Well, life has a way of surprising you! 

As most of you know, I was nominated for the Homeschool Blog Awards in the Best New Homeschool Blog category.  I rose to first place, then Laura at 10 million miles, climbed steadily ahead and passed me in the late (early?) hours of November 22!   She has an awesome blog and really worked hard (as did her ardent supporters!)

So imagine my surprise to get a comment from Laura the other day that I had actually won!!!!  In ways I don't pretend to understand (hey, I can do a lot of crazy things with my blog, but that doesn't mean I understand  it all!!!), some of her votes were disqualified, which made me the winner!

Now, I'm sad for her, because, like I said, she and her family and friends worked hard to bring her from last place to first!   And please do check out her blog (linked above---click on the name), because she really has a nice one!   (And Laura, you have NOTHING to be embarrassed about!   ).

And really, winner or not, the main point of it all was to get our blogs out there so we could find more "friends" to bless, encourage, and make smile!   In THAT respect, we are ALL winners!  

Thank you, Laura, for being the first one to let me know!  For being so gracious and sweet about what was certainly a disappointment for you!   I hope you noticed I added you to my friends so others can find you when they visit here!

Thank you, everyone who voted for me!

And I hope some of you who are visiting for the first time (or did because of the blog award contest) come back and are encouraged!

So, here's my official "button" (that I can't figure out how to get on the side in my template...but I will ONE of these days!!!   )

Blessings!