A Treasured Award

My beautiful friend who lives across the pond, Sheilagh at Sixty by Sixty, has bestowed the Gorgeous Blogger Award upon me....what a treat!! Thank you so much Sheilagh for passing this adorable little award along to me, and I love that the color matches my blog page!!

I believe I am to pass this along to 7 other most deserving bloggers. All of them are listed on my blogroll on my sidebar.

Billie @ Let The Skinny ME Out!
Dawne @ 365 Days To A New Me
Andrea @ Beauty and Old Things
Brenda @ B Huron's Lighthouse
Tina @ Fat Girl Dives In
Leslie @ Something Brilliant Is Brewing
Marcelle @ South African from Cape Town Now Living In Germany

This is a fantastic group of ladies that I draw inspiration from weekly. I love following their blogs and know that each one of them deserve this award. Enjoy it ladies! :)

Now I am to list 6 interesting things you may not know about me. This is kinda' tough....seems like I've already told you everything....so here we go...shooting from the hip, as always:

(1) Christmas is my absolute, all-time favorite holiday. I love everything about it. I put up my Christmas tree and decorate my entire house on Thanksgiving night. It's a month-long celebration in my home!! It's just a magical time of year...I love the hustle and bustle of the shopping in chilly temperatures, the welcoming and comforting aromas that fill my home when I'm doing my holiday baking to make baskets of goodies for loved ones, the decorating and making new crafts and ornaments to give out as gifts, having my parents, sisters, nieces and nephews over the 2nd wknd of December for my own special family Christmas dinner, and our very weird and unique tradition for Christmas Eve dinner at Mom's house on her red Cape Cod dishes.....her homemade egg rolls, hot wings, huge cocktail shrimp platters from Red Lobster, and the homemade cheesecake that her friend Jennifer bakes for her every year. I started collecting nativity sets several years ago. Then I collected snowmen. This year, I'm starting a collection of Santas.

(2) I always wanted a tatoo on my lower back when I lost all of my weight...until I told Dwayne, and he said, "You want a tramp stamp???" At that moment, it suddenly lost all of it's allure for me, lol. But I still think they're interesting to look at, so I put one on my sidebar. :)

(3) I was born and raised in Jacksonville, FL and lived there for the first 27 years of my life, give or take a year or two. As Leslie mentioned on her blog, there is one season there..."hot". I can't tell you how many 80 degree Christmas' I had there. It really sucked to be sitting in the livingroom in a pair of shorts, after sweating all day, and watching Christmas shows on TV with snow everywhere. It made me ache inside. I've always dreamed of traveling to another state up North that gets covered in snow for the winter, even if just for a week. I want to be standing in 4 feet of snow, frozen like a popsicle. It's a dream of mine.

(4) I decided many years ago that there are 2 places that I am definitely going to visit before I die. I want to travel to Colorado to see the Rocky Mountains up close, preferably with snow on their peaks. And I'm going to eventually take a cruise to Alaska....the last great frontier. Interestingly enough, Amy H. at "No To The Deuce" has extended an invitation to all bloggers who want to go on a hike with her next summer and she lives in Denver, CO. I would LOVE to go, but still being on unemployment, I'm not sure if I'll have a job and enough money saved in time to go. If not, maybe we can do it the following year. An Annual Blogger Hike would be awesome. :)

(5) Billie at "Let The Skinny ME Out!" and the friend I joined the gym with asked me if I wanted to do a 5k with her next spring. Absolutely!! I'm looking forward to it. Due to my knee, not sure yet if I'll be walking or jogging, but either way, I'll be there!

(6) My astrological sign is Leo. I'm a leader, not a follower. I'm not really into the stars, but after reading things here and there through the years, I can see where there are certain traits that seem to be true. I once read something about Leo's that said the bad news is that when they don't get their way, they act like total brats....but the good news is, they almost always get their way. :)

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Sorry I didn't post last night. I just wasn't feelin' it. I've caught a bit of a cold, and I've been praying it doesn't turn into something worse. I've done zero exercise yesterday and today. Just getting lots of rest and drinking lots of liquids. Yesterday's calorie count was 1349 and today's is 1500. I'm planning on staying indoors the rest of the week and out of the cold, rainy weather. Will the rain in Georgia EVER end???? So tired of it.

I've got a dear friend from high school coming in town on Thursday and we're scheduled to go out to dinner together. His name is Chris and I told him I've got a bit of a cold, but if I'm feeling up to it, he still wants to go out together. He lives in Charleston, SC. We lost touch for several years, and then met up again just a few months ago on Facebook. It's funny how with some people, years and years can pass between seeing each other, and yet, when you meet up again, you pick up right where you left off like you never missed a day. He's one of those kind of friends...a lifetime one. Love him to pieces.

I've got a few food pics for you. The first one is one I forgot to post last week when I made it. It's Mediterannean Chicken w/ spaghetti squash. Then there's one of today's breakfast...an egg white scramble w/ fresh mushrooms, onions, and 2 oz of grilled chicken left over from Sunday's cookout. Next is a bowl of homemade chicken noodle soup that I had for lunch today. I made it last night...it's got chicken, whole wheat egg noodles, carrots, celery, onions and garlic. And finally, tonight's dinner, which was Southwestern Turkey Bean Chili....I added baby portabella mushrooms to it, as well as 1 c. of Dreamfield's macaroni elbows....and I had it with a cup of hot cranberry tea.

Well that's it for tonight. I'm going to log off and watch the Biggest Loser. I pretty much decided the show is rigged a couple of weeks ago when Tracey got to choose the people for the Blue and Black teams. But...I've already gotten interested in all of the other contestants...so now I've got to watch the rest of the season. Thank you again Sheilagh for the lovely award. Knowing that you chose me as one of the 7 recipients just makes my heart smile. :)

Quote For the Day:

"We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope." -Martin Luther King, Jr.