I’m coming back within the next 2 weeks.

So….

if you see posts from me, please disregard.  I am testing some things.

If you are dying to see my new site, please visit my Main Page

Thank You!!!!

I Miss You and I can’t wait to catch up!

-Erika

The very first meeting I had with the company that Tyler works for was a comprehensive one.  It was my first meeting in 12 years and the 1^st time getting to know the people I would be working with.

It went well.  They were very excited to move forward and all had lot of ideas.

Then there was the 2^nd meeting…

Oy vay.

My voice was raised and my arms were flying around wildly.  In my defense I did want to speak loud for the person on the conference call.

But, at one point I said something that I should be slapped for:

“I’m NOT your mother!”

I also might have said:

“Have you read anything I have given you?”

And then there is this fantastical motivating statement:

“Then…You are going to FAIL!”

You know, I really shouldn’t be allowed to be around people in general.

Sheesh.

You see, in addition to everything else, my job has been to help them “get” the power, magnitude and scope of social media. 

You can’t just write something and expect people to flock to your site because it’s there.  You and I know this, of course, but try to teach 10 people this in a couple of weeks.

It is difficult to change a mindset.

It has taken me 8 years to get my mom, Tina, off of dial-up internet.  She FINALLY made the switch last week and guess what?

She likes it. 

Huh.  Imagine that.  High Speed Internet is better. (giant head slap)

Soooooo……. Changing mindsets has frustrated me to some extent. 

Nobody has bashed Social Media and Technology more than I have.  Can anyone say “Twitter” or “iPhone” or “texting”????

2 years ago I was vehemently against all of it.  And I would gladly tell you why in my highest and mightiest tone.

“Bring back the Pony Express!”  I would say.

But in 2 short years I have seen all of the glorious things Social Media and technology is capable of and my passion has done an about face.

Now if I can just tone down my passion without offending an entire room full of professionals, we might be onto something.

Have you ever spoken like a fool like I did?  Oh, please say you have?!

{Choose a writing prompt and join in on Feel Good Friday!}

Here’s the deal:

I forgot what it’s like to work…. er…um… work and get paid to be specific.

Sure I work at home and work on my blog.  I did a little logo design work for some companies a couple of years ago, but to actually work regularly is somewhat foreign to me.

Or at least that is what I thought it would be like.

Basically a minute after I was asked to do this social media project, my mind whirled and focused and organized and sorted unlike ever before.

It was magic.

There was a feeling inside me that I had forgotten about and I learned something about myself along the way.

My name is Erika and I am a workaholic.

There.  I said it.

I never realized it all those years ago when I was single.  The only thing I needed to do back then was work, buy Coach bags and fall in love.

Since the love thing was hit and (mostly) miss I worked.

And I loved what I did.

If you love what you do it shows and you want to give 100% all of the time. 

For me the bottom line is and always will be:  Do a job 100% or don’t do it at all. (and my bathrooms are a testament to that because they suck, by the way.)

But…

To be a SAHM and tackle this enormous project is, well, quite the undertaking.

For 3 solid weeks, every single solitary spare minute I had was spent working on their Social Media Program.  We had a deadline and I sure wasn’t going to be the one to drop the ball.  That just isn’t how I roll.

If I wasn’t at the computer, I was on the iPad.

If I wasn’t on the iPad, I was hurriedly scribbling down notes in my notebook.

And when I wasn’t taking notes, I was thinking or talking to Tyler about everything.

Because I love it.

And I am ridicously proud of myself that after 12 years of being a Mommy I didn’t lose my knack for working. 

Sometimes one wonders, you know?

However, I will admit that I am kind of happy that the 10 people I am working with didn’t get their required information to me in time so I had to extend their Launch Date by a week.  And while I was waiting for them I could slow down a teeny tiny bit.

(And if you are reading this and are one of those 10 people, I am NOT happy at all.  I was being nice in the above statement.)

I now re-realize my abilities and worth.   I hadn’t lost it.  It was always there in the background.  I love Social Media and Blogging.  Something that started as a lark is turning into something a little bit more.

It’s a good feeling to have.

You know what is also good?

Having a life beyond work.  It’s what this workaholic always wanted.

Are you like ME?  Do you throw yourself into your work or projects 100% that you forget that you have a life beyond it?

Tyler came home from the convenience store the other day and he had surprised me with a bottle of Mocha Frappuccino.  It was so sweet and thoughtful of him.  He was very happy to make me happy.

He had done this one other time a few months ago and I made a big deal about how thoughtful he was to bring me something.

What I failed to mention was that I actually do not like the Frappuccino that came in a bottle.  I think it is gross.

I like real Frappuccinos.  I like Mochas.  I like Mr. Pibb.  I like Dr. Pepper.  Those would be a nice surprise since I don’t drink them often.

I have a lot of “likes.”

None of which ever seem to make it home. 

You see…. It’s not like he is bringing me things all of the time so I totally did not want to discourage this behavior AT ALL.

It WAS super thoughtful of him and I loved that he did it.  So what if I detest bottled frappuccinos?  Right?

I just toss it down the drain when he isn’t looking and everybody’s happy.

Or so I thought.

This last time the bottle sat on the counter and sat… and sat… until he made a comment about it.  I must have made some sort of icky face indicating that I did not like the drink.

He.  Was.  Crushed.

I explained why I never said anything about not liking it, and that wasn’t well received.

He wanted to know what else I have lied to him about.  He said he wanted The Truth.

I don’t think he handled The Truth so well:

On our first date, February 12^th, Tyler gave me a box of truffles and every year since then he has given be this same box of truffles from a local frou frou candy shop.

But, I don’t like Truffles.

At all.

But, I do love the fact that he remembers and continues the tradition of our 1^st date.

