Let Me Celebrate Your Favorite Blogs, and Another Different Kind of Giveaway

I am having a bit of a BLOCK...First off...thanks for asking about my husband ...He is fine...He has gone to work out right now, then leaving on a trip tomorrow. Realizing that it was a combination of several different things going on that were causing some strange symptoms, finally got us to the right meds...ALL IS GOOD!

There are several posts in my heart but not ready to make it to the blog yet. In the next few days, I am planning to post on my holiday blog, A Baby Changes Everything. I am not posting regularly there right now, but have a few spring goodies I want to show you and think I will do a GIVEAWAY....I just love SHIPPING a GIVEAWAY,(really my husband ships all of them) knowing it is going to MAKE SOMEONES DAY. So be watching for a post on the holiday blog.
Just to keep myself accountable...My walking buddy is on a trip this week, but I am doing Leslie Sansone's in home walking tapes this week. She has such an encouraging voice, kind of like Terri's. I have a LIBRARY of her tapes.
THAT'S a GREAT GIVEAWAY...Saturday night I will have Parker draw for one of her tapes. If you would like one, just leave it in the comments of this post and I will put your name in the pot.
BUT HERE IS THE MAIN REASON FOR THIS POST....
If you have a FAVORITE BLOG, hopefully one that I have never talked about, that others would LOVE, send it to me or leave it in the comments. I will post as many as I can..I would love to send new blogs some traffic. I would love to send older blogs MORE traffic. I LOVE finding a new blog, a gem, a new friend.
Blog hopping will DO THAT EVERY TIME. Then next week, I will do a post with some great ETSY shops. So if you have a favorite, leave it in the comments. Do not miss these pictures....have I told you I love babies? Never miss a post that she writes. They make my heart
happy. Leave me some blog names and treat me to some new reading. I love a good READ.

We are still working on my new blog design. I am not the type customer any designer wants. Trust me on this one. There are TOO many things I like, too MANY designs that are my favorites, a FONT junkie, and really have a hard time conveying all those aspects to anyone...even myself. It's very frustrating to me. If it were possible I would change my design once a week, but you would never know where you were.

REMEMBER I AM GIVING AWAY 2 MORE CARD PACKAGES on Saturday Night. I won't see Parker until Saturday night, so that will give you an extra day. WE WILL DRAW FOR BOTH GIVEAWAY'S ON SATURDAY NIGHT. A comment is all it takes and you can enter the next three days and have multiple chances. If you do not have a blog, just leave your email.
I think I WANT TO TWITTER. I said think. FIRST I NEED TO KNOW HOW. If any of you can send me an email (annah99@aol.com) with some basic information, and walk me through it, I will REWARD you with a SURPRISE. Remember I hate to read directions, always have and probably always will.
AND just for my enjoyment, if you are an American Idol lover like me, who is your FAVORITE so far? That's an extra entry for you.
CAN YOU SAY RANDOM? Sorry!

I JUST POSTED AND IT WAS TOO LONG

Rather than repeat WORDS and PICTURES,
I HOPE you will HOP over to my
HOLIDAY BLOG for a visit and see our FUN FILLED week with a few pictures of some cute kids! Our kids and their kids.
NEXT week I will be back doing most of my posting on GRAMMY GIRLFRIEND..aka Teresa's Treasures. What treasures I have in family and friends and NOW I can say BLOGGERS. THIS has been such a fun year entering the world of BLOGGING!
Now I have my good friends and elves,
TERRI and ELIZABETH both blogging..so stop by and see them.

This time last year, starting a blog was just a whim, just a thought, just a desire and look what happened! 104 posts later, then 70 plus posts on my Holiday blog and I am HOOKED. It is still mind boggling to me. As I have said before, I am not a great writer, I post crummy pictures, so it has to be my CUTE GRANDKIDS and maybe the fact that I know a little about tree decorating.

We are vacationing in January. I am looking forward to some downtime. It just happens to fall at the same time as the Beth Moore Siesta event and I so hate to miss it. Houston is just a few hours from me, but these were the dates we could coordinate vacations and condos and it is Jack's last week to fly FREE. For a change we are taking the family to Vail, a COLD VACATION. Mickey will come later in the year. We would never want the MOUSE to think we were slighting him.

