Page Updated January 17, 2024
Welcome to my blog. Thanks for visiting.
Hi, my name is Marsha Ingrao. I appreciate knowing someone’s real name right off. I hope you do too.
Story Chat: Online Literary Conversations: a Series of Short Stories and Ruminations is my first experience as an editor. Previous works include a chapter in This Is How We Grow (2023) by Yvette Prior and Images of America: Woodlake – Arcadia Publishing (August 13, 2015), available on Amazon. She has blogged since 2012. In addition, I have had numerous poems and articles published.
I earned a Bachelor of Arts, Teaching, and Administrative Credentials from Fresno State University. As a bilingual teacher, she earned a CLAD Certificate. While employed at Tulare County Office of Education, I earned her Master’s in Curriculum and Instruction from Fresno Pacific University.
I believe in life-long learning. Today, I remains active as a blogger, writer, photographer, history buff, and curriculum designer.
I grew up in Indiana and Oregon, moved as an adult to Colorado with my first husband Mark (now deceased) , then near the Giant Sequoias. Currently, I live in Arizona, with my second husband and cat.
First Family
I have a younger brother in Portland, OR. Like me, Randy and his wife have no children. Our parents, both only children, and their parents and grandparents have passed.
Retirement 2012 From Education
George Washington set the example. He stepped aside after he served as President for two terms. Good thinking! I retired before anyone had a chance to say out loud to me that I was too old for my job.
Blogger Meetups
I began the next phase of my life. I had always wanted to be a writer. Now I blog. I got a contract for a book right after starting my blog. I love meeting up with blogging friends. We have a group of Arizona bloggers and friends that meets monthly generally in the valley. Usually we eat, but sometimes we take photography field trips.
Connect With Me
- Email: alwayswrite01@gmail.com
- Manny’s Blog
- Blogger Woodlake & History
- FB Home
- FB Page
- Twitter @MarshaIngrao
- Tumblr
Now it’s your turn.
Introduce yourself and share your About Page link with me.
Marsha Ingrao - Always Write 
254 responses to “About Me”
What an interesting “About Me,” Marsha. I enjoyed finding out more about your interesting and varied life.
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Yes, I’ve had various varied lives during my life. I think interesting may be pushing it somewhat. Plodding, planned, maintained, but definitely not edgy like jumping out of airplanes exciting, or climbing mountains, or even sailing around the world in a boat. Basically I’m a good, solid coward. 🙂
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No.. you took a lot of risks and didn’t settle..Did varied things that interested you and did them well. Anyone who goes back to college in their mid-thirties is not a coward.
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You are sweet. Just don’t ask me to repel off a mountain!
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I won’t ask you if you won’t ask me.
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Sounds like a plan, my friend. What would you like to do, though? It would be fun to plan something other bloggers could join in doing or we could do together online.
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Hi, Marsha, I love your page and your blog. What a great story you tell, and I appreciate your thoughts on why you retired when you did. For me, it was essentially the same. Better to leave with everyone still smiling 😉
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Amen to that! Thanks for the lovely comment, Marie. 🙂
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Marsha, a wonderful about page and I feel I know you so well from your introduction here! Wow! You have covered so much and I was drawn into your life from the very start. What shines through is your love of life, your positive energy and your friendly nature. You have great insight into yourself, your lives and all those around you. I look forward to reading your posts and becoming a little part of your world in the great community on WP. Wishing you all well. xx
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Wow, I’m honored by your words. I look forward to getting better acquainted with you as well. I was impressed with what you said to Natalie, and it was no surprise that your blog reflected the person making those comments. 🙂 Thanks again for playing a part in Natalie’s interview tomorrow. I think the quotes from her followers adds so much!
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I can’t believe I’ve never read this before! I feel as if I’ve known you forever, but at a distance, if you know what I mean. 🙂 🙂 I’m stopping by today primarily to let you know I got your email and to apologise for my tardiness. I will reply in the next day or two but I did want to give some thought to your questions and I do seem to’ve been pretty busy lately. A poor organiser- I think you can definitely say that. Or easily distracted 🙂 Anyway, you come across as a lovely person, Marsha, and I’ll be in touch soon.