Now… I have tried, really tried to get him to change the truffle tradition over the years.  I have said many, many things to him such as:

“I wonder if the Candy Shop has Vanilla Buttercreams.  Vanilla Buttercreams are my favorite candy in the world.”

And I get Truffles.

“Truffles sure are rich.  You know what isn’t rich?  Vanilla Buttercreams.  Boy, I sure could have some of those someday.”

And I still get Truffles.

I have even gone to the girls and told them to make sure Daddy buys Mommy Vanilla Buttercreams for Valentine’s Day.

And I get a stuffed elephant with a box of truffles.

So over the years I have kind of come to the conclusion that he just really wants to stick with tradition instead of actually buying me the candy I like.  Or he really just wants the truffles for himself.

Or he is going deaf.

Now that he knows the truth, we will see what this year brings.

I have a sneaking suspicion I am getting some truffles with a little bit of spite.

Do you ever tell little white lies to your spouse?

I have words and I know how to use them… most of the time.

And then there are the times that I totally and completely space out and forget to use my words and I end up saying the first thing that pops into my head.

Lately, this has been happening to me a lot.

Lately, I have been saying the word…

AWESOME!

And I am not proud of this.  No.  Not proud at all.

You see, Tyler and I have been watching a show on the History Channel called American Pickers.  We are in love with it.

Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz are 2 guys who drive around the country on the hunt for antiques.  The show is just plain cool.  Their personalities and the people that they meet along the way absolutely make the show.

Now…. Tyler and I have been taping American Pickers and have a lot of the shows in our DVR, so some nights we watch a couple of episodes back-to-back and while this is great, it is also hindering my vocabulary because I am starting to speak like them.

Mike is fond of saying, “Awesome!”

He says it quite a lot and, in true Erika fashion, I have been saying it right along with him.  When he runs across an old motorcycle and declares it to be “awesome,” so do I.

So the other day while I was in a Social Media Meeting, I forgot to use my words and instead inserted “awesome” into every freaking sentence I uttered.

And I cringe every time I think about it.

Because I have a lot of other more awesome words I could have used and it would have been totally awesome.

For sure.

Do you ever get stuck on a word and can’t stop?

Whew.  I am back. 

I had planned to be back all sparkly and happy and full of stories about my endeavor as a Social Media Consultant/Director/Designer/Whatever, but that will have to wait for another day.

As some of you might know via Twitter, our cat, Sam died on Friday at age 7.

On Tuesday he was a happy guy, laying on my laptop as usual purring away.

On Wednesday, he couldn’t use his 2 front paws.  He couldn’t stand.

On Thursday we learned that he might have kidney disease.  They’d know after some tests.

On Friday we learned that his kidneys were bad and that he had a kidney stone that had most likely moved and caused blockage.  Like really, really bad.

We rushed him to the Kitty ER (yes, there is one) so they could give him fluids and check him out.  They told us to wait 2-3 hours to see what happened.

*sigh*

He died before we could officially say good-bye.

So I am left reading that same damn pet death poem about Rainbows in the Sky. 

No.  It couldn’t have been prevented.

No.  We didn’t know he was ill until he stopped walking that day.

Yes.  It is devastating.

2 pet deaths in a year is inconceivable.

Now, what does all of this have to do with my rainbow header, you ask?

Well…..

I think I am done with it.  Ever since I have been working on creating and designing Tyler’s company blog, a thought keeps niggling in the back of my head:

Knowing what I know about WordPress and Photoshop, I have never taken the time to work on my site.  And that is just silly!

I have a few ideas and I won’t be losing the rainbow completely, but there are going to be some changes around here.

Well… as soon as I get some time.

In 2014.

So my question to you today is this:

Do you associate me with the Rainbow?  Do you take the time to work on your Blog Design and SEO, or are you like me and continually procrastinate?

Welcome to Feel Good Friday!  Please join in on the fun.  Choose a prompt and link up!

Today I have asked my friend Joanna from Lia Sophia Tomgirl to host FGF.  She is a French teacher with a sarcastic wit who also sells Lia Sophia jewelry on the side! 

Enjoy!

*************

Wow, my first guest post, I’m so excited!  When I first started blogging, Erika was one of the first people I followed on a regular basis and when I found her Feel Good Fridays, I knew it would be something I’d do every week forevermore. 
 
For those of you who don’t know me, hello!  Or bonjour!  I am a middle school French teacher who also does a lot of other things.  Check me out and you can read about 100 things that make me sparkle, or see what I do with horses, or read my blog and judge for yourself. 
 
But now, on to the top 5 for this week. 
 
1.  How lucky am I that I get to guest post on none other than THEGIRL’S blog?????  I feel very privileged.  I do hope you enjoy it and you’ll come back for more!  How’s that to start a Feel Good Friday???

2.  How can anyone not be happy when it is blooming, just bugling it’s butt off in the living room???  This an amaryllis bulb that my mother gave me, kind of by accident.  She wasn’t like “oh, and amaryllis, I know Sparkling would like that.”  It was more like I gave my sisters each one and my mother said “Oh, I have one that I got out in the car, do you want it?”  Umm, is the pope catholic? 
 
I planted it and WOW.  My grandmother would put these out around the holidays, but I don’t remember more than maybe 2 blooms.  My old principal had a pretty pink one that I think maybe produced 2 blooms.  Can you count FOUR blooms fully open and two more about to explode?  You might know I have a certain fondness for things that grow, which is why I’m building a greenhouse, but really, this is something else.  Full blooms in my house in February, when it’s 9 degrees out and I almost broke my hip getting the mail today?  Really quite amazing. Now the trick will be to let it die off and remember to store it so I can bring it out next year.  That’s always the kicker.
 
