Last night was a rude awakening for me.  I realized that I had let things direct where my blog was going.  I realized that I was becoming a blog that I, myself, would not follow.  I haven’t been a great follower lately for anyone.  I haven’t responded too many emails.  I’ve been so busy with this meme or that.  I’ve been busy with being a Macaroni Kid Publisher which by the way I absolutely love.  I am enjoying finding all the new things that the kids can do in my neighborhood.

Today I’m starting off on a new leaf.  I’m going to share more about what is going on.  This blog was suppose to be about my life and kids.  I had a meme in the beginning about the magical moment in my life.  I stopped doing it somewhere along the way.  That meme was what this blog was suppose to be about.  I will be resurrecting it.  Where is my blog running?  I’m not totally sure anymore.  But I will say this things are changing as of today.

I won’t be surprised if I lose followers after this post.  Believe me, I don’t want to but I’m sure I will.   I’ve been a bad bloggy friend.  I’ve lost contact with so many of you that it hurts inside.  You see, I got overwhelmed.  I have this nasty habit of jumping into something so fast and not totally being prepared for the outcome.  Haven’t we all done that at some point?

The problem is as I got overwhelmed, I slowly lost my focus on what was important to me.  In turn, I joined more things thinking that would fix it when it really comes down to me.  I need to step back and get back in touch with the real things that I love.  I need to get my focus back where it belongs which also includes my family.  I’ll still be writing but it will be with more passion.  You see, my posts have been coming out later and later in the day because I lost that passion.  I considered quite truthfully walking away.  Is it a slump for me?  Perhaps.  I have been writing for over 6 months now. 

I will still have reviews and giveaways that I find pertinent.  I won’t just endorse any product.  I have receive emails from pr people wanting me to just issue a review that they have written.  I am telling you right now that I will never put out a review that I myself have not personally done.   I still have reviews/giveaways out there to get finished.  I still have reviews coming in the door as well.  I’m excited to be writing a review right now that involves my son’s birthday party.  I’m going to simply start writing again because I love it.

I’m going to start visiting a lot more.  You know blogging does take a lot of time.  My focus is back.  Are you still here with me?

Write For Yourself – #1

I’ve learned that blogging needs to be for you and not someone else.  As much as I like that everyone is reading my blog, I like that I can let go and just talk on my blog.  This weekend I’ve realized that I have been changing my blog.  My blog has become something that isn’t what I was focusing on earlier.  I have reviews and giveaways coming up but I haven’t stayed true to myself.  I haven’t been writing the stuff that really matters to me lately.  I haven’t been writing about my family..my life.  That changes now. 

How can I expect you all to be engaged if I’m not?  I have several blogs.  I am going to incorporate them all into this one blog.  I’ve learned that I can’t do that many.  Its confusing and something always falls to the wayside.  So my jokes blog is coming over.  Expect the new one column..Jokes to make you laugh on Hump Day.  I’m also bringing over my 101 tasks in 1001 Days blog.  Lots of changing coming up.

Help your fellow readers- #2

Occasionally, I do tips to help everyone such as the ones about plumbing, how to make post-its, or word verification (yuk).  I find that people respond to those.  Providing assistance to help your fellow blogger is a huge thing.  It helps so much.

Blog Regularly – #3

Sit down and write every day no matter what.  I’ve realized that when I write faithfully that I have more followers reading.  If you write every day and keep it current, people will read. 

Be interactive – #4

Over time, you will have gotten a comment or an email saying thank you for this comment or I agree with this.  If you are interactive with people, they are more likely to come back. 

I’ve been really slack on that lately.  I’ve noticed that it definitely shows in my numbers.  I don’t look at them often because it bugs me.  I had a huge drop off when I switched over to WordPress.  One of the reasons was that I was not able to publish any content.  People could not interactive with me and I lost a lot of readers.

Your readers are here to contribute.  They want to share as much as to read what is going on in your life.

Be personal – #5

While blogging, I’ve made some of the best friends in the world.  I do mean world we don’t live next to each other.  I can’t walk out the door and shake their hand or hug them but we are friends none the less.  Making these friends was because I was willing to be personal with them.  I was willing to share things about my life with them as well as to listen and be an active participant in conversations together.