THEN FEBRUARY will be my one year BLOG ANNIVERSARY! I have GIFTS, GIFTS and MORE GIFTS planned. I want to CELEBRATE YOU, MY NEW FRIENDS. I want all the lurkers to come out and identify themselves. Several have done that recently and I am so happy to get to know you. The next couple of weeks I am planning to STAY home! I hate after Christmas sales...I hate RETURNS! The stores have little appeal to me in January. I want to sit in front of the fireplace and catch up on lots of blog reading, read a few books, watch a few TIVOED shows, do a little computer work (as in learn a new computer that sits in the box), mostly stay in pajamas, watch a LOT of football, play with some little guys and all their new toys, pack for vacation, maybe play some cards with the girls (something I get to do almost NEVER during tree season), frame lots of snapshots from the holidays....and see some movies with MY MAN. We did see BROTHERS last week. One word..INTENSE!

Then I racked up at Christmas and received TWO FULL SPA DAYS that I plan to use SOON, plus another spa day in VAIL. Those are my favorite gifts...ALWAYS. ALWAYS..ALWAYS!!

One day next week I am going to share with you some of my VERY favorite blogs and bloggers and why I love them. They are really the reason I finally took the plunge. I wanted to know them. If you have a special blog that really got you started or really speaks to you, please share it with me.

Seems like we should start the new year with at least one prize. I have some BEAUTIFUL CALENDARS in my shop that we used in holiday baskets. I would love to mail ONE to YOU along with a few other things that will help you get organized for the new year. I will keep the comments open through Monday night....just leave me a comment letting me know what drew you to my blog and what kept you here. IF you are a first time commenter or lurker, your name will be added twice. You know I hate one winner, so let's make it two or maybe three. I am looking forward to catching up on YOUR blogs.

ONLY TWO PEOPLE CAME TO THE PARTY

Though the Tigers did not win tonight, Jack and I had our own LSU PARTY. I think it was probably the best party in town... There is nothing like partying with a 20 month old, especially one that is still going strong at midnight.
(Secretly, I am a Tim Tebow fan,but I have to keep that under wraps around my LSU friends.) As you can see from the picture above, Jack had his game face on when his Mom dropped him by my house. Here are a few snapshots from the game.....
This would be Jack calling his bookie for the first time

Must have been a BIG PLAY

A boy must keep his phone with him at all times

Checking out the TV, but he must keep his bookie on the line.

TOTALLY IGNORING ME

A SCARY PLAY

Making one more CALL. I am thinking he did not make ANY MONEY...but I had a GREAT NIGHT with ONE OF MY BEST BUDDIES....WE had some serious talks TONIGHT... and now he is finally fast asleep.

Don't forget to leave a comment on the post below to be eligible for the gift at the bottom of the post....We will draw from just the comments on that post so you should have a GOOD chance to win. The drawing is Sunday night....and another cute giveaway on the

Christmas blog will be drawn on Sunday night also. Hop over there and leave a comment, You can enter more than once...I want everyone to win something!

An Award from ONE of My FAVORITE BLOGGING BUDDIES PLUS I NEED SOME HELP FROM MY FRIENDS!

I Rarely Do Awards.....Not sure why, except that I am a bit embarrassed to get an award for sharing a little of my life... I always feel blessed to receive them...BUT THIS ONE came from one of my BEST BLOG BUDDIES. It was a very nice surprise to be honored with an award from ....Kat at Just a Beachkat. After reading her blog for so long, I finally jumped in, so her blog probably is the real reason I blog today.....The Honest Scrap award is to share "10 HONEST Things " about myself! Like Kat, I feel like I've shared everything about me with you already. I am really a VERY normal person, with a very normal family...BUT, I will give it a try.

