MOVING!!!!

PLEASE PLEASE UPDATE YOUR BLOGROLLS!!!! I am now at The Pagan Mom Blog. I will NOT be updating this blog site anymore. I will leave these posts up indefinetly. More than likely in a month or so I will get all itchy and take them down. But I really want to give everyone time to adjust to the new site. YAY! So excited!

You Don’t Drink Coffee??? WHAT???

Friend: Hey let’s stop at *insert coffeehouse here*
Me: Sure, ok. Do they have hot chocolate or tea by chance?
Friend: Why go to a coffeehouse if your going to get hot cocoa or tea?
Me: Well so we can hang out and I can have a drink.
Friend: Why not just get a triple jumbo grande latte with extra cow, like me!
Me: A what?
Friend: What?? Do you DRINK coffee? Don’t tell me your an instant coffee person cause then we can’t be friends and stuff!
Me: No…..I don’t drink instant coffee. I don’t drink coffee at all.
Friend: OMG! WHAT? ARE YOU SERIOUS??? Why don’t you drink coffee?
Me: It tastes nasty and it gives me a headache.
Friend: *sits down feeling faint* Coffee is a gift from heaven.
Me: Well , lucky for me since I don’t get to go there!
Friend: *looks around for cameras* Seriously, you don’t drink coffee? When is Candid Camera coming out?
Me: No seriously, I don’t drink it. I will just get tea or something. No biggie.
Friend: No biggie? How can an adult claim not to embark on all that is holy? Don’t pull that pagan card on me!
Me: I just never liked it. I like tea.
Friend: But your a mom. Moms drink coffee.
Me: Well I musta been on vacation when that memo came out.

This is a typical conversation between me and coffee lovers at the  moment that they find out I am not a mutal coffee lover. I swear I get looks between “You must be an alien from a distant galaxy” to “OMG she must be some sort of leper where if she has coffee a limb falls off”. This is just to give a final shout that I am from planet Earth and my limbs don’t fall off. Although I understand your enthusiasm for coffee, I don’t understand the shock. Some of the questions I get really shock me. Most recently I heard “Oh, you musta grown up in London”. Hmmm nope sorry. Born and raised in USA by two coffee drinking parents. So next time you meet a non-coffee enthusiast, don’t be shocked. Be thankful. That means more coffee for you!

Giveaways At Confessions Of A Pagan Soccer Mom

This post will be regularly updated throughout the day as I go through what Mrs B is giving away as part of her 31 Days of Halloween. I decided to just update this single post as opposed to continuously posting seperately for each item. I don’t want you to miss out on ANY of it! I will however, individually link each of the items she is giving away so that you can pick and choose what you want to check out.

So the first thing Mrs B has going is a witch’s rattle offered up by Indigo Squirrel . I checked her Etsy shoppe out and I really adore her handmade tags. If you love faeries, she has a few faery items as well!

Giveaway #2 is magickal flying oil! How cool is that??? This item is being offered by Magical Muse whom has the cutest halloween earrings!

Giveaway #4 is Sense & Sensibilities & Sea Monsters offered by Quirk Books whom incidentally also have “How to Survive a Horror Movie”. That is the most funniest book ever!

So there is a giveaway #3 but….uhm….. it’s bunnies and I am not fond of bunnies. THERE! I SAID IT! However, doesn’t mean you have to miss out on it. Click here and check it out for yourself. Maybe you will like it or know someone would love it.

Scrapbooking With Creative Memories

While at TypeAMom Conference, I got some pretty cool scrapbooking software from Creative Memories. I have never scrapbooked ever. But after seeing some of what could be done with this software I had to try it out. You can make story books, wallpapers for your pc, individual pages, whatever you want. You can use templates or create your own from scratch. Since I am a complete novice, I opted to try out their template. If your a scrapbooker considering going digital, I highly recommend Creative Moments software. It is EASY to use, even when your not familiar with the product. You can’t forget to save anything as it constantly asks (which admittedly gets annoying but is still a project saver considering I would be the one to forget to save something on my own) if you want to save what you have done. So enjoy my pages I made below. All I ask is be gentle, I am a scrapbook virgin!

