Ginormous Thank You to Tina's Terrific Team

Well my lovely ladies, we did it!  Or I should say YOU did it.  I in all honesty could not have done this year's A-Z Challenge without your help, encouragement, funny, silly, uplifting, laugh-out-loud-spit-on-your-laptop emails, or without your immense dedication to this project.

In an ideal, sci-fi world (which maybe one day I'll get back to writing about...) I'd just wormhole or transporter or beam you all here.  We'd go to my favorite restaurant, a home town favorite, genuine one-of-a-kind place called Mike O'Shays.  I've been eating and drinking there for 23 years.  We'd get my favorite big booth in the back and celebrate. I'd buy you all dinner, and drinks, and we'd get to know each other even better.

Alas, even though great sci-fi writers have invented this technology, we cannot use it. So I'm sending you all my cyber hugs and love and an open invitation to come to Colorado and go out on the town!  I know, it's just not the same...

Readers - if you have a moment, I'd appreciate you giving their blogs a visit. They are all amazing in their own ways:

Andrea @ Maybe It's Just Me: never fails to make me laugh.  My laptop gets a regular cleaning after reading her blog

Hilary Melton-Butcher @ Positive letters...inspirational stories...: a master at research, a wiz with finding the right pictures, and always, always something new to learn each time I visit

jenn @ quirky pickings: quirky, wonderful, completely honest, you never know what she'll say but it will be the truth 

Jo @ Jo on Food, My Travels, and a Scent of Chocolate: the most regular blogger I know: 6 times a week, open, honest, and I don't know how she does it, but she's already commented almost everywhere I go. Plus a recipe every post.  Yum.

JoJo @Tahoma Beadworks and Photography: master of every craft known to society, expert photographer, funny as all get out - and always a visual treat with each post

Kate @ Another Clean Slate: though living almost the exact opposite of my life, we connect and she can always be counted on to be real, and there for you, no matter what

You ladies made my month lighter, funnier, and full of camaraderie.  Now go take a nap...love to all of you.

~Tina, truly blessed with wonderful friends

Meet Andrea of Tina's Terrific Team for #atozchallenge

Please welcome another second year minion, Andrea, to the ring.  She's a powerhouse of snark and honesty, and I think this post will also prove to you that she's fearless.  Aren't these people crazy for working for me two years in a row?!??  Maybe they're just crazy for being friends with me...

Hi! I'm Andrea, mother of two, wife of one, and minion of Tina. Last year I included a picture of the worst outfit my mother ever made me wear, so this time it seemed I should admit to what I wanted to be wearing instead. In telling you a little bit about myself, I thought maybe it would be easier to tell you who I am not. Despite purchasing a new dress recently and having both a haircut and massage scheduled for today, that really isn't who I am. Don't believe me? Maybe some photographic evidence will help convince you...

Don't get me wrong, I was stylin' at age 4. Despite showing a bit of leg, my ponytails were awesome. What I wouldn't give for a pocket that large now to keep my stuff I always misplace.

 At age 6, my fancy dress with the letters all over it did not keep me from dish duty. I might have secretly enjoyed it, having no idea the irony behind my glamorous life to come.

Continuing my long dress theme into the late seventies, with my mother by my side in minty, excellent hairstyle solidarity.

I can assure you that I had just come from the hairstylist in this fourth grade gem. I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing to admit. Remember wearing dresses just because? "Oooh, pretty tulips, glad I have dress on!"

This? Right here? Exactly what I still picture when I think of myself in a dress. Although I do not think I have worn mint green or a belted look since.

So do not picture this when I tell you I have a new dress and a hair appointment...

Instead, let that vision of slightly awkward wash over you, as that is pretty much who I am. 

 Come by my place and we'll talk about some random stuff, and set the bar low enough to trip over! In April I will be sharing my Seventies Serenade...a decade of great music! (In addition to the great styles shown here.)

Oh, I should probably mention my alter ego...she wears a cape and a pedometer and fancies herself to be a superhero...Pedomemom. She'd love to visit with you as well!

Andrea blogs at Maybe it's just me... Where you'll find yourself right at home.  I assure you, it's not just Andrea who feels this way.  When I read one of her posts I find myself saying, "Yes! Exactly!" while usually choking on and spitting (on my keyboard) whatever I'm drinking at the time...

~Tina, greatly blessed with amazing friends

P.S Speaking of blessings...on Wednesday, DL Hammon's Blitz Team descended upon Life is Good and brought an avalanche of comments and love to both me and JoJo (and I'm sure the Beer Boys were thrilled with the extra advertising!) Thanks so much for all of your sweet, encouraging and funny comments.  You are much appreciated.  As I am in full swing with A-Z preparations, I won't be able to visit all of you, but please know how much that meant to this stressed out co-host.  THANKS.

5 Things That Make Me Happy!

I got tagged, which is almost as cool as an award, so I'm a happy camper. JoJo of Tahoma Beadworks and Photography tagged me in this "5 Things That Make Me Happy" thing. Yes, you recognize her name, she is one of my Tina's Terrific Team members. So here's my 5:

God, family, friends are a given, and I love them immensely. However, I'm going to share five less obvious choices, because that's the mood I'm in.

Knitting

This is my current project. 

