Dec. 5: I have been touched

…and not inappropriately (for once).

For really and for true, I feel incredibly honored to be singled out by my bloggy friend Jen E (oh, she of the fab MommaBlogsaLot) with a Say It Forward blog badge.

Jen E was given one of these awards herself and is saying it forward to give me one as well.

Have you read the Stuff Jen Says?

Because if you haven’t, man, you really really should. Jen is one of my favorite bloggers and not just because her parents have terrific taste in baby names (but seriously, they do rock). I always look forward to Jen’s posts from the serious to the not so serious (usually they are the latter). Jen’s blog has given me countless moments of inspiration as I spend time drooling over her fun layout and nifty graphics, steal her memes shamelessly and envy her clever party ideas and recipes (her taco salad is amazing). She’s a fantastic source for funny videos and she always keeps it real.

Jen and her family are going through a tough time right now. You need only read through the last several posts on her blog and you will know what I am talking about. I’d go into detail but it doesn’t seem like my place to say… or maybe I don’t want to write the words because maybe not typing them will make them less real somehow? As naive as that may sound… It’s not easy to see a friend going through a hard time, especially such a sweet, funny, inspirational and fellow gifted writer type friend. I’d like to jump across the country and be with you right now, and share some of my cute baby moments (and the trying three year old moments, too, since that only seems fair), or say something monumental or perfectly fitting that will make things more okay, but I don’t think I have those words in me (or the money for a plane ticket) so instead I’ll just give you the gift of bloggy acknowledgement (it comes with a shiny new blog button) and hopefully send some exciting new traffic your way?

I think this is a really neat recognition program and plan to say it forward to send my readers to another blogger, too, when I have enough energy to write up something like Jen E did for me. Because is she a sweetheart, or is she a sweetheart? And I don’t want to half-ass this kind of thing. In fact, if I could give it right back to her, I probably would.   But that’d be not so much saying it forward as saying it right back, huh?

Thanks, Jen E. You helped make my day, in a time when that’s not an easy thing to do. I appreciate you very much!