully written stories and hand crafted metal sculpting to sharing recipes on how to brew root beer…This blog is a must see!

http://whileitwasfallingapart.wordpress.com/ What can I say, her blog brought back some wonderful memories for me. She also reminds me of myself and how I fell into writing. Oh how I hated those term papers:-) One of her latest posts made me smile – “Carrot Love”

http://suehealy.wordpress.com/ She helps writers! That’s right…She has some really awesome information on her blog to help us out from competition websites to making her own “write a novel in 6 months” competition. The contest started October 1^st but I am sure she would let you in on it!

http://bardicblogger.wordpress.com/  Yet another helpful blog for writers. This blog is incredibly informative and I strongly recommend visiting it.

http://brenleedrake.blogspot.com/  Her site offers writers a chance to win a contest! It is from October 21-23 and all you have to do is visit her site, read the requirements and sign up! Too cool! Thanks Brenda:-)

http://ronsrants.wordpress.com/  Survivor of a lightning strike, his sadness of life with illness and his fight with COPD brought tears to my eyes as I read some of his experiences with depression and encroachment on an unknown fate. His blog deserves recognition as he brings to light some of the “real-life” trauma from all of his medical conditions.  

http://neekswrite.wordpress.com/ Monique has a very clever way of writing, which she picked up from the movie “Out of Africa”. She has bloggers give her 3 random words, then writes a story with those 3 words in it. She gets quite a response from it and I love the stories she makes from the words! Great blog!

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF YOU! YOUR BLOGS ARE CHANGING THE WORLD:-)

#3 – Now it’s my turn

Hmm, 7 things about me…. If you really want to know:

FEW – A FEW…things about me

Family – Education – Writing – Adventures – Fun – Emotions – Working

Family:

“A”- number-one in my book! I love my husband with every inch of my being and we share a special bond. Nothing pleases me more than putting a smile on his face every day. He lights up a room with his beautiful personality and I am one lucky woman to have him in my life.  

Buster is one of three dogs we have. He is 12 years old and still going strong. He has been a great dog through the years and we take the best care to cater to his elderly status. His fame brought him more friends than either of us lol! His silly tail trick landed him a space on The Planet’s Funniest Animals and managed to win $100 and an exclusive T-Shirt.

Daisy was a second edition and turned out to be a very compassionate, loving, nurturing dog. You wouldn’t know it if you pulled up in our driveway though. She sounds like she is going to eat your face off. However, that said, at six months of age, she helped us raise two baby groundhogs we found stranded on the side of the road. They were successfully released into the wild which was sad but rewarding all at the same time. We bought her because of my depression after four miscarriage and our plans were to breed her in the future.

Rush is the newest edition and the smartest of the bunch! Border Collies are typically smart dogs anyway, but Rush tops them all. He amazes us with the amount of words and sentences he can understand at less than 6 months old. He is also very agile with strong herding instincts. He crouches and waits for Daisy as she runs back and forth in the yard and it is quite the attraction lol! In the evenings, Nathan kicks the soccer ball high in the air for the dogs. It only took a couple of turns before Rush figured out where the ball went and actually looks up for it to return. Buster and Daisy never really picked that up for some reason. The ball would just land and they ran for it. Rush jumps high in the air to catch the ball and usually falls short or jumps way too high and that is hilarious to see! He is our stud dog for Daisy. I think we will wait a couple of years for breeding though. It is a lot of work and time. Just having them all around us is a great feeling. We love our four-legged kids.

 

Education:

Important, necessary and I feel very accomplished with a Bachelor’s Degree on my wall and a certificate showing I graduated with honors (Magna Cum Laude). I always wondered what that meant. Now I am proud to know and have the honor written on my degree.

I am well into my Master’s Degree now and keep pushing forward. The classes are much harder but understandably. It is my master’s after all. I am studying Accounting of all things. I actually love math and enjoyed tutoring for several years. I like to work numbers and have a meticulous way of doing things. Accounting is much more than numbers though but it makes the idea even more challenging. I just hope to become the best CPA I can be!

Writing:

This has to be third on the list for obvious reasons. I have to put my education first in order to get the grades required in the master’s program. They are much higher than undergraduate studies.

I love to write. When I was in high school, I wrote poetry and did not realize it was an outlet for me then. I loved to draw and paint with oil also. I must have painted dozens of pictures. One picture made 2^nd place at the fair. I painted a picture of Hank Williams Jr. lol! I guess they thought it was good enough to place.

