Coming to a Nursery Near You

Archive for the ‘blogging’ Category

There have been a few times in my life where I’ve attended a gathering of like-minded people and have almost immediately felt at home. The days/weeks prior spent worrying about things like hair, makeup & clothes slip quietly away and you are immersed in a sea of LIKE.

When I attended the mini-me BlogHer Boston in 2008, I experienced that. I think that this year’s BlogHer in NYC will be like that. At least I hope so. 

I get that impression by the comments I’ve read on twitter in the last few days/weeks that I’ve spent stalking the #blogher10 twitter stream.  Mostly, these comments are in reply to a brand or a party that’s not invited them, but the comment is “I don’t blog for brands. I blog because I HAVE to” and “I blog to keep my sanity”. 

Those two comments have been seen more frequently than I would have expected.  THOSE are the reasons that I blog.  I have to write the things that are in my head, lest it explode from the pressure of trying to contain it ALL THE TIME.  I blog because some things just need to be expressed, even if no one reads it.

Of course, I love doing reviews and giveaways, but even when I don’t have any, I blog about my life, my depression, my kids, my relationship, my everything.  I have no idea how I would have managed these last 3-1/2 years, especially, without blogging.  Although my pregnancy was stressful and a little bit scary, being the mother of THREE WHOLE PEOPLE has been much more crazy-inducing than I could have imagined.  Of course, I couldn’t imagine my life without those three whole people, either.  I wouldn’t even want to. 

I am especially excited to go to Blogher this year because this year, so many of my favorite bloggers will be there as well.  People like

Elizabeth of Table 4 Five

Deb of Mom of 3 Girls

Shannon/akaMonty  of Brain Soup

Jane, Audrey & Sharon of Mom Generations

Kelby of Type A Mom

and of course, my ROOMIES!  These women are new to me bloggers, but I already can’t wait to meet them in person.  They are:

Jen of  Snickers Not Included

Silver of Silver Thinks

Jorja of Living Beyond the Pale

and

SherrieMae of Good Karma Baby

Of course, this is just to name a few of the THOUSANDS of women (and some men) who will be converging on New York City this week – and I know I’ll meet a LOT more of them, and probably more than a few will have the same feelings of nervousness and excitement and shyness that I do. But I DO hope that together, we’ll help banish those feelings, if only for those 3 days.

I think blogging is what brings us together.

I love my blogs – all 99 of them – and I hope to continue blogging for a long time to come – or at least until the crazy subsides.

BlogHer is in THREE weeks.  In 3 weeks, I’m going to be surrounded by 2400+ other bloggers of every different size, shape, color and blogging interest.  I’ve been told that attending one of these conferences is very empowering, and of course just the opportunity to meet some of the bloggers that I’ve “known” for a long time now, is a BIG reason why I’m going.

When I came home from my trip to RI, though, I was nervous.  I’d spent too much of my BlogHer travel money on the RI trip (stupid car cost twice what it was supposed to), and I was considering selling my conference ticket and cancelling the trip.  I didn’t know how I was going to get there, which was the next biggest expense.   I couldn’t take the car for 4 days, let alone afford to PARK it for 4 days in NYC.  When I’d bought my ticket for BlogHer, my friend Jane was living in NYC and had offered to let me stay with her.  WELL!  Ms. Jane went and fell in love and moved back to RI, so then I had to figure out how to stay there for 4 days.  I did manage to find someone looking for roommates, so now I’m one of four, making the expense split 4 ways so that was doable.

So then, I was left with how to get there.  I started sending out tweets and updates on Facebook, looking for carpools, etc.  I found out that some people in DC were trying to arrange something, so I signed up with them, figuring I could always take the train from here to DC.

Well, what it turned into was they got a SPONSORED TRAIN to take a certain number of us to NYC & back.  I had gotten the email about 30 minutes after it arrived, so I responded as fast as my fingers could type, hoping I’d get in.

Then I waited.

The next morning, I woke up to an email informing me that I had indeed gotten one of the sponsored seats!  Round trip travel from BWI to NYC!  I haven’t gotten the official go-ahead to post who the sponsor is, but let’s just say – it’s one of a girl’s best friends!

So, in just 3 short weeks, I’ll mingle with some of the blogosphere’s most influential and soon to be influential people.   I know I’ll learn something. I know I’ll meet some great people, and perhaps some that I’ve known forever I’ll really get TO MEET, too.  I’m really hoping to meet someone I’ve blogged about a time or two here – Susan aka WhyMommy – who is battling cancer AGAIN – and who, although I won’t HUG, I will smother her with my good wishes and energy.  I also hope to meet Anissa, the wonder woman blogger & mama who has survived not one but TWO major strokes, and is just a wonder – AND her husband, Peter, who through Anissa’s last stroke truly showed what a MARRIAGE is.  I really hope I get to meet them.

