Awards?

Okay, So I had an award post all ready to go... which I love to write them and thank everyone, but they take a LONG time. All I had to do was put the award pictures in. Well, one of them had a virus which screwed up the post, (and I don't even want to say how long I spent on it, when I should have been packing). So I am just going to thank you all instead of following the rules, sorry but I just can't try to do another one!



Thank you Bibi at Bibi Has the Last Word for the Adorable Blog Award (also Amanda and Katie at Crafting in Laymon's Terms), and the Sexy Blogger Award (oooh!) and the Vespa Friendship Blogger award.

Thank you Carma at Carma Sez and Lucy at Lucy's Life in Suburb World for the Queen of all Things Awesummm Award.

Thank you Tina at Talking with Teenie and Lucy at Lucy's Life in Suburb World for the Mom of the Year Award.


Thanks to all of you! I loved receiving these, thank you for thinking of me. I'm sorry if I forgot anyone, I lost everything when I put the pictures in so this is all from memory!

I will put them in my awards page as soon as I have time! Now off to finish packing!

The Nipple Talk

Photo Credit: -bast-

As Drew gets older I have noticed that he is getting more and more inquisitive. The unfortunate outcome to this inquisitiveness is that he asks a lot of strange questions about things for which I don't have answers. I was putting lotion on Drew after his bath when we had this kind of conversation. The conversation for which you can never really prepare. The nipple talk.

"Mommy, what will happen if you put lotion on these?" He asked, pointing to his nipples.

"Nothing, honey. It's like your skin."

"What are they?"

"Nipples."

"What are they for?"

I thought for a moment. "Boys don't use their nipples for anything." Please don't ask me what girls use them for... I chanted silently in my head.

"What?!?" Drew exclaimed in his cute incredulous tone. "Why?"

"I don't know."

"We have to use them for something."

"Umm...." I thought. Seriously, what do men use their nipples for? I remember I had a trivia book with this name- God forbid I actually remember anything from it? "They are used to make sure you know which side is your front and which side is your back."

"Oh." Drew was deep in thought for a minute, then he looked up at me. "Okay!"

A little fabrication doesn't hurt now and then right? Mother of the year is right here!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Woot to Michigan State for making it the Final Four! They played their hearts out on Sunday. I couldn't be prouder to be a fan. If you have read this post, you will really know how excited I am!

Thanks to Dan River Mama @ A Kiss and a Peck for the Honest Scrap Award. My 10 honest answers can be found here. Also, I made an "awards" page where I link to all those that have given me awards. Thanks bloggy buds!



I am having serious issues with feedburner not working. If you use reader to read my blog the new posts won't show up. So if I haven't posted in a while then please check the actual website, until I get this resolved. Also, I will definitely be posting Friday Favorites this week, so if it's not updating in your Reader, please check the actual Blog for updates. Thanks for being such great readers!

Please- Send thoughts, love, support Mckmama's way. We are all pulling and praying for you, Stellan.

and the award goes to....

Ahhhh.... I am so grateful. I have been awarded some wonderful awards, and I get to pass them on! Lucky me!

Jineen @ i come to the garden- The Hottie Award

Lucy @ Lucy's Life in Suburb world- The Sisterhood Award

Sandy @ A Groovy Kind of Life- The Lemonade Award

This is what I love about blogging.... there are no awards for all the crappy stuff I have to do in life. I have never received an award for wiping Jacob's butt and singing "Gimme, Gimme, Jake" to the tune of "Gimme More" to keep him happy and holding his hands and legs so he doesn't get poop on himself, however, I can (and do)receive awards for doing something I love. Thank you ladies!

I am awarding these to:

Carma @ Carma Sez- Because her blog is great even if some smelly pirate hookers giveaway crazed followers aren't paying attention!

CDB @ Fingers and Paws- Because she is a talented blogger and I haven't had a chance to give her an award.

Mesa @ Mesa's Musings- Because she has had a hard blogging week, and she needs some happiness.

Debra @ Well Behaved Women Rarely Make History- Because she is as sweet as Apple pie!