3.  We had quite a week with mice and Gwenstopher managed to get two this week.  Not much is better than getting up in the morning and having to worry that when I open the bedroom door, I might step on a dead mouse.  Thankfully there was no stepping on them, but two mornings this week, I had to throw out a dead mouse.  That’s fine.  The more she kills, the less we have in the walls.  If this grosses you out, sorry, but old houses with dirt cellars are prime locations for mice, no matter what we do.  Plus it gives Gwenstopher a great ego boost when I get up and make a big deal about her dead present. 
 
4.  We had 2, not one fire alarm/evacuation issues this week and while that isn’t a feel good moment, it really entertains me how everyone reacts.  Yesterday’s was most ridiculous, followed by a real alarm that went off this morning just as everyone was getting off the buses.  At least kids had their coats on this time.  But I didn’t.  So I had to illegally run to The General to get my sweatshirt and a fleece and gloves that I use for riding.  And since the kids weren’t in classes yet, no one was really in charge.  Including the dean, but he sure thought he was in charge.  It’s hard to be in charge of a building that is just coming to life, before anyone is where they are supposed to be yet.  But they behaved.  And it shaved 20 minutes off my first class and I was totally OK with that.  Totally.
 
5.  I got my paycheck for the crocheting class I teach at the cultural center and since this session was way too big, the check was MAR.VE.LOUS.  Too bad 13 people clamoring at me at once with yarn and crochet hooks almost drove me to my death.  I could retire on this.  Ok, not really, but it’s nice to know I have options when the whole teaching French thing goes south. 
 
So, thanks for stopping by and checking out Erika and getting ME by surprise!!  Link up your own feel good moments too!!

Do you love Minnesota as much as I do?  Well today I bring you a fellow Minnesotan, Stephanie from Stephanie in Suburbia.  Enjoy!

**********

A big thank you to The Girl Next Door for letting me all up in her space for today! Her blog is firmly planted in an elite status in my Favorites: Daily Read. I’m honored to be associated with her any day…especially because she’s a fellow Minnesotan! Us bloggers here in the frozen tundra must stick together…at least to keep warm.

I blog over at Stephanie in Suburbia. There are a few things you need to know about me going into this post. Stick with me, you’ll be rewarded with a recipe at the end.

The first thing you need to know is: my husband hates cottage cheese. It’s like this visceral reaction when you TALK about cottage cheese.

I can take or leave cottage cheese, but we keep it in the fridge now for my 14-month-old daughter, Wee ‘Burb.

So that’s the second thing you need to know: I have a daughter. She loves food. I started that kid on solids at 6 months and she’s never looked back. She practically threw the bottle in my face. Formula? Pedestrian. This brings us no end of joy as we are total foodie parents.

Accompanying the fact that I have a daughter you should know that she’s…um, independent. Yes, let’s stick with that, because labeling a toddler as a control freak or Type A might be a bit premature, and less than supportive coming from her mother.

An example? She will eat anything at daycare. Meat, fruit, veggies…a dishrag, dog food. I mean, she’s not picky. But I get her home and try to give her anything with meat anywhere in it, she scrapes it off her tongue and throws it at me. Or hands it to the dog.

That isn’t necessarily the third thing you need to know about me. The dog. Not a crucial part to the story. We named her CousCous. Lest you think I am joking about the food obsession going around our house. But she’s cute, no?

So, anyway, I keep cottage cheese for the kid so when she denies the meat, she actually gets some protein for dinner.

I’m not the type to cater and make a bunch of meals for people’s preferences. I try a lot of new things, some good, some bad. This particular recipe fell somewhere in between, for reasons I will illuminate and illustrate.

So, back to my first point (are you still with me? You’re nice people, you truly are). This recipe I found for a noodle-less lasagna had one major chink in the armor: cottage cheese.

I debated. On one hand, the calories would allow me to have a nice big glass of Chianti, a luxury I can rarely afford these days. On the other, it’s entirely possible I would have that Chianti thrown back in my face.

I decided to risk it and go forth. And thus started some serious James Bond cooking. I made sure to hide ANY evidence of ANYTHING to do with the dreaded cottage cheese. I rinsed every measuring cup and mixing spoon that went near the dish, lest a curd remnant be visible.

I swore my accomplices (Wee ‘Burb and the pup) to complete silence. And tried not to hold my breath as he took a bite.

One last thing you should know about me: my husband and I are total food snobs. We like to dissect recipes like so many fetal pigs. Even Gordon Ramsay, if he were to deign to dine with us mere mortals, would be like: “Shut up, people, and eat your dang food!”

So he begins dissecting and I am really holding my breath at this point, waiting for something like “gee, it’s great were it not for this rancid putrid gaping wound of a cottage cheese mixture!”

But nothing. We both agreed while it tasted like lasagna, it did not hold together well.

We began to assess the recipe: could it use more cornstarch? I decided that perhaps it needed another egg and more flour. And I said I should have salted the meat like the recipe said: I had gotten distracted by Wee ‘Burb eating a dog bone.

He said it actually tasted like it had decent salt, and so then I just threw it out there, unable to hold it in any longer: “it was salty because it had cottage cheese! Bwahahaha!”

He resisted the urge to throw the Chianti in my face, but you guys, the look of betrayal on his face was priceless!

He started to backtrack a little, saying he wasn’t sure about the flavor, the texture was weird, etc. But I had him cornered. He had eaten cottage cheese. And he had liked it.

Not only did he like it, but Wee ‘Burb took 4 bites with nary a scrape. The 5^th bite she fed to the dog. CousCous was also pleased.

People, these are the small victories in my world, and I enjoy every single one.

So, what do you think? I am listing the recipe below.

