Sunday, August 4, 2013

Wrapping It Up - Volume 8

It's a two for one! Two weeks worth of wrapping up.

(Speaking of two for one, that promo from Citrus Lane expires tomorrow. The promo code you need is BLOG2for1 and it should work easily if you click through the link on my site).


Highlights of the Week

Well, weeks.

I was lucky enough to work with Citrus Lane and give Reagan something special. I had so much fun entering the sweepstakes and making our "wish list". Both girls have become obsessed with dollhouses lately, so I'm lusting after a good one and those Kidcraft ones are amazing. I'm such a sucker for contests. I never win, but I'm always hopeful.

I really, really, really missed having my mother's helper.

Because I had no mother's helper, and I wasn't blogging, and I really, really hated the idea of my poor blog sitting idle and alone, my friend Angela over at Momopolize helped me out with a VERY funny guest post about a pain in the butt.

Oh, and we were super lazy the day after Madison's party, and I was completely ok with it.

Finally, I was interviewed by Mackenzie over at Raising Wild Things. She has a great series called "That's What She Said" where she poses ridiculous questions to bloggers. 

Noteworthy Happenings

Not a lot of excitement. I think I figured out how to incorporate all the teeny tiny toys into our play areas (this is where my selective OCD comes into play).

Madison screamed through a few more swimming lessons (she actually does much better when I walk away, so I think that's what I'll be doing).

Madison also decided to completely terrify me about preschool by having wet pants at home at least once a day and being completely fine with it. Of course, she also had a massive ear infection and another infection (in an area that I will decline to specify), so right now I can blame that. We'll see how I'm feeling in a few weeks.

Oh, and Adam and I celebrated our ninth anniversary this past Wednesday. Our dinner out was sort of a comedy of errors (the kitchen lost our order and we waited well over an hour before we figured it out), but it was the first anniversary in a few years where I wasn't a) recovering from a miscarriage b) recovering from childbirth c) newly pregnant or d) nursing. I enjoyed my cabernet.



Today we attended the fourth annual neighborhood ice cream social. Four years ago, a family on our street entered a contest sponsored by Edy's about why their neighborhood needed an ice cream block party. Well, our street is not really what one would consider a "neighborhood" - it's long with all the houses set back from the road and no sidewalks, so she wrote about wanting to find a way for us to get to know each other - and she won! The first year Edy's sponsored the party, but since then we've made it a yearly tradition. Madison still holds the honor of being the youngest guest to attend - she was eight days old at her first party. Today, both girls had a blast eating ice cream and playing - and afterward we washed off in the pool!



Great Things to Read

I always do the Honest Voices linkup, but I didn't get to it this week. Still, one of my favorite bloggers, JD Bailey (the Honest Mom behind Honest Voices) wrote an awesome piece about women being content with their choices about working. I loved this.

This post was written by Kerry over at HouseTalkN, but it appeared on a great site called In the Powder Room. She wrote a piece of advice for newlyweds that I can completely relate to.

And Jessica wrote about the need that people seem to have to challenge each other with "I have it worse" or "you can't complain". Very timely.


On Facebook

Well, I may not have been writing, but I stayed pretty active on Facebook. Here's a sampling of what I shared. If you're on Facebook, definitely like my page. Even when I'm busy, I usually find time to share pictures and quick anecdotes that make me laugh.


They can't read. But they know colors!

Yup.

An additional variable for how early they were up.

Many of you suggested slipping them Benadryl, but not sharing the secret to my success.

Impressive skills to keep me from taking any time to myself.

Reagan is crazy. Our DVDs are gated off and she can get to them.

Toddlers are tricky.

They hid it somewhere.

She works primarily with dolls and cracker crumbs.

Why do they hate pants?

The toys are organized. My kitchen floor is a trainwreck.

My superpowers are dormant. Want to see why this is funny? Follow me on Facebook.

I participated in TWO Twitter parties. If you are unfamiliar with Twitter parties, it's sort of like being in the old AOL chat rooms. Random conversation is scrolling at a crazy pace, and it can be incredibly hard to follow. Yet somehow, you manage to kill an hour being witty with strangers.

One was #HomeCon13, for the bloggers sad about missing Blogapalooza (BlogHer).

The other was co-hosted by Mommy Shorts and Nick Mom, both of whom I love, called #sleepymomsunite. We talked about being tired. And totally confused the Twitter world.

I also tweeted on my own.

I was reasonably successful. I'm still working on a few things.

Thanks Disney Junior - it worked!

Blogkeeping

I actually have some pretty exciting blogkeeping highlights. This is part of what kept me from actually writing. Every time I did sit down at the computer, I needed to work on these things.

My post about twin loss was picked up by three sites. Scary Mommy. iVillage Australia. and....

Huffington Post.

Yes.

Seriously.

They emailed me the day the post ran on Scary Mommy. We went back and forth and back and forth all day, where they set up my profile on the site, verified that I had ownership of the story and all the pictures involved, and everything needed to happen immediately.

And I have no idea if the post has actually gone live. I don't think it has yet. I'm a little nervous, because this is huge. But I'm also really excited.

And that's not the only big news.

A few weeks ago I started working with an affiliate network called Glitter Network (and by working with, I mean that I applied to the site, was approved, and can log in. I haven't done a darn thing other than that).

Then I was asked by the person I've been working with there to submit a post about why I started blogging and how it changed my life. They were offering a prize to attend their affiliate conference in a few weeks in Philadelphia. On a whim I submitted a post the day they were due, figuring "why not?"

And I won.

So now I'm trying to figure out how to arrange for childcare and finance travel (which of course is not included) because this is an incredible opportunity. So if you're interested in sponsoring a trip to Philly, let me know!

But seriously, it's flattering and exciting. I just created and ordered some business cards from Vistaprint, and hopefully we can make it work.

So for taking a few weeks off from regular posting, I was actually really busy. In a good way.

This week, Sarah is back and I am on track to get back to a good blogging place, where not only can I handle exciting opportunities, but I can do the writing I love too.

Advice on my first blogging "business trip"? What did you read this week and love?

Have a great week!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congrats for winning-I hope you're able to get to Philly! And thank you for mentioning #HomeCon13-I hope you're able to come next time! :-D

Unknown said...

Wow you are a busy girl!!! Congratulations on all the wonderful news and your anniversary!! I can't wait to hear all about the conference! so

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