Introductions From FMBT

As I promised in my last post, I'm going to do a little write up on all the bloggers who followed me back on Tuesday. I'd planned on having this post done yesterday, but I took my daughter to the eye doctor to get her first set of contacts (which she also helped pay for by herself) and then we had a girls day out shopping. It was a blast and something that we've been needing to do for a very long time.

Anyway, on to the introductions. I was thrilled with the number of followers I had sign up under me this round. I don't know if it's because I'm going to do little write ups about each of them or if it's because I'm doing a different "follow me" thing. I don't really care which it is, I'm more than happy to have each and every one of these ladies hanging around.

First and foremost, I have to introduce Jennifer from The Craft Barn. I don't know that she's following me, but she was the first commenter on my post and that's good enough for me. Also, she's an awesome person and she has some really cool giveaways from her online store. Go check them out. She's got a whole section on wooden roses that I'd do just about anything for. Thanks Jennifer for stopping by. (PS--If anyone out there likes to sew, Jen is looking for a few pattern testers. Check out her blog for further information).

Next on the list is Lisa from Raising Future Leaders. I'm totally blown away by this woman as she's not only homeschooling her 6 beautiful babies, but she's also into Holistic medicines (me too) and she's a midwife. Thanks Lisa for stopping by and I will be subscribing to your blog for more awesome ideas.



We also have Christy from All Aboard (The Review and Giveaway Train). I seriously found this site by accident even though she was also on the FMBT list. I clicked on a button at someone else's site that took me to a site where I clicked on her button. Yes, three sites later and I found this killer site. Christy does a lot of giveaways and reviews. The coolest part about this site is that you don't have to go hunting for the giveaways as they're listed right at the top of the site. Thanks Christy, I'll be back.



Then we have Leigh from Inside My Head. I subscribed to her site on Tuesday as she didn't have her Google Friend list up yet, and I'm more than glad I did. She's a riot. I love the way this girl thinks. She's a mom and a wife, and has days when she thinks she needs a manual to get through it all. Honey, you're not alone. I've been married for 20 years and have 2 kids and I'm still looking for that darn manual. LOL. Thanks sweetie for coming by.

Next we have "J" from Boobies, Babies, and a Blog. She's one of the hosts for the FMBT event and she's got an awesome site. She has several giveaways going on and also has them listed close to the top of the page for easy access. Thanks "J" for signing in, that made my day.



From there we move on to Shanna from Mommy of One...And Counting. Shanna is a stay-at-homer with a sweet 3 yr old son. She showcases giveaways and is looking for businesses to promote on her blog. Go check her out and see if she can't do something to help your business get noticed. Thanks Shanna.



Down one more and we have Mass Hole Mommy. This is a cool site with lots of giveaways right at the top of the page. She's a single (but not for long) mom of 2 boys and something tells me that she's tough enough to handle it. Thanks honey for stopping by and for those nice little "pics" you posted yesterday. YUMMY!!!!!



Next on the list is the owner of HootieBee's. This is a great site full of handmade hair accessories, jewelry, and much more. There are a lot of products for little girls so stop by and check it out. There's some really cute items in her inventory. Thanks for following me and I'll "bee" keeping an eye on your shop.



Here we have Miss Kim from The Stinker Pinkers. I put it that way because she is the only human female in her house. She's the mother of 2 little boys and married to 1 bigger one. She loves to blog, write, read, and whatever she can to make her home a nicer place for her boys. She's also a devoted Christian woman and isn't afraid to share that detail. Thanks Kim for stopping by.

Now we have xiICEPINKix from The Rainbow of Free Samples. And like the name says, her site is filled with places where you can get free samples. She also does a lot of meet and greets and follow me events. This is a really cool little site. Thanks IcePink for stopping by my place.

Next we have Charity from Humbolt Cherry. Neat little site created by a woman who obviously loves animals. She's a big meet and greeter and has a gorgeous site. Thanks Charity for stopping by my site and following me along the way.

And now we have Jen from Jen's Random Ramblings. Jen and her husband, Mike, are independent Scentsy Consultants. They are also best friends and parents to a gorgeous little girl named Abigail. Stop by and tell Jen hi. Thanks honey for swinging by Redhead Rants.