Do you ever sneak food into a recipe you know your loved ones hate? Is it wrong I do this for…or to…a grown man? Those of you chefs out there: what could I have done to make this hold together better?

Zucchini Lasagna

Ingredients:

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

24 oz tomato sauce

1 lb extra lean ground chicken or turkey (I used beef because it was on sale)

Salt and pepper to taste

1 egg

2 cups cottage cheese

1 tsp whole wheat flour

½ cup skim mozzarella, divided and shredded

2 ½ cups zucchini (2 medium), sliced ¼ in thick

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350

In frying pan, sauté onion and garlic over medium heat until tender.

Add tomato sauce and ground meat.

Bring to consistent heat for 10 minutes (until browned).

Season and remove from heat.

In small bowl, slightly beat egg. Add cottage cheese, flour and ¼ cup mozzarella.

Pour ½ meat-tomato mixture in to a roasting pan. Top with 1 ¼ cups zucchini and cottage cheese mixture.

Cover with remaining meat-tomato mixture and zucchini.

Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.

Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and bake 10 minutes.

Let stand 10 minutes before service (for the record, I did this, it still didn’t set).

Don’t worry, my blog hasn’t been hijacked.  I am doing this in honor of my “dark” friend Lily, of Lilium’s Realm. 

You see, Lily is a book blogger, only she also has been doing Feel Good Friday each week since November and I fell in love with her the minute I read her description of my blog:

“This is the page of The Girl Next Door Grows Up. Cute place. Rainbows. I don’t visit often. I’m the not rainbow kinda girl. More like the dungeon kind of girl. Heh. My rainbow only has black, grey and pink in it. And no Unicorns. I want to stab them. Yes I said it, I hate unicorns. I don’t know why. She is bubbly. I am more frothy myself. What happens when bubbles get lazy and then start snarking instead. Yeah, that’s what foam is. Come now, you didn’t think you were gonna visit the realm and come away snark free did you?”

 The thing is… I am dark and snarky too with a sick sense of humor.  I think that is why we are friends.

Enjoy.

 

Hello everyone. My name is Lily and I run the blog Lilum’s Realm. I discuss books and other random things in my life on there. Unlike this shining place there are not any rainbows, unless you count my Feel Good Fridays posts. I found Erika through twitter. Someone posted that they wrote five things that made them feel good that week on their blog and I had to check it out. In typical me fashion I clicked the link and I stalked the blog a little before I decided I would join in. It was pretty cool. Every week (except for like one) I have posted and linked up. I was checking her blog again when she put out her plea for help with guest posting and I took up the challenge. Then I had that full on panic, wait, I don’t know what to talk about! So this is what I came up with.
 
I write a lot about books. I mean, my whole blog revolves around them. Last year I read over a hundred. This year I plan to read 116. I love reading. You would think that would make me a smart person. You would be wrong.
 
Once upon a time I was at that pivotal scene in my book, where the hero was in the battle with the big bad and I was enthralled. My husband began to harp that it was well past one am, and I had to be at work in 4 hours, and I should go to sleep. I agreed. I should. I turned off my light and waited there in the dark like a lunatic for him to fall asleep…then once he did I used my cell phone as a book light to read the last twenty pages.
 
To further the madness, I have picked up accents and phrases from the books I read. I distinctly remember once speaking with a British accent to my cousin, and she looked terribly confused.
 
It’s a slippery slope my friends, first you’re just reading every now and then. Then you read when people think you are doing other things like cleaning or working. Before you know it you are stalking the mail man and the UPS and FedEx people have you on the “caution” list because if they bring you the books you are waiting for you are liable to molest them, and if you do not come with what you want they must drive away quickly before you find the bottle rockets and gasoline.
 
The last major boo boo I made about my books was I started saying “Och” and calling my son “boy” after reading an epic series about highlanders called the Outlander series. My son now calls himself “Och Boy” like it’s a superhero. I don’t have the heart to correct him.
 
One last confession – After watching The Princess Bride – I started saying “Inconceivable!” quite often, and now my friend will pipe up with “You keep saying that. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
 
What is the strangest thing you have picked up from books, movies or tv?

Someone awesome and famous is today’s guest post!  Kimberly from All Work and No Play Make Mommy Go Something Something is a fantastic writer and a previous winner of my Writing Contest!  She also is from my favorite place in the world…. Canada!

Neighborhood Hero 

Pft. Old people.
 
We live in a “mature” neighbourhood in a small Canadian city that looks kind of like Florida during the winter months. It’s like a grey wrinkly sea of really bad flowered muumuus and dress shirts…
 
…oh and can’t forget the knee high socks in sandals.
 
Needless to say, we are the youngest neighbours on our street and of course the most strong and agile. Well, I shouldn’t say we. I am partially disabled with a bad back so let me rephrase this.
 
My husband is the most strong and agile in the neighbourhood. 
 
Being the barer of those kinds of qualities, my husband carries great moral responsibilities to help out our neighbours with the more physical chores.
 
Also because watching George who is like 95 years young, clutching his chest as he pushes the snow shovel tediously slow, really plays with his guilt.
 
So instead of shovelling one driveway, my husband shovels at least 4, which is why I am so thankful of my disability at times.
 
Cause this snow? 

Is a crap ton to shovel and he does it all without complaint because he’s a neighborhood hero like that.

Michelle, of Rules Do Not Apply, is here today.  I like reading her because we both have the same warped sense of humor.  Enjoy!!

Fake Fruit

Being a parent of a tween and a teen (12 & 14), I take great pleasure in messing with my kids.  My boyfriend, John is completely on board and we have fun doing it.  They get teased a lot and we constantly sneak up on them and scare them.  My daughter is great for this because she has a great horror flick scream.  Another thing we like to do is mess with their presents at Christmas and put marbles in the boxes so they roll around, or one time we put silverware in a box so it would make noise when shaken.  The kids are always on edge and never know what to expect next.  
 