Sandy @ A Groovy Kind of Life- (The Hottie Award and The Sisterhood Award)

Lucy @ Lucy's Life in Suburb world- (The Hottie Award and The Lemonade Award)

Jineen @ i come to the garden- (The Lemonade Award and the Sisterhood Award)

Thanks to all of you! You make Blogging fun.

PS- All those that have visited me in the blog party- I will be visiting you on Monday! Thanks!

Bloggy Maintenance

Thank you to all who participated in Friday Favorites- I had so much fun reading them, and I was so happy about the turnout- it was about 5 more people than I expected! I will put up Mr. Linky this Friday, so if you want to participate you might want to start thinking of some now!

If you haven't visited these Friday Favorites, you should. They all had a different take on the Friday Favorites!

Also I wanted to thank Carma @ Carma Sez and Tina @ Talking with Teenie for the great awards! You guys rock!

The first award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his/her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary and personal values every day.The rules to follow are:
1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person that has granted the award and his or her blog link.
2) Pass the award to another 15 blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgment. Remember to contact each of them to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

I wanted to choose some of my new friends... so here they are in no particular order....

1. Dipaola Momma @ Chicken Nuggets of Wisdom

2. Rachel (not Rachael) @ Life After the Party

3. Mama Krit @ My Simply Savvy Life

4. The Bookkitten

5. Delswife @ Love ya, Mean it!

6. Gemma @ GEMMERZZ

7. Kalei @ Bloggedy Blog Blog

8. Lora @ Jakezilla

9. Lolli @ Life is Sweet

10. Dan River Mama @ A Kiss and a Peck

11. Blueviolet @ A Nut in a Nutshell

12. Lindsay @ New York Words

13. Mary Anne @ The Stiletto Mom

14. C @ The Scattered Mind of A Tattooed Minivan Mom

15. Tooj @ Circling The Square Table

The Second Award is the Friendship award... I am awarding this to everyone mentioned above as well. Thanks my bloggy friends!

Also, I am working on my links this week... hopefully the blogroll will be completely updated by the end of this week.

I worked on the mixed CDs this weekend and it was so fun! I will be sending out those and the gift card hopefully by Wednesday! Thanks for your patience guys!

Filler: #199

I'm glad everyone enjoyed my little exercise yesterday with removing words. I think it was cathartic to those who participated. If you are interested in participating, here is the link. I am SO tired from my 12 hour workday yesterday, and 11 hour workday the day before, along with all the coughing with this cold I cannot kick. I just kind of want to collapse at my desk. But no, must plug on, and do one filler thrilling post, this post #199, before I do my big 200th Post with Giveaway. I am so excited, I already have the post mostly written, but I said Friday and I am sticking to it! In the meantime, I want to thank my new bloggy friend The Bookkitten for the friend award.

Here's what this award is all about:

These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

I am going to hold onto this award and bestow it 8 people later because I am too lazy tired to do so right now. I will get back to this, after my giveaway, I promise. Speaking of giveaways....

Tomorrow.
200th post.
Giveaway fun!
Be there!

~~ That is all.
PS This is SO freaking funny. Please watch. Thanks Kristy.

Not Me! Monday- Law and Order Edition

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

7:45 AM SUNDAY.....NOT too Early
The scene of the Crime: Drew's "garage"

Drew is so NOT proud of his creation. He did NOT spend an enormous amount of time making the perfect garage for McQueen and his pals.

Here comes Mr. Calamity, he is so NOT 22 pounds of trouble!

Mr. Calamity is so NOT plotting a stunt right here.

Mr. Calamity would NOT destruct his brother's prized building. He is my baby and totally NOT mischievous at all.

Drew so did NOT yell "JACOB!" at the top of his lungs at this moment.

Drew also did NOT snatch the Lego out of Mr. Calamity's hand, only to have him take another piece of the building....

....so he could NOT bang it on the chair. It was NOT ear deafeningly loud, no, NOT at all!