And finally we have Cindi from Little Yaya's. This is the site where I found all the information about the FMBT as she's one of the hosts. This is a great little blog full of giveaways, reviews, and a lot more. Run over there and check it out. Thanks for following me back Cindi.



And that's it for this week. I'm thrilled that this post is going to be so long, but I think in the future I'll cut the posts down a bit even if I have to post more than one for the list. Aw darn, I have too many follower. Shucks. Oh well, LOL.

Thanks to all my new followers for coming by and I will be watching all your blogs. Have a great day and happy blogging.

A Tuesday Blog Party

I spent some time doing the Follow Me Friday thing and had a blast doing it. The biggest problem with all these "follow me" posts is the amount of sites that end up posted on my site. This is NOT the fault of the people putting on the follow me events or the people trying to get their sites seen. It's the way the McLinky site puts things together. And it reeks havoc with my blog. So I'm going to do something a little different from now on.

I recently came across an awesome little blog called The Craft Barn. I found it through their latest giveaway (which I didn't win, but that's ok), and quickly fell in love. My favorite part was a new "follow me" event called Follow Me Back Tuesdays. Cool!!! I work on Fridays anyway and it was hard for me to remember to have something posted each week. I'm off on Tuesdays so this is gonna work out just fine.

Now for the part about all the sites attached to the McLinky part of this. Rather than add the code (which is what screws up my blog) that showcases all the sites, I'm going to add the button to one of the host sites (in this case, Little YaYa's). From there, you'll be able to find all the awesome sites that need followed and are willing to follow back.

However, for those who stop by my site and follow me as a result of this event, I will do a post each week and showcase those who followed me on Tuesday. I'll add a link to their site, their blog button if one is available, and a little blurb about their site. That way, they get a little link love and get to stand out a little from the sea of other bloggers.

There are a couple of rules for the FMBT event, but they're relatively harmless. The biggest rule is to follow all 4 main hosts of this Blog Party. Those hosts would be:

Little Yaya's
Survey Junkie
Review Retreat
Boobs, Babies, and a Blog

Then, follow the person in the #5 position. This will change from week to week as this is the position of that week's guest host. This week---7-27-10---that host is:

Musings of Life

So, I'm going to get this posted and then going to head out and start finding some new blogs to follow. If you follow some of those blogs, make sure to jump in and let the owners know you were there. If anyone from this event finds me and decides to follow me, please let me know so I can tell the rest of the world about you and your blog.

Have a great day, ya'll!!!!!! And happy blogging.

What I Want to be When I Grow Up

I was checking out a post on one of my favoritest blogs, Wyndsong Writes, and found this awesome little tidbit of a jewel. It seems that she was getting in on a little game being played at Bloggy Moms called the Blog Challenge. Each month, Bloggy Moms puts on a month-long challenge for everyone to leave a post on their site, then they need to head over and leave a comment as to where the post can be found, then tweet about the post as well.

This month's challenge is about what we wanted to be when we grew up.

(From the site)---"July's Blog Challenge: {Childhood Ambitions}
Write a blog post about your childhood dreams, wishes & ambitions. What did you dream of becoming? What did you sincerely think you would do with your life? Where are you know along that road? How do you feel about where you are?"

That was a no-brainer for me. For as long as I can remember, I've always wanted to be a storyteller. Even before I could write, I was telling stories about my invisible friends and what we were doing, and what we were going to do. I even tried to get my grandmother to set an extra plate at the dinner table for my "friends". She always said that if they were invisible to us, then they could eat off of invisible plates too.

I wrote my first official story at the age of about 10. We had an assignment in school where we had to invent something made up from our name. At that time, my last name was Wickwire so I invented a burglar alarm made from candle wick and barbed wire. I got an A on that assignment, and I knew that being a writer was the only thing I wanted to do.

In high school, I wrote poetry. Yep, all that sticky-sweet, mushy, give-me-a-cavity poetry about boys and love and heart ache. I sucked, but I had passion. Every boy I dated had his very own poem. Every teen heart-throb had one of his own too. I wrote poems in anger, in pain, in love, and in fear. There were times it was my only release from life and it's probably a good thing I had it to vent through.