So, last weekend we were leaving my daughter’s soccer game, but we had to wait because she was getting something from the coach.  When she finally ran over to us, she excitedly showed us a bag of orange sections.  Then she proceeds to tell us that she just loves oranges.  So, I ask her “then why haven’t you touched the oranges in the basket on the counter?”  And her reply was “I thought they were fake.”   John, exclaims, “we have never had fake fruit in the house”.  The conversation continues to the car and John and I are discussing the fake little grapes that were popular in the 60′s and 70′s for decorating…you know the ones that you pulled off and suction on your tongue, totally grossing your parents out.  They felt totally weird and John informs me that he could get like 5 on his tongue at a time when I could never get more than one.  Anyway, I digress.
 
As per our usual Saturday routine, John and I went grocery shopping after we dropped my daughter at home.  It is great having kids old enough to leave at home.  Anyway, so I had to get a birthday card for my nephew, and then we headed to groceries.  Because I picked up a card, we had to traverse through a unfamiliar part of Walmart and we take a turn, and there sitting on the shelf before us was none other than FAKE FRUIT.  John and I both look at each other and ask “should we”?  Being the evil parents that we are, we decided of course we will.   We were going to get a whole bunch of fruit, but looking more closely, we decided that it would be more fun to pick out the most realistic looking ones and slip them in with real fruit.  We ended up buying only 2 apples, one green and the other red because my kids are big apple eaters, which were only $1 a piece I might add. 
 
After we got home, we snuck the apples into the house before the kids unloaded the car.  Yes, they bring my groceries in for me, see what you have to look forward to?  After the kids were distracted, my son on the Xbox and my daughter at a friend’s house, we snuck the fake apples into the produce drawer in the refrigerator.  So the trap is set and now,  we just wait………

I miss you.

I miss this place.

I miss thinking and writing and connecting.

I do.  It’s true.

Yes, I get to throw my passion onto 10 other people and tell them every single bit of information I have every learned and that is blissful and exciting, but…

I miss this.

Mark your calendars.  I will be back February 7th.

I will be back with a vengeance.  I swear.

There have been, and will be, a lot of wonderful and amazing people guest posting for me this week and next, and I owe them a ton of gratitude.

I keep trying to convey to the corporate world how blogging connects people together in a way that is unimaginable and I think they are beginning to understand.

But, maybe this will help:

I love this song and always feel lifted up when I hear it.  Bloggers are most definitely One Tribe.

This week Tami from 29 and Holding is Hosting Feel Good Friday.  Tami is gorgeous and funny and sweet.

SHE ROCKS!!! 

Please go to her site, link up and read more Feel Good Friday posts!

Happy Feel Good Friday!

The most awesome-est person in the whole wide world (that everybody should be reading) is my guest for today. Joann is Brilliant with a Capital B and the best friend anybody could hope for.

I am excited and honored to be guest posting for Erika today.

Erika was one of the first bloggers I made a connection with when I began blogging and since she was already a big-time Superblogger, I constantly pestered her with page long emails full of questions. She never failed to answer every single one of them, with pages of her own.

In between all those questions, we ended up becoming blog friends. And for the simple grace of her friendship, I will always be grateful.

To show my gratefulness, I’ve decided to totally humiliate myself today by telling my most embarrassing story.

This mortification is dedicated to you, Erika.

I am a moderately petite girl in my regular life.

My day to day, I-hear-the-Dove-Bars-calling-my-name weight, is a size six.

My fighting, get-up-at-dawn-and-kill-myself-workout weight, is a size four.

But each time I became pregnant, all bets were off.

My doctor always told me, “Recommended pregnancy weight gain is somewhere between 25 and 35 pounds.”

I would always shrug my shoulders and say, “Triple that and we’ve got a deal.”

And I would do just that. I never gained less than 60 pounds with each of my girls, gaining me the dubious nickname of “The Fridge.”

My love for junk food of all kind didn’t help. Junk food is a craving I only acquire when pregnant, along with the appetite of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

There was the time I started sobbing hysterically when my husband passed the McDonald’s, ignoring my pleas of “The Big Macs are Buy One, Get One Free!” He whipped the car around before I could start hyperventilating. And yes, I ate both of them along with the fries.

And then there was the time I pulled up to the drive-thru window of our local Kentucky Fried Chicken at 10:30 in the morning, in dire need of a barbecued chicken sandwich. Man, how I loved those sandwiches while gestating. When the drive-thru dude told me they didn’t open until 11:00, I started crying, again. He apologized to me, quite baffled at the fat lady crying in his drive-thru.

And of course, there was the time I was nine months pregnant and I’d ordered the Mexican Fiesta platter at our local Mexican restaurant which consisted of just about everything on the menu layered in queso. After I demolished it, I turned to my husband and said, “It is an absolute necessity that I have another one of these dinners, but you have to order it so our waiter thinks it’s for you.”

My husband said he was surprised that baby didn’t come out with a sombrero on her head.

So now that you have an idea of my girth, here’s my humiliating story.

I was seven months pregnant with my first child and as big as a house—well, maybe not a house, more like a condo. Needless to say, I was big. Anyway, I was headed to work early one morning in my tent of a maternity dress. (This was the dark ages when people kept their burgeoning stomachs under billows of clothes instead of proudly displaying them encased in lycra.)

I lingered that morning as I stood in the street talking to my neighbor about the stupid thug teenagers in our neighborhood who were stealing trash cans. My neighbor reassured me he was on Garbage Can Watch, which was good to know.