There Are Rules For A Reason

 So as some of you may or may not know, my son goes to a daycare in a church. Around these parts, most daycares are in churches. And like most churches, they have security systems in place due to idiots vandalizing and breaking in. I am not a regular attender of church but church has always upheld a sense of safety. I would think it would be the LAST place someone would really think to go break some windows or break in and take stuff. Even as a non-beleiver….it just seems so….sinful. Anywho, to get to the daycare there is a keypad for us to enter a code and opens the door for us. There is a sign directly above the keypad that is white with very bold, dark, black letters that says “Please do not allow your child to play with keypad”. The reasoning is simple. Kids can remember the code, especially those who enter the code all the time. Unfortunatley most kids are quite talkative. Ask them if they know the code and wahhhlahhh they tell you. Even when you tell them not to tell, they forget and do it anyway….most kids. You may have one or two prodigies out there that do heed your warning. The sad thing is, people know this and will target the talkative children. Anyone dumb enough to break into a church is going to be dumb enough to try and get a code from a child. ALOT of people seem to think this doesn’t happen….but the reality is, it does.

So this morning we get to the daycare and there is a woman and child ahead of us, said child is about 3. These are not new people. And the sign is very easy to see and actually would take effort to NOT see. The child proceeds to key in the code. My child whom hasn’t asked to do it in about 3 months decides to ask me. I answer “No baby, the sign says not to allow children to play with it”. I get a glare from the woman. Alex decides to point out the obvious “but he did it!”. And I reply with “Yes Alex but he wasn’t supposed to. We don’t break rules, do we?”. He answers with “No mama, rules get you time outs and spankings (the school hasn’t spanked him, on a rare occasion I have)”. By now the lady is fuming and trying desperatley hard to get her child to his class, which thankfully was not our class. We proceed on to our 20 min goodbyes (my girls were never like this, he has to hug and kiss and then eskimo kiss each of us at least 3 times). We leave and we see the woman racing off in her car quite obviously pissed off. I am not sure what it was she was angry about. Was it that I pointed out her teaching her child to break rules instead of setting them? I mean it won’t kill the child to learn s/he can’t play with every keypad in the world. Or was it that I did it in a passive aggressive manner (which honestly is so unlike me I almost had to pinch myself)? With her reaction, she knew the sign was there. Had she blown it all off with “Omg, I forgot all about this sign!” I wouldn’t have said anything more in front of her. Whatever the reason, we need to remember that while using any given moment to teach our children numbers and letter we also need to teach them to respect the rules in place.

My Official Recap of TypeAMom Conference

Since Kelby is a friend, I guess you could call me biased. EH WHO CARES!!! It went great! There were problems/issues to deal with, but you learn from those instances.  And we learned alot.

Thursday I opted to do  the blogger tour even though I can go to Biltmore Estate and NC Arboretum anytime that I want to. What can I say??? I adore being outside as much as possible (as it was, anytime I needed a break that’s where I was lol). It started out as a yucky, cloudy, and foggy day but fortunatley cleared up quite nicely once we got to the Estate. We were given a quick (it didnt feel so quick really) lecture on some of the things the Estate had done in one of the rooms opened this year. We even got to touch some of the silk and velvet fabrics reproduced for the room.  After that we split up into two groups and got a private tour. By this time the Estate got somewhat crowded. I had a hard time sticking with my group due to the throngs of people.  My type A personality didn’t like that! Oh, as a side note, if you visit and have children……ask the front desk about the scavenger hunt. It’s a great way to entertain the kids! Anywho we got moving and I learned a few things that I didn’t know, such as George Vanderbilt and his wife were both 6′ tall. Pretty dang  tall for that era! We continued on and I realized our group had obtained new members.  This irritated me because I know that there is an extra fee for a private tour. Maybe they didn’t know, but if they bought tickets at the ticket house……they knew.  I get irritated when people try to do that, it’s just not fair to the Estate. I ended up talking to an employee and mentioned it to her and she sneakily managed to get them seperated from our group. Shortly after our tour we had lunch over at the DeerPark Restaurant that is on the grounds. I have never eaten there and it was pretty good. Simple sandwich lunch, but it was yummy. We started heading to the Farm, but alot of us were getting tired. We convinced them to let us move on to the Arboretum. That is one of my favorite places. Lovely walk, great scenery, and the sun was out completely by then….which in turn made it difficult for some of the photog moms. While on our tour we hung out in one of the rooms with our guides who told us about their kid programs. The kids meanwhile were in awe of the tanks of turtles, lizards, and cockroaches. One woman even  put a cockroach on her head and let me snap a picture.