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Thank you so much, Jo, I know exactly what you mean. When I post an interview, I get much better acquainted because I spend time on someone’s blog. It’s a lovely time. I also spend more time reading comments. Yes, it takes time, but I have more of that now, and in spite of leaving my friends, I’m never lonely because I have virtual friends world-wide. 🙂 I’ll look forward to publishing your interview – no rush. I’m not on a schedule since I ask people to participate as I go along. 🙂 Have a great day, Jo. 🙂
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Dear Marsha Ingrao,
What a pleasure it is to read your “About” page! I shall take the time to read it a second time later. In return for letting me know so much about you, here is a post through which you can get to know me (and my mother) a lot more:
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Thank you, Khai. Thank you for sending me this wonderful article. It took a long time to read, and I know I missed some of it, but it was thoroughly enjoyable and lovely.
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Dear Marsha Ingrao,
Hello! I shall respond to your long and excellent comment at my post entitled “💬 Misquotation Pandemic and Disinformation Polemic: 🧠 Mind Pollution by Viral Falsity 🦠” at https://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2020/12/19/misquotation-pandemic-and-disinformation-polemic-mind-pollution-by-viral-falsity/ with a bespoke reply as soon as I can, as I still have a number of errands to attend to.
Meanwhile, there are plenty of posts and pages on my website to whet your appetite. Please feel free to savour their high degrees of interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity stylishly presented to your heart’s content.
I would like to wish you and Vince as well as your dog and five cats a wonderful festive season. May you find the rest of 2020 and the New Year very much to your liking and highly conducive to your writing, thinking and blogging!
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I wish you the same, Sound Eagle. I will enjoy reading you post later. It’s past my bedtime and I think my eyes might dry up. 🙂
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I Marsha. Greetings from Cincinnati. I started blogging in August 2008, and finally stopped in Feb 2020 after over 2300 posts. However, I resurrected on a new blog this past October. I too am retired … got to love it!
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Thanks for the comment, Frank. You are truly prolific. My dad used to travel to Cincinnati for work when I was a kid. He designed furnaces and air conditioners fir Bryant Mfg, Carrier Corp. I’ll check out your new blog.
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I’m only 19 posts in … but hey – experience has taught me well. The old blog was eclectic – the new one has a common theme. Nice change of pace.
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Mine is relatively eclectic. I tried to focus and was unhappy with the results. I guess focus is not my strength. My focus is on hobby blogging which is pretty eclectic. Best wishes with your new blog. I hope you didn’t destroy your first blog!!!
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The new one is actually eclectic, just in a different way. I invite you to stop by … just like one. The first blog still exists, Here’s my last post. https://afrankangle.wordpress.com/2020/02/04/on-the-finale/ I actually did a 5-part closing, which you can see in the sidebar (Recent Posts). I’m going to send you another link that I think fits what you do. https://afrankangle.wordpress.com/2020/02/04/on-the-finale/
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I think it is eclectic. Any time you open yourself up to “thoughts” then they are going to be all over the map. I love the beach, so you can’t go wrong as far as I am concerned. 🙂
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How’s this – Eclectic in terms of content – Homogeneous in terms of style and voice.
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Agreed
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I enjoyed your finale. That was a good way to close it out without deleting it. My sense of happiness with blogging has returned since I discovered a purpose in hobby blogging. It has an important place in people’s life. I think your “The Puzzle’s Last Piece” made that clear. “I enjoy research. I enjoy writing. I enjoy interacting with visitors. To me, those are very important factors of blogging. I try to practice what I believe. If someone takes the time to comment, I feel obligated to be welcoming and reply with something meaningful. Then again, that’s time consuming – let alone reciprocating and visiting my favorite blogs.” I hope that you will continue to reciprocate here, Frank. I just started a new challenge, which I think will fit you well on Wednesdays. Either way, whether you participate with us or not, I’ve enjoyed our chatting together. Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
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Marsha … Many thanks for not only reading the finale, but also for understanding what I was saying. Regarding your Wednesday, now I’m curious … and hopefully time works in my favor tomorrow to stop by. Thanks for the invite. I’ve got the feeling we are like-minded – to me, a good thing. So hey – if you have an idea where I can help, let me know.
Thanks for dropping by BWR … I’ll reply soon. My two favorites are the Moon (#18) and Horizons (#7).
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I’ll check them out. 🙂 Thanks Frank. It’s been a pleasure to get to know you.
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I wrote a post about the blogging blues (linked in the first paragraph). The comments were so good, I turned them into a 5-part series about blogging. This link is to the fifth, but the others are at the end of the post. https://afrankangle.wordpress.com/2015/07/26/on-writing-for-blogs/
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Very nice, Frank. I left you a comment on your blog. I’m glad you haven’t deleted it.