People want to not only read your blog but understand who the person is that is writing it.  They want to see the inside you.

Interactive in other places – #6

When I’m not writing, I’m on Twitter and Facebook.  I’m in other networks talking to them.  I go and read other blogs.  I don’t spend as much time as I should though.  But interacting with your readers make you seem more like a person that they want to talk to.  When you are out there talking to others, you make more friends and you put your blog out into the web.  So don’t just sit around your blog, get out there and socialize.

Always look for ways to improve – #7

This is huge for me.  One of my biggest pet peeves is a stale monkey.  You need to keep improving your blog.  Whether it is content or layout or etc.  You need to keep your blog fresh for your viewers to keep coming back.

Talk about the mistakes you make along the way.  Help another reader not to make that same mistake.  When you share, you grow.

Don’t take things to personal – #8

Over time, I’ve had comments that I didn’t like for one reason or another.  It’s my blog how dare someone not like something!!  Come on we live in the real world.  Things are going to happen that someone is not going to like.  Just roll with the punches and don’t take it personal.

Pictures are golden – #9

Readers love to see pictures that you personally took. 

Giving credit – #10

This is a huge topic for me.  Don’t steal someone’s work.  It hurts them.  It hurts you as well.  Always!! Always give credit for someone else’s work. 

Now, I had this happen but I did not do it deliberately.  I literally copied and pasted some information onto my blog.  This happened when I was just starting out.  I meant to say it as a draft so that I could adjust it later.  I was planning on giving credit but things happen.  It got published.  I can’t begin to say how bad I felt about it.  I felt awful.  I apologized and the person accepted my apology.  I can not tell you how badly it felt to know that I did it.  It was an accident on my part but it happened nonetheless be careful before you hit that publish button.

Sit down and grab your drinks.  Welcome to my new home!  I’m settling in quite nicely now.  Harriet, over at CreativeBlogMe, did an absolutely awesome job for me.  Don’t you think so?  It’s amazing.  She was so incredibly patient with a very non-technical person.  It was quite a switch over.   I love how my banner is on the top and the bottom.  I love how I have so much room for my posts as well.

Now the Google Friends doesn’t seem to want to listen but that seems to be happening everywhere from what I’ve seen.  It just wants to say there is no subscribers but there are if you click on it.  Especially since most of you are on it.

Finally everything seems to be settling down.   Except for my subscribers.. have you noticed yet that I am not in your google reader or that you are not getting emails from me?  I need you to resubscribe to me.  Really I’m serious we had to change the RSS Feed.  So what I need you to do is unsubscribe from me and resubscribe if you want to keep reading me.  pretty please.  I don’t want to lose anyone in this transition.

Harriet is even going to run a giveaway to help me out as well.  I literally went from over 500 subscriber to 5 subscribers.  Talk about freaking me out.  I was spooked.   All I could think was I was going to lose all my followers.. all the people that I love to follow myself.

So while I was moving, I had technical issues because my blog was shut down for over a week.  Talk about scary.  I was terrified.  Harriet wasn’t even suppose to start working on my blog at that point.  She was in Orlando.  I hope she had a good trip because she did start to help me out while she was there. 

I figured I had plenty of time to catch up on all my favorite blogs.  That didn’t happen!!  My computer decided that it had time to catch up on someone’s virus!!  I’m telling you viruses stink!!  If I didn’t have family to help me, I would have been shot down totally.  I was for another week.   So I got farther behind keeping up with all my favorite blogs.  I did get to work on a computer that was slower than molasses pretty much to keep up with Harriet.

I’ve been very honored to join Rita at One 2 Try and Lynn at Midday Escapades in the new meme, Friday Follow.  I don’t think any of us expected it to take off with such incredible speed.  It’s so amazing to be one of the host in this meme.  I want to say hello and welcome to all my new followers!  I can’t wait to get to know each and every one of you. 

The other day I read a post that I thought would be very beneficial to each and everyone of you as well.  Heather at Thetamom’s wrote “3 Secrets to Getting Return Bloggers.”  I thought it was a great post since we have this incredible meme going on.  Please go over and check it out.  Tell her that I sent you.

