Confessions

I was NOT a happy momma when I found out I was pregnant with Lucas.
Some friends of ours were in their last stage of pregnancy when the mom to be gave me her baby name book.  I took it, not thinking I'd be needing it anytime soon.  When there son was born I got a BAD case of baby fever.  "Oh, babe, Matt is getting so big!  And Camren (our friends' son) is so cuuuuuute!" I cooed to Eric almost every day.  About two weeks after Camren was born I found out I was pregnant.  And my case of baby fever was instantly cured.  Not in a good way, like Oh, yay, I'm pregnant!  Cured as in I'm sorry!  I was only JOKING!  I didn't MEAN IT!

I don't want to gross you out with TMI about implantation bleeding, so let's just say that I had a sneaking suspicion that I successfully ignored until I was late.  The pregnancy was harder than my first.  I'm not old, but I was older.  I passed out on the couch everyday in those early weeks to wake up frantically calling for Matt, who was always playing like an angel in his room or watching a movie or napping on the other couch.

I had trouble sleeping.  My hips couldn't stand the pressure of lying on my side so I spent my nights in my last trimester waking up every two hours to slowly roll over.  Pshh, I actually got more sleep AFTER Lucas was born because he only woke up every three hours during the night.  I couldn't sit down, or stand up, or bend over.  I bought myself new shoes so I wouldn't have any laces to tie.  I ripped 3 pairs of jeans trying to fight the laws of volume and mass.  I couldn't pick up my FIRST baby, my buddy, my Matty Matt!

I HATED being pregnant again, and I was NOT convinced it was going to be worth it.  I wasn't excited at all.  It was PD.  Partum depression.  There were a few highlights.  I was lucky enough to have 3 ultrasounds.  Well, not lucky, because the reason for them was to watch a cyst on my ovary that needed to be removed and was giving me a lot of pain, but I got to see Lucas' face with the 3D ultrasound.  And he looked SO MUCH like his brother, even in-utero.  There were more low points than highlights though.  Even regarding the ultrasounds.  My eyes filled with tears when the tech pointed out his little boy parts.  I was hoping for a girl.  And my first reaction was a deep disappointment.  Now, my very next thought was along the lines of Matt would LOVE a little brother to chase him around! but still.  That first thought brought tears to my eyes, and the tech definitely noticed.

It took forever to name him.  We had both been focusing on little girl names.  We never came close to agreeing, but we hadn't even bothered talking about boy names those first 20 weeks.  I was 30 weeks pregnant when we finally settled on Lucas Adam.  And as much as I hate to admit it, I don't think either of us really like the name Lucas very much.  Still.  I sometimes wonder how people would react if I announced that we would start calling him Adam instead.

And my C section.  Ugh!  I was planning on a VBAC, but with the discovery of the cyst my OB and I decided it would be best to have a repeat C section so they could go in there and get that bad boy out (it ended up being 10cm big!  Glad to have it gone!).  Ok, fine, I could deal with a scheduled C section.  What pissed me off was that it didn't get scheduled until 6 days prior!  And my husband was store manager of a GNC that was WAAAY out of the way of all the other stores in his district.  And his part timers were useless.  And his superiors were useless.  And they said that if the store didn't open he would lose his job.  So... he took me to the hospital on the morning of, and had to leave for work, over an hour away.  And my mother in law was taking care of Matt, and my mom... would have LOVED to be there, but sometimes theses things are impossible when you live a thousand miles away from each other.  So, yes, I was alone, except for the anesthesiologist, who was awesome (and kind of cute).

