Merry Christmas!
Have a warm, cozy Christmas and a peaceful New Year filled with happiness, health, love, and licks!
Posts tagged ‘photo’
Merry Christmas!
“…and on earth peace, good will toward men. That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown…”
Happiness
It would be silly for Mom to be a writer if writing didn’t make her happy. So I guess it makes her happy… At least most of the time.
She writes just about every day. When she works, she’s challenged, inspired, enthusiastic, and motivated. Except when she’s disappointed, hopeless, worried, and bummed out. Luckily, that’s not too often. Only when she thinks Print Book #2 and E Book #2 are taking too long to happen. Most of the time, she thinks they’re just around the corner….
My friend Lexi the Schnauzer tagged me to participate in the 8 Photos of Happiness Challenge. Since I am never disappointed, hopeless, worried, or bummed out, I would be able to post 8,000 photos of happiness. ….but I won’t. Here are my 8.
1. New toys from PupJoy.
2. Showing off.
3. People watching.
4. School visits with Mom. And KIDS!
5. Listening to stories at the library.
6. A cool drink of water after a hike.
7. A nice, warm street nap.
8. Bringing smiles to my friends at the Veteran’s Home.
Did I say 8?
8 1/2. I can’t post about happiness without the baby swing at the park.
Here are the rules for the challenge:
Thank your nominator and link them in your post. (Thanks Lexi!)
Link the creator. (Ariel’s little corner of the internet)
Post your 8 photos of happiness. (or 8,000)
The photos can be anything that represents a moment, object, place or feeling that makes you happy.
Pop in a brief description of the photo, why you chose it or let the photos do the talking!
Spread the happiness and tag up to ten other bloggers! (I’m tagging all of my friends – if you want to share some happiness, jump in!)
Inspirational Quote of the Week
Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn’t know it so it goes on flying anyway.
Mary Kay Ash
I would like to fly. Sometimes, I fly around my house – from the floor to the bed and from the ottoman to the sofa and from the chair to the door.
But I’m not allowed to fly outside. If I could, I’d fly up into the trees to catch birds and squirrels.
They are up there laughing at me, so flying would come in handy to put a stop to that.
Mom writes picture books. But sometimes, she goes outside her comfort zone to write other things. Once she wrote a non-fiction story, but she hated it – ALMOST as much as she hated doing the research for it. She said, “This is too much like work.” and “I dread writing time.” and “You cannot climb a tree – you’re a dog, not a bear.”
Last weekend, Mom wrote a song. Her friend needed a little pre-k song for graduation, so Mom made it up and sang it out loud to herself over and over and over and over and over. She said, “That was easier than I thought.” and “I didn’t know I could write a song.” and “You cannot climb a tree – you’re a dog, not a bear.”
Sometimes we need to go out of our comfort zones and TRY to see what we really can do. Mom is no Paul McCartney, but she wrote a song. I may not be a bear, but if Mom would unclip my leash for 5 seconds, I think I can climb a tree. After all, bumblebees fly….
Countdown Wednesday
Today, we’re counting down my latest awards.
My friends at Dog Daz Zoo sent me the Dragon’s Loyalty Award. I won it once before right here. Thanks, girls!
Nikitaland sent me the Versa-tail Blogger Award or something like that. Yay! Thanks. I have never had that one before. I think it means my tail is pretty, and not a freaky monkey-tail, like Mom says.
Whether you have a tail or not, feel free to add some bling to your blog and share either one of my awards.
Both awards want me to tell seven things about myself. I’m not much with the math, but I’ll try, and maybe I’ll even let Mom tell one or two things about herself, too.
Seven Things
1. I love sleeping under the covers on Mom’s bed.
2. My birthday was in September. I’m seven.
3. Sometimes, I try to hatch my toys like eggs.
4. When my feet touch sand, I run in circles like I am a deranged lunatic.
5. One day, while Mom was driving to the VA, there was a devil in her rearview mirror.
6. I like lollipops.
7. Mom read a book that had a dog named Cupcake in it. It wasn’t me.
92. Mom is falling behind in her reading challenge. She planned to read 200 picture books this year. She is not on target, but plans to catch up. We’ll see.
46. Speaking of falling behind, she also missed the month of June in the 12×12 challenge, so she’s hoping to do her June manuscript in December. We’ll see.
21. Mom promised to take me to the park today. I’m really tired from working at Read to a Pet Night at the library last night.