She was much braver than I! After the tour was done we headed back to the Crowne Plaza to register and hang out. For the rest of the evening I ran around moving stuff, checking on KidCon and whatever else kept Kelby from having to take care of it all.

Friday I got to check out several sessions while sitting in on a few sessions. I didn’t get to as much as I wanted but that is ok. That evening were the speaker dinners so I headed home for an early bed time. I DID get to watch the Dress Barn Fashion Show during breakfast, lots of fun and who knew Dress Barn had cool clothes? I always thought that a name with Barn in it meant frumpy stuff….how wrong I was!

Saturday morning was the Mom Market, which was cool. Moms with small businesses were there selling and showing off what they had to offer. One table was kikapaprika featuring eco-friendly clothes made from recycled water bottles. They gave away free shirts and I got one. I wore it Sunday and it is SO COMFY!!! While at my desk, kyle came up behind me and rubbed my shoulders. He loved touching it! I think I might get another shirt for Christmas lol! Saturday was a quieter day work wise for me. I really had more opportunity to hang out and see what goes on at a blogging conference.  I was also really starting to feel the effects of the conference too lol! It is ALOT of work. Saturday night we had a BBQ dinner featuring local made beer and Bilmore Wine. Unfortunatley I had to drive home which meant no wine for me (sobs). There were giveaways and Creative Memories put on a slideshow of pictures taken at the conference and used on their scrapbooking software. It was VERY impressive! I had gotten some of their free software they were giving away and it has encouraged me to really try it out. Scrapbooking has always seemed like a daunting task, but they make it look so easy with the software.  In between the giveaways several of us were outside chatting and it was the best time. I don’t think I have laughed that hard in awhile.  But with cleanup the next day, I headed home around 9 pm to rest up.

Sundays cleanup wasn’t too bad. We had to move alot of stuff, but it was not as much as when we setup. By 1 we were done and I was grateful. I came home, took a nap, then played with my kids who inquired if I had grabbed more Little Debbie cupcakes. Unfortunatley for them I did not, the rest were being donated.

Overall it was great. I look forward to next year. Kyle is even offering to help out. YAY! Maybe I won’t sweat as much lol! I want to personally thank all the sponsors for supporting the conference, all the speakers for their awesomeness, and the attendees for enjoying themselves. AND I want to thank the volunteers for KidCon, they did an excellent job of entertaining the kids!

Hopefully I will see YOU at Typeamom Conference 2010!

I Have A New Blog Award!!!!

 

 

I just got a great blog award from the lovely MamaAnna (as she is so fondly known of on Twitter)! She is such a great supporter and friend….if she was here I would totally hug her to death! So here are the rules with the award:

1.) Thank the person who gave this to you. (check)
2.) Copy the logo and place it in your blog.
3.) Link the person who nominated you.
4.) Name 7 things about yourself that no one would really know.
5.) Nominate seven ‘Kreativ Bloggers.’
6.) Post links to the seven blogs you nominate.
7.) Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.

My Seven Things that most don’t know (this is going to be difficult)

1. Some of you actually know this, but many do not as I never really blatantly said it. But here it goes. I was a prostitute. I had a drug habit to support and did what it took to (1) get the drugs and (2) survive living on the streets since I was a runaway. So far I am disease free and I am very glad that I went through it. Yea, I know…weird, right? No, it taught me alot about myself. As disgusting as it was, I am a better person because I got past that part of my life.

