It's a Happy Birthday kind of day!

A very happy birthday to a very special person!

My Daddy!

I ♥ you, Dad!

Wordless Wednesday

We got baby chickies!
6 of them! ☺

Missing Popop today

Today would have been my grandpa, Popop's, 82nd birthday.  He died December 23, 1992, when I was only 11 years old.  I was young when he died, but I have many wonderful memories that I will never forget.  So many things remind me of him on a daily basis.

Popop and I when I was maybe 7.

I love this picture.  This is my Gigi and her mom, Ammie,
with my cousins Krissi and Brandi, and that's me in Gigi's lap.
But look behind us all.  That's Popop peeking around the
doorway waving. ♥

I know I shared this picture on my Missing Gigi post, but
it fits this post too.

Popop

5/23/1929 - 12/23/1992

I love and miss you ♥

Wordless Wednesday

I love the way this tree grows sideways and dips into the lake.

Meet Me On Monday

Welcome to Round 3 of Meet Me on Monday.
This week's questions:

1.  Crunchy or smooth peanut butter?

Definitely smooth!  I love peanut butter,
but hate peanuts (weird, I know), so no
chunks of peanuts for me!

2.  What is your favorite color Rose?

I love both red and pink,
but I think pink roses would win as my favorite.

3.  Do you remove your shoes when you walk into your home?

Usually, but not always.  As a matter of fact,
I'm still wearing them right now, even though I got home
from taking Sosha to the Vet about an hour ago. ☺

4.  What is your favorite season?

Spring!
New life is beginning on all the trees, and it's just so pretty!
My allergies and asthma are worst during spring, but I love it anyway.

5.  Approximately how many hours a day do you spend blogging?

Well, since the A-Z Challenge is finished,
I haven't bee blogging every single day.
When I am blogging, I try to limit it to about an hour
per day.  That doesn't mean I don't spend more time moving
around and reading other people's blogs, though! ☺

Missing Gigi today

Today would have been my grandma, Gigi's, birthday.

Gigi and I, in 1980-81ish.

Gigi and Popop with all their grandkids
(minus the ones who were not born yet).
Popop is holding a baby Ami, Gigi is holding a fussy Derek,
I am sitting between them, and Brandi and Krissi are on the couch.
This one was taken in 1985.

Gigi
 5/14/1933 - 7/26/2010
I love and miss you.
xoxo

Big Game Tonight!

If' you've read my blog before, you may have discovered that I'm a big Detroit Red Wings fan.  Tonight is Game 7 (in a 7 game series) against the San Jose Sharks.  The Sharks won the first 3 games, but the Wings came back to win games 4, 5, and 6.  Tonight's game will decide who goes on and who's season is finished.
When I lived in Georgia, Sosha (my pup) and I would watch every game that was televised in our area, which was really only Play-off games that showed on cable, or games against the Atlanta Thrashers.
I was possibly the only Wings fan (sporting my Detroit Red Wings shirt) in Georgia, but I wore my shirt on game day (and sometimes so did Sosha!).

Sosha is focused on that game!

Phew!  These games can be stressful!
Sosha had to take a little rest. ☺

And sometimes the game just wore the puppy out!

Let's Go Wings!

Wordless Wednesday

Meet Me On Monday

There is no new Meet Me on Monday for this week, but since there are so many past MMOM's that I've missed, I decided just to pick an old one to do this week. ☺

Here are the questions: 

1.  If you had to eat only one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Ooh, that's a hard one...I think I'd have to say either 

Bread of any kind

or

Cheese

I love both! ☺

2.  Do you write your blog posts in advance or the day you post them?
I do both.  Usually, I write them the day I post them, but sometimes, if I have an idea in my head for a future post, I'll write it in advance and schedule it.

3.  Have you ever ridden in an ambulance?
Once, just a couple of years ago.  I was at work and doubled over in pain (on the floor, behind my desk, so that my students couldn't see me).  My co-teacher, administrator, and our school nurse all came in and our nurse called for an ambulance to come take me to the hospital.  Turned out to be an Ovarian Cyst.


  4.  What is your favorite candle scent?

Yankee Candle's Buttercream is my absolute favorite.
I also like coconut, strawberry, apple,
and pretty much any fruity scent. ☺

5.  Coffee or tea?
Neither.  I would love to drink coffee to help get me going in the morning, but I just can't stand the taste.  I don't like tea either, hot or iced.  I prefer hot chocolate for a hot drink in the winter or just plain cool, clear well water. ☺

Happy Mother's Day!

