Sweetness!

This morning seems to have the makings of a nice day. I'm sitting here with a plate of scrambled eggs with cheese & one of my favorite Prague coffee mugs full of wake-me-up goodness. The dogs followed me downstairs & then promptly went back to sleep, close to me. The sun is starting to come up outside & I can even hear a bird chirp once in a while! It's a miracle that the snow has been melting the past few days, & I could just jump for joy at the sight of clear roads & ice-free sidewalks! Hooray!

And on top of that, I received a blog award this morning from Sara @ Le Petit Village! How sweet!  Irresistibly Sweet, actually!  Thank you so much, dear!  I'm adding it to my awards page promptly!  And to my list of reasons why this morning has been good :)

And to carry on the sweetness that this award has brought to me, I now pass it on to the following wonderful blog owner:

Chantal @ A Blog A Day While You're Away:  You can guess what Chantal & I have in common!  Except she lives in sunny Hawaii while I'm here in snowy Germany!  But we're both {im}patiently awaiting our husbands' return this year!  You're doing great, girlie!

On top of all that, today starts month 8 of this deployment.  MONTH EIGHT!  The thought of being this far along seemed so unattainable when we were first beginning this unhappy 12 months apart.  But now here we are!  And although the end seems an eternity away, I know we'll be there before we know it, looking back on the year & wondering how quickly time went by.  Or at least I hope that's how it will be! 

Oh Italy! + New Award & Blog Troubles

Bongiorno! I've returned from my fabulous trip to Italy, & yes...it was fabulous indeed! The food, the sights, the company, the shopping, the bargaining, the wine! I have so much to post, but the Italian Riviera will have to wait until tomorrow...  It's late & I haven't loaded any of my photos to the laptop yet.  Plus, I have a few other things to share today!

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I've received another Blog Award!  All of this attention has got me blushing & feeling quite popular!  :)  Thank you so much to It's Something Beautiful for making me feel so special!

Apparently, there are a few little rules that go along this award, so I will abide by them!

1. Thank the person who gave you the award

2. Share seven things about you

3. Nominate 15 newly discovered blogs

4. Let your nominees know about the award!

Seven Things About Myself

1.  I've known my wonderful sweet husband since 6th Grade!

2.  I'd love to become an Interior Decorator, but my heart dreams of becoming a Mother ♥

3. When I was young, I couldn't even last at Church camp or slumber parties.  Now, I live in Germany!

4.  Peonies are my favorite flower.  Many from my Mom's garden were included in my wedding bouquet!

5.  Oh, how I love to read!

6.  I really like old movies.  Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart, Gregory Peck...  I'm watching "To Catch A Thief" right now!

7.  When I was younger, my brother & I saved up our change for so long hoping to be able to buy a puppy.  We never succeeded, but look at me now: I own two Great Danes!

And The Nominees Are...

1.  Life Of Meg

2.  My Army Wife Life

3.  ACU's, Stiletto Shoes, and Pretty Pink Tutus

4.  ~Life After College~ 

5.  In Every Good Love Letter There's a Soldier and His Girl

6.  The Ditzy Diaries 

7.  Me and My SoldierMan 

8.  pink wallpaper

9.  The SoHo 

10.  High-Heeled Foot in the Door 

11.  Hope Studios 

12.  flourish design + style 

13.  A CUP OF JO

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On another note, have any of you Firefox users been having trouble commenting on Blogger blogs?  Well, I have.  Last week, all of a sudden, any blog with an embedded contact form {the one where a new window doesn't pop up when you click "Leave A Comment"} is causing my problems!  I've done a lot of searching around to find a fix for this & all I seem to find is this: blog owners should switch from embedded comment forms to pop-up window comment forms in order to ensure that everyone can leave a comment.  Hmm, I'm hoping that this problem goes away on its own, but I wanted to see if anyone is having this same problem.  And to those of you whose blog I usually comment on, I'm sorry I haven't been heard from lately!  It's not that I'm not reading your posts ♥

And so, now that I am back in the Mother Land, I must leave behind my "arrivederci" & take back my lovely Bavarian "tschuss"!  Until tomorrow, when I will tell you all about my Italian trip!

Great Dane Wednesdays // Beautiful Award

Welcome again to my new readers! Woohoo! You all are fantastic!

While waiting for a call from Don last night, I decided to head to Post to run some errands & go to the Gym. Good for me, right? Well, I turned my phone on silent while I worked out & you can guess what happened... Yep, he called about an hour later. I'm never silencing my phone again! Thankfully, we Skype chatted a bit today & he's doing great! Call attempt #2 tonight :)

Yep, I've thought up another one: Wednesdays will now showcase my two snuggle buddies {my third is temporarily away!}, together giving me 250 pounds of love & attention!  So, every Wednesday you can expect a picture or two of them, something interesting about Danes, etc.!  { Good idea, or no?  You tell me! }  If you haven't done so yet, you can check out my page about Layla & Lucius that explains how {& why!} we adopted them in the last year.  They really have brought a lot of happiness into our home, & what a wonderful feeling being able to take in a doggie who needs care.  Yes, they're huge.  Yes, they eat a lot.  Yes, they could be fitted with a saddle & scheduled to run at Churchill Downs!  {We call Layla our Pony & Lucius is now moving on to Horse status!  This boy is gonna be big!  We're talkin' around 185!}  But despite their size, they are little dogs at heart.  ♥  They love to sit on our laps.  They're scared of the vacuum cleaner.  They're usually most nervous around little dogs!  So here are some recent photos of my big babies!

Yes, that is drool on Lucius' head.  Those big mouths tend to hold in big drool, which tends to migrate :)

I think that they miss Don.  Lucius, especially, is very snuggly & needy of attention.  I put a bed beside the table I keep the laptop on & he stays right there close to me  ♥  Layla keeps watch for him at the back door.  This is the way he always comes into the house when he gets home from work...  I know they want him home too.  In fact, while writing this, they each {more than once!} climbed into my lap!!  Just with their front legs, mind you.  Phew!

See, they're just big cuddly dogs!

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I'd like to thank JessRaquel for awarding me with the Beautiful Blogger Award!  Thank you so much, dear!  This is my first award & I really appreciate it!  I would like to pass this along to my good friend at Life of Meg because her blog, too, is beautiful!

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Happy Wednesday, everyone!  I hope that your week is going oh so well & that the rest of it is even better than the start!