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 JoJo of Tina's Terrific Team for #atozchallenge

No, you're not getting the same post again.  On my team I have Jo, from Canada (currently) whom you met on Monday, and I also have my friend and buddy, JoJo who is from Massachusetts.  Clear?  Each minion chose her own format.  JoJo presented this list which describes her.

Only child, engaged to the love of my life, stepmom of 3 awesome kids, dog mom of Pepper and Sagan, Deadhead, photographer, blogger, crafter, cross stitcher, craft supply hoarder, bead addict, glass addict, easily distracted by shiny things, beachcomber, Cape Codder, San Franciscan, Washingtonian, Seattle Seahawks fan, honorary Canadian, offbeat, prefers tie dyes and sweats to actual clothes, sorted into Ravenclaw, day dreamer, collector of: marbles, postcards, celestial stuff, shot glasses, antique beaded purses, glass knick knacks, dragons, fridge magnets, peace signs, beach glass, shells, rocks & bottles, mix tape maker, Vincent D'Onofrio fan, offbeat sense of humour, loves antiquing, believer in Sasquatch, former paralegal now stay at home trucker's wife, on the receiving end of an epic love story, loyal friend and confidant, pluviophile (loves the rain), music lover, day tripper/traveler.  Fave book & movie:  To Kill a Mockingbird. I'm also an empath.

JoJo blogs at Tahoma Beadworks and Photography, and is just crazy enough to be my minion two years in a row.

~Tina, don't I have awesome friends???


P.S My buddies, The Beer Guys from "A Beer For the Shower" are doing a promotion this week where their awesome book is just 99 cents.  So go get yourself some amazingly funny cartoons for a fantastic price!  Click on the animation and you'll get to Amazon.

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?