Being a good girl, listening to a story…
Plus it’s really cold outside. I’m not sure I want to go to the park. ….We’ll see….
Take-My-Picture-Tuesday
I have a lot of costumes. Costumes turn me into a character.
Mom has a ton of characters inside her head. She saves them up and puts them into her stories. She studied about developing her characters by writing character sketches of them. The character sketch helps Mom get to know her characters really well. Really, REALLY well.
Really??
She needs to know things like: their favorite color, their best talent, their favorite food, their secrets, their favorite words to say, and a million other things. Once Mom knows about her character, then she knows how that character would work best in a story. If I were one of Mom’s characters, this is what she’d know about me….
Favorite color – Pink, what else? I’m a little girl.
Talent – Bowling. Dog bowling…
Favorite food – Bacon treats. And dog food. And MilkBones. And yogurt. And chicken. And pizza. And apples. And peanut butter. And goose poop. And cigar butts. And paper. And dirt.
Secrets – I’m not as dumb as I look. Sssshhhh.
Favorite thing to say – “Wait! What??”
Wait! What??
This is Not About Me
This post is not all about me for some reason.
It’s not even all about Mom. It’s not a birthday party for Mom’s old book, Keep Your Ear on the Ball.
Or her ALMOST new ebook, What If I Don’t.
Today, we want to say “Surprise!” and “Happy Birthday, Pam!” to our bloggy-friend Sammy’s Mom.
If you don’t know Sammy or Pam, you can visit them here. If you want to see ME (and a bunch of bloggy friends) in a special happy birthday video, click below. Hey, wait a minute…maybe this IS about me, after all!
Long Overdue Thank You!
I have received some awards, and would like to thank the people who gave them to me (finally). I have learned that being a blogger made me part of a big, giant, always-growing blogging family of friends, and I LOVE that. If you are reading this and you would like to share any of my awards, please grab the badge and go for it. If you don’t do awards, and would just like to share a smile, see something different, or learn something new – take a minute to visit these special blogs.
My friends at Collies of the Meadow awarded me the Blog of the Year Award. I could add another star to my former badge, if Mom could figure out how. Those collies make so much mischief, they may have stolen the stars. (Ginger is like that, sometimes…) To see the rules for this award, click here.
My friend at Another Boomer Blog gave me the Sunshine Award. She always shows me interesting, unusual photographs (sometimes with Duke, Lou, or Augie). She has such a great eye. Click here to see my answers to the Sunshine questions.
My deep-thinking, profound friend at Wiley’s Wisdom surprised me with a new award, that I never had before. Leave it to Wiley to dig up something brand new – The WordPress Family Blogging Award. Since then, I have also been awarded this honor by SIX more of my cyberfriends. That proves that this is a big family and it keeps growing and growing! Thanks to Granny and Little B. at AngelsWhisper, Chelsea at JennyMac Book Blog, the whole zoo at DogDaz, Buddy, Basil, Nutty, and Nibbles at Hutch A Good Life, Savannah at Savannah’s Paw Tracks and Sue at Kid-Lit Reviews. You all bring us tons of smiles and giggles and great information.
Thanks, friends! xoxo
Five Word Friday
Today’s five words are about important parts.
1. Eyes. When my eye opens, it can look out for danger and treats and toys ….and mischief. When a story opens, it determines whether a reader will continue reading or say, “Whatever…” and go on to something else.
2. Nose. My nose is always on the move – twitching and sniffing and nudging all day. It tells me where my friends are, and helps me find crumbs on the floor, treats in Mom’s pocket, and goose poop. Yum. A story has to keep moving, too. Every single word has to make something happen otherwise, it’s gotta go.
3. Nails. Nails are a problem for me. It’s not just the two-tone colors of them, but also the fact that they keep growing. A story needs to have a problem, and the problem has to keep growing, too. The characters have to spend the whole story trying to make it better, but the problem has to get worse….just like my nails.
4. Ear. My ears stay alert, in case I hear any of my favorite words: dinner, treat, car, out, park, go-get-it, wanna-go, bacon, and kisses. Words in a story need to be playful and sound smooth. They need to tell the story, but show more than tell.
5. Tail. My tail has a mind of its own. It smacks Mom in the face, wags when I see friends, and hides underneath me when I’m afraid. The tail end of a story needs to wrap up what happened, and make the readers feel good.
All those parts (and about ten million more – including a lot of heart) need to fit together just right to make a perfect story. Or a perfect dog.
Cupcake Speaks 