Thinking Out Loud…

About school:

Frankly, it’s crazy how much I love it.  There are people I look forward to seeing in class, although I hesitate to call them friends since most of them are half my age.  I don’t know if that’s right or not… but it’s the truth.  Perhaps it’s okay that we get to be friends at school, and that’s where it stays.  At any rate, they’re all good people and maybe that’s all that matters.

I am still working my butt off to keep straight A’s, although I almost derailed myself this semester by purchasing the wrong book for a class.  That mistake lead to two failed quizzes in a marketing class.  ARGH.  Yes.  It took two failed quizzes for me to realize that I didn’t have the correct materials; before that I had been operating under the belief that maybe I just didn’t understand marketing. 

 

About the BLT:

Can I tell you that my kids are driving me batty?  I know why – they’re taking advantage of my distractedness.  Basically it’s like this: the more I concentrate on my homework, the more they realize they can get away with not doing whatever they should be doing.  We have a working system for after school and I had thought it would just be habit for them to continue doing it… yeah, not so much.

T Bub and Lovely L tried out for the school play recently.  T Bub made it and Lovely L did not.  Not that she wouldn’t be an excellent actress (trust me, with all the drama we have, she'd make an incredible actress), but tryouts require that you do a reading… and reading is something Lovely L struggles with.  Although she loves reading books and does so whenever she can sneak away with her Kindle, she still reads at about a third grade level and cannot sound out words phonetically.  I’ve spent every summer working with her, but I think it’s time that I admit that whatever is going on with her reading (and writing… she can’t seem to grasp certain concepts, like where - we’re – were) is beyond my ability to help her.

And Bitty B?  Well, she’s decided that besides soccer and curling, she also wants to play hockey, go back to dance class and be in a play.  Really?  Is that all?

{Curling practice}

 

About eating everything in sight:

Yeah, I’ve gotta stop that.  But why does it have to taste so, so good? Darn you, Nutty Bars, darn you to heck!

Side note: I actually typed in Nutty Buddy, but that didn’t sound right.  So I went to the Google where I learned two things: 1. A Nutty Buddy is the chocolate topped ice cream cone that I also love and 2. an athletic supporter.  Yep.

 

About blogging: 

There are at least five times a day that I think, ‘ohmygosh, I have to write about that!’  But, first comes home stuff, kid stuff, school stuff, business stuff (YES… and I’ll have to write about that later!)  and by then I’ve run out of time for blogging stuff.  I realize this is just a season in my life right now, and have no plans to stop blogging, but I also realize that I have to keep my priorities straight and my goals in sight. 

And as I wrote that, the buzzer on the dryer went off.  Sigh…

Yep, priorities include laundry ; ).

Until next time,

Conference Awesomeness…

I recently attended my very first conference, the Minnesota Blogger Conference.  And it. Was. Awesome.

Because suddenly, I was among my people.  People, that when I handed them my business card, didn’t ask, ‘so… what is it that you do exactly?’ 

Some things in life are a given.  I am a parent, and when I show up at school most of the other adults there are also parents.  We have a common ground to start from.  But when asked what I do…

I originally answered, ‘I write’.  Because that didn’t get the head tilt that, ‘I write for my blog’ did.  But after hearing the inspiring speakers at the MN Blogger Conference, I’m holding my head up a bit higher and saying with confidence, ‘I’m a blogger!’

I’d like to treat you to a little recap of my day:

Missy Berggren and Arik Hanson introduced our keynote speaker, Mr. Lee Oden of Top Rank Marketing.  His knowledge and enthusiasm were contagious and I remember wishing I could bottle him and his energy up to carry around with me.  Hmm… 

Although that sounded a little less creepy in my head, I maintain my position.  I was completely inspired by his opening speech.

After that we had breakout sessions and I choose Power Networking.  I’m sure, without a doubt, that Paul DeBettignies was awesome.  Inspiring.  And incredible.  But I will never know because my brain was too focused on the fact that he looked like he could be MC’s twin brother.  To say I couldn’t concentrate on what he was saying would be an understatement. 