I now write with all of my physical and mental self. I write as if the whole world is reading, but I write without thoughts of what will make me money or not. I just…write. I do have a novel well underway and that is what got me started on this blog. I knew I needed improving before I could finish The Deep Freeze and I wanted it to be my absolute best before finishing and publishing it. I have since attended several writers workshops, joined a writers association and chamber of commerce, and try to write something every day (pending homework of course). I entered two writing contests and placed in the top ten of one. My piece “About My Mother” is published on Amazon! I was so excited about that. I realize how important it is to build a platform as a writer so I was off to a good start! I now have a second story submitted in a contest. I will hear the results one way or another by the end of this month (October).

Adventures:

This one is best left to pictures, so here are a few…..

 

Fun:

Nathan and I are always goofing off, wrestling, chasing each other or the dogs and creating affordable ways to have a good time. Last year, we had a good snow and couldn’t leave for a week. We made a seven-foot snowman and sled down the driveway on huge trash bags….seriously. We’re nuts! Two peas in a pod. Anyway, the list goes on and on and would be wayyyy too long to write so instead I will share a few of our funny pictures with you.

Emotions:

Boy do I ever have them! My feelings (no pun intended) on the matter are simple. They make me who I am! If I went to a shrink there is no doubt in my mind they would diagnose depression but duh! Of course I have some sad moments in life. Who doesn’t? I suffered loss and so have many other people in the world. At my worst, I went through mourning over the loss of my spouse at the time. It was sudden (car accident) and I was immediately traumatized to such an extent I had to make myself live. I didn’t want to eat, I didn’t want to move…heck I didn’t want to breathe! I took something for about a week and it just numbed me. I didn’t feel like myself. I couldn’t shed a tear…which I normally do on command. I decided to do my own therapy. Whether that was the right thing to do, I don’t know, but I wasn’t taking zombie pills anymore, that’s for sure! I watched comedy and laughed and laughed all day long. I must have seen Dumb and Dumber a thousand times! I love that movie. Every so often I would take every picture out, watch the wedding video and cry so loud people could hear me in other countries. Buster was always right there by my side licking my tears away.

Through determination, I managed to come out of the slump and push forward with my favorite metaphor – A bulldozer. I now have Nathan in my life and we cherish everything about our relationship. Our time together is well spent and our friendship is incredible. I still have bouts of depression and he is always right there by my side. That comfort gets me through anything every time. I guess I could say he drives my bulldozer!

I am empathetic and genuinely “feel” for others when I find out about their pain. I have to be careful with it because I get too caught up and have to refocus on myself. I truly want to change the world and make it a better place. I want others to have happiness and comfort as well. My “giving” personality made some people take advantage and I have to pick and choose the direction I take now. I do not regret the countless places I volunteered at though. They are a part of my life….my adventures…and they fill the part of me that yearns to be filled…..to give of myself without asking for anything in return.

Working:

Every once in a while, I get the chance to help my husband put up garage doors. It is our dream come true. We enjoy every waking minute together and had hoped to run a business for ourselves one day but for now, this works! About once a week or more, Nathan comes home with the work truck and we make an evening of putting up garage doors and openers. It sounds boring but, believe me, far from it. I’ve learned so much that a lot of the grunt work is left to me while Nathan magically puts together a working garage door. It feels great for me to be able to help and we get to spend that much more time together. It is uninterrupted, quality time. Nathan is very good with his hands. He has experience in construction from building a house from the ground up to rock-work. Every now and then he is requested to do a side job (usually family) and we also go together on those jobs. His sister has a farm and once in a while we help out. It has been fun learning about farming. We’ve loaded hundreds of bales of hay, planted thousands (yes thousands) of collards and cut and loaded them when they were ready, chased down calves and herded cows. We really enjoy helping them out.

Re-roofing the Farm House after a Bad Hail Storm

Planting Collards

 

 

Other than that, I stay home for the most part. I take care of the home and the dogs while spending as much time as I can on homework. From time to time, I travel to thrift stores and try to save us money wherever possible.

Well, that wraps things up for the Versatile Blogger Award requirements folks! I hope you enjoyed the ride! Again I would like to thank Kimberly for my nomination! You truly inspired me to pass on this prestigious award:-)

 

“The keys on your keyboard are the controls to your bulldozer. Take the keys and drive until you are finished. Everything else will kindly move out of your way or be forced to become a part of your path to success.”

Tammy Holloway

 

“Dozer” 

Have a sci-fi day everyone! TLH