(Also those are so NOT dirty socks on the floor. My children would NEVER constantly take off their dirty socks around the house, because that would make their mother crazy. Mr. Bee is NOT considered one of the children when I mention this, because he NEVER forgets to pick up his own dirty clothes.)

Verdict: Mr. Calamity did NOT go to time out for doing this 3x in a row.

~I did NOT decide to record this moment with the camera the third time it happened because I so did NOT think it was funny.

~I was NOT laughing because that would send the wrong message to Calamity and he would NOT continue to do this over and over again.
~Mr. Bee did NOT sleep through this entire event because he is NOT the world's heaviest sleeper!

PS- My 200th post is so NOT near. Please do NOT come back again for a fun 200th post celebration (and giveaway of some sort)!

PSS- I have NOT been a bad bloggy friend by forgetting to thank Ms. Kalei of Bloggedy Blog Blog for giving me the Honest Scrap Award, and also for randomly picking me to win a prize in her blanket donation giveaway! Go check out her blog, she is awesome. You can see the answers to the Honest Scrap Award here. Also, I'm awarding the award to all my fellow bloggers who read this because putting yourself out there on you blog is NOT easy. (And I mean that!)

Reconhecimento

** Today is Delurking Day. Please leave a comment, even if it's just to say hi, in honor of silly meaningful blogging day**

So behind on all of this... I recently received two more awards, an honest scrap award from Julia at Sometimes Lucid, and the Van Gogh's Ear Award from Lucy at Lucy's life in Suburb World. Lucy is incredibly honest and fun, and she wrote the nicest thing about my blog. Lucy, I am honored.

The rules for the Honest Scrap award: The honorees are to: A) first list 10 honest things about yourself - and make it interesting, even if you have to dig deep! B) pass the award on to 7 bloggers that you feel embody the spirit of the Honest Scrap.

1. I have a serious passion for Photography. In High School, I won a few awards, and wanted to go to College for it. My father wouldn't let me. He was a great photographer and never made a living with it, and didn't want me to waste my time. Hindsight is 20/20 and now with the digital age I am glad I didn't, although now I wish I could afford to go back and learn about all of the digital developments, so to speak.

2. I have size 10 1/2 feet. This makes buying shoes impossible and not any fun. They don't make size 10 1/2 shoes anywhere.

3. The craziest thing I have ever done was to fly across the country to visit a guy I met on a cruise. When I made the reservation, he had just broken up with his girlfriend, and we weren't dating, but we were "talking". A month before my trip, he got back together with her, and I started dating someone. This made for a VERY awkward trip, but as the tickets were non-refundable... I went and we spent the whole time hiding out from his Girlfriend. (Just so everyone knows... NOTHING happened!)

4. The second craziest thing I have done was travel to Boston to hang out with some other people on same Cruise. I went with my sister this time, and it was THE worst time ever! I would think these are signs... just because you had fun hanging out with people on vacation, it doesn't mean it translates in real life situations. Right, Amber?

5. I have a really good relationship with my Mom. I think it annoys some of my friends, but I like to go out and have lunch with her. She has also never told me how to raise my children, which I think helps. Similarly, I have a great relationship with my MIL. I know, I'm annoying you right now, but frankly, I lucked out in all aspects of my life, this one is no different.

6. I want to be a great writer, but I feel I lack the life experiences needed to be one.

7. Sometimes I have such vivid dreams that I think it is actually reality. I actually made up a story in my head that I thought was true about being sick and getting a lot of shots for a stomach ailment. My Mom and Sister tell me this didn't happen, but I swear I have all these memories of it. I have also had terrible night terrors in the past. I stopped watching scary movies, and I no longer have them.

8. I am fiercely loyal. You have me in your corner, I am going to stay there and fight for you. It's one of my best traits, I think.

9. My negative traits are that I can be vain, obsessive and tend to glaze over what I can't pay attention to. Sometimes it is hard for me to read books due to my tendency to skim. I hate it.

10. I get incredibly excited over awards, nice comments, new followers, new friends. I can't help it, I love to blog so much. I can't believe I have become such a crazy blogger person. Most of my friends and family think I am crazy, but I can't stop!

