Showin' Some Love

Thanks so much to all of you who stopped by and offered words of wisdom or encouragement after my last post. Those days are, luckily, few and far between, but they tend to loom large over the rest of life when they do happen. I am happy to report that the next day (and the next, and by all accounts, this one as well) went much better. I'd even go so far as to say they were downright pleasant! Monday was Monday, but I'm back to enjoying my job (and my students) again. Kids have much shorter memories than we do, it seems.

On another note, I was thrilled to find that some of my new-found friends have awarded me some love in the blog world. (I'm still pretty new here, and these are my firsts. Very exciting, especially since I really love reading the blogs of these particular people!)

The first one is the One Lovely Blog Award. My friends Mrs. C from Next to Heaven and Adrienne over at The Story Board sent this one my way.

The Rules: 1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.2) Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

(Oh gosh--I'm not sure I can tag 15! I think I'll combine these two, and take a happy medium. If you're on my reading list and I don't happen to tag you this time around, feel free to tag yourself! All the blogs on my list (see sidebar) are fabulous. That's why they're on my list!)

I was also pretty excited to see the 7 Degrees of AWE-SUMMMM Blog Award sent to me by the equally awesome Mrs. C over at Next to Heaven and KeKeLynn at A Look Behind My Eyes. When you get a chance, head on over to all of these blogs for some fun, funny, and insightful reading.

The rules for this one? List seven things that make me awe-summm and then pass the award on to seven other people who I think are fabulously awe-summm.

1. I am married to my high school sweetheart, who fills me with joy and makes me laugh every single day. Actually, we dated in high school, went our separate ways, and then met up again, many years later. In the interim, I had married, had three children, and gotten divorced after sixteen years. Life is funny.

2. I am an incredibly loyal friend. If you need me to back you up, I'm there. My friends are my friends for life.

3. I've been teaching at my current school for 19 years--since we opened our doors. (Of course, I started when I was seven years old.)

4. I might not win the Amazing Mom of the Year award, but I am raising three incredible, creative, bright, big-hearted, beautiful children who I adore with every ounce of my being.

5. I'm a picture-takin' fool. I'm a big believer in living in the moment, but I'm also a big believer in recording those moments. I want my kids to be able to share those visual memories with their own kids someday.

6. I really, truly try to look for the best in people. Sometimes you have to do a little more digging, but it's there in everyone. I want to be thought of as the one who brings out the positive in others.

7. I made a committment to myself to write more this year, and begin putting down on paper (so to speak) the stories of our life. This venue, and the people who have taken the time to stop by and share in those stories, have been a big encouragement to me in that regard, and I'm glad to say I have, in fact, kept this promise to myself and will continue to do so.

Tag, you're it:

These blogs are fabulously awesome for humor, wit, family-ness, and wisdom. Sometimes all at the same time! Please stop by and say hello. Tell 'em Donna sent you.

Sassy Cass at Sassy and the Boys

ReRe at Re-Ramblings

Kate at sauciewee

Coco at Coco's Cuckoo World

Brandi at Living & Loving in Tampa

Steph at The Adventures of Jon and Steph

Yaya at Yaya Stuff

Mrs4444 at Half-Past Kissin' Time

Mama-face at Blog-Ignoramus

Reinvent Dad at Reinventing Dad

That's it for now. Happy Thursday!