Friday Fun: Tag! You Are It!

H-E-L-L-O F-R-I-D-A-Y!!!

(Wacko's Hellllooooo Nurse! is stuck in my head today)

So Shannon over at Book Dreaming decided to pay me a visit this morning. Yep, she popped over to this here lil' Royal setting and told me I was tagged...now before I hyperventilated with worry as to what on earth she had tagged me for I grinned. Not just any grin, but a big one.

You see I have been a bit chaotic and busy lately. Not able to post as regularly, have missed my Wednesday writings and well am just now beginning to slow down even the tiniest bit. To some it might appear that my slow down and their slow down are TOTALLY different definitions, but I promise it really is beginning to be a little more laid back at the Castle. What had me smiling was the comments from Monday's post. There wasn't just one, but 9. Nine comments. Each one sweet, sincere and genuinely glad to have visited. I had not yet posted my own comment to everyone else and well I just wanted to say Hello & Thank you. You have all been so supportive during these adjustments for our Kingdom and have visited here each time I have posted. For that I am forever grateful. We all go on soapboxes every now and then about the wonderful community of writers, book bloggers & authors that we frequent, I often chime in and this time I just want to express the simple appreciation for y'all letting this Southern Princess prance around & feel so welcome. I hope that I am able to return the love in every way possible.

Now on to the tagging:

This is the one where you have to write the following list of items in your own handwriting and then post a pic of it here. I had to split mine up because my cell phone won't hold the whole thing legibly...so here goes...The instructions are to write the following items:
1. Name/Blog Name.

2. Right handed, left handed or both?

3. Favorite letters to write?

4. Least favorite letters to write?

5. Write: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.

6. Write in caps:CRABHUMORKALEIDOSCOPEPAJAMASGAZILLION

7. Favorite song lyrics?

8. Tag 7 people.

9. Any special note or drawing?

Okay so the ones who are now tagged:

if you cannot decipher on the photo here they lovelies are again...(if you have already done this one, please just divert your post to the link) ;o)

Jemi @ Just Jemi

Lola Sharp @ Sharp Pen/Dull Sword

DL Hammons @ Cruising Altitude

Karen Amanda Hooper @ Eternal Moonshine of a Daydreaming Mind

Frankie Mallis @ Frankie Writes

Talli @ Talli Roland

Summer @ ...and this time concentrate

Okay, whew! Well that was fun! I hope you all enjoyed this odd look into my handwriting!
Have a wonderful weekend and be sure to check out DL's Fantabulous HIGH DRAMA BLOGFEST tomorrow..should be a great one!

Also be sure to check out Lola's AWESOME Whatever Lola Wants or her Back from Maine Contest!!!!

*I should add one disclaimer...um I change my signature about every 3 months, so the way I write my name can be different at a moment's notice.

WARNING LONG POST AHEAD: Flash'n Fanny-Awards-Tagged-Bonus

Don't forget my Memorial Day Word Challenge Contest!

Enter HERE

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Whew! What a crazy week...for those of you who read of my sad little flashdrive Flora on Monday well, she is no longer with us. We were able to remove some files (thank you IT Guru) but not all of them. Some snippets for my WIP are gone - that made me cringe - and a few Critiques for my Crit Group - that also made me cringe - but overall the damage was minor. I did however bury Flora with sweet words before scooting over to the store and adopting our newest member. Meet:

FLASH'N FANNY!!!*

Oh yeah, she's trouble with a capital "T" and boy is she here to party! She happily accepted a few files yesterday while also telling me she can hold plenty more...this girl might be a bit wild,but we love her already!

Now, Fanny is getting settled in quite nicely so we hope to have a long relationship - though she did make eyes at Gavin the Gateway Laptop* and Tabitha the Toshiba* netbook huffed a little, but ah, what's life without crazy women! (yes we have a serious mixture of techie gadgets - we are a fully diverse household)

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Now, just the other day I received recognition from some AMAZING bloggie buddies.

Shannon O' Donnell from Book Dreaming ever so sweetly honored me with the Happiness 101 award! I love this award - not only is it pretty but it means that every now and then I make someone happy they stopped by my blog. That is awesome. Shannon should know that there isn't a single post of hers that does not make me grin. I want to pass this on to:

Jaydee Morgan - Her posts are always full of great information and she always makes me smile!

Lola over at Sharp Pen/Dull Sword - Not only is she my Wolfpack leader, but her posts ALWAYS make me smile!! I mean who doesn't love someone who starts their profile with My name is Lola. (I'm not a showgirl). ;o)

Talli Roland - Talli's blog is filled with wonderful posts on books, her writing, photos of England that will make you yearn to cross the pond, Banoffee Pie and a sense of humor that is refreshing!

***

Summer over at ...and this time concentrate got extremely mushy and passed out the following award:

I have to say I was beyond words when I saw my name listed. I am honored to have made this list. I only hope that as we move further towards our dreams that I can continue to be worthy of her list.

Now I get the lovely pleasure of passing this on as well. You all may know that I have been blogging for a while. Since '07 really, but '07 & '08 I was blogging in hiding... i.e. I only let family know that I had a site and the site was purely a journal. Then in 2009 I decided to step out. I noticed that some authors listed blogs on their book jackets and well I decided to google a few. Through this exercise I discovered Writing Blogs.