Starting today here is what you can expect from me:

1. I will get out more to see you all.  I love bloggy love.  I love commenting.  I’ve been down but here I come.
2. I will post every day about something.  Hopefully its something that you find relevant and interesting.  I’ll do my best.  If I have a review/giveaway, I will still post a more personal one.
3. I will continue the Friday Follow meme.  I love it.  Well, we will until it stops working.  Hopefully that’s never.
4. If I do a review/giveaway, it must be something that I would be interested in checking out 100%.  I’m not just going to do one because a company is asking me to do it.  It has to be something that I think you would find interesting as well.  Or my kids do.

Now some questions for you all:

1. Are you interested in seeing Magical Moments for Tuesday come back?  For those of you that have just started following me, the goal is to talk about one thing during the week that was magical to you. I mean that you were over the top about. It could be a project you completed, something your child did, a grand new idea, something you saw, etc. Something that was so magical that you have to tell us about it. I know. I know. This is why we all have blogs. But sometimes we just write about the negative things because we had a bad week. So if we all write about a Magical Moment then we might uplift another blogger. This is the very reason that I have this blog so that one day my children can see. You do not have to be a mom to do this.
2. Are you interested in more tips in home improvement?  I’ve considered talking with some friends to get easy tips for us all.  That could mean expanding into other areas of your home.  Though I will tell you now, I don’t want weekend warriors.  Weekend warriors tend to make expensive repair issues.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments so that I can help make my blog even better for you.

I’m up and running on WordPress.  I hope that I haven’t lost any of my readers.  Harriet did a wonderful job.  Please check her out her at CreativeBlogMe.  Don’t you think?  She has been incredibly patient with me while doing it as well.  I’m so nontechnical.  It is not funny.  I think I’m a newborn babe in this.  

A few housekeeping things:  Welcome to all my new followers.  I am so excited to have you here.  I hope that all my old followers are here.  I’m ready to get back up to speed. 

Now I got a few questions while I was in limbo so I’m going to answer them.

Do I think this is a good way to get your words out?  You know I don’t honestly know if it is.  I know that I love blogging.  I know that I want to share with people my experiences so that they know that they are not alone in the world.  I put my life history out there to help someone else.  I’ve been told that I should write it as a book.  I don’t know about that.  It is a possibility.  I just simply have fun sharing.  Hopefully you all enjoy reading it. 

How often do I post?  Well until I transferred to WordPress, I had been posting every day religiously.  You can ask most of my old readers.  Also, you can look through my history and see that.

Why should I follow you?  Good question.  The only thing I can really say is that I love sharing.  I tell jokes.  I tell what is going on.  I’m quirky but yet I’m not.  Maybe something will touch you that I write.  I can only share what comes naturally.  I can’t really just sit down and write a topic about something I have no clue about.  I hope you all do like what I write about.

Do you do giveaways and reviews often?  Actually I have to say no.  I am starting to get requests to do so.  I will if I think its a good product.  I will always give you my honest opinion.  But I will typically post something else on the same day as well.

Why do you blog?  There are various reasons to why I blog.  Originally I started this blog so that my children would have a chronological journey of my life with them as they grow.  Then it became an outlet as I met so many different wonderful bloggers.  I have made some friends in this blogosphere.  Now I think I’m addicted.

When I first started this blog, it was simply to keep an ongoing journal for my kids.  I’m finding that it is starting to have a life of its own.  I’m so very blessed to have so many new bloggy friends.  To have found so many people that I can sit down and talk with it even if its online.  I can’t wait until I can meet some of you in person that would be truly amazing.

I’ve been blogging since July 2009 now.  I have over 300 posts out there.  WOW that is so amazing to me.  I have over 400 followers.  I don’t know why you all are still here.  I love writing.  I never knew how much until I started this blog.  I love reading as well.  Though I don’t have as much time as I would like to do so.  I’ve been through so much since I started this blog.  I’ve tried to share with you as much as possible.

You were all there when I was depressed after visiting my sister in October.  We still haven’t spoken to each other since.  I’ve tried.  She hasn’t responded.  It hurts but when I say I’m back I am.  I’ve been very scattered every since the visit.  I haven’t been around to all my favorite blogs.  Although I have been reading.  I simply haven’t been me.  Well I am now.  I’m back.  I have a new reborned energy that I’m so happy about.  I will be coming to your blog soon if I haven’t made it there this week.  I’m coming. 

