I Do Hereby Bequeath...

This lovely statute is called the "Arte y Pico" award which was created to be given to bloggers who inspire others with their creative energy and talents no matter whether it be in the form of writing, artwork, design, interesting material, or contributions to the blogger community. When a blogger receives this award it is considered a "special honor" and, once presented to you, it is to be passed on to at least 5 other bloggers who meet the criteria.

Boy -talk about a surprise when my Blogger Buddy Linda (you know -the 911 operator) told me she had designated me and my blog to be one of her five choices to receive this lovely lady. MOI? Creative? Entertaining? Educating? Artsy-fartsy? Interesting?

Wow! I'm in a bit of a state of shock cause most of my posts consist of telling silly stories about some of the goofiness that goes on in my house. Some of my posts -occasionally -do have a little message, provided you can stay awake long enough to read through them to the end. And yes, now and again, I've been known to get up on my high horse and toss a hissy-fit, rant out into the blogosphere too!

One thing I really did like that Linda said about my blog -or me -was that she feels like she's sitting with me as we share a cup -or is that the whole darned pot -of coffee and lots and lots of gossipy topics we can share and compare notes on them then too. Just about anything from soup to nuts, ya know. And sometimes, I think if there is an award for a blogger who is a bit "nutty" then maybe Linda and I would qualify for that one. Just thinking there, ya know.

Now the really hard part for me -trying to determine who among my long list of bloggers on my Blog roll list would be the most deserving of receiving this award too. Hmmm. Almost feel I need to do the old "One potato, two potato, three potato, four" in order to make a selection there. You see, if I have your blog listed now on my Blog Roll List, it's because I read your blog pretty much religiously. I may not get there every single day cause some days I do have other things to do that keep me away from the computer -like doctor appointments -or fighting to get the chair in front of the computer away from other people in the household too. (No, as an only child, sharing something like my computer sometimes is a difficult thing for me to do, you see. Unfortunately, there are three others who float in and out of this house who feel pretty possessive about the computer at times too.)

I'd really like to give this award to everyone on my Blog List but then, I would have to do a paragraph -at least -listing all the great qualities of each and everyone there and if you think my posts can get long, drawn-out and convoluted now, you definitely don't want to think about how long it would take to read through blurbs about close to 150 other bloggers now do you?

So in the interest of preservation of sanity -yours -and mine too -here are the five bloggers I have decided to pass this beautiful award on to. Perhaps sometime in the future I'll come back here and out of the blue, lift this award out from my sidebar and give it on to five more folks -and then, do that a bit later, yet again. That way, someday, I might get it passed on to everyone cause trust me folks, you all do deserve one of these! For sure.

First awardee is going to be a new friend whose blog I picked up fairly recently thanks to our mutual friend, David McMahaon of Authorblog. And that blogger would be this lady - Maggie Mae of Nuts in May. Like me, Maggie is a Grannie -but unlike me, she lives in England whereas I am a coal miner's daughter/granddaughter/great-granddaughter who lives in coal mining territory in central Pennsylvania. Like me, Maggie shares a desire to learn more about autism as her one grandson is being evaluated for that disorder. I have Kurtis and Maya who already have been diagnosed, so we share a lot in common there. Maggie also writes about many other things too -memories, good and bad, and a lot of them really, really funny too. And that I love to read about -things that were once really important, still are, in other peoples' lives and especially bringing them forward with liberal doses of humor. Maggie does that and then some.

My second choice here is a gentleman -and yes, I do use that term rather loosely because some of his prose does get a little raucous at times. But that's ok, I realize he's just still a little boy in love with his sports -teams, events, players -you name it. Suldog covers a lot of athletic turf at times! Yes, he does spend a lot of energy writing about his beloved Celtics, and the Red Sox and his old ball team but he never disappoints his readers along the way either. He writes some really terrific stories about his family, immediate and extended, and does it in a way that you want to read more -and more! He's also a bit sentimental every now and again and lest I forget this, if he takes a trip someplace, he's bound to give you a grand tour of where he's been, what he saw, what he felt -the whole spiel! Again, this is a blogger who also writes with much humor and most of it relatively clean too. All in all, he does a great job and is really worthy, very much so, of this award.

Moving right along now to my third choice, that would be a lady from New Jersey who rarely fails to entertain me with her writing! She writes -and show photos too -of her home, and especially of her two beautiful cats - Siren and Mia. But it's Dianne's prose that hooked me right from the very first time I read her blog -I think the first day she ever posted and I happened to discover her. I've been going back to her place time and time again to read her opinions -and brother, she's a lot like me in that she has some very pointed opinions and isn't afraid to share them either. She's a strong-willed woman, for sure -something I also admire deeply in her -and in many other bloggers I have on my list as well -runs her own business from her home. But rarely -even when in a big-time rant -does Dianne NOT sprinkle liberal doses of that commodity I love in so many bloggers -lots and lots of humor! She's a terrific writer and also, one great lady too.

Number four of my chosen group tonight has to be Sandi of Holding Patterns, down in South Carolina way! Sandi is a true Southern Belle Lady -of the old school too perhaps one could say. She -like all the rest of my choices -is an excellent writer and can work up a great post on most any topic. Get her going about animals, gardening, her husband, sons, grandkids, her 90-some-year-old physician father (still practicing medicine too, I must add) and just about anything in between, sit down with a cup of coffee and read her blog. You'll find yourself transported to her little corner of the world, and loving every single minute of your visit too. And frequently, she writes all this also with very liberal doses of that good old humor. Do you see a pattern developing here in my choices? Yep, I love a post that delivers anything from just a smile to a good old-fashioned belly laugh at times and Sandi can and does do that -often, too!

My last choice tonight is a young fellow -well, by comparison to everyone else on my list tonight, he's pretty much still a babe in the woods, age wise -but not to writing or to blogging. He can sometimes be just a bit "edgy" too but not anything bad there. So his blog name really is pretty apt -"A Word in Edgewise"'s author, Jeff Bach. Jeff is a very talented writer as well as being self-employed in the construction business, married, very much a "hands on" type family man-father sort of guy too! He's liable to rope you into trying to solve some mysteries on his blog from time to time by posting photos of what are supposed to be commonplace items but which he has taken the shot from a really close or sort of distorted angle and expects his readers to figure this stuff out. (Not me, I can barely make out pictures of things in a normal setting and of a regular size too.) He can write some really great fiction as well as telling you about the area of Oregon where he lives, his hobbies, sports, even cooking! Yeah, he runs the gamut too from time to time. Although I have been reading his older brother's blog for going on two years now, I just picked up Jeff's blog this past winter. How I missed him, I'll never figure out but I found him when his brother Gene of Turning the Pages of Life was very ill and Jeff stepped in to let his brother's blogging friends know what was going on there. Thanks for doing that Jeff and thanks for letting me get to know you too through that action. And just like the four bloggers named above, Jeff's blog is often generously laced with lots and lots of humor too!

So there you have it folks -my five picks for tonight to be recipients of the Arte y Pico award. Go, read their blogs and then try to convince me of the errors of my thinking patterns that caused me to give this award to them!

They're all really great writers, guaranteed to deliver some really great messages to you and will definitely give your day a great "pick-me-up" -for sure!