Does This Post Make Me Look Fat?

Seriously.  I have a whole 'lotta stuff to cram into one post.  If I don't do it today I won't do it at all.

First off....[The best news is at the bottom of this post but it happened while I was typing it.  So, either suffer through everything and read it or scroll down and come back.  The rest is worthy. I promise!]

Happy Birthday to LA!  My wonderful sissy.  She is 51 years old today. I miss her and wish I was there to eat lemon curd and shortbread with her.  Or go to Denny's at 2 am and order a tuna fish on toast, with fries and a chocolate milkshake.  On a school night.  She is pretty cool.

My sissy has perfect hair. Always has.  She's purty!

And an even more amazing birthday is our Grandmother.  She is Pooldad's Grandma [Or Biz Non as we call her.] She is 99 years old.  Yes folks, this lovely lady is almost a century old and still going strong.

Happy Birthday Beautiful!
You are rockin' 99!
We love you Biz Non!

Now...onto an award:

Yes, somehow you guys seem to think I am deserving of awards.  I appreciate them, I do, but I am always so afraid that I am going to screw them up [Rules! I thought I was done with rules!] or a Tadpole I pass it along to doesn't it do awards and they will stop being bestowed upon others.

Make sense?  Well it does to me and it's my blog and my rules...oh, oops! Stupid rules...dang...

Without further ado - let's start with the "Petey the Pet Rock" Award.  It was created by a man named Bruce.  Who evidently owns a sharpie, a ruler, a scanner and has rocks in his back yard.

I was gifted this award by one of my bestest blogger friends at Middle Side of Life.  I love Teresa and we have become very close over the past two years. She has so many things she has to deal with and, in turn, finds the time to help, counsel and support others.  I love her and Ron so much. 

Now the "Petey" [looks like "Petry" to me Bruce - nice ruler work btw, but your handwriting is suspect - I am kidding. Don't come after me. Please.] 

This award requires A LOT of rules.  

Let's see if I can get them right.

Yeah, good luck with "memory girl" - Skippy don't do no memory....but I promise to try.

The rules...

• You can only give it to one Blogger in Arms (BIA)
• You must recognize the Blogger who gave it to you in at least 3 consecutive blog posts
• You can take up to 3 weeks to pass on the award, but not more than 3 weeks
• The recipient of the award must not have any more than 100 BIAs (followers
• You must update the list of names of previous recipients with your own name before passing it on (see below)
• You should give at least 3 reasons why you think your recipient deserves this award
• You can choose to NOT accept this award, but (apparently) if you do, then Bruce will come after you

Previous recipients and wonderful bloggers include the following:

Becca at My Life
Mynx at Dribble
Bouncin'Barb at This and That
Thisisme at Southhamsdarling
Teresa at The Middle Side of Life

Skippy at I Make Soap

I thought long and hard about this - couldn't pick, even after having a long discussion with an Aussie Tadpole, but I have chosen:

The lovely Hed at Hed Above Water.

What isn't to love about this gorgeous woman.  She is one of the most forthright bloggers I have ever read.  She is astute, intelligent and an absolute friend.  A friend you WANT to have.  She has her own fears and concerns but she never fails to be there if you need her.  She is neat and a lot of fun. Go on over. Please.

Hed is really what blogging is all about.  You need to visit.  You will be a lucky person if you do.

I have a few more awards to give away, but for now I want to share the best news of the day, since this damn post has taken me 5 hours to write.  Yes 5.

Pooldad feels great and all is okay.  We are so happy that this is finally over and he can rest easy. YAY!


Thanks for everything Tadpoles.  You have sustained me and given us good thoughts, advice and love.

All is calm in the pond tonight. No ripples.

Love you.  Thank you again.

See you on the [AWESOME] flipside!