BLOGGY AWARDS!

Day 28 of the WEGO Health Activist Writer's Month Challenge — just 3 more days to go! Today's task is to finish this sentence: "The First Time I..." So I'll tell you about the first time I received a blog award from a fellow blogger.

Michelle (from Ramblings of a Peacock) found me floating in the ethers of the internet last November and gave me a "One Lovely Blog" nod here. Unfamiliar with the concept (and knee-deep in preparing for yet another surgery), I thanked her, promptly posted the award on my blog, and did nothing further. (Technically I'm to nominate 15 newly discovered blogs, and reveal 7 tidbits about myself. You can see why I chose to do nothing!)

But then it happened again. Yesterday, Launna from Letters From Launna gave me "The Versatile Blogger Award." How nice is that?  So I chose "bloggers bestowing bloggers" as my "first time" for two reasons: 
1) It's the first time I've received any kind of anything for blogging; and 
2) neither Michelle nor Launna are cancer survivors. They're both moms who write about things that inspire them. The fact that they found a blog written by someone going through breast cancer interesting and inspiring enough to not only keep reading but to give a bloggy award? Pretty amazing.

I'm bending the rules a bit ... while some of the blogs below are new to me, others I'm listing just 'cause I love 'um. (For more of my favorites, see "Big C Favorites" at left.) I'm also only listing 11 blog winners (rather than 15) for each award because, well, 11 seems like a good number. And I'll spare you the 7 tidbits about me. Each blog below is linked, so feel free to click away!

DRUM ROLL PLEASE.

"ONE LOVELY BLOG AWARD" GOES TO:
1) Yvonne of Time to Consider the Lilies is a transplanted Irishwoman living in Arizona and writing about her breast cancer experience with great grace and wisdom. 
2) Nancy of Nancy's Point fame always has great points to share. She lost her mom to breast cancer and writes of her own BC journey from a lovely lake in Wisconsin.
3) Shortly after Liz of Paw-Paw Salad moved from Sydney to Darwin (in Australia's remote Northern Territory), she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Liz recently started blogging in her special corner of the world; stop by, say hi!
4) Follow Terri at A Fresh Chapter on her Adventure of Hope as she volunteers her way around the globe learning how cancer affects folks in third-world countries.
5) Cynthia of The River and the Sea blogs about life post-inflammatory breast cancer, and compiles a Monday post full of the latest health links.
6) Delightful Rachel at Ticking Time Bombs is a 21-year-old college student in Los Angeles who had a prophylactic mastectomy after testing positive for the BRCA gene. She is experiencing complications from her reconstruction surgery so please show her some bloggy love!
7) Mina at The World According to the Little Fish is a busy mom in Idaho juggling adoption, her husband's health and the recent death of her mom from cancer.  
8) Sandra from Tales of a Golf Gal is a southern mom (and grand mom) who writes about golf, decorating, and her fight with sarcoma.
9) Nancy over at The Pink Underbelly is a BC survivor living in Texas with her family and numerous pets, including a pot-bellied pig. Nancy puts the spunk in spunky!
10) Canadian Carrie at Our Journey blogs about life as a mom of three, complete with caring for her youngest, who was born with a congenital heart defect. Carrie recently had a breast cancer scare. All is B9. (YAY!)

11) Sarah at Being Sarah writes of loss, love, breast cancer — and the healing power of a good British garden.

ANOTHER DRUM ROLL PLEASE.

"THE VERSATILE BLOGGER AWARD" GOES TO:
1)  AnneMarie at Chemo-Brain is a breast cancer survivor with family history who is on a mission: to educate the masses about BC and pink ribbon syndrome. She has more rants than you can shake a New Yawk stick at. Love her!

2) Marie lives in Ireland and is the brains behind Journeying Beyond Breast Cancer, the website that has helped so many BC bloggers discover and connect with one other via her Friday Roundups. Concise, witty and always wise: That's our Marie!
3) Jan at Mourning Has Broken is a former patent attorney turned breast cancer and lymphedema advocate, and a steadfast blogger since 2008. 
4) Shannon at Green Monkey Tales writes from Connecticut with great comedic tension about life in BC land. And it's a delightfully raucous ride!
5) Kathi is The Accidental Amazon! She's also the sass behind the "Grumblers for the Cure" — and there is nothing accidental about her viewpoint. Vim and vigor abound on her breast cancer blog.
6) Stacey at Bringing Up Goliath is a mom writing about breast cancer and loss in all its imperfections and shades of gray.   
7) Alli at Life in Transition blogs about her fight with Stage III breast cancer as she transitions into a new life on her own.
8) Beth at Calling the Shots is a self-described cancer thriver and patient advocate with plenty to teach us on how to stand up for ourselves as patients. 
9) Cathleen over at My Half-Glassed Life lives in South Carolina and writes with wit and wonder about cancer and widowhood.
10) Catherine at Bumpy Boobs is "laughing, chatting, doodling and ranting" about her dance with breast cancer at the age of 27. 
11) Ann at But Doctor... I Hate Pink is fighting the wild west of metastatic breast cancer in California. Her blog chronicles the ups, the downs, the everything in-betweens of life first as a Stage II and now Stage IV patient. Her signature humor is evident in every post. Follow her!