I spent my entire pregnancy up to that point worrying about how much harder it would be to have twice as many kids.  I know two kids aren't a lot, but two IS twice as many as one.  I worried about having to take care of a newborn baby and missing out on spending time with Matt.  I worried that he would feel as if I had abandoned him.  I worried that I might not love Luke enough.  I worried that I might not love Matt as much anymore.  I worried that Matt would be horrible around the baby.  I worried that Luke's birthday would take away from Matt's birthday (Matt's bday is April 2nd, Luke was due April 1st.  Because of the C section, their bdays are 8 days apart.).  I worried that I would spend another 3 months of my life crying all night because the baby wouldn't sleep (like I did with Matt.).  I was worried about my relationship with Eric falling apart.  We had barely made it those first few months after Matt was born, and I KNEW that this time would be worse.  My whole life was about to shatter and fall to pieces at my feet. 

As they were wheeling me into the OR, I got STUPID excited.  All of a sudden I had a HUGE grin on my face.  The anesthesiologist actually asked if I was ok because of the stupid face I was making.  Whew, I had been waiting for those feelings for 9 months, and they finally arrived.  Better late than never, right?  When they laid him in my arms, I finally fell in love again. Just like that.

Everything I feared disintegrated.  Matt ADORED that tiny little baby.  Eric was ridiculously helpful and involved.  Lucas slept like a champ.  We settled into such a quick routine that we were confident and comfortable enough to have Matt's 4th birthday party and a meet & greet for Lucas the weekend after we got home from the hospital.

I love my boys.  Both of them.  To the moon and back.  It's quite a phenomenon, really.  I am fairly certain I don't want any more kids.  Eric is fairly certain he wants one more.  We have some time to decide yet.  Either way, I'm MORE that certain that if we did end up having another child, I am well equipped to handle it. 

Personalized stuff

A few years ago I joined a company selling candles from home.  The company ended up being less than what they promised, and I ended up not spending too much time with them.  It was my first home business venture though, and I dove right in!  I was so excited to order my very own business cards!  That's when I found out about Vistaprint.  I ordered my first 250 business cards for free, all I paid was shipping.  I still have a bunch of those laying around somewhere.  They also offer free invitations and announcements, bumper stickers, pens, and even checks and more!  I dreamed about using all the other crazy cool products they had: magnets, key chains, postcards,
stickers, rubber stamps... you name it! 


Vistaprint is more than business cards and advertising products though.  I mentioned they did invitations, some for free, but they also do calendars, stationary, photo books, mouse pads, shirts, hoodies, tote bags and more!  All personalized.  And all for VERY reasonable rates.

One of my favorite things they offer is Mommy Cards!  You can hand them out on play dates, or when you meet another cool mom at the park.  It could say something like:

Nicole Hughes

Matthew and Lucas' Mom

555-555-5555

Or maybe:

Matthew

Mrs. B's class

ABC Elementary school

In Case of Emergency Call: 

 I just think that idea is really neat!  And also, with the holidays coming up, I think I'll be visiting Vistaprint for our photo cards.  On sale right now starting at $3.99 for 10, I could order two sets and have enough for everyone I need to send one to in our family.   I know probably everyone knows about Vistaprint already, but every time I visit their website I feel like a kid in a candy store!

Follow Up to our Latest Emergency

I just wanted to let everyone know that I took Lucas to his regular pediatrician today and they checked him out and he is A O K!

He does have a cough and runny nose, so they checked his lungs and throat again, and also his ears just to see if he had some sort of infection or swollen glands or anything, and everything was clear.

Thank you to all the visitors and commenters who showed us such support on The Worst Day of the Year.  Those little ones are QUICK!  We will definitely be more vigilant and less quick to assume what's out of his reach!

Worst Day of the Year

Yesterday was a busy day in a busy week. Busier than I was expecting in the worst way.

I had a job interview at Kohl's. I want a part time job. Short term goal: extra holiday money. Long term goal: go back to school. It was a group interview. They have 50 positions for the holidays and they're interviewing about 300 people. I know I did better at the interview than at least 3 people. We'll find out in a few weeks I guess if I get the job.

With Columbus Day and school being closed on Monday my week was all thrown off. I missed the PTA meeting last night. And there are only three general meetings per year, though the officers meet more often. So that sucked.

