Awards and Rewards

View from the balcony of our condo taken just after sunrise

Durango, Colorado - May 22, 2011

I have recently received two blog awards and didn't want to wait any longer to express my appreciation to my two friends who felt this blog worthy of the award. 

My friend, Lori, who was my second follower when I began the blog just over a year ago, gave me this award.   I am so thankful that she sees this blog as honest and real because if that's NOT what I'm achieving, then I don't need to be doing it.  Believe me, at times it's been hard to keep it honest because it would be so much easier to stop or take a "break" when the going gets tough.  But that wasn't my intent when I chose the title, "Gains and Losses."  Through the good and the bad.  I had no idea that within three months, almost to the day, after my first post, you all would help me through the "loss" of my precious father-in-law, nor did I have any idea you would love me through the regaining of weight I had lost between the start of the blog and my FIL's death.  I have learned so much about myself and believe you will continue to hold me up until and long after I am at my goal weight.  I promise to continue being honest and real as I share with you my gains and losses.

The only requirement for this award was to pass it along to someone I felt deserved it for the honesty and reality found in their blog.  One of my favorite bloggers is Dawne who blogs at It's My Time.  I came upon Dawne's blog shortly after I began my own and we've supported each other since then.  Dawne lost a tremendous amount of weight in a short amount of time through clean eating.  She then hit a plateau which lasted forever even with complete adherence to her eating plan.  Then the weight started coming off again just before the holidays.  Since then she, like many of us, have struggled with a slight regain and finding the motivation to shed the remaining pounds.  I absolutely love her blog, her writing style and most of all, her complete honesty about how she's feeling and what she's thinking.  It's a long way to Canada, but I'd sure love to meet her in person and share our stories face to face!

This was given to me by Joy who blogs at Nuggets of Truth.  I truly appreciate this award as I can assure you that my real-world friends would call me anything other than stylish.  So I'm glad Joy must see something in my writing that she considers stylish.  I'm going to cheat a bit and link back to a previous post where I told you seven things about me.  And I'm going to wait until I'm back home and have more time to think about it before I pass the award along to the 15 (if I'm remembering correctly) other bloggers the award requires. 

Thanks again, to both of you.  You are very special to me!!

We are in week two of Bill and Sharon's Summer Trip 2011.  I have added some updates to the travel journal I am keeping, so follow the link if you are interested in keeping up with us.  I'll leave you with a couple of my favorite pictures so far.

Garden of the Gods with Pikes Peak in the background

Colorado Springs, CO - May 16, 2011

Morning walk along the Animas River Trail

Durango, CO - May 22, 2011

Mesa Verde National Park 

Mancos, Colorado - May 23, 2011

Today we HIKE!!