I was literally amazed at how well the Follow Friday blog hop went over last week.  I’m still trying to catch up.  Although I have made it to each person’s blog that jumped last week.  That took me 3 days.  I loved finding all the new blogs and catching up on the old ones.  Can you believe that 136 blogs joined?  To me that is simply amazing.  And the blog hop is coming once again.

Ok so some housekeeping that I need to get out of the way:

1.  I think I’ve been double taxing myself.  I try to respond to every post by email unless of course you have the no-reply blogger dot com that drives me nuts. 

NO REPLY AT BLOGGER DOT COM

I mean I hate it.. I despise it. I want to respond to you all by email. I love responding by emails. I love talking to you all. I want to know about my readers. So I respond to every email I get. Until I see the hated “no reply at blogger dot com.”   To make it easy for you to remove it, I am going to post it here for you. The directions are as follows:

Now, for those of you who do not want a regular email address to show, go to Gmail, Yahoo or any other number of places and get a FREE, yes FREE, email account and set it up.

I’m going to start just jumping over to your blog instead of responding by email if I would have just answered it with just “thanks” or something like that.  I do like to respond but unless it’s an answer or something.  I’ll just hop to your blog.  How do you handle this?

2.  Word verification people.. I hate it.  And as I noticed from my comments so do most of my bloggy friends.  So I’m giving you the heads up here how to fix it.

WORD VERIFICATION

Ok I hate hate this as well. I don’t know why but my eyes do not do this well at all. Or I hit save and then close. Guess what happens? You don’t get my comment and sometimes I don’t realize. So I might have been commenting all along.  Now to turn off this awful thing and to help all of your commenters’ eyes, do the following:

Go to your Dashboard at blogger dot com.  Click on Settings, which is under the name of your blog.  Click on Comments, which is on the top of the page.  Scroll down until you see this: Show word verification for comments?  Click the box that says NO.  Click Save settings at the bottom of the page. Please do not leave this page until you have saved settings.

I am begging you to fix these things to help me get to know each of you even better in the future.

3.  Big ANNOUNCEMENT:  I’m moving to WordPress.  I just set up my Daddy hosting.  So bear with me while I do.
 Hoping you all have a great Saturday.

Once again I am joining SupahMommy with Post Its Tuesday. I absolutely love these. Now if you would like to join us, please do. I actually adore doing these. If you need help learning how to make your very own post-its, please go here.

So here’s what is on my mind.

First House cleaning:

Yeah yeah I know.  I just can’t get it started.  I never dreamed that Follow Friday would go so well.  You all totally rock.

So what’s on my mind? Ok that could be scary. And away we go.

I’m starting my official journey to a better blog in 31 days today.  I found this over on my friend Lynn’s blog MiddayEscapades.  It was written by Problogger.  So you are here for the official Day 1.  Now honestly I probably shouldn’t have spent the money for this but…  I think that its a good investment for $19.95 if I am going to get the professional advice of a true problogger.  I have always loved his site.  So much great information that I tend to share anyway.  Sounded like a win-win to me and knowing that Lynn did so well with it.  I had to try it.

Just like Lynn did, I will not be sharing the exact details of the tasks and teachings.  But I may post about how I did in general terms and if I was successful in accomplishing them.

In addition, to track my progress (again just like Lynn), I am posting my starting stats from last week below. I will also post weekly status updates and the ending stats at the conclusion of the challenge.

Jan 2 – Jan 8 2010

Pageviews:  880
Visits:  592

Obviously I need to figure out stats as I do this as well.

Ok its a New Year and I’m so excited.  I decided that I simply am going to accept that things will happen as they come.  I can’t change the past so I’m going to share as well go.  I’ve been in a little stump.  I must say that I appreciate you all being patient with me.  I’m surprised that I have any readers at all though.  My husband finally told me to stop worrying as well.  We know that I just can’t work for two years.  I’m going to post if I find any new things to do online as well.  New portion.. Crazy trying to work online is coming up.  hope you like it.