Eric spent the day painting a gnome. We had one of those college football garden gnomes and he painted it to look like a zombie. It came out really well, but it ended up causing a whole lot of problems. We have a fairly small apartment, so he'd been painting on the kitchen table. Ugh.

After dinner the boys had a bath and when they came out I was getting them ready for bed. Lucas was in his pajamas and Matt was just getting out of the tub and getting ready to get dressed when I hear him yell, "No Lucas!"

The paint brushes were sitting in a bottle of paint thinner/brush cleaner and Lucas, taller than we realize, grabbed one right out of the bottle and apparently was sucking on it. He immediately started choking and gagging.

I thought he had drank right out the bottle and I screamed at Matt, "DID HE DRINK IT?! DID HE DRINK IT?!"

Matt nodded and I flew over to Luke, carried him into the kitchen and whipped a bottle of water out of the fridge to try to get him to drink some. He couldn't even catch his breath, started gagging more and vomiting.

"CALL POISON CONTROL!"

"I DON'T KNOW THE NUMBER!"

I know the number to poison control, but my mind wouldn't send the numbers to my mouth. "CALL POISON CONTROL!" I screamed again, "CALL 911! CALL 911!"

Eric was already calling, heading out the door so we wouldn't lose cell service. All the while Lucas is choking and gagging and trying to vomit and I'm pretty much just dumping water on him hoping he can get a drink. I carried him outside so whatever instructions the 911 operator relayed to Eric he could tell me. An officer arrived immediately, and said NOT to try to get him to drink or induce vomiting. Within two minutes, 2 more officers and the EMTs arrived. By this time Eric was on the phone with Poison Control, reading the warnings on the bottle to them.

One of the EMTs told me to take of Lucas' shirt, that the fumes were making him choke. So we took off his shirt and he asked me to get another one for him. I ran in the house and I see Matt crying. "I'm crying because Lucas drank that stuff!"

"Don't worry, baby, he's going to be ok," I tell him as I'm ripping a shirt out of their closet. "Get dressed and you can come outside to make sure he'll be ok." Before I get back out the door, though, Eric came in.

"They're taking him to the hospital, get some diapers and wipes."

"They're going right now?"

"Yeah, hurry up!"

I grabbed a stack of diapers, a pack of wipes, stuffed them and the shirt into my bag, frantically searched for my flip flops for a second, and ran out the door. He was already loaded up into the ambulance when I climbed in. He was still crying and choking, but the vomiting stopped at least. The EMT hooked him up to the monitors and had me hold a hose of oxygen near his face, since he was way too worked up to get the nose thing on. The EMT gave directions to the hospital to the driver and told him to use the lights. A few minutes later though, he yelled, "Where the fuck are you going?! I told you to turn left here!" He apologized right away. He wasn't with his usual partner, didn't much care for this one, and it showed.

"Where are we going?" He told me the hospital we were going to, and I knew there were at least two, possible three closer. "Why aren't we going to Easton Hospital?" It would have been only minutes away.

"Easton Hospital isn't equipped as well for pediatric emergencies. If he hadn't been breathing or needed immediate life saving care, we would have gone there, but after he was stabilized we would have moved him anyway," he explained to me patiently.

The trip took about 20 minutes. I ended up having to lay on the gurney with Lucas on top of me to get him to calm down. He was almost asleep when we got to the hospital, but obviously he wasn't going to be able to sleep once we got there. The doctors and nurses got him situated in a bed and we took his pants off so they could stick more wires to him. I was barraged with questions: How old is she? Are her shots up to date? How much does she weigh?

Eighteen months, yes, about 27 pounds, and he's a BOY, we just never got his hair cut yet.

He got upset over all the fuss again while I was asked how much he drank. I couldn't say. I knew the bottle wasn't full, it didn't look like he drank any of it to me, but Matt said that he did, so I just told them I didn't know, but it couldn't have been more than a sip. They took the bottle away, to send it to toxicology I guess.