On the way to work, I stopped to get gas. This was also the covered wagon days before technology made it possible to never leave the gas pump. I strolled inside to pay and, of course, pick up a box of Little Debbie Nutty Bars.

On my way into work, I was escorted in from the parking garage by a group of the Hot Men From Upstairs.

This was the 90′s when the stock market ruled the world. The floor above my bank was filled to the brim with hot, studly traders who were making mountains of money. Several of these hot traders were my customers and they were all my friends. But there was one trader who stood out from the bunch.

His name was Alex and he was just this gorgeous Hispanic man. A Ricky Martin, before anyone knew Ricky was gay, kind of gorgeous with golden skin and dusky eyes and this beautiful silky accent. A real ladies man, he adored all of us girls in the bank and doted on us like we were his personal banking harem. He would often take us to lunch in his Porsche and he was always the perfect gentleman.

Here’s an example of his chivalry: One day he overheard me telling someone that I’d never gotten long stemmed roses in a box before and I had always thought of that as the ultimate gesture in old fashioned, romantic sweetness. About a month later on my birthday, I received delivery after delivery, dozens of long stemmed roses in boxes from all my trader friends. Alex, of course, was the mastermind behind it all.

Anyway, *sigh* back to my story. So on this day, I walked in with Alex and a bunch of other hot traders. Alex didn’t seem himself that morning. He was unusually stiff and awkward with me. And when we parted at the elevator and I waved goodbye, Alex practically leapt into the elevator without so much as a wave.

As I was setting up for our morning meeting, a couple of fellow employees drifted in, one of them being my good friend April.

I was conversing with April, my back to her, as I flitted about, preparing for the meeting. When she didn’t answer me at one point, I turned around to glance her way. And that’s when I saw the tears streaming down her face. But she wasn’t crying. She was gasping. Gasping between her silent laughter.

She put her hands on my shoulders and said, “I want you to remember one thing. I want you to remember that one day you’ll be able to laugh about this. Now, come with me.”

Puzzled, I followed her to the ladies restroom where she said to me again, “You must remember that someday you will find this funny.”

She turned me around in front of the mirror and that’s when I saw to my horror, that my big ass-dress was tucked right into my big-ass underwear. The big-ass underwear, mind you, that reached all the way up to the top of my big-ass maternity bra.

I replayed in my mind all the people, all the MEN and worst of all, Hot Alex, who had witnessed my doublewide maternity panty flash and I doubled over as their troubled and horrified faces passed through my brain.

So, that’s why the landscaper at the gas station dropped his soda as I passed by him.

It took me a long time, a very long time, but my friend was right—one day I would be able to see the humor in my too wide ass on display for the whole world to see.

And I realize that every time my kids say, “Hey Mom, tell my friends your embarrassing underwear story.”

And here I am today telling you, Internet. I guess some things do fade with time. Now if only I could forget my face plant the other night after falling out of my shoe in the middle of the crowded restaurant, I’ll be doing okay.

Lucy Ricardo’s got nothing on me.

Erin from Mommy on the Spot is today’s guest.  Erin is a very fun and insightful writer.  She is also the one who inspired me to create my Writing Contest!  Psst… she has even been to BlogHer and I am super jealous! 

Blogging: A Love Letter from the Future

I am so excited to be guest posting for Erika at The Girl Next Door Grows Up!  Seriously, what an honor!  Her Feel Good Fridays have helped me look more positively at life.  Amazing, right?  If someone had told me almost five years ago that my blogging friends would change my life, I would have asked, “What’s blogging?” 

And then it hit me.

I’ll write the New Mom Erin a letter to tell her about all the exciting stuff in store for her, Back to the Future style.  I’ve read letters written to High School Self, but New Mom Erin was much more lost than High School Erin.  So without further ado . . .

Dear Erin,

Hi!  It’s me, almost five years later.  You may not recognize me because I have bangs, and I lost all that baby weight.  (So yea for you, in advance)!  There is another reason that you may not recognize me, and I think that may have to do with a new-found confidence that you will be slowly building as you find your way as a mom.   Although you have always wanted to be a stay-at-home mom, it will be a bit of, how could I say this gently, an “adjustment.”

It’s not like you’ll miss your work as a junior high English teacher.  You practically sashayed out of the building the day you were granted maternity leave (well, as much as a pregnant lady could sashay who made her meals out of cheez-its and Oreos).  Your “dream job” quickly turned into a nightmare.  You were ill-equipped to deal with all the bullying and politics (and by bullying, I mean from administration).

It was not a happy time for you.

So you will be ready to embrace being a stay-at-home mom.  But due to your daughter’s scary health issues, you will spend every last ounce of your being on seeing her through this time.  She will be fine.  You will fall apart, but you put yourself back together again with the help of a compassionate therapist.  Just in time to get pregnant again.

When your son is born, you will fall in love at first sight.  His nursing issues and ear infections will be a challenge.  Between that and being there for Marie, your days will blur together.

You will begin to fade into the background. 

You don’t want to go back, but you are unsure of how to move forward.

Right before you give birth, someone is going to suggest blogging.  You are going to think it’s crazy.

After a rough couple of months of not leaving the house, you decide to give blogging a try. 

Writing makes you feel better, and you connect with some amazing women.

Also, there will be a conference coming up that following summer called BlogHer.  You will hesitate about going because you don’t want to spend the money on yourself. 

Go.  Just go. 

When you begin to blog, you are not quite sure what to tell people because they don’t understand.  Even you don’t understand where it will go.  This conference?  Changes everything.  You will meet women who followed their passion for writing and feel inspired by all the different avenues you didn’t even know existed.

You thought you would get married, have babies, and teach.  End. Of.  Story.

No, my friend, your story is just beginning.