As typical, I want to know what you want as a reader too.  I want to improve this blog.  So please leave comments on what you want.. such as:

• Do you like the jokes I post?
• Do you want the quotes I find?
• Is posting once a day enough?  Or did you like it when I posted 3 or 4 or 5 times a day?
• Do you like hearing my husband’s tips?  I’ve thought about expanding that portion to include more trades.  You know, my husband can literally build a house from ground up.
• Do you like all the stories I tell?
• Do you like the poems that I’ve written?  That I share?

Sorry I can’t get away from writing the stories about the kids and the family.  That’s what the blog is about.  So tough toe nails.  Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Stay tuned as well.. Post Its coming up tonight.

Lynn over at Midday Escapades saw an idea on Rita at One 2 Try saw this brilliant idea on another blog, started one on her blog, then Lynn did, and now I am joining in and paying it forward on my blog. Let’s all share some “follow” love and spread the good cheer. So if you are looking for more followers, want to help a fellow blogger get more followers, or would simply like to visit some new and interesting blogs, this is how we do it:

Use the MckLinky below to list your blog name and link to your blog or website. Then, follow the person who linked before you (or follow everyone listed). I will also follow every blog listed and would appreciate your follow back.   Please also link over to Lynn’s and Rita’s blog to link up there as well.  They are both awesome blogs to follow.

I’ll keep the list going indefinitely and will put a link to it under my soon to be newly My Recommended Posts for all our future bloggy friends to use. And, feel free to grab my button code on the side there.

I don’t want to depress everyone… especially since it’s the holiday but I need to talk about this.  I’m broke.  FLAT BROKE.  That means see the wallet above?  That is what mine looks like.  That means when I open my blog each morning and post, I wonder if my husband is going to turn off the internet.  You see, he honestly doesn’t think this blog is worth anything.  It’s not that he doesn’t support my dreams.  It is the fact that this blog has paid me absolutely nothing.  It is the fact that he wants me to make some kind of money.  I know.  I know.  I can’t do much with Monkeyboy in the house.  He doesn’t go anywhere.  I can’t find a paying job that pays enough to fill the bill.  If I get a phone job at home, guess who starts making a lot of noise?  I tried that.  It didn’t work.  If I could find a data entry job at home, I get outbid.  Have you tried Odesk.com?  I have.  It stinks trying to figure out how to outbid people that will work for $1.00 an hour.  I so am not kidding.  So trying to find a non phone..data entry or writing job is hard to do.

I found my dream job at home 4 years ago.  I was working as a trainer for a recruiting service.  And guess what, I made what I made when I was working in brick and mortar.  I put in more hours than I care to admit but Pumpkin was going to school at the time.  And no Monkeyboy yet.  Then they went belly up about 2 years ago.  I haven’t had a paycheck coming in the door for 2 years.  It is not cutting it.

I am hereby coming out and saying.. I’m broke.  I LOVE…  I do mean love to write.  It has been one of the best things I have ever done.  But I hate being broke.  I hate not having money.  I hate worrying paycheck to paycheck if I will be able to afford food, electricity or water.  I hate worrying about paying my mortgage.  I hate the fact that there are so many people out there in the same exact boat as me.  I worry non-stop.  I go to sleep worrying.  I wake up worrying.  I have nightmares about it.  Let me tell you it is no fun.

So I started writing this blog to start blowing off steam and keep a journal about my kids.  I found this awesome world.  I found incredibly awesome bloggy friends.  I read more stories and laughed harder than I have in years.  I want to continue doing it as well.  But…

My husband’s salary pays for the bare necessities with nothing to spare.  My credit has fallen to the wayside.  I have made $.00 for this blog so far.  But I LOVE writing this blog.  I LOVE it more than I have ever loved anything.  So much so that I have considered writing a book once again.  You see when I was little I wanted to be a writer.  I grew up and I forgot.  Now I remember.  But the thing is.. can I afford to continue?

I make no money.  Paid posts are now coming to the forefront of my mind.  Google ads may show up on my RSS feed.  This is so that I can continue writing this blog.  So please please don’t quit following me if I do.  You may see new ads showing up on my blog as well.  I have to justify me doing this some how.  In the meantime, please I’m not doing this to just spam or annoy you.  I need the money.  I wish I could find advertisers for the blog but I have no clue how to do that.  But at the same time, I have to be able to feel right about that advertisement if I do.  I will not change who I am even for money.