After awhile they came in to x ray his lungs. I thought they would pump his stomach or something, but they didn't. Apparently the damage to his lungs was the serious issue. When they came back with the results they said his lungs looked clear, but sometimes it took awhile for the damage to show so they were going to do another x ray at 2am, and if that came back clear then we could go home right away.

With this news I called Eric, who was at home frantic, learning all kinds of horrible facts about paint thinners and the number one killer of infants in the poison category. He threw all of his paints and model cars waiting to be painted in the trash. I could hear it in his voice that he blamed himself. Perhaps rightfully so, but accidents happen.

Lucas settled in pretty well. Someone gave him a little stuffed bear, made by a volunteer I'm guessing, out of Halloween themed fabric. He doesn't usually cling to stuffed animals, but he LOVED this bear last night. We turned on the TV, let him watch the Nick Jr. channel, and in a short time he was giggling and pressing buttons on the remote and throwing things off the bed for me to fetch. My mother in law came to the hospital to give me some company and to take us home after his second x ray, but around 11:30 or midnight Lucas threw up again. I called to the nurses at the the station right outside our room. They helped get him cleaned up, got us new linens and a clean gown for him and he settle right back down. Unfortunately, the doctor decided to keep him overnight instead of releasing us at two.

They moved out of the pediatric ER up to the pediatric unit and got us settled in AGAIN. Lucas didn't fall asleep until around 1am, only to be woken up by the x ray techs around 2:30. He fell asleep right away, though, so it wasn't so bad. Time doesn't pass the same way in the hospital. The room was dark and the hallway was bright, so I don't know what time it was when someone came in to check his vitals. I woke up as soon as the door squeaked open. "Do you know how his x ray was?" I asked the nurse. She didn't. Morning came, and I was still disoriented with lack of sleep and the lighting in our room. Lucas was still sleeping when the door squeaked again. His x rays had come back clear, and he could probably go home before lunch time I was told. I called home to share the news with Eric and talk to Matt. "Lucas had to get a x ray?" he asked me.

"Yup, the doctors are taking good care of him so we can come home later."

"Ok."

"Are you getting ready for school?"

"Yeah, I feeded the cat and made my bed."

"Did you brush your teeth yet?"

"Oh, I have to give Daddy the phone so I can brush my teeth!"

My mother in law came back, with the biggest balloon in the gift shop, a new toy, and a pair of pants and hoodie for Lucas. Breakfast was delivered.  They put him on a clear diet: chicken broth, orange jello, apple juice, and some orange ice. Lucas only ate the jello and drank the apple juice, but he kept it down. By 11am, we were finally on our way home.

We ate lunch and all took a nap. Lucas seemed to be running a fever, but I think he was just warm from sleeping. He's been fine all day, acting his same old self. On Friday we have to go to his pediatrician for a follow up.

SOOO, everything seems to be turning out fine. Just another adventure in motherhood, another few years off my life, a few more gray hairs on my head, and Eric is filled with guilt. Crazy how an instant can turn everything into chaos.

Tall Tales

The first blog I ever came across was one of those with like 3million followers and sponsored ads in the side bars. This was last winter when I was first contemplating starting my own. Pretty intimidating! Her posts are always about her family life, and they are always pretty humorous. That's what drew me in initially. As I followed along with the half of the planet though, I liked it less and less. I couldn't put a finger on why.
Then it hit me. I don't believe her! I feel as if her posts are BASED ON her family, but spun to be funnier that what really happened. Maybe "this" did happen, but "this next thing" is completely fabricated to get a response.
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, really. And maybe her kids really are that crazy, who knows. I just feel that they aren't completely genuine, and it rubs me the wrong way. Have you ever read a blog that felt that way to you?