My only saving grace was that he didn’t sound like MC.  Otherwise, there might have been a chance of my trying to leave with him.  And that would have just been embarrassing, people. ; )

The next session I chose was Building Communities Online and Off. Kate O’Reilly moderated a panel with Stephanie Meyer, Jen Emmert, Ian Schwartz and Meghan Wilker. The first thing I learned was I have a lot to learn.  Since my goal for this blog is for it to become a community, I really needed to pay attention.  Since my pen quit working, I wasn’t able to write it all down.  And since I have the memory of a goldfish, I don’t remember much of it. 

However…

What I was able to take away from this session is that I am now part of a community of bloggers.  And I have no doubt that if I needed it, someone who was in that session with me would help me out (read: let me see their notes ; ).

Lunch: TACO BAR!  My love of tacos is equal to my love of Dr. Pepper so I tried very hard not to eat myself into a taco coma.

Next up was Scene and Story: Make Your Writing Sing with Kate Hopper.  We did a couple of writing  exercises and what I learned is that my writing doesn’t sing… It depresses.  When asked to write about my childhood, it started out all good, but slowly morphed into a not-so-happy story.  Same with writing about someone close to you.  I won’t share who it was, but holy schnikes… It appears to me that my subconscious is not a very happy place.   Thankfully, Kate Hopper was so cute and bouncy, she easily brought my mood back up.  Because I really didn’t want to start crying in front of a room full of people I didn’t know (Cause, yeah…I was sitting in the front row where everyone could see me.  Why do I do that to myself?!?).

The end of the day was drawing near, and I ended my fantabulous bloggy day with the lovely Erica Mayer.  Her session was Vlogging: Lessons to Learn From TV.  I have already tried (and failed) several times to post a Vlog, or video blog.  But… apparently, when you stick a camera in my face, I go all Gumby.  Not turning green, per se, but definitely having the stiff, stick-like movements going on. I looked like my own robot clone in the videos I took, and over articulated everything I said. 

You know, maybe I’ll post one.  Then we can laugh at me together… Because laughter brings people together, and I’m all about community, right?!? ; )

And that was my day.  And it was amazing… The people I  met, the friends I made, the things I learned… All of it, amazing.  And If you have a chance, click on some of the names I mentioned above and take a look at their blogs.  Maybe they’ll inspire you, too.

 

A huge shout out to the sponsors of the MN Blogger Conference:  Top Rank Marketing, KARE 11, and Allina.  Thanks for helping make this conference the success that it was!

Daily Affirmation with Bitty B…

As a blogger, there are some days I wonder if anyone out there is reading what I write.  And there are some days I feel like I’m talking to myself.  Without feedback (comments) I have no idea if my writing is good, bad or just okay or even if anyone cares. 

But..

I know someone who thinks I’m doing a smash-up job:

Okay, maybe that was not quite the affirmation that I was looking for.  But it did make me smile and totally brightened my day. 

I know when I’m feeling bad, I like to mow the grass… something about the smell of fresh cut grass and the roar of the mower blocks out any bad thoughts…

What things do you do when you’re in a funk? Is there someone you talk to or maybe something you do (like baking or scrapbooking)?

Intense Debate Is Awesome…

No, not that kind of intense debate.  Hang on for a minute and I’ll explain…

One of the best things about being a blogger, besides getting to share ideas with you, is hearing what you have to say about my projects and general craziness. 

Nothing brightens my day faster than opening my inbox and seeing that there’s a new comment waiting for me to read.  Seriously.  I can’t wait to check out what you have to say and answer back. 

To make it even easier to carry on those comment conversations, I’d like to introduce:

My whole comment section has changed for the better.  I can now reply to your individual comments, you can reply to someone else’s comments, or even have responses to your comment sent to your email. 

I’m working today to get it set up so that you’ll even be able to sign in using your Facebook or Twitter accounts.  Woot! 

And for my fellow bloggers:  Intense Debate has the plug in for CommentLuv and all I had to do was hit ‘activate’ on their Plug Ins page.  And Boom!  Your latest post automatically shows up under your comment on my page.  Awesome.  Ness. 

Yep, I just turned awesomeness into two words.  ; ) 

I hope you’ll check out my new comment section and maybe tell me what you think.  Good?  Bad?  Indifferent?  No matter what, I’d love to hear what you have to say!