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Several bloggers asked me to keep it up. Not that I was considering taking it down, but they sealed the deal. Besides, I was thinking just maybe there’s something in here that someone will use.
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It’s part of who you are. When I was going to destroy my Always Write self-hosted blog, my friend Sally suggested that I download it to my old blog and save the content. It’s been a messy process, but I had years of work poured into the site. You may rework some of your 2,000+ articles. It’s enough to keep you busy for the rest of your life if you run out of things to do! 🙂
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PS: Thanks for letting me know a Cincinnati connection in your life!
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Thanks for contacting me.
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Hi Marsha,
It is good to call you friend – and also to read your words. You have talent at putting nouns with verbs, and a personality that shines on your pages. I look forward to more!
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Thanks, Steve. We are going to miss our church family. The good news is that we can go to church inside here in AZ. We didn’t make it today, but we plan to attend regularly at the Nazarene Church in Prescott.
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Steve, here is the link to my short storying. You will find a little about our discussion on bullying. If you already read it, I apologize. https://tchistorygal.net/2020/11/26/story-chat-jennys-bumpy-start/
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Hey! How’s things.. It’s been a while since Blogging University (Class of 2014) Cheers from Ireland 🙂
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Cheers to you, Swav.
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Hi Marsha
Thank you for visiting my blog.
I enjoyed reading your bio and how you have taken on the challenges that life has brought you.
I’m very glad Charli Mills of Carrot Ranch “introduced” you to us Ranchers at her site! 😊
All the best for the days ahead.
Saifun.
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Hi Saifun, thank you for that sweet comment. I’m glad that Charli introduced us as well. I have a feeling we will be good friends. 🙂
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Nice to meet you, Marsha. I am meeting you via Terri’s blog. You have a interesting, beautiful blog and I have subscribed to it. I look forward to reading more. 🙂 Erica
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Hi Erika, Thanks for the compliment and for visiting via Terri. She’s been a good blogging friend for several years now. She does such a great service for the blogging community. I’ve used several of her free photos in my posts. She is such a great photographer and very generous. Thanks again for stopping by. I look forward to getting better acquainted. 🙂 Marsha
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Enjoyed your bio and your turn of phrase.
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Thank you so much, Irene. I’ve been around a while! 🤪
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Wonderful service, thanks!
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Thank you so much.
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Hi Marsha, thanks for popping over to my blog Kyrosmagica and leaving such a lovely, message. Really appreciate it. Lovely to discover your blog today. 🙂
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Thanks, and lovely to discover yours. You are doing a great thing for writers and bloggers. I want to help out however I can. 🙂
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Oh thanks Marsha, that’s great. Do you want to join the group?
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What are the rules and responsibilities? I think I’d love to if you don’t mind if I’m a flake sometimes. My schedule gets crammed sometimes.
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It’s run by me so it’s going to be a pretty chilled group. Lol…. If you could share in the idea in principal, supporting authors, loving books, posting occasional links re: reviews to the club FB page or author interviews, etc. That kind of thing. Nothing too time consuming. Basically sharing what you already do via the club, and making new blogging friends. 🙂
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It’s run by me so it’s going to be a pretty chilled and haphazard group. Lol…. If you could share in the idea in principal, supporting authors, loving books, posting occasional links re: reviews to the club FB page or author interviews, etc. That kind of thing. Nothing too time consuming. Basically sharing whatever posts you want to via the club and or liking other members posts. Just a bit of fun!
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I’d love to, then! How fun! 🙂
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Great I’ll include you on the next post Marsha. Thanks for joining. 🙂
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How exciting! 🙂
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🙂
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So great to meet you Marsha. Glad you dropped by my blog so that I could find you here. I look forward to exploring more of your blog, which looks absolutely wonderful by the way. Seems we have a lot in common. Cheers!
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That’s what I thought from what Carol said. 😀😀😀😀
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How wonderful! 😄
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The “My Family link isn’t working.
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Thanks for letting me know!!! Technology!!!
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I know!!
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Marsha, this is a terrific about page!! Adoring that pic of you with “Not Vince!”
I’m totally blow away by all your opportunities to connect!!
Melinda
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Thank you so much, Melinda. That means a lot!
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You’re welcome, Marsha my friend.
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Hi Marsha, I’ve just discovered your blog and I anticipate spending lots of time here. You’re answering the questions I’ve been asking myself…..and some I didn’t even know how to ask. Thank you!
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Thank you so much! You just made my day. My computer and I are having issues this morning. 🙂
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Ah yes, computer issues. I know them well. Here’s hoping yours are resolved shortly.
