Friday, June 25, 2010

Xxtraordinary Blogger Award!

A couple of weeks ago, I had the happy surprise of being awarded the XXtraordinary Blogger Award from the wonderful Gina of Hott Books! Thank you, Gina!!! I think you and your blog are pretty extraordinary, too! :) Sorry for the delay in acknowledging the award here!

Gina and I first "met" when she joined the In Death Reading Challenge that I host here on my blog and I've enjoyed getting to know her over the last several months. Gina started blogging last October and has done a wonderful job of blogging regularly about the books she reads--mostly crime fiction, mystery and romance--, about the blogs she discovers via a weekly blog hop event, and every now and then about herself and her family. She's one of those bloggers who never cease to impress me with her combined supermom and superblogger powers. She's incredibly busy taking care of her husband and three kids; driving all over to timbuktu and back for her kids' soccer practices and school events; volunteering at her kids' schools; keeping up with household chores AND she works full time, too! Yet she still manages to find time to read, blog AND blog hop regularly. How does she do it?!!? We exchanged a few emails recently in which she shared some tips with me, but she still made it sound so easy! I'm thinking I need in on the secret super powers. Maybe if I start wearing a superhero cape.... ;o)

The bottom line is that I'm very flattered to have received this xxtraordinary blogger award from someone so xxtraordinary herself! Now it's my turn to pay it forward.

The Award Criteria:
This award is awarded to those bloggers who:
1~post almost every day, if not every
2~reply to every comment that's posted
3~just down right LOVE blogging!

The Award Rules:
Share one extraordinary thing that's happened to you then pass this award to 5 Xxtraordinarly bloggers.

My Extraordinary Thing:
The most extraordinary thing that's happened to me is by far having made a life of love and happiness with my husband and making a family of our own with our two wonderful daughters. That is pretty extraordinary in itself to me, but it's even more extraordinary to me that after having spent all my young life of twenty-two years under the influence of a narcissistic and controlling parent essentially following orders without question, not standing up for myself with my voice or actions, or even making my own decisions... I finally had a reason ...a reason whom I married a few years later... and found the strength to follow my heart and do what was best for ME. Now that's a happily ever after. :)

5 Bloggers I believe are Extraordinary:
I happen to follow a ton of extraordinary bloggers, but today I'm going to acknowledge the bloggers who possess those supermom-superblogger powers. You take care of children, adult family, chores, jobs, and yet you always manage to find time to read, blog, blog hop and probably have other personal hobbies, too! You know who you are! I'm calling you out....

Hilcia, Leslie, Brandy, Mariana, Lori, Angie, Kenda, Michelle, Phyl, Renee, Tracy, Holly, Jessica, Jill D., Rowena, Patti, Lisa, Mandi....

.... wow there are so many of you!
And to anyone else I may have left out.... consider yourselves tagged with the Xxtraordinary Blogger Award. You all rock!

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend.

Any fun plans in store for you?

My weekend is going to involve bike rides, swimming at the pool, hopefully logging some solid hours reading, maybe making some cherry jam and playing my vuvuzela because I'll most definitely be ... watching the World Cup!!! GO USA!!!

Got an iPhone? Download the vuvuzela app and show your world cup spirit! ... or annoy the heck out of your friends and family. LOL. I happen to love it.

I have the one with the icon shown here. Fun stuff! ^_^



15 comments:

  1. Congrats Christine! You are xxxtraordinary!

    I'm committed to reading this weekend and relaxing. I hope you enjoy the World Cup!

    Best
    L

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  2. Congratulations Christine - agree with Lea, you ARE Xxtraordinary! I'm so happy things worked out so well for you and you're happy :)

    Thanks for passing it on. My plan for the weekend: Bookstore and then home mani/pedis with my 3 and 9 year old - fun girly stuff.

    Can't wait to tell hubs about the vuvuzela app - he loves his apps, LOL!

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  3. Awww, thanks, Christine! If ever an award was deserved, you certainly deserve this one. I'm so happy that you've found your HEA =)

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  4. Ohhh, thank you Christine! You definitely deserved this one. So glad you found the best for you!

    My plans? Go see mom, reading, walking (have to get some sun) and some writing.

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  5. Awesome award :D Congrats Christine! :)

    Those are some nice plans, but I already feel tired for you LOL.

    My plans aren't as fun. Have to work on Sunday, so clean the room on Saturday... I'll try to catch some tennis and read a little bit :D

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  6. Awww, you guys are sweet. You are all such a special part of my little corner in the blogging world. :)

    ALL of your plans sound wonderfully relaxing and rewarding. ..... except maybe nath's having to clean on Saturday and work on Sunday. What's up with that, nath?? :(

    *hugs*

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  7. Congrats! You are extraordinary to me too :) Aww, thanks for the shout out, it's nice being appreciated.

    Totally watching the World Cup, so exciting! Lili's like whatever, but my niece and nephew are totally into it, so we'll be enjoying it :)

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  8. Congratulations Christine, you truly are xxxtradordinary! I am so glad you have your own HEA after everything, you deserve it.

    My weekend plans involve mowing the lawn, weed eating, prodding the hubs to get his oil changed, shopping for a new kitty collar (How she broke it I don't know.), Church and hopefully, please God, some time to read. *G*
    Thank you for thinking of me, it's nice to be thought of.

    I hope you're having a fantastical weekend!

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  9. Ugh, seriously, it sucks having a workaholic boss ^_^; But it was okay. It all ended up taking less time than I thought :)

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  10. Thank you all for the congrats on the award and the sweet comments about my 'extraordinary thing.'

    I loved reading what you all had planned for the weekend as the comment emails rolled in. I hope you got to do everything you wanted. I didn't get any reading in. Not a page. Nor did I get to make the cherry jam, although I did buy the cherries and some pectin. I guess you all heard by now that the USA lost to Ghana in the semifinals. It's disappointing, but Ghana played a powerful game and deserved to win. There are still so many great games ahead over the next two weeks, so my vuvuzela will still get some good use. ^__^


    nath, I'm glad it took less time at work than you thought... but still. It was a chunk of time that kept you from doing something else! .... like cleaning your room, perhaps? ;o)

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  11. YOU, my dear, are extraordinary! I am so blessed to have met you. It's tough figuring out who you are and doing it all but you're doing it! I am hobbling along trying to do my best! 3 jobs, 1 kid, 1 hubs and a dirty house. :)
    Hugs to you!

    Michelle

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  12. YOU are extraordinary, too! That's why I pegged you for this award, my dear. I'm so glad we 'met' via blogging and then in person, too! We are lucky! :D

    Please do not think I have my whole act together around here!!! I just mostly report the good stuff here. ^_~

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  13. Sweet web site, I had not noticed theromanticlife.blogspot.com previously during my searches!
    Keep up the excellent work!

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