 You are going to learn so much by blogging, and it’s going to help you lay down the stepping stones so hopefully, when Thomas is in school, you won’t be wondering what to do with your days besides having coffee with Matt and Meredith and later hanging out with Kathy and Hoda.

There will be rough times ahead as any mother will have when she decides to carve her own space separate from the dirty diapers and preschool politics.  But push ahead and don’t give up.  The writing?  The meaningful connections?  The happiness?  Is all worth figuring out that balance.

I know it doesn’t seem like this could ever happen.  I mean, you just had an unplanned c-section and are sorting out all the questions surrounding your baby’s health.   You just left an unhealthy work situation.

But trust me, you will reinvent yourself and not in the trendy Madonna kind of way.  More like a survival kind of way.  The Next Act, if you will. 

Wipe the sleep out of your eyes and the spit up from your shoulder.   

You.  Will.  Make.  It.

Love,

The New and Improved Erin

Today’s post is from a long time blog friend of mine Katie, of These Are The Days.  Katie writes beautifully.  I love to read her because we share so many of the same ideas about life and family.  Her posts always make me smile.

And she always has the coolest headers on her site!

Decisions, Decisions

David: “So, where would you like to eat tonight?”

Me: “Oh, I dunno. What sounds good to you?”

David: “Kids? You wanna eat at Flying Burrito?”

From the back seat comes muffled “umms… I dunnos….maybes” and silent shoulder shrugs.

David: “Kate? That okay with you, or did you want something else? Maybe Jimmy Johns? What about Kosmoss (a tiny little Greek sandwich shop that is really, really good)?”

Me: “Yeah, that’d be okay, I guess…”

From the back seat: “I don’t want to eat there”

David, exasperated: “So what sounds good to you then?”

Sigh…

This was the conversation that was held in my Jeep Thursday night as we were driving down the main strip, trying to decide where to eat from the few places that were open.

Add to the indecision we were undergoing in my truck the fact that our entire Southern town had just been “walloped” by a raging snowstorm that left nearly 5 inches of snow earlier in the day.

Snow and the South, there’s nothing quite like it. An oncoming “snow event” preempts national news, natural disasters and even the Superbowl. The grocery store shelves look like a swarm of locusts had just been through. Parents and kids start doing the Snow Day Dance as soon as they see the first flake, and rejoice with gusto when school is called off.

Even for a mere dusting.

How quickly they forgot last year’s school year here when we had to make up a full week of school in June, causing many parents to complain about the fact that they had to postpone summer vacation plans due to all the snow days that had to be made up.

Also, when I was a kid? Snow days were unheard of. You strapped on your snow boots, bundled up like Nanook of the North, kissed your mom goodbye, and set out for school, hoping you wouldn’t get lost in the blizzard or die of frostbite along the way.

Kids these days have it so easy.

Anyway, I digress.

The decision making machine in our family is severely lacking.

For life changing decisions, David and I team up and make them together without really breaking a sweat, but it’s the little day-to-day ones that lead to grey hair and  breaking out the beer bottles.

Why is it so hard to make a simple decision such as where to eat, where to go on a rare Saturday night out or even how we want to spend the day with the kids? And the kids are just as bad, being reluctant to give us their input about where they’d like to eat or how they want to spend the day.

David and I were coming home Friday night with our deli sandwiches for our Friday Night Movie night that we’ve been having for the last 17 years with the kids.

Its tradition. And boy, the kids get mad if we try and skip it. And also, I DO cook dinner on a fairly regular schedule. We don’t eat out ALL the time.

Anyway, we were talking about our lack of family making decision skills,and how tired we both were of making decisions for other people. David’s job calls for him to make decisions for about 20 different people on a daily basis, not just personnel decisions, but financial and logistical ones as well. His brain is worn out by the end of the day.

I have to make decisions based on the kids’ schedules, when to pick up which kid where, what to put on this weeks menu, what errands need to be run. Granted, my decisions aren’t as earth shattering or important as David’s, but there are those days when I go to bed numb.

I came up with a plan on our way home , a sort of belated New Year’s resolution in that I was going to tell the kids that we were, from January 21, 2011 onward, going to start communicating our wishes and decisions in a more concise and direct manner, to take some of the burden off Daddy’s shoulders and become more decisive.

As a family.

And if we all four want to do something completely different, then we’ll sit down and talk about it and make the decision TO. GETH. ER.

We’ll draw straws if it comes right down to it.

I think they took it pretty well.

I’m still having trouble deciding, though….

Today I am kicking off 2 weeks of Guest Posts!  I have a really fantastic line-up of great writers to include Tyler and my own little Emily who begged me for a chance, but today we have someone special.

Keith is one of the bloggers from the new blog that I am working on.  Since none of the people there have ever written a blog post before, I invited them to give it a try, pressure free, over here. 

I think he is a natural.  Now see for yourself:

************************************

“Daddy, Can I Have My Own Facebook Page”?

How would you answer your 13-yr old daughter? 

Keep in mind, I am still celebrating the fact that my wife and I held off until her 13^th birthday to bring her into the cell phone age, her 11^th birthday for her own nano, and her 10^th birthday to get her ears pierced.  Old fashioned?  Maybe, but knowledge of today’s technology warrants certain safeguards and respect.  Even as I write my first blog at 41, I am still amazed at the never-ending power and allure of the World Wide Web and all it has to offer today’s youth.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy Facebook and, outside of the annoying one-upmanship by Farmville goofs and “The Bejeweled Bored” (among others), recognize its ability to easily connect past friends and family members.  I have personally connected with friends I went to elementary school with and past coworkers.  I will join our company’s blog, continue to use Linked In, Pandora, and maybe even tweet a bit – but I will do it cautiously. 

