Posts Tagged ‘blogging’

Oh Hi

Wednesday, August 21st, 2019

Do you know what I never did? The end-of-the-school-year posts from June.

I took the pictures. I made the graphics. There’s no good reason I didn’t just get it up here on the blog.

I also have pictures from our vacation to Virginia, Linc & Finnegan’s very Pinnable birthday party, updates about our house and our dogs and the kids. I didn’t make Lincoln a birthday video post or recap my trip to Disney World with Caroline for The Summit cheer competition. Oops.

This blog turned 11 in July. It was 11 years ago that I first found out I was pregnant with Evan and decided blogging would be a good way to connect with other moms. It worked VERY well. Some of my best friends began as internet friends but now I would consider them more real than most people. I find it much easier to address a vague and unspecific audience when I talk about things I struggle with than talking to people face-to-face. I don’t want to give up this space, even if I don’t have any readers or sponsored posts or cool invites any more thanks to my absence.

In fact, this blog is the baby book for all four of my kids, with their birth stories and monthday updates and birthdays and adventures. It’s important to me that I keep it up, at least casually, while I still have little kids. The two oldest absolutely love looking back on things I’ve written about them (which is a relief) and I don’t want Linc and Finn to wonder where their toddler and preschool years went.

So if you’re interested in content like “Last Minute Disney Trip Tips” or “What To Do When Your Baby Keeps Shouting ‘You not my best fwend anymore!'” or puppy dog birthday party ideas, you’re in luck. I’m back.

My Week(183) in iPhone Photos

Monday, May 5th, 2014

I have almost totally completely recovered from the Mom 2.0 Summit in Atlanta this weekend. The combination of standing/walking/dancing/flying made me swell up like a bullfrog and I was worried I might have overdone it, but things seem to be getting back to normal. But definitely no more travel for me until I have an outside baby.

Sunday:

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Furniture in an orchard. What, that’s not how you spend your weekends?

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Evan is “helping” her read a book. This definitely didn’t end well.

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STOP JUDGING ME, YOU ARE A CAT.

Monday:

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I was very tempted to just throw that whole pile away, but I mostly put it away. Mostly.

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Captain Barnacles and Peso to the rescue!

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Who knew applesauce in a pouch was THAT delicious?

Tuesday:

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Adorable shopping cart sharing.

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Making herself at home.

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We don’t ACTUALLY live at Target. My kids just get confused sometimes.

Wednesday:

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Swim lesson shenanigans

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Her side-eye is already perfect.

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If this is what happens after a 30 minute swim class, maybe summer will involve LOTS of naps.

Thursday:

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Goodbye Providence…

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Hello Atlanta!

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Chocolate fountain = pregnant woman’s dream come true

Friday:

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No YOU cried like 5 different times during the first 4 hours of Mom 2.0

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I’ve never had such amazing food at a conference. Parmesan encrusted shrimp OMG.

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Fancy hairs courtesy of the Dove suite

Saturday:

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High tea at the Ritz. Is this real life? (No)

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Fancy award ceremony is fancy

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My amazing, beautiful roommate Miranda who I miss so much already

I’ll write an actual conference post later (that will probably be mostly photos, duh) but it was an amazing experience. I had literally zero negative interactions with people – even people I would consider Kind Of A Big Deal on the internets – and loved every conversation I had. Even though right now the logistics of going next year (not knowing where we might be stationed, having a 10 month old) are overwhelming I already bought a ticket.

Now I am back to real life where I am responsible for butt-wiping and laundry and a severe lack of fried green tomatoes. But cuddling with the ginger babies makes me super glad to be back to life (back to reality).

My Week(178) in iPhone Photos

Sunday, March 30th, 2014

As of RIGHT NOW if someone knocked on the door I wouldn’t be ashamed to let them come in. All the general living areas of the house are in fairly decent shape with no visible disgusting messes. Except the basement. The basement is full of water.  Hopefully it stops raining before the whole house floats away and no one gets to see my nice clean kitchen.

Sunday:

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Aquarium day

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Mr. Ray says hi

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Peas in a pod enamored with technology

Monday:

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Despite the face, she was very excited about the flower

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Scanned and Artkived 6 months of kids art so I could THROW IT AWAY

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Hugging the bump

Tuesday:

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I got an emissions inspection, he built a castle

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Comparing our big bellies

Wednesday:

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Happy to be in a second session of swimming

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Pretending it’s spring

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Drive-thru dinner makes me happy too

Thursday:

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Hats

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Getting their namaste on

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Thank you Aunt Sara! Unicorn is their new favorite!