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Thanks! It’s just slow- trying to upload a video. 😳😳😳 You know how obstinate large files are! Nobody wants them unless you upgrade. 😀😀
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Indeed. Oh, btw, the polldaddy attachment is just jiberish?
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Thanks, I’ll check it. 😜😜😜😜
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Hi Jenda, Are you talking about the poll on the artist post? I just checked it, and it looks ok. Each picture is numbered and has a name, is that the one?
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Replied in the thread on your page….
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Hi again Marsha, this is the link. It is just line after line of text on my screen. (I don’t see it on your page)
https://polldaddy.com/js/rating/rating.js
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Thanks, I’ll check it.
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I enjoy your blog!
I have nominated you for the three days three quotes challenge. If you decide to participate, the rules and the nomination link are provided here: https://milspouseprose.com/2016/10/25/the-third-of-three-days-three-quotes-henry-cate-vii/
Thank you!
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Thanks, Tricia!
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Very nice to meet you, Marsha! I will have to come back again.
Lily
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Awesome. I enjoy chatting. 🙂
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Hi Marsha, I nominated you for the 3 Days, 3 Quotes Challenge. I’m publishing the post Wed at 7am PDT. The instructions are in the post. You are not obligated to participate. Take care 🙂
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Hi Terri, I don’t think I saw this in time. I don’t know how I missed it. I’ll check and see if this is still going. 😐
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Oh no worries, it was just a fun challenge you might have liked. You can always re-start it 🙂
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I couldn’t find the post about it. Could you send me the link? I’m doing the Ultimate Blog Challenge this month kind of alternating between my two blogs. Are you doing it?
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Not the Ultimate Blog Challenge, although, when I post, I include it on the page. I don’t have a link, it was a challenge from back in July.
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Oh. I guess they have four of them a year. I’ve never tried one, but I decided to try this one because it’s only for a month. I have the two blogs. I thought I would switch back and forth between them. I think a person can post too much and too frequently, so I don’t want to do that. 🙂
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lovely write up of yourself! great…
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Thank you so much!
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you’re welcome 🙂
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Hi Marsha! I stumbled upon your blog, but I think I’ll stick around. Good work! Pleased to meet you, Marina
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Thanks so much!
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Hello Marsha! I’ve decided to read and follow 15 interesting and new blogs a day every day for the first month of 2015, and yours is today’s #5! Feel free to come visit me when you can at http://www.thatssojacob.wordpress.com, and follow if you like what you read. Happy new year and happy blogging!
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Thanks for the honor. I will. 🙂
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You have a great life philosophy. Thanks so much for visiting my blog. 🙂
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Thanks, the feeling is mutual. I’ll be watching for more on your cold story! I did the ice bucket challenge for ALS, and thought that was bad! 🙂
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I did that too! Maybe it was good training. 🙂
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Hi, I’ve just nominated you for the liebster award 🙂 feel free to accept it or not… here is the link: http://byswav.com/2014/12/19/the-liebster-award-december-2014-paintings-by-swav/
Warm regards from sunny and a bit rainy Ireland, Swav
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Thanks so much, Swav! You are so kind. Thanks for visiting me in dummy California! 😀
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I remember the song ‘california love’ 🙂
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Thanks for visiting and liking my post. Your bio is nice. Best wishes and Prayers
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Thanks for all, the wishes, prayers and the compliment. 🙂
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Hi, just stopping by to see how things are going. Hope things are great with you and yours.
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Hi Steve, I’ve just been really busy, but I’m fine. I’ll email you and Autty soon. 🙂
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Thanks for stopping by, Marsha and welcome aboard PSB. Hope you’ll enjoy your trips here.
Will be checking on your blog for more stories! 🙂
L.
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Thanks!!! I’ll be checking yours as well. 😊
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Greetings! I’ve nominated you for the “Light of the World Award”! Congratulations!!
Kindly follow this link to accept the award: http://painttheworldwithwords.wordpress.com/2014/03/28/celebrating-500-posts-with-light-of-the-world-award
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Thank you so much Amreen. I appreciate the recognition, but I just having you and others read my blog is award enough for me. Thank you so much for thinking of me. 🙂
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Oh that is sweet! You are welcome dear! Have a nice day 🙂
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You too, Amreen. 🙂
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What a wonderful blog you have! Beautiful pictures and a great bio! Love your dream house!
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Thank you so much, JT. I look forward to getting better acquainted.
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