As for now, I guess the answer will be the parents’ ever favorite, “we’ll see”.  Not without due restrictions and daily check-ins by mom and dad.  Not with accepting friends over the age of 15 (regardless of family or family friends), not without respect and sensitivity to the messages sent

… not without this dad recognizing in one more way his little girl is growing up.

What age do you think is appropriate to start Facebook?

{What made you Feel Good this week?  Choose a prompt and link up!}

(For the purposes of this post:   sick=the 72 hour flu)

Emily got sick and it was NOT pretty as I previously mentioned.  Then the next day I got some pretty nasty stomach pains.

At first I was petrified that I would get sick too until I remembered the line from A Devil Wears Prada when Emily Blunt says that she is:

“…just one stomach flu away from her perfect weight.”

Well then getting sick didn’t seem so bad.

And I felt better!

I must have gotten so excited over reaching my perfect weight, all of my body’s happy feelings just shooed that sickness away.

So I guess that is a good thing.

A part of me was kind of hoping that I would get sick after eating Cheetos and therefore I would never touch Cheetos ever again.

Apparently it wasn’t meant to be as I currently have orange powder caked on my knuckles.

***********

On a different note, the social media job is beyond wonderful.  I can’t wait to share everything with you, but until their program launches, I just don’t have a minute to spare for this blog.

Yes, I do have 22 posts ready to go in my queue, but if I can’t be “here” and connect with you, it makes me feel horrible so I am going to do something I have never done before:

Who Wants to Guest Post for Me??? 

Pretty, pretty please?

Now… I don’t want to pick favorites, which is why I am opening it up to everyone, and there are some of you who I know are busy so please don’t be offended that I didn’t come to you directly. (pleasesayyespleasesayyespleasesayyes)

Thank you! THANK YOU!

Happy Feel Good Friday to all of you!!

The stomach flu has hit out house.

Emily has been quarantined in our bedroom which offers the convenience of  a TV and a private bathroom to keep the germs contained.

I am the only one brave enough to enter her germ bubble.

I am also the only one who has bloddy hands from washing and Purell-ing over and over.

Too sick to come to dinner, I came up with an idea to lift her spirits and keep her close, but not too close, to the rest of us.

We have been Facetime-ing ever since and even if we don’t talk, I can keep an eye on my darling and pathetic girl.

By bedtime, she had spread enough germs in there to sicken an entire town was so snuggly and comfy in our room we decided to let her stay the night.

You know what that means don’t you?

Tyler and I are sleeping on the sofa.

Together.

I’ll be sure to let you know how that turns out.

Before I announce the winner of the January Contest I want to thank everyone for participating! Thank you for letting me read all of your thoughts and stories. It is truly my pleasure.

Another HUGE Thank you to Jason from Spork Marketing for offering up a prize for a 3rd month in a row!!  Woo-Hoo!

Jason, from Spork Marketing has graciously offered another $50.00 VISA gift card to this month’s winner!! Thank you Jason!

A little about Spork Marketing:

“Search engine optimization (SEO), Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ad management, and search engine friendly web design are our specialties. Because successful Internet marketing requires great content, we also offer web content writing and Internet video production services”

Also, if you have a business and want to integrate blogging into it, check out their Business Blog Development services.

**The Initial Consultation is FREE, so go and visit Spork Marketing!!!

The Runner-Up:

I have to give a special mention to the runner-up because what he writes is absolutely golden!!!  Brian from Way Station One, you are one truly talented man.

The Winner:

Before you click to see who it is I want you to please read what I have to say about this month’s winner:

The subject matter of the post is not one that is written about every day.   You might have breezed through it, or stopped reading it altogether because it deals with bodily functions.

However, this post, the winning post is so much more than it’s subject matter.  What made this post stand out to me was the honesty and the strength behind the story. 

She didn’t have to tell us.  She didn’t have to let us into her world the way she did.

But she did, and she did it in a way that has stuck with me ever since I read it. 

Thank you Bonnie.  To me, you are more than the winner of this writing contest.  You are a winner in life for your attitude and resolve, honesty and strength. 

I invite all of you to please visit Bonnie at The Fragile X Files and congratulate her!!!

{What made you Feel Good this week?  Choose a writing prompt and link up!}

I’m all for quality over quantity, but seriously, one date in 3 years?

That’s right.  Tyler and I have not had a date since Sarah was 3 MONTHS old.

Because…

We got Jack and Jack was an idiot and I didn’t feel that it was fair to have some poor unsuspecting teen get trounced by him….

…then Jack got trained, but Emma got sick….

…then Emma died and Jack got protective and might have tried to eat the sitter….

…then we got Millie and she might have not been so good at bladder control in the beginning.

Whew.

But on Sunday it happened.

3 years and 6 months later, it finally happened!

Emily and her BFF, babysat for Sarah and the dogs.

JACKPOT!

I thought that we might go play golf at a simulator, but Tyler asked to go to the casino since no kids are allowed.

JACKPOT!

I sat down and inserted a $20 (because I am such a big spender) and after 3 plays I won $100!!

JACKPOT!

I pocketed the money and we played a little more and had a some lunch and were ready to go home, but when we called the girls, they said that Sarah wasn’t even up from her nap yet.

So we had to stay at the casino so the girls could actually do some babysitting.

I pulled out another $20 and put it into a nickel machine to make the money last a really long time and…

JACKPOT!

I won 17,000 nickels.

That’s $850, by the way.

 Can you say iMac?  I can. 

When we move, somebody is getting a new computer.

JACKPOT!

Seriously though, even if we didn’t win any money, just spending 4 uninterrupted hours with Tyler was the true jackpot!

Do YOU have regular dates with your spouse?