Friday:

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ALMOST warm enough to be outside

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Helping Brutus be brave

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All of us doing things we love: Caroline is napping, Evan is building, I am watching HGTV

Saturday:

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“Reading” me the info about her first dance recital!

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Father-son bonding over blowing shit up

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I spent 2 hours last night trying to pick a font for a new header. You probably didn’t even notice.

This is going to be a crazy week leading up to Evan’s birthday party on Saturday (FIVE! FIIIIIIIIVE!!!!!) but I’m excited. The weatherman is promising it will warm up, there are crocuses blooming in my yard, and my house looks like it’s been attacked by pirates. In a good way. They left a lot of hats.

I also have big plans to get my eyebrows done. I live a very exciting life.

I was also accepted to promotion for that new Disney Pirate Fairy movie that means I HAVE to go buy it the day it comes out and the kids HAVE to watch it. Considering they both scream their heads off every time the preview comes on it shouldn’t be a hardship. Like my friend Sara said, Disney basically buys ad space on the inside of parents’ eyelids, but in this case they’re also paying me to make my kids wicked happy. Blogging is still cool, even if I’m not super good at it anymore.

Baby #3 Pregnancy Update (15ish weeks)

Thursday, January 23rd, 2014

Besides announcing I was pregnant, I haven’t blogged much about potential ginger baby #3. I don’t want him/her to read my blog some day (originally documented to record literally every single thought I had about my first pregnancy/baby/Baby Evan from the second I got a positive on the stick) and think he/she wasn’t as wanted. I just don’t have a desk job, unlimited internet and 24 hours a day to think about nothing but BABY BABY BABY BABY anymore. In my mother’s day, this shows up in the fact that I have 3+ photo albums of my childhood, my sister has 2, and my brother has…almost 1.  Today you are less heavily featured on social media. 2014, baby!

Before I wrote this, I had to find an online calculator that would tell me how pregnant I was based on my due date. I’ve been saying “Uh…15ish weeks?” for a while now, since I lost a week based on the measurements at my first ultrasound and I keep forgetting to subtract it and I can’t remember which day I flip over to the next week. Plus I’m assuming the end of the pregnancy will be as miserable as the last one (quick recap: tons of pain, kidney stones, surgery, kidney infections, pre-eclampsia, induction) and I’ll probably be induced again. If I was a character on Downton Abbey this wouldn’t end well. Thank God for my modern medicine and weekly check ups – it helps to know they’re keeping a close watch on me. To sum up that rambling: Not sure when I’ll have this kid, probably July.

I had my second doctor’s appointment yesterday with one of the midwives. Everything is entirely normal, despite the fact that I got my first talking-to about how much weight I’ve gained/might potentially gain. I don’t actually know my starting weight OR my current weight – I had hoped it wouldn’t be an issue at all but I don’t think I’m going to be that lucky. I’m surprised though – besides an endless craving for McDonald’s bacon, egg and cheese biscuits (a horrible craving, since I can only get them in the morning and I mostly want them at 9 pm) I haven’t been eating much or badly. My nausea has kept me from pulling the “PREGNANT! TIME FOR ALL THE FOODS!” card. I’ve been getting to the gym as much or even more than I was pre-pregnancy. I’m not sure what else I am supposed to do so I only gain a couple more pounds in the next 25 weeks (stop eating? take up marathon running???) so I’m going to just let my perfect blood work and amazing blood pressure make me feel better.

On a less complainy note, we’re not finding out if it’s a boy or a girl. I have one of each, so I have stuff for each (and really, is there anything for babies that HAS to be either/or? No, there is not) and I like the idea of being surprised. E doesn’t care. I’m shocked he doesn’t care, but he really doesn’t, at all, not a bit, zero percent. I thought I might have to talk him into waiting but he was totally on board. I think he thinks it will keep me from buying a lot of baby stuff and he might be right. So far I haven’t been tempted to change my mind, but that hasn’t prevented GUESSING. Currently I guess girl, but that changes fairly regularly. I never thought I’d be a person who didn’t find out, since I figured I’d always have a preference (no matter how slight) and I’d want time to accept and get used to the idea. But this time I really don’t care. Caroline says it’s a girl we should name “Caroline Baby Jesus” and Evan says it’s a boy we should name “Diny” (short for Dinosaur) and they like the idea of being surprised when the baby comes out too. Although my poor kids have no idea what getting a new sibling really means, so boy/girl won’t be their ONLY surprise.

Type-A Parent Conference – Atlanta 2013

Monday, October 7th, 2013

It’s been a week since I got back from the Type-A Parent conference, and I think I’ve finally recovered. Not from the conference itself, since that was mostly learning with a healthy dose of fun, but from my red-eye flight back and only getting 2 hours of sleep last Sunday night. I am way too old for that sort of thing.