Okay... this was very honest for me. Here are the seven seriously honest women that I am gifting this to:


Lucy's Life in Suburb World

So you Don't Get any Phone Calls from Me

The Scattered Life of a Tattooed Minivan Mom

My Rambling Thoughts (Even though I think she has this one)

Someday Maybe (I know, NEPOTISM ALERT, but I must hear what my sis has to say!)

Well Behaved Women Barely Make History

Bacon is my Enemy


Oooh, could this award be the fun titles award? I picked out some blogs with some great titles.



For the Van Gogh's Ear award I am giving to one:



Julia @ Sometimes Lucid. I can only bestow the ear on the one that has given me so many awards. Plus, she's funny and nice and likes Zumba.

Also... because you aren't sick of me pimping myself, go head over to The Bloggers Choice Awards and cast your vote for me in Best Parenting Blog and Hottest Mommyblogger categories. (You can search for me under "jannabee2". If you vote for me, let me know, and I will vote for you! (We all deserve a little reconhecimento!)

If you are new to my blog, the post rank widget on the left shows everyone's favorite posts... go check them out!

Mmmm... lemon drop martinis....

So, I woke up this morning and did my daily reads and discovered Julia at Sometimes Lucid (yay, my second award from Julia, she either really likes me or is just really trying to encourage me to try Nablopomo again for January.... okay then, I will!) and also The Rambler gave me the award. (Okay, the Rambler gave me an award a while ago, but I am slow okay?) It's called the Lemonade Award, but I like calling it a Lemon Drop Martini Award as Julia did.

Now, for the rules. First, you should give link love to the person who gave you the award. Secondly, nominate ten of your favorite bloggers to receive the Lemonade Award! In no particular order, my nominees: (Some of these are friends, some are just sites that I lurk and read that I like, all of them are great bloggers)

Liam's Alternate Reality

Because I said so

Anns Rants: Confessions of a work week widow

Fresh Mommy

Chasing Wentworth Miller

Life just keeps Getting Weirder

Citizen of the Month

My STAR [and wish]

Outnumbered

and....

Someday Maybe (my sister's blog- it's new).

Go visit, lurk if you must. Might be back later today, but it's date day with the hubby and must get him moving if we are going to lunch and a movie. Woot. We live dangerously at the Bee house!

Awards

Here are the awards I have been given. Thank you! If you gave me one and I am missing it on here-I am so sorry, please leave it in the comments below!

Thanks Julia!

Thanks Carma, Thanks Tina!

Thanks Carma, Thanks Tina, Thanks Bookkitten!

Thanks Lucy!

Thanks Lucy!

Thanks Jineen!

Thanks Julia, Thanks Rambler, Thanks Sandy!

Thanks Kalei, Thanks Dan River Mama!

An award... really?

Okay, so I would like to say I don't care about awards, and that is how I felt, really, until Julia from Sometimes Lucid (please check out her blog, she is funny and makes the best looking food) awarded me with my first ever award! Woot! I will admit it's pretty awesome.



The award states "This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships!These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

I am passing it on to the following bloggers who not only have great blogs, but are kind people who I think blog in the spirit of this award. They can choose to pass it on, or can choose not to. Here they are in no particular order:

My Rambling Thoughts

The Bush Family (Today is Mesa's 30th birthday! Go wish her a happy birthday!)

Strange Pilgrim

Life in the House of No Sleep

Left Coast Cowboys

Profoundly Inarticulate

Cold Spaghetti

Jodifur

Wow how many times can you say blog in a post? I think this is topping all my previous efforts... blog blog blog. Bloggedy, blog blog blog.

Oh, I also want to give a shout out to The Blog Doctor, whose posts have helped me with a LOT of my corrupted template. Just to forewarn, now that my template is fixed, there will be some construction here.

If I have time, I will also be writing a Meme today which I was tagged for. (Yes, I had to look up Meme- so not hip with the blogging language.) When it rains it pours. Not that I am complaining.

Also, going to see that Spartans play Basketball tonight! Woot again!