A Quickie Just For You
April 8, 2009
I wanted to hop on quickly to let you know that I have not abandonned you, my beloved readers. (Well, that and the blog police will be here soon so I had better have fresh content or else!) It has been an insane month. So much better than March, though. A good busy. These are either the half written posts I promise to finish by the end of the week or just random thoughts I have had in the past week.
- Gabriella celebrated her 8th birthday. (I wrote about her amazing story and how she renewed my Faith on my Parenting Magazine blog column.)
- The anniversary/birthday of our stillborn son came and shocked me when I realized he would have been 17 years old this year. SEVENTEEN?! I don’t even know how it is possible to be that long ago. I sang him Happy Birthday and made a birthday wish in his memory.
- I pondered ways to actually become the first mom to have Hallmark’s love child. I am not sure of the actual specifications of how that will be physically possible, but I am looking into it. Why? Because I fell in love and sometimes when you fall in love you want to have a love child. There is nothing wrong with that! And I imagine the baby will look a lot like Hillary Swank. I’m just saying. More on Hallmark, love children and why I wept in the hallways of one of the most energetic and creative buildings I have ever been inside after a VP of creative writing and editorials and a published author herself (whose creative energy just crackled off of her!) stopped to talk to me and shared something special with me about why she believed April would be a good month and why she knew last month’s March 6th would bring me luck. It made me cry. (A good way.) And? I discoverd there are actually some mom bloggers and PR reps who are generous in dealing with an old lady (me) who has teenagers. (GASP! Teenagers!!)
- I am sure that if I do the research, I will discover that the underwire bra was originally the idea of a man who hated his wife and/or girlfriend.
- I love to travel. I love to meet new people. I have discovered that when I see things first hand and experience them with my own eyes and ears, I really do become a brand-loyal-almost-but-not-quite-to-the-point-of-obsessive-stalker. (Even if I thought I already was, I become more so.) One might call me a product whore. I might hit that person but one might say it.
- If you are on an airplane and you have a new Nintendo DSi and are playing with the camera feature, you just might get a free drink out of the deal if you let the flight attendant play with it. Not that I am actually admitting that happened. I am just saying that if you did have one and you did let her play with it that might happen.
Well, those are just some random thoughts. If they were real blog posts I would link to them and send you over to read all about them. These are just random thoughts I thought I would share with you.
I’m just saying.
Posted by Jenn @
10:31 pm |
Rescuing Karl
January 16, 2009
You all blow me away with your heartfelt sympathy for my sweet Harley. So, it is only fair that I share a story with you. One of those Fate meet Jenn kind of stories. The amazing tale of Karl.
When Harley died we were naturally devestated. He was only 4 and in ways it felt like we were just getting to know the sweet boy even though we also felt like he had been with us forever. We bought Harley from a breeder with award winning bloodlines. These people not only cared about what happens to their puppies when they are sold but keeps in touch and likes it when we bring them back to “visit” them. They knew Harley had cancer and were so heartbroken for us and for Harley.
So, after Harley died we contacted them to let them know. What happened after that was nothing short of amazing.
The breeder, Karen, emailed her condolances and told us when we were up to it we could come over and find a new “companion” to love and cherish as we did Harley. She also–as an aside– mentioned that they had a 4 year old male Dobie that had to be returned because his family moved overseas.
That in and of itself was not what got our attention. It was the following comment.
Oh My Gosh!!!You are not going to believe this but I went back through
my litter folders and I was shocked/stunned to find out that Karl is a
litter brother to Harley.
That’s right. Harley’s litter mate/brother. We met him when he was a puppy.
It was on the day that Harley died that Karl was returned to Karen.
How could we not go meet him?
We told the kids it might not work out for many reasons. The first being that we don’t know his personality or how he behaves.
Just as any siblings, Karl is very different from Harley. (For that we are thankful because it would have been too hard to have a puppy that acted and looked a lot like Harley.) We worried that Karl might not take to us or do well with the kids. That worry was immediately erased when the first person he attached himself to was Gabriella. He then did the one thing that would seal the deal for me. He came up to me, sat on (Not at. Dobies don’t sit at people’s feet. They sit on them) and gave me a big kiss.
After a family vote, our decision was made.
We have welcomed Harley’s brother Karl into our home and family and couldn’t be happier. We are again a family of 6–fur baby included.
I say we rescued Karl but the truth is…he rescued us right back.
Fate.
Sometimes it just takes your breath away.
Posted by Jenn @
10:23 pm |
Election 2008: TheMotherhood.com Calls in The Vote
November 4, 2008
My very good friends and founders of one of my favorite online communities, TheMotherhood.com, has come up with a brilliant and fun way to capture this historic election both in a community forum as well as on your own blog. Let’s face it, my friends, unless you live under a rock, you know that this election is history in the making. No matter what candidate you are voting for, it will be an historic moment in our country. Tomorrow we will wake up with either our first African American president or our first female vice president.
My friends over at The Motherhood — founders Emily McKhann and Cooper Munroe– have created an easy cellphone based application that members use to communicate at once with their circles of friends - and they’ve adapted it for CALL IN THE VOTE.