I can’t change who I am either.  I write about anything.  Lately I’ve realized that I stay away from certain topics and don’t know why.  I tell jokes.  Ok, most of my stuff is PG rated though.  I think that’s because I know my family and friends read it.  But… I’m not always PG myself.  I want to write things that make you want to come read me.  I want to get to know you and I want you to know me.  I want to connect with you.  That connection does not come from money though.

Ok so what I’m asking from all my bloggy friends.. if you have found solutions to blogging and making a living off of it, please leave me a comment about how.  I would so love to do this blog full time but right now I’m just not able to.  My husband wants me to go back to work.  I can’t blame him.  Though it does not make sense.  I really appreciate any support you do give me at any time.

Thank you for listening to me complain.

P.S.  I am so far behind in my blog reading and commenting but I will get to you as long as I have electricity sometime soon.

I’ve been saying this for the longest time but it is soooo true.  I have the best followers.  My followers are wonderful.  Yes yes I’m buttering you up.  You see this week I have been trying to catch up on all my reading.  I’m sure that most of you saw me commenting.  But I ran into a few things that slowed me down.  I know I know.. So I’m going to give some tips that I got from my friend, Lee at Headaches, Hotflashes and Hormones.  Now if you haven’t checked her out, get your butts over there.  She’s totally funny and upfront.

So here are the tips:

NO REPLY AT BLOGGER DOT COM

I mean I hate it.. I despise it.  I want to respond to you all by email.  I love responding by emails.  I love talking to you all.  I want to know about my readers.  So I respond to every email I get.  Until I see the hated “no reply at blogger dot com.”  So Lee taught me how to get rid of this issue.  You can find this information here as well.  But to make it easy I am going to post it here for you.  I expect you to visit Lee though.  The directions are as follows:

1. Go to your Dashboard on Blogger dot com.
2. Hit your edit profile, right next to your picture, avatar or whatever else you have showing.
3. Scroll down to the line that says : Show my email address and CHECK THE BOX.
4. Hit save.

Now, for those of you who do not want a regular email address to show, go to Gmail, Yahoo or any other number of places and get a FREE, yes FREE, email account and set it up.

WORD VERIFICATION

Ok I hate hate this as well.  I don’t know why but my eyes do not do this well at all.  Or I hit save and then close.  Guess what happens?  You don’t get my comment and sometimes I don’t realize.  So I might have been commenting all along.

Now to turn off this awful thing and to help all of your commenters’ eyes, do the following:

1. Go to your Dashboard at blogger dot com.

2. Click on Settings, which is under the name of your blog.
3. Click on Comments, which is on the top of the page.
4. Scroll down until you see this: Show word verification for comments?
5. Click the box that says NO.
6. Click Save settings at the bottom of the page. Please do not leave this page until you have saved settings.

Again you can get this information from Lee’s blog here.

I am begging you to fix these things to help me get to know each of you even better in the future.

Ok..as I said before I have the best followers in the blogosphere.  So much so that its award time.  Lots of awards to do.

The rules for this award are:
- Put the Lemonade logo on your blog or within your post.

- Nominate at least 10 blogs with great attitude or gratitude.
- Link the nominees within your post.
- Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
- Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

I am pleased to pass on the Lemonade Award to the following 10 (in no particular order) who have given me great attitude and gratitude:

3 Little Monkeys
A Woman’s Life Stages
Deal’ightfully Frugal
Domestically Challenged
Finding Trinity
Just Breathe
Mamahood, Among Other Things
Midday Escapades
Two Peas in a Pod
The Balancing Act of One Chic Mommy

Please check them out at your first opportunity.  I love them all.

They are all awesome writers.  I read their blogs every single day.

Now, my turn to play the game and list 10 random facts about me, per the rules of acceptance of the award:

1. I am a Taurus
2. My parents owned an alarm company when I was growing up.
3. I have 3 brothers and 1 sister.
4. I don’t have a specific type of music that I like.  I love it all country, tap, jazz, blues, opera, etc.
5. I don’t cook very well but I can make a mean pot roast.
6. I am a night owl.
7. I have been a brunette, red head, blonde throughout my life.  My hairdresser always has to use two applications of hair coloring because my  hair is so thick.
8. I love General Hospital since I was about 13 years old.
9. I wear t-shirts and blue jeans all the time.
10. I won a typing contest when I was in the 3rd grade.