Explaining to people I was going to a blogging conference is always weird (I usually say “work thing” and hope no one asks what I do) but once you get there it’s SO NICE to be around people who don’t think writing on the internet is crazy. Even if sometimes I think it’s crazy too.

I feel like warning you this is going to be picture heavy is almost redundant at this point, since it’s not really any more picture heavy than anything else on my blog these days.

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I was super lucky my friend Miranda is Atlanta-based, since it meant I had an instant conference-buddy and didn’t feel quite so alone, although if I had gone alone I think I still would have had a good time. People were very welcoming and friendly. At one breakfast I swear I talked for 15 minutes straight before realizing I had told 6 people my entire life story and shut myself up. But no one seemed to mind – or at least they hid it very well and only talked about me behind my back when I left.

I put myself out on a limb a little bit and attended the Military Spouse bloggers tribe session on the first day and I’m so glad I did. I met the cool people behind NextGenMilSpouse and realized there are a lot of brands interested in talking to us as a community – and even if it’s a community I don’t always self-identify with, it IS one I belong to and that has value.

Type-A has been on my wish list of conferences for a while, but it wasn’t in the cards this year because of E’s work schedule and my investment in the photography thing instead of putting blog pennies back into blogging. Amazingly, the awesome team at MinuteClinic stumbled across my blog a few months ago and offered to send me as one of their sponsored bloggers. Not only was I honored to be chosen, I had a fantastic time with the whole team. We took a slightly extremely terrifying cab ride to a delicious restaurant I probably couldn’t find again if my life depended on it, and I totally bonded with Vicki over New England and photography.

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The hilarious and awesome Heather of The Third Boob mans the MinuteClinic table during meet & greet

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Yum, yum, and yum

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Definitely the best booth at the expo

The sessions were really good, especially the technical ones. I got some excellent tips on using Google+ I plan to implement as soon as I can force myself to start caring about Google+. The session about the legal side of blogging could have been twice as long and still not long enough – did you know if you watermark your photo and someone crops out the watermark without permission it’s an instant fine in court? Obviously the lawyer was in favor of watermarking, although while I was chatting with the photographers after their session they shared my opinion that watermarking is generally useless, since people will take it out/clone it out/use your pictures anyway and you still won’t know. Watermarking might be worth it though, since I’ve found my photos on several sites recently thanks to the fact that they linked back – although that’s not quite the same as ASKING me if they can use them. But whatevs. I’m pretty busy trying to figure out webmaster tools, I can’t spend the rest of my life sending takedown notices.

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The coolest sponsor event was the AT&T Digital Life house. Their PR team knows how to do it RIGHT – cocktails in mason jars, amazing tiny food, and great info. It’s a good thing my husband wasn’t there, he would have signed us up for the magical house that turns on and off automatically in a second. I have to admit it’s super cool and would be so handy as the kids get older – who doesn’t want a door that tells you when your kid gets home from school??

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The best night was definitely the Disney Star Tours party plus the Time To Play game night. I was a little nervous “game night” might be lame – not because I don’t LOVE game nights, but because I figured I might be the only dork who DOES love game nights – but it was a blast. At one point I think I actually peed a little from jumping up and down pretending I was on a trampoline and laughing so hard. I wish I was joking (Headbanz, get it).

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The drinks were called “Dark Sider” (which was spiked cider) and the “Jedi Mind Trick” which was a delicious mystery. It WAS the martini I was looking for.

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I think the absolute highlight of the conference was the We Still Blog readings on Sunday. I wish I had submitted something, although that’s an easy statement to make AFTER the fact when there’s no chance I might have to get up in front of 300 people and read a post about my vagina. Which is exactly what Miranda did, and it was HILARIOUS. It was nice to hear people read their posts out loud – not just because they were really great posts but because it’s a good reminder there is a person behind all the words on the internet. Even though tons of my friends live in my computer (and let me sleep on their couch when I come to Atlanta) sometimes I forget people are reading MY words and I need to make sure I’m using the best words I can. That was something Erika Napoletano said in her closing keynote and it’s definitely been on my mind ever since.

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Miranda reading about her lady parts, and with Erika after her keynote

It was a wonderful weekend and I’m so glad I got to attend. I felt like the balance of education and entertainment was spot-on, most of the speakers, especially the womens health speaker, were real experts on their topics, and I met some great people. If you’re thinking about attending in 2014 (it’s in Atlanta again, super easy to catch a flight and the public transit is amazing!) I would say definitely put it on your calendar!

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Atlanta is beautiful at sunset

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