Just a little gold among friends

Lisa Ricard Claro is a recent writer blogger friend that I found doing the Stony River writing meme. (Lisa now hosts her own meme, Writing in the Buff on Fridays.)  Like me, Lisa's blog revolves around a variety of topics-I connect and laugh with her over family posts, then marvel at her word usage and creativity in her writing memes. She is definitely a word master, and I am in awe... Thank you Lisa for your kindness and friendship!

The Lucky recipient of the award must do the following:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award.

2. Write a post and include the image of the award, a link to the person's blog who gave it to you, and a link to Write Wild. (Christie Wright is the original creator of this award.  Copy and paste the rules in your post.)

3. Award four bloggers this award and tell why each is a Pot-O-Gold! (If you receive this award more than once, you only have to forward it the first time.)

4. Share four simple things about yourself: 1-a time you had to exercise FAITH, 2-something you HOPE for, 3-something (or someone) you LOVE, and 4-a time when you felt LUCK.

Narrowing my favorite bloggers down to just four seemed pretty daunting, so I thought I would tackle the questions first.

Faith: The moment where I needed the most faith was right after finishing my senior year of college. (I was a transfer student-on the 4 1/2 year plan-and needed to finish my student teaching in the fall.) I took a job as a camp counselor at a summer camp up in the Pocono Mountains, but I only finished three weeks before I was involved in a horrendous car accident.

We all had the night off and were heading to a local eatery-I was in a car with three other counselors instead of taking the camp bus, and we were hit head on by a van driving on the wrong side of the road. It totaled the little Chevette we were riding in, killing Andie, our driver. I was the front passenger and I broke my nose, severed an ear, severed my liver (from the seat belt Andie made me wear!), broke my left wrist in two places, broke my right ankle in two places, broke my right fibula, and my right tibia. One girl in the back was thrown from the car and sustained head, arm, and leg injuries, and the other girl in the back just about crushed her right arm and sustained massive facial lacerations.

The doctor's told my parents that if I had broken my leg like this just five years earlier, I never would have walked again. With a lot of faith and sheer stubbornness, my father’s, and mine, I walked without support in 9 months! (He would wheel me down our road and then strap me in my walker-it was fitted with a sling to cradle my arm-and make me walk.) I may be wired together like a bionic woman, but I walk and run (okay, maybe I don’t run, but that’s just because I don’t like to run-sorry Molly!)

Hope and Love: I'm going to do both of these as a "two-fer" since they revolve around my kids.

• I hope to give my kids the best childhood I can.
  
• I hope that they never give in, never give up, stay true to themselves, and create success in their lives.
  
• I love them dearly, and they will always be my "best thing."
  

Luck: I see luck in different ways :

• It was lucky that I found my other brown sock Friday morning
  
• It's lucky when I don't get behind a certain bus on the way to school-I did on Friday :(
  
• It's lucky that my husband and I still like one another (loving is the easy part, but liking can sometimes be tough!) after 20 years of marriage.
  
• It's lucky that I broke my nose in the accident. It looks better now.

Now for the tough part-awarding other bloggers.  I used these blogger's last posts as the deciding point.  Here are my selections:

Kelly, from My Voice My View and Write With Pictures. Kelly is both writer and mom blogger whose main blog is filled with color, both visually and emotionally-her postings consist of hysterical day-to-day musings as well as thought provoking poetry and prose. In her second blog she provides pictures and prompts to inspire creative writing in others.

Mom of the Perpetually Grounded I know MOTPG's real identity because we've shared an endless streaming of e-mails when one of us hits on a topic that makes the other laugh. I love going to MOTPG's site because her writing can make me laugh or make me cry quicker than anyone!

Shelly at Tropical Mum is the blogger I follow from down under, and who is always confusing me on Twitter when she tweets about getting ready to go for a swim and I'm tweeting about going to bed! I love her candor and wit, and reading her blog is like reading Erma Bombeck, a woman who truly knew how to find the humor in anything!

And Amy, from Where A Woman Shakes Her Tablecloth. Her blog is about the trials of raising two boys only a couple years apart, but so very different. I have laughed out loud on some occasions and wished I could make her a cup of coffee on others-she definitely knows how to pull at the old heart strings!

Well, I'd better go to bed before I erase my faith section-I don't often reveal information about that accident unless I'm asked, and since not too many know, I don't get asked...  Goodnight all!