Mom and I on her trip to visit me in GA a few years ago! 

I have the best mom in the world!  She's been there for me through it all, and for that I am truly thankful.

Mom has a great blog over at A Simple Happy Life and I've made a special Mother's Day award just for her.  

♥ I love you Mom! ♥

What happened??

I don't know what happened, but for the past 2 days, my blogger dashboard says I'm not following any blogs.  I know I'm still following the blogs, but under my Reading List, none of the blogs I follow are listed.  It just says:

You are not currently following any blogs. Use the "add" button below to enter blogs you'd like to follow in your Reading List.

I want my blogs back!  I want to read what everyone has to say these days, but I can't!  Is there a way to "fix" this, to get my list back?

I know, not much of a post today, but this is really bugging me!  I've tried closing that tab and reopening in a new tab, I've tried opening a new window, I've even tried restarting the whole computer...nothing works :(

Wordless Wednesday

Christmas present from my Dad.
My favorite book, from when I was a child, put into a shadow box
(made by my Daddy) with Frances' little blue tea set!

Teaser Tuesday

I found another fun sounding weekly event that I'm going to try out.  This weekly reading event is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading.

Rules for participating:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away!  You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title and author too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser comes from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.  This is one of my favorite "go-to" books when I'm between books, or have nothing else to read at the moment. 

Far into the night, Miss Havisham's words, "Love her, love her, love her!" sounded in my ears.  I adapted them for my own repetition, and said to my pillow, "I love her, I love her, I love her!" hundreds of times.

Meet Me On Monday

I'm going to try something new!  I found this while browsing blogs, and thought it might be fun to join in.
Every week, five questions are posted to allow the reader to get to know you better.
Here are the questions for this week:

1.  What is your favorite kind of muffin?

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins! 

2.  What was the first car you ever owned?

1984 Nissan Datsun truck (mine was a baby blue color).
In 1997, it wasn't the "coolest" vehicle, but it got me around...most of the time. ☺

3.  Which TV Show were you sad to see end?

I Love Lucy was actually waaaay before my time, but wouldn't it
be so cool if Lucy, Ricky, Fred, and Ethel were still around? ☺

4.  What is your lucky number?

I don't really have a lucky number, but I guess for right now, I'd say the number 4.
That's the number of my favorite Nascar driver's car (Kasey Kahne)

5.  Pretzels or Potato Chips?

I'm not a huge fan of either, but I definitely love
chocolate covered pretzels! ☺

Reflecting on the A to Z Challenge

So, this is it...The A-Z Blogging Challenge is finished.

To all my fellow A to Z-er's:  We made it.  We've crossed the finish line!

First of all, I have to give another shout out to the hosts of the A to Z Blogging Challenge:
Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out
Jeffrey Beesler at World of the Scribe 
Alex J. Cavanaugh at Alex J. Cavanaugh 
Jen Daiker at Unedited 
Candace Ganger at The Misadventures in Candyland
Karen J Gowen at Coming Down the Mountain
Talli Roland at Talli Roland
Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs 
These people all did an amazing job of putting this challenge together!


I really enjoyed participating in the A-Z Challenge.  My blog was only a few days old when the challenge started.  I was excited to be joining, but a little nervous at the same time.  I had (and still do have) very little experience with writing blog posts.  Could I write a blog post every single day?  Could I come up with something interesting enough to write about for each letter?  I didn't know!  But I did write every single day (okay, I did miss W and X due to illness, but I made them up!)  I still don't know I I came up with interesting enough topics, but I don't think I did too bad on that front.  


I started off trying to write something I like and something I don't like for every letter.  Turns out I couldn't always think of a don't like for certain letters!  But then, I had a couple of posts that were only "don't like" letters.  Some days I wasn't sure I was going to get my post up before the day was over, but I made myself sit down and write my post.


I've met some new friends and found some really great blogs through this challenge.  I've also gained a few new followers who have left me some very encouraging comments.


I'm a bit sad to see this challenge come to an end (but a little relieved that I can relax too!), but I'm excited to do it again next time!  And in the mean time, don't worry, I'll keep writing!  Whether you want to hear what I have to say or not! ☺


As for the April 2011 A to Z Blogging Challenge...