A Very Nice Surprise – The One Lovely Blog Award

Last week I received a very nice surprise. I was nominated for the "One Lovely Blog Award" by Randy Seaver, author of Genea-Musings.

Here are the rules for this award:

1. Thank the person who nominated you and link to that blog
2. Share Seven things about yourself 
3. Nominate 15 bloggers you admire (or as many as you can think of!)
4. Contact your bloggers to let them know that you've tagged them for the One Lovely Blog Award

Thank You

Thank you so much Randy! I truly am honored to be nominated by you!

Seven Things About Me

1. I'm the oldest of three children. I have two younger brothers.
2. I was named after my father, Jan Albert Iverson. His first name plus the first initial of his middle name equals my name, Jana.
3. I used to watch football with my dad when I was growing up and actually used to play tag football with the neighborhood kids. I still like football to this day and enjoy watching college football with my husband.
4. When I was a kid, my brothers and I, and other neighborhood kids, would ride our bikes to a creek that was behind a nearby elementary school. We would play there and catch crawdads (crayfish) and pollywogs (tadpoles). We would also play lots of games outside during the summer with the neighborhood kids. Those were such fun and carefree days! My brothers and I knew it was time to come home when my dad would whistle.
5. I got my first job the summer after I graduated from high school. I got a job at Standard Oil/Chevron Corporation at their corporate office building in the financial district in San Francisco, California. I worked in the Word Processing Department. I took several business courses in high school, including four years of typing. I can still type at a pretty fast speed to this day. My latest online typing test score was 87 words per minute. While at the Word Processing Department, I worked as a Typist, Senior Typist, Word Processing Operator, Data Entry Clerk, Proofreader, Computer Operator, and I even worked for a brief time in the Photo-Typesetting Department. Before I got married, I was able to take some educational leave so I could attend Brigham Young University. I worked at Standard Oil/Chevron Corporation until my husband and I had our first child.
6. While I attended Brigham Young University, I took ballroom dance classes. I love dancing!
7. While my husband was completing his Electrical Engineering degree at U.C. Davis, I had my own little typing business for a while. I was a stay-at-home mom, but this was a way to earn a little extra money for the family. We had two small children by the time my husband graduated. My typing business was called "The Last Word" typing service. (Yes, a play on our last name, haha!) My clients were college students.

15 Bloggers I Admire

Oh, this is a hard one. There are so many awesome blogs out there. It's quite difficult to choose only 15. Thankfully, because I write a weekly Fab Finds post, I still have the chance to feature many of the wonderful blogs I follow and admire in future Fab Finds posts.

Also, I know some fellow bloggers don't really appreciate receiving awards. I hope they won't mind if I nominate them anyway, since I do admire their blogs. With that said, here's my list (in no particular order):

1. Jollett Etc. by Wendy Mathias
2. A Southern Sleuth by Michelle Ganus Taggart
3. Growing Little Leaves by Emily Kowalski Schroeder
4. Mexican Genealogy by Moises Garza
5. The Legal Genealogist by Judy G. Russell
6. Grace and Glory by Becky Jamison
7. Ancestors in Aprons by VeraMarie  Badertscher
8. Are My Roots Showing? by Jenny Lanctot
9. DNAeXplained - Genetic Genealogy by Roberta Estes
10. Genealogy With Valerie by Valerie Hughes
11. The People of Pancho by Leslie G. Robertson
12. Who Knew? by Debi Austen
13. Genealogy à la carte by Gail Dever
14. Organize Your Family History by Janine Adams
15. No Story Too Small by Amy Johnson Crow

Contact Bloggers 

I will be contacting the fifteen bloggers on my list, unless they see this post and contact me first.

Thanks again Randy for nominating my blog for the "One Lovely Blog Award!"

And thank you to all of my wonderful readers. I appreciate you stopping by and reading my blog. And thank you for your comments too. I know your time is precious, so the fact that you take the time to read and leave comments means so much to me.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

© 2014 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved

Three Blog Awards, Kindly Given

Within the last few days, my blog has been nominated for three different blog awards!  What a fun and humbling surprise!  I am quite honored to receive these awards from my fellow bloggers.

The initial happiness at receiving these awards soon evolved into a bit of anguish about who I would subsequently nominate or "pay the honor forward."

I really don't want to hurt anyone else's feelings by not nominating their blog.  There are so many deserving bloggers out there and I hate leaving anyone out.

With this in mind, I hope my fellow bloggers who have not been nominated by me at this time will accept a well-deserved honorary award nomination.

Yvonne at Yvonne's Genealogy Blog has given me the great honor of nominating my blog for the Wonderful Team Member Readership Award.  Thank you Yvonne!



The creator of this award said, “As bloggers, we are also readers. That is a part of blogging as listening is a part of speaking."

RULES:

(i) Don’t forget to thank the nominator and link back to their site as well;
(ii) Display the award logo on your blog;
(iii) Nominate no more than fourteen readers of your blog you appreciate and leave a comment on their blogs to let them know about the award;
(iv) Finish this sentence: “A great reader is…”

"A great reader is one who takes the time to read the words of others, and then replies with words of kindness and encouragement."

