My Freshly Brewed Life: I'm Back, Blog Friendships & Awards!

(The Sky over Phoenix on my vacation.)

Hello friends! Well, I am back from a week long vacation to Phoenix. Me and a girlfriend braved the extreme heat to visit one of our best friends who moved there over three years ago. It was very hot. Close to 112 most days. It's the kind of heat that causes you to gasp when you walk out in it. But we survived. We had a great time hanging out, watching movies, eating chocolate, drinking coffee, shopping and had some fabulous pampering!

(My two BEST friends - Laura & Kristin.
Kristin lives in Phoenix.)

On Monday, I had the privilege of meeting Debbie of Heart Choices. Debbie's blog was one of the first ones that I began to follow when I started blogging about a year ago. She has always been such an encouragement to me. From the moment we said hello, and gave one another a big hug, I was instantly connected! We shared about our lives, our families, blogging and some of the trials we've walked through. I love how God brings to us those who can take our hand and walk with us along the way. Debbie is that to me. She's been in places where I'm going and I know she will be with me every step of the way. Thank you Debbie! If you haven't visited her over at Heart Choices yet, hop on over and say hello. You will love her as much as I do!

(Debbie and Me!)

I also wanted to take a moment to thank a couple of wonderful ladies for some recent bloggie love! Jinnia over at Jinnia Low.com awarded me the "Sugar Doll" blog award back on July 5th. (Sorry I didn't acknowledge this sooner, but I forgot to star it in my Google Reader and forgot about it until the next award.)