I’m giving this award to the following people:

A Nut in a Nutshell
A Woman’s Life Stages
Arise 2 Write
Bacon is My Lover
Headache, Hormones and Hotflashes
Heart 2 Heart
I’m Living Proof that God Has a Sense of Humor
Just Breathe
Keeping Up With the Schultz
Life of a Tater Tot Mom
Menopausal New Mom
Running Away?? I’ll help you pack
Stir-Fry Awesomeness
Vodka Logic
Welcome to Laurieville Population 1

1. I love to write..wait thats obvious lol. 

2. I love to go boating.

3. I love to swim.

4. I love being married to my husband.

5. I love the mountains over the beach.

I was tagged by Amy at Moving On From the Drama, who was tagged by Amanda at ‘Manda Blogs About, who was tagged by Jen at Jael Custom Designs, who was tagged by Ivette at WAHM BAHM, who was tagged by Heather at Top Ten Christmas Blog to participate in her Christmas Meme.

1.) Have you started your Christmas shopping? Yes, I’m pretty close to be done.

2.) Tell me about one of your special traditions. My family has always enjoyed a movie night every year.  Last year we strung the popcorn as usual.  To my utter shock, the dogs ate it all.  LOL Who would have thought dogs would eat popcorn?  “Ohhh waits its food.  My bad.”  That’s what my husband said.

3.) When do you put up your Tree? When my husband gets around to it.  I can’t go into the crawlspace.  I’ll freak out so I have to trust that he will think about it.  I was once frozen under the house for two hours because I couldn’t move.

4.) Are you a Black Friday shopper? I used to be, but I kinda got scared last night when my sister in law got punched in the face.  Them people are dangerous I tell you.  No punches required in my Christmas.  I did a lot of shopping online this year though.

5.) Do you Travel at Christmas or Stay home?  We used to go from house to house here in town.  But my family has split up this year and moved to different states.  I will never travel on Christmas though.  I love having my kids wake up in their own bedrooms and started screaming from the top of the stars.  “Santa came, mommy wake up.”

6.) What is your funniest Christmas memory? When I was engaged to my husband, I bought him a new stereo system.  When I got to his mom’s house, can you imagine my surprise that I got exactly the same thing?  He thought my hints about finding out what he wanted was what I wanted.

7.) What is your favorite Christmas Movie of All time?  I love Christmas music.  Absolutely love it.  It is so uplifting.  I love Rudolph, the Rednosed Reindeer.  I love Jingle Bell Rock.  I love the Chipmunks (can’t remember the song title though).  I love White Christmas.  I love Here’s Comes Santa Claus.  Ok I can’t choose..you chose one for me.

8.)Do you do your own Christmas Baking? What’s your favorite treat? Yes, I do some baking. Oddly enough my family always insisted that I make my homemade lasagna on Christmas as well.  But other than that they frown.  I don’t see why I only burn stuff once in a while.  I absolutely adore chocolate chip cookies.  Nice and hot.  It reminds me of my mother’s house.  Ohhh I also love those wedding cookies.

9.) Fake or Real Tree? Fake tree.. are you kidding me?  If I had a real tree, my cat would climb it.  Which she did one year and it came toppling over.

10.) What day (as a Mom) does the actual panic set in to get it all done? I’m ashamed to say, the morning of the 24th. I’m a procrastinator.  (Have to agree with Amy on this one)

11.) Are you still wrapping presents on Christmas Eve? Yes, a few odds and ends. Sometimes still buying gifts on that day. Told you I was a procrastinator.  Amy stop reading my mind.

12.) What is your favorite family fun time at Christmas? We do a lot of fun activities.  We go to the Zoo to see the Festival of Lights.  We go downtown to do a carriage ride.  There are just so many fun things to do like seeing the train exhibit, going to the zoo for the Festival of Lights, doing a carriage ride.  My most favorite thing though is simply seeing the delight in my kids’ eyes. 

13.) What Christmas craft do you like the best? I am so the non crafter in blogsphere.  But I love to do those felt crafts with the kids.