1. Honestly I feel tired just thinking about all the trees I have to decorate.
2. Honestly I HATE exercise. (I keep hoping Kat will rub off on me)
3. Honestly I love the RESULTS of any deep cleaning project and right now my closet is in BAD NEED.
4. Honestly I am ALWAYS planning the next Disney trip.
5. Honestly I always love a day that I never have to leave the house.
6. Honestly I can count on one hand the times I have not made the bed in all our married life.
7. Honestly I wish there were more hours in the day.
8. Honestly I cannot go to bed at night until I take a HOT bath.
9. Honestly I start feeling depressed near the end of football season
10. Honestly I would rather rock a baby, especially one of my grandsons, more than anything in the world. They have ROCKED my WORLD.

Thanks Kat for the award....I pass this award on to all my blogging buddies. You are SPECIAL!

Now I need some help from you. I am planning a family trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming right after Christmas. This is an area where I have never been, so I need tips on lodging, restaurants, "fun don't miss activities", anything you can tell me that will help me plan the trip.. And if you EVER need Disney advice, just email me...My kids call me a Disney encyclopedia. So, I will look forward to some emails helping me plan this trip. Email me at annah99@aol.com ....(that email address confuses people, but Annah was our cocker spaniel for 17 years) I know some of you are fans of Jackson Hole....Help me out!

OK, lets have a GIVEWAY! I have had several giveaways on the Christmas blog...You were my first blog friends so I don't want to leave you out.... I will draw for this collection...a set of holiday file folders (so cute), matching notepad and the Christmas Cookie Book! I will get Parker to draw on Sunday night. All you have to do is leave a comment on this blog, on THIS post, telling me you sent a new friend to the Christmas blog.

Blog Hop and the Famous Card Box Giveaway

I missed the Blog Hop earlier this week so thought I would combine the giveaway and the photo hop together. All you have to to do to be entered in this giveaway is write a caption for this (not so good quality) picture.

This is SO 18 month old Jack's personality....Amanda was on the computer last night and looked over on the couch and this what she saw...she snapped this picture with her phone and it is our favorite picture of the month! So give it a Caption in a comment and you will be entered in the "Card Box " giveaway. This one is a 75.00 value! and since I am not sure how to link back to one of my older posts, you will have to go to that post in March...Or if you would like to email me (annah99@aol.com) and tell me how...then I will learn a new trick today. It has been everyones favorite prize and one of the most popular things I sell for gift baskets. And since I am being honest, many of you have given me blog awards that I appreciate so much, but I am not sure how to copy them and link back to you.

O.K. so now you know I am a tad computer illiterate. The giveaway will go to the person that comes up with the cutest caption. I will annouce a winner Monday morning, so you can enter as many times as you want. You can probably tell, but in case you cannot, he is watching TV. We are keeping this little man along with his brother, all weekend, while his Mom and Dad take a much needed anniversary get away.

So many of you have emailed me, asking about Grayson....here are a few snapshots from yesterday...HE is doing great, totally well and so loved. Thank you for your prayers and concern.

A Mom and Dad madly in love with a little boy!

REMEMBER your comment needs to have a caption for the picture of Jack sitting on the couch. This may only be a funny picture to us because we know him. Have a wonderful weekend. I am so thankful for all my new blog friends.

TERESA

The Winner of Getting to Know You

We just got home from a wonderful six days of R & R, just a totally fun get away with Parker. We had a great time. He and his Mom lived with us the first six years of his life, so there is a bond with him that I cannot really put into words.
He was the first grandchild to steal my heart...now three other little guys have also, but he was the first.
I was checking my Facebook a few minutes ago and I saw where this little 10 year old "tween"posted that he had a great time with Grammy and Pop. That's the kind of memories I want him to always remember.
Wow, do I love that boy!

NOW to the winner of the GIVEAWAY for the GETTING TO KNOW YOU post....and I did love getting to know you better. I plan to visit all your blogs soon. Parker drew from just the comments on that post.....and the winners are...because he wanted to draw two! They will be a SURPRISE gift that we purchased on our trip...so look for it in the mail......

Kathryn at This 'n That From on the Mountain http://kateekat.blogspot.com/ and

Meagan at A Little Crazy and A Whole Lot of Love
http://thepartlowfamily.blogspot.com/

Please send me your addresses...and the packages will be on their way.

Parker at one of our favorite stops..."Central Market"!