It's a baby blanket for my cousin, GorgeousGirl who is having her first baby. She's a Patriots fan, which I tolerate, and her husband, who has very good taste in football teams, is a Bronco fan, as we are trying to convince her is her logical choice. She (wisely) choose two skeins of Bronco yarn, a skein of Patriots yarn, followed by two more Bronco ones. This yarn is really fun, as you can see, because it makes the same side look like both inside and outside - not the proper terms, but Farmor taught me knitting, and that was in Swedish and I don't know the proper words...  

I love knitting because it totally relaxes me. I can zone out (except on row three...) and watch TV (great excuse, eh?) without feeling guilty that I'm not cleaning up the clutter which constantly plagues our house. But you've heard all about that before...

Sunflowers

I've written lots of words about them, which you can read here, and see lots of pictures of all my sunflower stuff, including my ankle tattoo.

October

I'm always too hot, so I HATE summer. Autumn is my favorite season, and October is the best month of all. Here in Colorado, we get an amazing variety of colors when the leaves change. The sun slants differently, giving afternoons a special glow. Leaves crunch under your feet. The weather becomes bearable! Campers become more scarce, so we have more privacy when we head for the hills.

Flamingos

I know it's almost cliché, and that it's a polarizing “like” but THEY MAKE ME HAPPY. I have flamingos in my car, because The Engineer has slowly, over the years, convinced me to remove other flamingo decorations in the house by just plain wearing me down. 

I'm not proud of it, but some battles aren't worth it. Save your ammo for the biggies. Like he cooks on weekends. Period.

These Shoes

Yes, they are ugly. I don't care. They are the most comfortable shoes on the planet and because of them, I can walk and hike and do stairs and be a mobile person. I have severe arthritis. I was supposed to have a hip replacement. I refused. I searched for another solution. I tried Feldenkrais Therapy, which is curing me, and my practitioner recommended these shoes.  

They line up your feet as if you were barefoot, which is how our bodies were designed to walk, and in turn that lines up all the knee-bone connected to the thigh-bone stuff and your hip stops hurting. Seriously. Magic shoes.

***

I'm tagging these bloggers, who are encouraged but not forced, to mention their own 5 Things That Make Them Happy.

Rachel of When a Lion Sleeps, Let it Sleep

Lucy of Lucy's Reality

Jenn of Quirky Pickings

Jo of Jo on Food, My Travels, and a Scent of Chocolate

Andrea of Maybe it's Just Me

What things make YOU happy?

Getting to Know Tina's Terrific Team! Andrea!

Today please welcome Andrea, another one of Tina's Terrific Team!

I met also met Andrea during last year's challenge.  I think she must have read all my Swedish lesson posts, because random.org picked her for $25 IKEA gift card give-away I had at the end.  She still hasn't told me what she bought...ahem...

1. Based on the look on my face, one would think this sweater vest was the most embarrassing





thing my mother ever made me wear (or perhaps the haircut). I am sure it wasn't, but my kindergarten class picture tells a different story.

2. The captcha codes make me a bit crazy in the land of blog, but I am also disappointed when folks don't have their emails enabled for comments to be replied to. Full disclosure? I spent months hitting reply in emails from comments that said <noreply-comment@blogger.com> as the address thinking the address was just being hidden from me, and that the comment would still get there. Then I read a post written by someone expressing their frustration over the issue and a dim light went off. I had spent months thinking I was responding to every single comment on by blog...oops!

3. Last year I signed up for the A-Z Challenge because of the word challenge I think. I don't take many challenges, so it seemed like a safe plan. I really had fun, and decided to try again this year. Not sure what my topics will be, but am fairly certain I cannot manage the alliteration of last year!

4. I think I have moments when I am still surprised to find that I am not an international singing sensation, although I am not certain rock and roll would have been my gig. My preteen years held more hope for a singer songwriter ballad type of gal. I was unreasonably optimistic as my voice was more of a sing softly in the shower level of quality. 

5. I do not think I could choose one favorite childhood memory. My memory is fabulous...ask those who know me (some may be more enthused than others about it). Some days this is taxing because the connections move so fast in my brain linking events because they are all there, it seems like, fighting for attention.

6. I think J is the most underrated letter of the alphabet because I don't believe a lot of people appreciate the trouble it can cause. Sure, you may think that the x, q and z cause trouble on your Scrabble tile holder, but is the j necessarily much easier to place? Very underestimated.

7. I hate to say it, but I think the letter e might be a bit overrated. Let's face it, the silence is a bit much after awhile. The lack of sound combined with the long sound and short sound? Trouble for young school aged children across the country.

8. Oh my gosh! The book The Corrections absolutely did not meet my expectations. It had been one of Oprah's first book club selections, and I don't think I have read one since! I choked through that whole book figuring it was going to get better, or I was just a dummy who couldn't figure it out (and hoped a beacon of light would shine on me any minute).

9. I have too much paper! Every time I get a notification that says something about going paperless I panic and sweat!

10. My pockets are certainly not the treasure chest of offerings that my purse is, but wearing a jacket at this time of year does open the door for more possibilities. I typically have: tissues, lip balm, a grocery list (not necessarily current), a coupon or two (again, perhaps not current) ,and a hair elastic.

I so love how you let us get to know you better in such and open and honest way. I would never let a picture of me in my worst outfit be published...you are a brave, spunky, funny, wonderful addition to my team. Thanks for being a part of it!

If you want to get to know Andrea better, here are her two blogs

Maybe its just me...  and I like it on the table

Those are great titles...and from what I've had time to read so far, really great blogs.  Especially the table...

~Tina