When I got married, I figured my wanna-be-a writing career was over. There was no time for college as babies came right after the wedding. But then came something else. My hubby bought me an old, crusty typewriter. It was a manual one, with crooked keys and the letter "l" and the number "1" were the same key. But I was more than happy. The hubby worked graveyards and the baby didn't sleep much at night, so my evenings were spend plunking away on that old typewriter.

I sent out a few short stories and poems to different publishers around the country, and even got a couple of my poems published. But for the most part, I was writing just for the joy of writing. In 1997, the hubby got us our first computer. It was an old one and we were told not to bother even trying to get it online, but you don't tell my hubby that he can't do something. Within a month of getting that thing, the hubby had it online. That's when my writing career really took off.

I began searching for anything and everything I could on getting published. I figured that since I had my hands one the gateway to the Information Superhighway, I was going to learn everything I possibly could. I may not have had the chance to go to college, but that didn't mean I couldn't sit down and teach myself.

It's been 13 years since that first computer and I can honestly say that I am a professional writer. I'm still telling my stories, I still write poetry, and I still hang out with my invisible friends. My childhood dream became a reality.

My Latest Endeavors

Well as usual, I've been kind of out of the loop lately. Life is going a thousand miles an hour and I'm doing good to just hang on. I've gone back into the real life work place and though I'm making pretty decent money, it's kicking my butt. BUT!!! I am still writing for my paying clientele and a couple other sites. Once I get those taken care of all I want to do is sleep or play with my quilts. So since I have a day off where I don't have to run all over creation, I thought this was a good time to get caught up on my other stuff.

First and foremost, I have to send a shout out and a huge thank you to my sunny little friend, Ruthi. She made me this totally awesome, way cool, tripendicular, badge for my site.

 I'm always adding the buttons and badges of other sites to mine, and now I have one of my own. And I couldn't be more happy with it if I'd paid big bucks for it. So:

Thank you my little sunny friend
I love the badge you made
I never could have done it myself
You really make the grade.

(Yeah I know, not my best work but will do in a pinch). Now all I have to do is figure out how to add the little box with it that let's others put my badge on their blogs. So if anyone out there knows how to do this, please peek in and let me know. LOL

I've also been working on a website for some friends of mine. My hubby and I have another couple we consider to be our bestest friends. I've known these two people most of my life, and when hubby came into the mix, they took him in as well. I went to kindergarten with the husband of this duo and the wife has been my best friend since jr. high school. When they hooked up and got married, I freaked. Anyway, they now own their own pilot car service. What that means (for those that don't know) is that they drive all over the country guiding oversized loaded trucks to their destinations. They've piloted for trucks hauling big machinery, the blades for the windmills on wind farms, double-wide mobile homes, and stuff that I'm not exactly what to call them. LOL

Anyway, they wanted their own presence online so I built them a website. Well, it's actually a blog but without the option of regular updates. It just makes it easier when they send me new pictures to add or if they have any other information they want added to the site. I'm thinking about adding a guestbook to their site and maybe even a site counter. Not for me, but so they can see how many people are stopping by the site. I love them dearly but they're NOT Internet savvy. LOL

And finally, I've been trying to get some of my quilting things done. One of the ladies here in the town I live in has just been accepted to host her own chapter of Quilts for Kids. This is an awesome group that makes and donates quilts to hospitals for the children's wards. Some quilts are also sent to homeless shelters in case there are any children there that need something warm to call their own. If you'd like to help with this very cool organizations, check them out at QuiltsForKids.org.

UPDATE: The lady here in town has just contacted me and gave me permission to pass this along. Her name is Sandy Long and if anyone in the state of Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota or North Dakota would like more information (we're the closest QFK to each of you), her email addy for this organization is BayardNEQFK@aol.com.

So that's why I haven't stopped by to update my blog lately. Well not just this blog, but any of them really. My goal is to get them all updated before Thursday, but we'll see. I also have several articles that have to be finished before then and those are the ones that help pay the bills. LOL

Have a great day and I'll be back asap. :)