A New Award, a Link of Love, and More!

I'm thankful today for this lovely Blessings Award passed on to me by my dear friend Merle over at at 3rd Time Lucky. Thank you very much, dear Merle. It's beautiful, and it reminds me to be thankful for all my blessings: Family, dear friends, my loving and cute pets , all the beauty of God's nature sorrounding me here, and so much more! And I am suppossed to pass this award on to three blogging friends who have been a blessing to me. That is hard, because all my blogging friends have been a blessing, and I would like to pass it on to everyone. But since the rules say I must pick three, here are the three I have chosen:

My old friend Tina at Tina's Odds and Ends. Tina and I have been friends for 9 years, more or less, and when we wrote for Suite 101, she was always a faithful visitor and commentor on my topic, and I never missed visiting her topic. I hope you enjoy this award, Tina!

I also want my lovely, young blogging friend Pia to have this award. I love to read Pia's blog. She has strong faith, uplifting messages, and is a blessing to her visitors. I hope you enjoy the award, Pia!

And the third friend I have chosen to give this award to today is Patti over at Nonna's News. I enjoy Patti's blog. Her love of family, and everyday doings is fun and inspiring. I hope you enjoy this award, Patti!


Finally, I also want to thank my friend Michele over at Writing the Cyber Highway for the "link of love!" How nice was that? Thank you, Michele. Whenever I need inspiration, or a little nudge in the writing department, which is often these days, I pop over to Writing the Cyber Highway. Michele, and all the young, enthusiastic writers that congregate there, never fail to inspire me, and get me off my duff! Thank you, Michele!

I also heard from Susan Reynolds, my editor at Adams Media for, My Teacher is My Hero, book. She said the book would be published in April/May, and we'll be getting our copies and checks at that time. WooHoo!

And, John Cali emailed me that the Dog Stories book has now been published and will be on its way to the contributing writers soon. Another WooHoo! Writers get excited about seeing their work published. And bloggers, like myself, get excited about receiving beautiful awards from blogging friends.

Well, I sure hope spell check works, because I have to get this published, and then scoot to feed the animals. Have a great evening, and week everyone!

Tagged Again--Mememememememe!

Mary, at Mary's Writing Nook has tagged for this new meme, which is to list 15 things that make it great to be me. (Oi!) Since I have done a couple of meme's about myself already, I thought I'd do a lighter, more fun one this time. So, here it goes...

1. When my children were grown and living lives of their own, I decided to follow my dream of living in the country. After all, I was newly single, and the time was right to seek and find my own way of living. And my grown children were happy for me.

2. In August of 1983, I moved to this beautiful Ozark hill country, thrilled to be here, and even the heat of August in these hills, didn't dampen my joy.

3. I brought with me my dear Grandma, who was 83 years old at the time, and had always seen me through thick and thin. She had to be a part of this new adventure.

4. Our family also included two large dogs, and a couple of cats. The dogs loved their new life in the country, the cats did not!

5. My new neighbors were nice and welcomed us with home made peach pies, and friendly smiles. I felt at home among them instantly.

6. As an animal lover, I soon began to acquire more animals to add to my place in the woods. Within a short time, chickens of various sizes and colors scratched around in the yard and edges of the woods. I was happy, so was Grandma. "Csirke, csirke," she would call out to them. And the chickens came running to her. I couldn't believe those American chickens could understand Hungarian!

7. After the chickens, my sweet neighbor Bessie, brought over a couple of guinea hens, as a gift. Oh, goody, more animals. They made noises like a machine gun, and caused a great deal of excitement in the woods. And they were better watchdogs then the dogs!

8. Since I had a pond, the next logical step was to get some ducks and geese, of course! And soon, there were Peking's, Mallards and some downright homely Muscovy ducks swimming around in the pond. Free meals for marauding coyotes, raccoons, Bobcats and even owls, I soon discovered!

9. I also discovered that my nice new neighbors and friends loved to give some of their animals as gifts. It was an easy way to get rid of ones excess animals. I got into the habit of giving them away, myself, after a while.

10. I love rabbits, of course. So very soon, I had some adorable bunnies in my menagerie as well. Unfortunately, black snakes love baby bunnies, and baby chicks much too much, and suddenly there I was, a former city gal, battling black snakes in the Ozark hills!

11. As I surveyed my animal kingdom in the woods, it dawned on me that I was missing one of the most fun animals that ever boarded Noah's Ark-the goat. So I acquired a black and white pygmy goat. Grandma was elated and named him, Kecske, which is the Hungarian word for goat. (Catch-keh.) My dogs seemed elated as well with their fun loving new friend.


12. I loved to go hiking around in the woods, accompanied by the dogs, Dobie and Samson, and Kecke, the goat, who by this time thought he was a dog, too. (Hiking is still my favorite past time in the woods.)



13. I got lost in the woods several times, until my son Greg bought me a compass and taught me how to use it!

14. Those first few years in the woods were full of fun, excitement and even chaos. There is always chaos with a bunch of animals around. But the fun and companionship they provide makes it all worthwhile.

15. Although I no longer have a huge menagerie of domestic animals, there are still a couple of dogs and couple of cats. And there is a large menagerie of woodland animals now that call my woods and field home, and grace my life with their beautiful presence. I am ever thankful to God for the gift of these 24 years in the woods. And remembering all the sweet and fun moments with the animals, warms the cockles of my heart on this mighty cold winter morning.

Thank you for tagging me, Mary. It was fun.

And thank you for reading. Stay warm and have a blessed week!