Takin' Care of Business

My real estate business has experienced a major up-tick in the last couple months. Pending home sales rose in June for the 5th straight month in the U.S. The last time there were five consecutive monthly gains was in 2003. The housing market is getting better. Let's hope that's an indication that the economy in general is moving up.

These last two weeks have been incredibly hectic for me. I actually put two properties under contract with the first people who looked at them! I don't usually even speak about such things as I am a bit superstitious. There are so many points in a real estate transaction where a deal can fall apart that I'm afraid to jinx myself by mentioning them.

Then add in my little adventure on Tuesday two weeks ago. I have been trying to take it a tiny bit slower since then. Mostly we've just been eating out more so I don't have to think about household responsibilities so much. I'll milk that as long as I can. I still have some medical tests scheduled, and the doctors haven't been able to give me a definitive answer as to what happened that day. My gut feeling is they never will.

My posts of the last couple weeks were mostly done in advance which was a good thing. What I've really been missing is the time to read all you good people and leave my usually witty comments. So imagine my surprise when I logged onto Google Reader last evening and found a message telling me I had over 1,000 posts to read!!! Okay, time to scale back some on who I'm following.

And among those many unread posts were two awards for me!

Award #1

This first award was from Shauna at They Call Me Lucy.

I imagine the first time I stopped by to visit Shauna I was drawn there because she named her blog after my Lucy. What? She didn't name it after my Lucy? Well, never mind, I love her blog anyway.....she's a wonderful shopper and finds all sorts of cool decorative items for cheap and I wish she lived near me so I could hire her to decorate my house.

So now I'm supposed to pass along this award to some of my favorite bloggers.

1. Stacy at Boomerang Chick One of the few bloggers I'm following whom I actually know. This girl has a shoe collection to die for! And she drives a Mini-Cooper, so how cool is she?
2. Diary of a Not So Glamorous Housewife She always gives me a chuckle.
3. Brittany at Food for Thought Great recipes, great photos and just a sweet lady.

Award #2

And then as I was going through the 1,000 posts I found this award from Mama-Face at Blog Ignoramus.

I read the post where she sent me this award at the same time as I read her post about the loss of her lovely friend, Susan. It seems more than a little foolish to be going on about such frivolous things as blog awards after reading about such a lady but hopefully she would understand. So thanks Mama-Face, your blog is always such an eclectic mix of ideas and subjects, I never know what I'm going to find.

So now I'll send this award and all of you nice people over to:

1. Just Breathe mostly 'cause she's got this great little dog named Skye and you know how nutty I am about dogs......she's really sweet, too.
2. Midlife Jobhunter because I love her quotes and her photos.
3. Angie at Step-Fabulous for lots of reasons....she's a dog lover, a step-mom and just a really nice person.

So please go and visit all these nice people and spread some love!

You Don't Say?!

My friend Kaye at The Road Goes Ever On has been one of my absolute favorite bloggers since I joined this bloggy community just a few short months ago. Visiting her blog is one of the high points of my daily routine because I still love to look at her banner as it opens. If you haven't been there, I really suggest a visit, and you'll see what I'm talking about! And, of course, I'm not there just to gaze at her beautiful banner but I often find something to comment on after reading one of her posts.

So imagine my surprise when she left a message in one of her comments on my blog that she had a surprise for me. When I dropped by to visit, there in one of her Thesaurus Thursday posts was an award for me in appreciation of my comments. Take a look:

Isn't it beautiful?! And Kaye wrote:

"This cute award is for beautiful people who practice blogging etiquette by visiting or visiting back, and leaving comments. Their observations are apt and helpful and it's a pleasure to have them comment on your posts..."

I couldn't have said it better. As anyone who owns a blog knows, the comments we receive are very important to us. They often give us inspiration and encouragement. I love writing here and I suppose I would continue even without comments but I'm not certain of that. So now I want to pass this award on to eight of my bloggy friends whose comments I look forward to daily and whose opinions and thoughts are greatly valued. Thank you all for time and energy.

Pam at Pam's Perspective

Tammy at Keep in Touch with Mommakin

Anita at A Woman, a wife, a mom

Debbie at Suburb Sanity

Alex at Please Try Again

Bonnie K at Mama K

KathyB! at The World According to Me

Michele at It's a Dog's Life

Please stop by and check out these very special bloggers and see why I think they are all so terrific.

And thanks, Kaye!!

I Know Right Where To Put It

I had a very nice surprise waiting for me this morning; an award from the very talented and entertaining Linda of Crone and Bear It.


I consider Linda a new friend and I guess she returns the sentiment. We have been reading and commenting on each other's blogs recently and seem to have more than just two lovely Golden Retrievers in common. New to this blog world, I have been trying to spread my blog hopping around and have found several I have enjoyed and look forward to checking in on regularly but none more than Crone and Bear It. So to have this honor from the Lovely Linda is very special. So thank you, Linda, for the honor and I send everyone over to see her at Crone and Bear It and the ever-popular Crap on a Crutch to see why she was given this award herself. Linda says these awards are our version of the Oscars – and we should call them....Bloscars.

Now as with all awards I understand there are some rules I need to follow:

1) Grab the Award and link the person whom you got the award from.

2) Pass the award to different bloggers whom you think are deserving of this award.

3) Write a post about the award and there you’ll link the person who gave the award to you and those people who you’d like to pass the award.

4) Continue your passion in writing because your hard work will always be appreciated.

This is only my second award in my very short blogging career, and I'm not sure I really deserve it. But I will find a very special spot to place it and now pass on the honor to these bloggers whom I have greatly enjoyed following and encourage anyone who hasn't found them to do so now:

Lady Grey of Miss Lady Grey

Stereos and Souffles some of the greatest music I've run into...always has me bopping in my chair

K of The World Goes Ever Ever On and

Anita of A Woman, A Wife, A Mom more good music

I know you will enjoy reading these blogs as much as I do – and they all richly deserve this award!

It's All About the Attitude

You all know that I am rather new at this blogging stuff. I have been working rather hard at it and I guess it's starting to show! Yesterday I was really pleased to learn that Gwendolyn B. of A Sea of Books has nominated me for the Lemonade Award! This award is for showing great attitude and/or gratitude and has a pay it forward concept. Thank you so much Gwendolyn B!!

Here are the rules for accepting the award:

1) Put the Lemonade Award logo on your blog or post.
2) Nominate at least 10 blogs that show great attitude or gratitude.
3) Link to your nominees within your post.
4) Let the nominees know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5) Share the love and link to the person from whom you received your award.

I nominate the following blogs and invite everyone to vist them to check out their very interesting and different styles:

Gratuitous Violins
Housewife Savant
Interstitial Life
It's a Dog's Life
Please Try Again
3 Bedroom Bungalow
Stereos and Souffles
The Stylish House
The Real Estalker
Traveling at the Speed of Life

Congratulations everyone! You are all inspiring. Keep up the great work.