You all welcomed this Princess with open arms. I discovered that my email inbox was beginning to be filled with correspondence much like Pen Pals from my youth. I began to open up, share things that I never would have imagined. (Wednesday's Written Word hasn't always been around, ya know? ;o) ) You critique and teach me things I am unaware of, you make me remember that writing is something I can do anytime, anywhere and you make me realize that dreams are important in life.

(It goes without saying my hubby & family deserve this award a thousand times over!) So many of you, in fact my entire Royal Court deserves this award. I know that there will be people I have yet to meet that deserve this acknowledgement & that is so awesome!

Here is a snippet of those who have pushed me to go further & continue to do so:

Shannon Messenger

Frankie Mallis

Shannon O'Donnell

Lola Sharp

Summer

SarahJayne Smythe

DL

Portia

Tara

JP

Lisa & Laura

Simon (this one is fairly unisex so no worries Simon)

Vivian Marie Aubin du Paris

Thank you all.

***

One of those wonderful names above *cough*DL*cough tagged me with the five question experience! Five questions - five answers for each question.

I am happy to oblige with my answers:

Question 1: Where were you five years ago?

1. At this very same desk - only 2 years into the job after college.

2. Planning my wedding for the following year.

3. Moving into my new house.

4. Discovering the ins and outs of really living with the man you are going to marry.

5. Loving life.

Question 2: Where would you like to be five years from now?

1. Loving life.

2. A published author (hopefully on book two or three or four)

3. Planning or preparing for a summer vacation

4. Possibly playing with my very own children...

5. Still enjoying the wonder that is blogging!

Question 3: What is (was) on your to do list today?

1. be sure to get everything before heading to visit the fam

2. WRITE

3. CRITIQUE

4. Watch my twin nephews play baseball

5. charge my phone ;o)
Question 4: What five snacks do you enjoy?

1. Candy Apple (I mean the traditional apple dipped in red hard candy...yum)

2. Cotton Candy

3. Watermelon Jolly Ranchers

4. Chocolate coated sunflower seeds

5. Twizzlers

*its amazing that I have teeth*

Question 5: What would you do if you were a billionaire?

1. OMG! - TRAVEL with the entire FAM

2. Go to Orlando more than the traditional twice a year that I already go (worked for Disney years ago and still get a few perks ;o) )

3. Heck - have a house in Orlando

4. Secure the future of my children & family - most importantly

5. Use it to share books with those who don't have the means or libraries that need the funding - perhaps open some sort of Indie library/store concept...hmmmm.....

Okay so there you have it - an extremely long Friday post. If you hung in here through the whole thing - thank you ever so much! if you didn't well then you missed out on this:

One random commenter on THIS post will win a copy of:

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

Contest ends Sunday at midnight - announcement will be made on Monday along with the Word Challenge Winner!

Open internationally.

Must be a follower.

*None of the companies listed here paid me anything to list their brands - they should ;o) but they don't. The photo of Flash'n Fanny is from Office Depot. Yes we love our gadgets and yes I will shamelessly promote the affairs of my gadgets - their love life amuses me.

Have a Fantabulous Friday!

WILD & WACKY TIMES WITH THE FAM!

Well the last two weekends have been crazy. The very last weekend in June I slipped over to Atlanta to see Nina for her birthday weekend. It was SO MUCH FUN!!! Friday night we enjoyed dinner & a movie at the house. Saturday morning Christian had an early morning baseball game. I really love watching coach pitch. The kids are so adorable. You can really see how much fun they are having!

Don't be afraid - the knife is just to ward everyone off from her yummy cake.

After the game Nina & I went for lunch by the marina & then went shopping. I LOVE the store Honey Butter in Woodstock. Then there is FoxTales - a precious locally run bookstore. Ooohhh also Christine's! The little community around Nina is quite charming. We always have fun. A little bit of trampoline time on the couch too....



The kids & I whipped up a yummy cake! Then Keith grilled some great steaks for dinner. The day was all about Nina... which I think she liked :)
Sunday was a different day - Nina and I worked on a home project of hers and it took a few hours to get everything pulled together but by the time I was headed home, we felt content with the project. ;o)

Last weekend we headed to the big city of Camden for a few days of food, fireworks & fun!

Aren't all "my" children adorable??
Mom & Dad graciously hosted this crazy clan of family! Pray for their sanity :o) We all really appreciate all the time & effort they put in so that we can all be together. The pool was sparkling & the food was sensational. We love you!
The pool is rarely this calm - we were all sitting at the picnic tables eating lunch. I thought it interesting that the water was just calmly waiting for our return. The volleyball net was probably breathing easier since no child or adult was dodging its threads! :)

Don't be fooled, this grin is full of mischief!

My husband's eyes are cutting to the side due to the food that is passing him by... yeah.

Jon's birthday happens to be July 4th so along with the typical homemade ice cream & barbecue we blew out some birthday candles! LONG hours in the pool made the weekend perfect. We also had this yummy punch that was, well... YUMMY!

My big brother Jeremy was able to stop by for some yummy dessert & to wish Jon a Happy Birthday!