I am so beautiful to me – can’t you seeee??  Oh, sorry!  I am just feeling pretty doggoned special!  I have been given my very first award – the Cherry on Top Award.  Here’s what it looks like:

It’s like the cherry on top of a hot fudge sundae – well, I don’t like those cherries but I do love sharing it with Alpha Hubby – but my point is, someone thought I have a beautiful blog with that little something extra!  Wow.

Thanks to my lovely new blog-friend, Maegan, at (Mrs) Plus Size Barbie – isn’t that the neatest name? – for presenting me with my very first award –

The rules that come with this reward are

1. Task number one:  Answer this question:

If you had the chance to go back and change one thing in your life, would you, and what would it be?

2. Task number two: Pick six people for this award and let them know.

3. The third and final task:  thank the person who gave me the award.

I will start with number three first – thanking the person who gave me the award – Maegan at Mrs. Plus Size Barbie.  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. It is an honor to be given this award.  I want to introduce others to Maegan’s website – but first, here is her own award link when she won the award. 

http://mrsplussizebarbie.blogspot.com/2010/09/cherry-on-top.html

I truly love what she had to say for her answer to the question we are required to answer.  I believe everyone should read it because it is uplifting and so true. 

http://mrsplussizebarbie.blogspot.com

The question – If I had a chance to go back and change one thing in my life, would I, and what would it be?  YES I would do it.

My mind immediately went two different directions so I will have to give both answers – one short – I would have stopped the weight gain back when it was first creeping on.  Self-explanatory.

The long one?  OH I would have played more and stressed less.  I wouldn’t have cared so much about housework as a single parent, and would have taken my son off on more adventures.  I would have written more stories for him, sung more songs to him, danced in more mud puddles, and played, played, played.  I would not have worried about what other people thought and would have sung at the top on my lungs all the time (thank goodness, I can sing, but that’s not the point). 

I spent way too many days off cleaning the house.  Now I look back and think, “Why didn’t I take him to the zoo more often?”  I realize hindsight is easy and that I did the best I could at the time, but the other day we gave my son and his new bride a wedding reception.  Last night, when he had trouble sleeping, he wrote me this email – that still makes me cry – and while I would have played more back when he was little, I have no real regrets:

“… (Mom) I thought I would send you an email and tell you I love you. Not cause u buy me stuff all the time or give me money… (smile)… but cause you do fun things. Even at the party you said “who cares if any one comes we’ll have fun any way.” We get there and there’s all this silly stuff on the table that i thought was awesome. Candies nuts dice chips. But the coolest was all the party favors Lieghann loved them. She thought it was so cool and couldn’t stop talking about them. So I wanna say I love you and thanks for making life fun and the best.”

What more can I say?  I did finally learn to play more and stress less.

Now for the last task – Pick six people for this award and let them know. Not THAT easy – I’ve met some amazing bloggers and would like to list all my followers! I will do that in a later post just because they are some blogs you should see, guaranteed!

1 – My best e-friend-blog-Aloha partner, Steph at Momma’s Soapbox.  Her upbeat attitude has helped me so much, and her “spilling the beans one coffee cup at a time” posts always make me smile or think or learn something and always glad I visited her site.

http://mommassoapbox.blogspot.com/

2 – There is a food blog that I discovered one day that, to this day, I believe is THE number 1 BEST and most HYSTERICAL food blog out there – Sticky Cook.  Please, please, please take time to view her videos – they will leave you howling with laughter (and her recipes ain’t bad, either).  She has a website chock full of recipes (with an intro video) and a blog where she introduces recipes and chats in her amazingly funny style! What this woman does with chocolate…

http://stickycook.com/

http://stickycook.blogspot.com/

3 – Leslie over at Words of Me loves words (me, too!!)! This shines through in every post, and neat quotes pepper them along with beautiful pictures.  Drop over and visit her beautiful blog.

http://wordsofmeproject.blogspot.com/

4 – Shelli over at Style Ingenuity is not only a Certified Etiquette and Image Consultant but she posts about amazing styles, products, latest fashion looks, all things I love!  She will help you stay in style and is also creating a Friday Mixxer Blog Hops Directory!  Fun!

http://www.styleingenuity.com/

5 – Miss Jeannie over at Soccer Mom in Giggle Town has a great sense of humor and shares that humor intermingled with wonderful Bible teachings she pens with wisdom.  I always learn something good!

 http://soccermomingiggletown.com/

6 – And finally last, but by no means least, is my newest e-blog-friend Cate at Moments of Whimsy – where do these people get their awesome blog names?  All of them are great.  Cate is an ex-pat Australian living in New Zealand.  Her pictures make you want to MOVE there immediately. 

http://momentsofwhimsy.wordpress.com/

Please drop in and visit these wonderful bloggers and LEAVE A COMMENT to let them know you were there.  It’s the right thing to do!