2. I am afraid of the dark. LOL seriously! I am ok when I am doing a paranormal investigation or I am with my kids (totally can’t freak out the kids). But if I am alone, lights are on. I get real creeped out sitting by myself or trying to sleep by myself in the dark.

3. I am not a “dog person”, even though we have a dog. I just don’t find them cute and cuddly and sweet. Especially ours. I like cats. Yea…bring on the witch/black cat jokes!

4. My first memory is of when I was 3 and living in KY near Fort Knox. I had had a night terror and fell down our stairs. I remember distinctly my dad rushing down to pick me up. I don’t remember crying but my dad said I was wailing. I also remember the layout of the entire first floor of the house.

5. OMG THIS IS HARD! I have been at this for 20 minutes now! So uhmmmmm uhhhhhhhhhhhhh…….. this is hard when you don’t really keep secrets.
Ok I thought of one that some people may not know (which means everyone knows in reality). I am OCD when it comes to numbers. I have to add them all the time. Most people don’t know I do it. But I do…incessantly. Tax time is difficult lol.

6. I have this strange need to change things. Hair (cut and color), blog, twitter (people seem to lose me alot on twitter lol). Even sometimes people I associate with. Some people I just eventually drift away from….most definetly away from the people whom are energy vampires who suck the life out of everything.

7. I would probably pee myself if I ever saw a full body apparition. Seems strange for a paranormal investigator to say that. I mean I am LOOKING for one, yet if I see one I would probably be scared as shit.

 

Ok so I nominate:

Cattails
Charm City Kim
Draco’s Rose
Mama Kalila’s Blog
Tori’s Path
Wishing 4 One
Writing With Rune

As you can see I have already removed some things from the blog in preparation for moving. Once I have everything moved, this award and my others will be on the site!

ATTENTION!!!!

I have decided to buy a domain name and get webhosting at GoDaddy! I am changing the NAME of this blog to The Pagan Mom Blog and the domain will be www.thepaganmomblog.com . I will be working on it this week and importing my old blog entries in to the new hosting site. I will Tweet, Facebook, and Myspace when the new domain will work. Once that happens PLEASE be sure that you update your blogroll with new blog title and link.

Hope this doesn’t confuse anyone, I just really wanted to move the blog to it’s own domain.

Reflecting on the Conference

We cleaned everything up this morning and moved more boxes (AGAIN) to the office. I will be quite happy to never move a box again……or at least for another week lol. Despite all of tiring work, long days, sweat, achy muscles, and stress, I think it’s fair to claim the conference as a success. There were times where we questioned it or felt like our efforts were failing miserably. But looking back on it all, the happy sea of faces, and the laughter we shared, it was well worth it. We learned lessons and met our twitter/blogger sisters. The children woke up excited for another day of KidCon. All in all, it was wonderful!

 

P.S. I promise to write more later about it! I am just so tired I need time for the brain to be able to coherently make sentences 🙂

What is your goal for your blog?

Having attended a few sessions today at Typeamom Conference has been great. It has really reaffirmed for me on why I blog and what direction that I want to go in.

So my goal…..is to keep spewing out whatever random thoughts pop into my head. I have decided to stop checking stats. I am not going to compare myself to women who have a huge following. I am not them, I am simply me.  I don’t want to change my blogging style. I just don’t feel an urge to change anything. Actually, I take that back. I do want my own domain name. But to do that, I will need to change the name of the blog. I am hesitant to do that sort of change just because I don’t want to confuse the few blog sisters I have. But at some point I will and when it’s time I will do it. It’s the only real change I desire.

So, my question to anyone who is reading this…..What is your goal for your blog? Or Why do you blog? When you figure that out, focus on it. Stats don’t make someone a successful blogger. YOU being happy with your blog is what makes you successful.