14.) Christmas music? Yes or No. And if yes, What is your favorite song? Yes, we listen to it all the time.  The kids love it.  I love it.  Now my mom didn’t love it when we drove to Florida lol.  Which was in October.  Favorite song..see above.

15.) When do you plan to finish all your shopping? When its done.  I always think I’m done then I see something else that I just have to buy.  So when its done, I’m done.

Any blogger is welcome to participate in this meme, even if you haven’t been tagged yet. Heather will go back and add your blog link to the list if you wanna play along.

Just simply copy and paste the questions into your blog, and then answer them.

Then tag 5 or more of your favorite blogs, and leave them a comment telling them they’ve been tagged.

When you post your blog, please spread some Christmas cheer, and leave a link back to Heather’s Top Ten Christmas Blog, and the blog that you were tagged by which happens to be HeartsMakeFamilies.

Here are my 5:

1. Patiently Waiting
2. Mamahood, Among Other Things
3. Mama’s Losin It
4. Menopausal New Mom
5. I’m Living Proof that God Has a Sense of Humor

Even if I didn’t tag you, please join in.

So my friend blueviolet over at A Nut in a Nutshell answered some questions on her blog awhile ago.  I decided to do the same questions.  Please be sure to check her out.

You’re kind of crazy with your commenting. What gives?

I love love to read other blogs but I’m so far behind right now.  I am trying to catch up I promise.  But it seems that I keep falling behind no matter how I try.

I was trying to keep up with all of my followers blogs.  But honestly its impossible.

So following blueviolet’s example, I am now using Google Reader to do the following:

I have a folder of Must Read blogs in my google reader. Once I find that I’m visiting a blog frequently, it goes in that folder.

My friends are automatically put in there.  I’m always looking for new and fun blogs to read.  Keep my interest..be funny I’m gonna follow you.

If you follow me, if you make comments on my blog.  I will follow you as well.  I love to visit the people that comment on my posts.  I love to learn more about my readers.  I love to share with you.

I am trying to read my Must Reads every day.  Now since I just started google reader, I have like a 1000 posts that show as new.  I’m doing my best to catch up with everyone.  I was behind before but I didn’t know it was that much. 

If I find that I am leaving comments and never getting answers back… I will stop commenting.  Just like blueviolet, I don’t like one-sided friendships. 

So if you are following me, expect that I am now a stalker of yours.  Ok ok I’m a friendly stalker.

Do you respond to every comment you receive?

A lot of times I answer your comments by email but sometimes I do it by stopping in at your blog.  I’m just finding it so consuming sometimes.  If you take the time to write a nice comment, I’m going to respond more than likely by email.  Please be patient though.  I do get behind.

I hate your giveaways. Why do you do them?

Well I have only done one of them.  I really liked it.  I expect that I will do more if… big if.. I can get sponsors.  If you want me to do a giveaway, please be sure to contact me.

How come you never post your awards?

So this question really doesn’t apply to me.  I try to post all my awards.  I try to award them according to the rules.  I, also, try to never give an award out twice to the same person.  I simply love acknowledging my wonderful blogger friends and the new blogs I found. 

And another question of my own:  Will you being doing reviews in the future?

Yes, I plan on doing reviews in the future but I will always have a blog about something else on those days as well.  I don’t want to become just one thing or another.

I love talking about my kids.  I love pictures.  I love sharing moments.  I love sharing things that I have experienced or will.  I love sharing my family’s story.  But most of all, I love that you enjoy reading my blog.

I love you guys..  Now stop over and check out blueviolet.  You will appreciate her I promise.  She’s great.

PR NOTE:  If you are interested in me doing a review or giveaway for you, please contact me at tami@heartsmakefamilies.com.  Thanks so much.

I have had a few readers ask me how to make the post-its for the Tuesday Post-It link up with Supahmommy.  If you haven’t checked her out by now, please head on over.

Welll….What are you doing here?  Go check her out.

Oh you are still here.  I guess you want to know how you make the Post-Its. 

The first thing is that you have to go here.

At that point it’s very simple

After you have finished typing, you choose the color that you want your writing to be.  These buttons are below the big empty space that you just typed in.  You can chose black, blue or red.

Next to that you can chose if you would like your writing on the left side or centered on the post-it.