200th Post.... and the birth of the Trainwreck Award!

I was given a really excellent award last week by Missy, at Life in Left Field, that is for "the bloggers who keep it real [that] give me my daily (or almost daily) reality check, no fluff, no bones about it, keepin' it real and tellin' it like it is!" I love the spirit of this badgeless award- Attitude of Gratitude! Thank you so much, Missy! I am supposed to pass it on.... but I was so inspired (and desperately looking for a way to celebrate 200 posts) that I decided to take this award and morph into something BRAND NEW!

In the spirit of putting it all out there, even especially when it is painful, embarassing, or just being totally shameless in the *Too Much Information* department..... I present the freshly minted Trainwreck Award! (details to follow)

I am always so grateful when people think of me for awards and that I have had the opportunity to pass some of those awards along to others. :) I started the Bitchin' Wives Club in September of 2008 and remember how, during those first few months that I was nurturing my fledgling blog into a healthy and bitchin' site, I would absolutely BEAM with pleasure, excitement, and, yes, a bit of pride that someone had noticed my little blog and validated all the time (and heart and tears and laughter) that I put into it. I promised myself that I wouldn't write about all the crap that every mom and wife has to deal with (although some of the more colorful child-rearing events have to be told!), but that I was going to try and share some of the more absurd parts of my life (or just how I have a knack for making things around me just a little bit more crazy exciting than usual), my mad cooking skillz, and some of the more unusual struggles that I have as the parent of a child with ADHD (a mom who then starts therapy and discovers that she herself has ADD). I have tried to write honestly and I share everything hoping that you will get a hearty laugh out of the hilarity that can often be culled from the outrageous behavior of me (an aging party girl still looking for a danceclub) and my three crazy little boys. Thank you for reading along with me during my adventures and for the mountains of support that have helped me through funks, slumps, and the days when it seems like everything is too much to deal with. You all inspire me and keep me going. THANK YOU!

So, I hate picking favorites for passing along awards.... but with this particular award, I'm afraid that the recipient will be the one that hates to be picked! ;-) So, to start this little award on the blog-circuit: if you are reading this post and think that you are a trainwreck, but can say "trainwreck" with a laugh and twinkle in your eye (because it is not meant to be as harsh as it sounds), then this award is for YOU!

Then pass it on to THREE of your favorite disaster-prone, awkward situation-inclined bloggers.

I can't help but point out some of my favorite trainwrecks, though, so here goes: (right after the the verbage to go with the badge)

This award is for the blogs that we like to stop and gawk at every day, time permitting. We just can't get enough of these bloggers' wit, honesty, good humor, and obvious love for spinning a great yarn around the events of their lives, even if they were weeping while it happened a week ago. Life is too short to not laugh at the trials and curiousities that are put before you and these writers get that. In spades. And they aren't afraid to share.

Ann's Rants: Confessions of a Work Week Widow (the ultimate turn-any-shitty-situation-into-a-comedy-routine writer)

Adlibby on the Loose (my trainwreck sister, running an oddly parallel life in Kansas)

Not Too Sticky... (for the trainwreck material she wants to write about)

That One Particular Harbor (because he and I would be such a ginormous trainwreck of laughable proportions if we ever met and there was a bottle of rum and sand in the vicinity)

bern.this (Jessica's video of her trainwreck brazilian wax....totally brilliant. This woman is my idol.)

I Need a Martini Mom (anyone who can get her daughter, that she calls "Bitchy" on her blog, to turn around and LOVE it...???? That is the art of persuasive hilarity)

Lost and Found in India (because she was recently in a car accident that was just as bad as a real life trainwreck- and there isn't a doubt in my mind that she will be back blogging soon with stories of her healing process that will have us wincing one moment and guffawing the next)

And the ultimate TMI blogger... this woman writes about stuff that my family would disown me over, if I was ballsy enough to try it.... She is a legend of Canadian bloggers:
Attack of the Redneck Mommy