Demon Girl

Ok guys, I don't know yet if I want to do a weekly book review or what, but I read this one last weekend and wanted to share it with you all. I also figured it fit in well with Halloween being in October and everything.  :D  I found Demon Girl by Penelope Fletcher for free to download on my Kindle. If you've got one, you can download it by clicking here. 

I've always loved fairy tales and now I love all kinds of supernatural novels. Obviously Demon Girl is among them. Set in a post apocalyptic type world, humans live in small pockets of civilization while demons roam free.  Abandoned as a baby, Rae's lucky enough to have lived long enough to be chosen to be a Disciple.  She's training to be a Cleric, responsible for keeping the decimated human population safe from demons.  One morning, life as she knows it changes forever.  Suddenly finding herself out to be a demon in disguise (I'm not giving anything away here, it *is* called Demon Girl) and caught between not only a fairy and a vampire, but also a fairy civil war, Rae is not equipped to handle her new found abilities or the choices that are thrust upon her.  She certainly isn't the smartest heroine I've been introduced to, but she's honest and determined to save everyone from everything.  

Fletcher has created an intricate story, and characters with very different motivations.  She's written a story that moves along quickly, but not too quickly that you get lost trying to keep up.  As it's written from Rae's point of view you are thrust into a new world trying to figure things out just as she is.  There are some twists and turns that take Rae by surprise that sometimes seemed obvious to me, but she's dealing with lots of new emotions so I didn't have  too much trouble overlooking those.

All in all I found it to be a very good read, and definitely a good beginning of a trilogy.  I'm looking forward to reading the next installment: Demon Day, which is also now available on the Kindle. 

*I was not approached to do this review by anyone nor was I compensated in any way.  This is just my opinion.

Versatile Blogger Award

I started blogging less than a year ago, and to be honest my posts were few and far between.  When we got our new laptop I jumped right back into my blog, excited to be able to post more regularly and make it "pretty."    It's become a way for me to reach out and connect to people.  I have few mom friends in Pennsylvania, and it's nice to have an outlet.
Yesterday I got a message on MBS from Lacey over at Little Miss Nerd Girl.  She's presented me and 14 others with The Versatile Blogger Award!  I can't even say how excited I am!  Thank you so much Lacey!

Save this image so you can pass it on!

By accepting this award I have agreed to:

• thank the blogger who presented it to me and link back to her page.  Please, take a moment to visit!
• share 7 things about myself

• pass this award to 15 newly discovered blogs

I'll start with 7 things about myself.

1. My favorite TV series is the cartoon The Venture Bros.  I have almost all of the seasons on DVD and am impatiently waiting for season five.  It's a really inappropriate show which doesn't bother me in the least, and the writers are genius.
2. I am a voracious reader.  I read my Kindle while I'm eating, a throwback from when I had to read the back of the cereal box during breakfast.  I also kept a flashlight next to my bed.
3. I taught myself how to crochet, but I hardly ever finish my projects.  I made a lopsided blanket for Matthew and was going to make a gorgeous throw to match our curtains but I didn't use the right needle and it looks more like a rug.  
4. I wanted to be an English teacher, but the more I think about it, the less suited I feel I would be for it.
5. Since meeting Eric I've turned into a total gamer.  Some of my favorite video games are Oblivion, Little Big Planet, Tales of Symphonia, and Borderlands.  
6. I'm sick to death of Lightning McQueen!  Nuff said!
7. I have lived through hurricanes, nor'easters, blizzards, floods, a tornado, and more recently, an earthquake.

Now you know a little bit more about me.  I hope you'll visit the blogs I've chosen to pass this award to, to get to know a little bit about them!  I made sure to award this to blogs that *weren't* already on Lacey's list although I follow a bunch of those and love them too!
A Day in the Life
A Shot of Laughter
Boys, Toys, Chaos, & Joys
Brooklyn Active Mama
Lehigh Valley Momma
Life, Love and Food
Trials and Tribulations 
One Mom's Moxie
POV
Psychodynamom
Razing Mayhem
Southern Belle
The Marvels of Motherhood
What Mama Wants


Young Suburban Mom

Dirty Laundry

Ok, I just need to get some things off of my chest here.  This is family drama.

