What A Nice Surprise!

Nathanael over at This Is How It Feels has honored me with a bit of blog bling, and what a great surprise it was!  Nathanael and I "met" when he was honored with the Honest Scrap award by Monda over at No Telling, I jumped over to his blog and fell in love.  We were both then honored by Monda when we were included in EasyStreet Prompts' Blog Carnival.

When I think about the people I've "met" via blogging, it's rather mind-boggling.  The internet, I know it's been said before, has opened up whole new worlds.  Where else would I have met a gay solder serving in Baghdad or a Southern gal with a passion for writing or another wickedly funny Southern gal or an endurance rider from California?  There are so many people that I've met through blogging that I would never have had the opportunity to meet before.  It truly is astounding.

The rules, as have been explained to me by Nathanael are:

1.) grab the award (check - see above)
2.) post it on your blog along with five things you love to do (Oh Jeez, just five.  I'll have to think about that.)
3.) five others you want to recognize... (Again, only five?)

Things I love to do: (in no specific order)

1. Ride my horse, Estes.  You can find the story of how I fell in love with her over at my other blog, Tales From The Trail
2. Blog.  Well, write.  I love to write, and blogging is an easy way to connect with people I wouldn't normally get to meet.  I also love my morning blog crawl and can't get through my morning without it; it's my equivalent of reading the morning paper, I guess.
3. Shoot.  Hence the name Gun Diva.  I love the feel of a controlled explosion, which is all shooting really is.  And, hey, I'm pretty good at it.  My friend and fellow Gun Diva, Tara Janzen, is a rifle shooting queen.  Me, I love the handguns.
4. Read.  This kind of ties in with #2; part of blogging is reading.  I get to read small, bite-sized stories daily and look forward to them, but I also love novels.  Really, anything with words.  Hell, I even read shampoo bottles.
5. Work.  I really do love my job and the people I work with; I can't imagine doing anything else.

Recognize Five Others... (again, in no specific order.  Nathanael, you know I'd send this back to you if I could.)

• K. Erickson at Preachers and Horse Thieves.  He was awarded Editor's Pick for the 1st edition of EasyStreet's Blog Carnival.  I jumped over to his blog and immediately followed.  I love his writing and his dedication to his wife.  Here's a man who is head-over-heels in love with his wife and isn't afraid to post it for the whole world.  Oh, and he's got some great stories, too.
• Monda at No Telling and EasyStreet Prompts.  She's a great storyteller and I look forward to her posts everyday.  I'm not sure how I stumbled upon No Telling, but I enjoy it immensely.  And, of course, EasyStreet Prompts has a place in my heart, as my Honorable Mention (posted over at Lyon's Roar) was my first ever blog bling.
• Candance at Crazy Texas Mommy.  I love this woman!  Her posts are guaranteed to make me laugh.  Everyone needs a little CTM in their life.  Imagine my surprise when I was talking to my brother in Arizona one day and he asked if I'd ever read CTM.  We both found her blog at about the same time and fell in love.  Shortly thereafter my step-dad started following CTM, so now it's kind of a family cult thing.  So...that sounds a little creepy.  Didn't mean it to come out that way.
• Roxanne at Pet Blog.  Her stories about Verne the horse trader keep me in stitches.  I love the way she's able to bring his stories to life in so few words.
• Bill and Juanita at It's A Horse Life.  Okay, so there's a bit of nepotism here, they are, after all, my parents.  And I was the one who not only talked them into blogging, but set it up for them.  It started as just a way to share some of their favorite stories and recipes and stay in touch with their guests, but they're really taken it and run and their hits counter is burning up. 
  

That was tough, only choosing five.  Please check them out; I think you'll enjoy them.  And be sure to tell them I said 'hi' when you stop by.

Off To A Good Start!

Today I'm celebrating two wonderful things! 

First, this is my 100th post.  I spent some time the other night reviewing some of my old posts and thinking, "why didn't I ever keep a diary?".  This blog has become my living diary.  There are lots of memories stored in each of the one hundred little (and some not so little) blurbs about my life I've put up for the world to see.  And, of course, this blog has created two spin-offs: Tales from the Trail (which is featured in Easy Street Prompts' Blog Carnival, 2nd Edition) and Lyon's Roar (which won Easy Street Prompts' Blog Carnival "Must Read" award, 1st Edition).  Really, this blog has created a writing monster.

Second, today is the official 1st day of NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month.  In order to stay on track to write 50,000 words in thirty days, I have to write 1,667 words per day.  After we got home from Wicked last night, Jay and I plugged in and got started.  I managed to cough up just over 1,700 words before I called it a night and Jay got just over 700 in.  I'm currently at 3,100 words and hope to reach 5,000 today; Jay's goal is 2,500 and he's more than halfway at this point.  The big difference is the speed in which we type.  I'm awfully thankful that I had a "mean" typing teacher in junior high who made us learn how to touch type.  Jay's just enough younger than me that typing wasn't a required class, so he's a two-fingered typist.  Pretty darn quick for only using two fingers, but it still slows him down.

If I have any fellow NaNo reader, my NaNo name is CSWilson and I'd love for you to add me as a writing buddy.  I'm quickly learning that I'm going to need all of the support I can get :)

I'll post some of my finished 5k later today.

Thank You Easy Street!

A couple of weeks ago, I submitted an entry from Lyon's Roar to Easy Street's Writing Carnival Contest.  See What the French, Toast?  I felt good about it when I submitted it, but realized later that it was chock full of errors and didn't expect to hear anything other than "thanks for submitting".  Turns out it wasn't as horrible as I thought, as it won a "Must Read" award!  I can't tell you how excited I am about my FIRST EVER writing award, even if it is, essentially, a "runner-up" or "honorable mention" award.  Doesn't matter to me, it's still pretty damn cool!

Thanks Monda!