As Motherhood co-founder Emily McKhann told the BBC:
“We are encouraging women to call in and tell us about their voting experience - if they took their children, what it was like and of course where they are.
Mothers are busy people, so an online community is a simple way to encourage them to get involved without having to do anything that is too complicated to set up.”
Why would you not want to capture that moment– the things you were thinking, feeling and doing on this day? Share it with your kids. For that matter, take your kids and let them share it. Voted early? Then share whether or not you feel left out over the hoopla over today.
I will be phoning it in. Will you?
Here’s how it works - very simple, easy and fun:
1) Join TheMotherhood.com (if you’re not already in there) and be sure to put your cell phone number in when prompted during sign-up.
2) Join the Moms CALL IN the Vote circle and make it your Mobile Circle.
3) Go to your polling place to vote.
4) Pick up your cell phone and call 412-282-1182 (tip: add that number to your phone’s contacts ahead of time.)
5) Give us a live, on the ground report. Tell us about voting, how you feel, what the experience is like and any other election day coverage! What did the kids think? Find your inner Couric and maybe even interview some others who are voting for more great coverage of the day. The recordings will show up immediately on TheMotherhood.com in
the Moms CALL IN the Vote circle..
6) You don’t need to have a blog or website to take part in this - but if you do, you can take the embed code from TheMotherhood.com (it will appear directly underneath your recording) and embed your voice — and other recordings you hear there too if you like — on your own site.
7) Listen to (and save for posterity) grassroots, citizen mom/dad coverage at its finest on this most historic day.
Let me know if you do this and I will do a huge follow up post sharing your thoughts and link back to your blog.
Call in the vote, people! OH, and join the group on Facebook! You know you want to be on Facebook. Join and I will share with you my newest Facebook OMG story! Just go join the Call in the vote group on Facebook.
THEN GO VOTE! (And call us!)
Here is an example of my morning call in:
Posted by Jenn @
3:06 am |
While you were doing that, I was doing this.
July 8, 2008
See! I still exist. After nearly 3 weeks (or has it been 3 weeks?) off the grid, I am finally trying to jump back into the world that exists in this computer. In fact, I am guessing that I will finally get in the groove just in time to head off to BlogHer in San Francisco next week. So what kept me offline for so long? Well, I was chillin at the beach. Thinking I would have no trouble getting hooked up and online, I never mentioned that I would be leaving. Turns out, getting on and being able to work and chat and check email and such was not the easy time I thought it would be. Yet being offline for so long was just what I needed. I know I owe way too many people way too many responses, email, posts etc. Now that I am home, hooked up and able to connect with the outside world, I will do my best to catch up. Really. (Did you notice the “do my best” part? Yeah, still out of my groove.)
But I am sure you understand can I understand why.
While you were getting ready for work, I was doing this:
And for most of the day when I would normally be home doing chores or trying to keep the kids busy, I was hanging out here:
And then as the late afternoon hit, I did a little bit of this:
And as the day drew to a close, I sat in amazement watching this:
Is it any wonder why it is tough to get back into the groove?
Next up: Taking on the jellies, BlogHer stuff and a way too late post about a book I was totally supposed to post about ages ago. For now, a nap. This blogging stuff is tough to get back into. I need my beach back.
Posted by Jenn @
10:52 am |
I roll my own. Want a hit?
March 2, 2008
[Update at the end]
Okay, after years of going without, I am giving in to temptation. Throwing caution and my better judgment to the wind, I am going to start rolling again. Blog rolling. Dude! What did you think?
So, if you think you should be on my blog roll, let me know. I am hopefully adding to it this week. Let me know why you want to be on it. You know reason like:
- You want people other than your mom to read.
- You have something on me and I better add you or you will release it to the world at large.
- You need validation and I am just the blog to give it to you.
- Because? Why not, beyotch?
- You know I read you. I may even comment so why the hell are you not already being linked?
- You have been removed from another blog roll for some dumb ass reason and are looking to not screw up your whole Technorati ranking so I need to make up the loss by adding you.
- Your sister’s friend’s cousin’s hairdresser’s mailman’s next door neighbor’s aunt dates this dude who once read your blog and said it kicked ass so you should for sure be on the list!
- You once commented and so there! Add you! Now!
- You have anger issues and that in and of itself should scare me into adding you.
- You deserve it because you know what movie this line came from: “You’re a neo maxi zoom dweebie, what would you be doing if you weren’t out making yourself a better citizen?”
- Because you are about to kick my ass for trying to get anyone to jump through hoops.
That about covers why I add people to my blog roll. Oh, and of course because I read you and think other people should, too. But is that really a good enough reason? This is 2008 baby. Justification is the name of the game. Good writing will only get you so far. Inane bullshit carries you the rest of the way.
[Update to screech:] Seriously? Not ONE of you know where that movie line came from?! Are none of you teens of the 80’s. First person to tell me gets top billing in the blogroll. I am so saddened that no one knows where neo maxi zoom dweebie came from.
*Shaking my head in shame*
Posted by Jenn @
6:58 pm |