My cousin A and I are only 9 months apart.  Her mom and mine share a birthDAY although they are two years apart themselves.  Out of my mom and her 4 siblings, I think that she and A’s mom have the closest relationship.  We also have that close relationship.  A is like a sister to me.  In every way.  We love and fight equally.  In a lot of ways I feel like I’ve been competing with A my whole life.  She’s the pretty one, the athletic one, the popular one.  The one who got away with things I would be grounded for thinking about.  She learned how to tie her shoes before I did.  I think that started the whole thing.

I dropped out of college and had a baby.  She stayed in and eventually became a police officer.  We lived (for a time) in a shitty trailer and she had a nice apartment and car. She got her hands into all kinds of businesses: Avon, some website selling green cleaning products, and a whole mess of things I don’t remember.  When she worked at them, she did so with passion, and she usually made a profit.  I never had much luck with that kind of thing.  She went out and partied and had fun while I was home with my baby or working my butt off to keep a roof over our heads.   I often forgot what I had when I compared myself to her.

Her perfect life began unraveling when she found out she was pregnant.  She had been casually dating someone for a while, but I guess while he was away a friend of hers came over one night.  She wasn’t sure who the father was at first, but she thought it might have NOT been the one she was dating.  It wasn’t.  And that turned out to be a good thing for her, at first.  The guy she was dating wanted nothing to do with her or the pregnancy when he found out.  We were all supportive of her.  Whatever she wanted to do, we’d stand behind her.  She chose to have the baby.  Honestly, out of everyone in my family, she’d make the best single mom.

Turns out, she didn’t have to be a single mom.  Her guy friend was ready and willing to step up to the challenge and have a real relationship with her.  He has a daughter from a previous relationship, but A turned out to be a great step-mommy, too, despite all the baby mama drama (and there was much).  They were planning their wedding and everything was looking great.  Until…

With me being in PA and most of the rest of my family in FL I don’t know what’s going on all the time.  My mom casually mentioned the “trouble” A was having.  I thought it was the baby mama stuff but it was way worse than that.  Her husband to be was accused have having inappropriate relations with a student (he’s a math teacher).  During the investigation he was moved from the classroom to administration work, in a building with no students.  Over the summer though, he was arrested.  Although he’s admitted that this girl was in their home, A believes that “nothing happened” and is standing next to her man.  That is all well and good, but remember, she is an officer of the law.  And besides that, if my husband brought a young girl into my house, that would be it.  That’s not a position you put yourself or your family in, whether anything happened or not!  Of course, his arrest caused a media storm.  It doesn’t help that he used to play football for Notre Dame & had a brief stint with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  They were pretty much kicked out of their apartment because of all the media.  I saw a news video online that had a close up of their apartment door…  effectively giving everyone their address, as they had already mentioned the complex it was in.  She’s been told not to have any contact with him or she could lose her job.  Last I heard, she wasn’t listening very well.  

I hurt for her.  I wish she would see common sense though!  This man isn’t doing right by her.  She needs to let this all blow over and settle down before they should try to continue their relationship.  If that's even an option.  It wouldn't be for me, that's for damn sure.
 

I hurt for me too.  She’s STILL not mentioned any of this to me.  I’ve made huge mistakes in my life; she knows that.  She should know that I wouldn’t be one to judge her for what she thinks is doing the right thing (supporting her man, keeping her family together).  I just hope she comes clean with me soon, because I won’t be able to help confronting her. 

She won’t be reading this… we’ve spoken so few times that I never remembered to mention that I started blogging.  And with all the drama, she deleted her FB page (just before I got back on there).

Even still:

A, I love you.  If you need me, I will always be here for you.  You are my cousin, sister, friend.  I know you have enough people kicking you in the ass right now.  I won’t.  I’m good at just listening.