The following award nominees have consistently left kind and encouraging comments on my blog. 

1. Celia at Twigs and Trees
2. Mariann at Into the Briar Patch
3. Debi at Who Knew?
4. Laura at Branch and Leaf...a family history blog

There are so many other bloggers who have also done the same. And for that I thank them too.



My blog was also nominated to receive the Liebster Blog Award.  Liebster in German means "dearest."  How sweet is that?  Thank you Laura at Branch and Leaf...a family history blog for this honor.




I had never heard of this blog award.  After doing a little research, I found that there are differing rules accompanying this award.  Some require that the nominee answer a set of questions.  But I found another that doesn't mention any questions.  I think I'll go with the no-questions set of rules.

Liebster rules:

1. Thank the one who nominated you by linking back.
2. Nominate five blogs with less than 200 followers.
3. Let the nominees know by leaving a comment at their sites.
4. Add the award image to your site.

So, here are my nominees for the Liebster, or "Dearest" Blog Award (in no particular order):

1. Shelley Bishop at http://www.asenseoffamily.com/
2. Kathy at http://www.abbieandeveline.com/
3. Michelle at A Southern Sleuth
4. Cindy at http://rosehavencottage.blogspot.com/
5. Nancy at http://nancysfamilyhistoryblog.blogspot.com/

The third award my blog was nominated for is the Blog of The Year 2012 Award.  Thank you Sue at Family History Fun for this great honor!



The ‘rules’ for this award are simple: 1. Select the blog(s) you think deserve the ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award.

2. Write a blog post and tell us about the blog(s) you have chosen – there’s no minimum or maximum number of blogs required – and ‘present’ them with their award.

3. Please include a link back to this page ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award – http://thethoughtpalette.co.uk/our-awards/blog-of-the-year-2012-award/ and include these ‘rules’ in your post (please don’t alter the rules or the badges!)

4. Let the blog(s) you have chosen know that you have given them this award and share the ‘rules’ with them.

5. If you choose, you can now join our Facebook group – click ‘like’ on this page ‘Blog of the Year 2012’ Award Facebook group and then you can share your blog with an even wider audience.

6. As a winner of the award – please add a link back to the blog that presented you with the award – and then proudly display the award on your blog and sidebar … and start collecting stars for every time you are nominated. For further information on collecting stars, just click on the link provided in Rule 3.

So, without further ado, here are my nominees for this award (in no particular order).

1. Jen at http://ancestralbreezes.blogspot.com/
2. Gini at http://www.ginisology.com/
3. Jacqi at A Family Tapestry

Please take a moment to visit the blogs I've nominated for these three awards.  They are very well written and enjoyable to read.

Thanks for reading!

Jana

Copyright © Jana Last 2013

Illuminating Blogger Award

Susan at Family History Fun has nominated my blog for the Illuminating Blogger Award, which is presented by Food Stories.

Thank you Susan for this amazing honor!  I am very grateful for your kindness in considering my blog for this award.

The rules for the award are (quoted from the Food Stories blog):

If you are nominated then you have been awarded the Illuminating Blogger Award. Just follow the steps below:

1. The nominee should visit the award site (http://foodstoriesblog.com/illuminating-blogger-award/) and leave a comment indicating that they have been nominated and by whom. (This step is so important because it’s the only way that we can create a blogroll of award winners).
2. The Nominee should thank the person that nominated them by posting & including a link to their blog.
3. The Nominee should include a courtesy link back to the official award site (http://foodstoriesblog.com/illuminating-blogger-award/) in their blog post.
4. Share one random thing about yourself in your blog post.
5. Select at least five other bloggers that you enjoy reading their illuminating, informative posts and nominate them for the award. Many people indicate that they wish they could nominate more so please feel free to nominate all your favorites.
6. Notify your nominees by leaving a comment on their blog, including a link to the award site (http://foodstoriesblog.com/illuminating-blogger-award/).

Well, per rule 5, I’m supposed to share one random thing about myself.  Actually, I’ll share two random things.

First random thing:  While attending BYU when I was a young single adult, I tried out for the Ballroom Dance Team.  Did I make the team?  Nope.  I did make the first cut though.  Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained right?

Second random thing:  So the other random thing about myself isn’t that extraordinary.  In my spare time I enjoy reading.  Who are some of my favorite authors?  The photo I’ve included will give you a hint.  I took this photo while taking a photography class at our local community college back in 2008.

Yes, you’ve guessed it, some of my favorite authors are Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis.  I also adore books by Lucy Maude Montgomery.

 Here are the five blogs I’d like to nominate for the Illuminating Blogger Award:

1. Rosehaven Cottage by Cindy Garber Iverson
2. Ancestral Breezes by Jen Baldwin 
3. Ancestors Live Here by Leslie Ann
4. Climbing My Family Tree by  Jennifer
5. Abbie and Eveline by Kathy

There are so many other blogs I enjoy...I wish I could just nominate all my genealogy blogger friends, but that list would be way too long.

Thanks again Susan for nominating my blog.  I appreciate your kindness!

Thanks for reading!

Jana


© 2012 Copyright by Jana Last, All Rights Reserved