I can’t wait!

Hi there and welcome!  I’m so happy to be a part of the Ultimate Blog Party 2010.   If you’re new here, please let me introduce myself.

My name is Dawn or Dawniemom.  I’m mom of 3 fabulous homeschooled kids – Anthony, 13 and a future rock & roll star, Liberty, 6.999 and future FAMOUS artist and Zachary, 3 and future architect and famous singer of ABCs.  Their dad, Jimmy and I have been together for nearly 15 years and have been somewhat gypsies.  We’ve lived in Tennessee, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and now we’ve come to West Virginia.

I have been blogging for the last 5 years and love it.   I love it so much, I have SEVERAL blogs.  They include:

• My Tasty Space – my recipes and food blog.  I love food, love cooking and enjoy sharing my favorites with anyone who might be interested.
• Reflections by Dawn – my first photography blog.  It was there that I began posting pictures and finding that I truly enjoy photography.
• Dawniemom Reviews – my reviews blog where I also have done tons of giveaways – and what’s better than FREE STUFF!
• White Mountain Designs – not necessarily a blog but one of my business ventures. I do blog design and installation, graphics design, etc. You name it, I can and DO do it.
• Dawn Chace Photography – my photography site
• Dawn Chace Photography blog – my 2nd photo blog. Yes, I have a lot of photos LOL

I’ve had others as well, but those tend to fall by the wayside too often to bother mentioning.  My photography is a passion. In fact, before I really became interested in it, I didn’t really understand what having a PASSION for something was – until photography.  Now, hardly a day goes by when I haven’t taken a photo of something or someone.  My kids get sick of me with my camera, but I love catching them at their unexpected, as that is when I get the GOOD shot, not the staged one.

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I’ve mentioned before that some of my closest friends are actually friends I’ve met online, particularly through blogging.  Blogging allows people access to you that even your real-time friends sometimes don’t get.  I know I can write about things a lot easier than I can talk about them.  I think that’s why people can get so involved in a stranger’s life so easily.  Because it’s real, it’s personal. 

That’s one of the reasons why I felt such a connection to Susan, who at that time was known simply as WhyMommy.   I first became introduced to her when she began her incredibly painful journey into the unknown of IBC (inflammatory breast cancer). She’d written a post about the how she didn’t know that when she went for her appointment with her oncologist that the last time she’d breastfed her son was *the last time* she’d breastfed her son.  Her post just about *that* left me in tears, heart breaking for her.  Of course, it was because I had just had Zachary and was breastfeeding and was in the throes of the hateful weeks months after a newborn when you’re just too tired to do anything but cry.  But her writing struck my heart, and I had to follow her.

I followed her through her appointments and her eventual surgery – and then another – and she faught so hard to get through it, while balancing a toddler and an infant (with the help of her incredible hubby and a LOT of friends ).  She shone through, though, and came out of it stronger, and gave me someone to really admire.  In fact, one of my first thoughts about moving to this area was that I might eventually get to meet her, as she lives under 2 hours away.

Well, now I find out that she’s going through this again.  She’s waiting for results – again.  Her doctor tells her it might be this, it might be that – but the fact is, it might be cancer – AGAIN.  It might be a THIRD type of cancer to assault her body in the last THREE YEARS!

She doesn’t want sorries. She just needs LOTS and LOTS of hugs and positivity.  She needs prayers, if you pray, but she just needs all that good and happy energy sent her way.  Please do. 

 

Susan, Team WhyMommy is at your service.

Staples

 

1. Of all the hundreds of sizes and shapes bread seems to come in, what is your favorite?

–I love multigrain breads that have nuts in them.   I don’t like paying $5 a loaf though, so I’m hoping to get good at making my own!

 

2. What’s your favorite thing to eat with rice?

–pudding? LOL  Ok, other than pudding, I’d say when I make spanish rice & chicken casserole.

3. What are your feelings about milk?

–I LOVE milk, or at least I used to.  I miss it daily!

4. What was wrapped in the tortilla you most recently ate?

 

Hmmm – probably that spanish rice & chicken casserole!

   5. How many staplers are there in your house and where are they?

 

staplers?  2 – both of them in my desk drawer type thing.

You can do your own Friday 5 here.