Things I Missed This Weekend

Although I consider myself a SAHM I do, in fact, work on Sundays buying gold at a kiosk in the mall. Hey, it pays for diapers! And instead of just Sunday, I worked Saturday as well this week. That is if you would call sitting around playing on my laptop for 11 hours straight (Saturday) or reading my Kindle for 7 hours (Sunday) work.

I didn’t see Matthew on Saturday at all. He was tuckered out from a full week at school and slept in and was already in bed by the time I got home. I would never want that to be my every day!
The boys had a great day without me. On Friday Matt brought home a scarecrow pattern to decorate. It’s due on Wednesday and I was really looking forward to making it with him. It was done when I got home on Saturday night. He and Daddy had a great time making it! It’s so cute, they cut up some of Lucas’s old clothes and glued some beads and made straw out of paper…I think it looks great
<-----    (even though the picture sucks so bad)!
I also came home to this: (picture to come... I realized it looks WAY better in the dark)
Another thing I was really looking forward to making! Family Fun Magazine had this as a craft this month; it’s called Spectral Eyes. In the magazine they painted their boxes with dark blue paint. We opted for the less messy version: we (they)wrapped them in black wrapping paper. The facial features are cut out of the boxes and tissue paper covers the holes. Family Fun used all yellow, but we (they) added some red and blue. See Batman in the middle? Totally Dad’s idea! The back of our boxes (bottom of Family Fun’s) are left open to tuck in a string of lights and voila! A cute/spooky window decoration! Such a simple and yet genius idea.  Click the link above for the "official" instructions.

Family Fun's

To be honest, I’m a little bit bummed that I missed out on doing these with the boys. I was really looking forward to them, especially the Spectral Eyes. If I had been here, you can bet there’d be WAY more boxes involved! I’ve been saving boxes all week, and only half of them got used. And I would have taken pictures during the process and posted them here for you guys. And it just seemed like it would be fun to do! As bummed as I am though, I am equally (possibly even more) thrilled that Eric was able to do this with our boys. Sometimes Dad gets left on the bench while we go do our thing. He never complains about it, but I know he wants to create memories with them just as much as I do. So really, it’s better he was home and I wasn’t. They all had a great day.
And when I got home… the house was spotless! I love my guy!

Mom Blog Society

Since I've been becoming more serious about my blog I wanted to show off all my hard work to someone! I've been a member of Cafemom for years now, so of course I started there. I joined a few blogging groups, but they seemed to be more about self promotion than anything else. I was looking for more, but being so new to blogging I wasn't sure where to go. I did, however, get started with LinkReferral. This introduced me to some great blogs, and I got a few reviews from members. I was excited to see the increase in traffic, but I wanted quality over quantity. I wasn't really sure what my next step would be.

Then I got a comment from Mom Blog Society when I posted about the Farmers' Market. The comment said: "Oh how I love to go to a good farmers market. It looks like you had a GREAT time!. I would love for you to share you experience at the farmers market with our readers at http://momblogsociety.com I truly believe they will enjoy this read."

Well, I checked it out and let me tell you, I'm HOOKED!

Since Wednesday I've gained 6 followers (which for me at this point is almost double what I had!) to my blog and about 20 to Twitter. In 4 days! That's really exciting for a new blogger!

But aside from the traffic and new comments, I really feel like I've found a community to grow in. I'm a fan of groups so I joined a few, and it's nice to see familiar faces from one group to the next. There's a group for Twitter, a group for newbies, a group for comments, a group to get (and give) reviews, and so many more! I feel right at home there, asking questions and participating in button exchanges etc!

And I truly believe that some of the most helpful people on the planet are spending their time at MBS. I have learned how to make a button! I fixed the header that didn't want to sit in the middle of the page! I know that if I stick around I can bring my blog AND my blogging to the next level.