I saw this on my dashboard this morning. I was completely taken aback, folks.
Firstly, I haven’t posted since Tuesday? Sheesh! Guess I’ve been really busy.
More importantly – One-thousand posts. Wow!
I can’t believe how much I’ve written and shared with you all in the past three-and-a-half years. How much we’ve gone through here in this space. Mind you, not all thousand (thousand!!) posts are published, I have many that are drafts, many that are in place for me to expand upon some day; some that are vents or frustrations that needed typing but not necessarily sharing; some that serve as placeholders, or ones that need more research, reflection. But one-thousand posts have been created here on this blog. One. Fricken. Thousand. DUDE!
I am grateful. I am so very thankful. Mostly, I am just awestruck, folks.
I created this blog as a way to share my life with others, as a born-writer who missed it so, I felt the need to write, and so I did. Sometimes it was funny. Sometimes it was thought-provoking. But it felt so damn good to write from my heart again, and so, I just continued. I had no idea what I was in for, the wonderful people I’d meet, the places I’d go, or how much I, myself, would grow as a person, as a friend, as a mother.
When I first began this blog, my now-four-year-old was our youngest, at only eight-months-old. My first-grader was an early three-years-old. My now-sophomore in high school had only just turned twelve. We still lived at Fort Bragg, NC. Our move was a hilarious move, we went through our first Louisiana hurricane. You watched my pregnancy belly grow with Baby Dude, and were here for his birth. I vlogged about the Motrin babywearing ad, which eventually ended up on the Today Show. I tried to feed a family for Thanksgiving and killed my desktop, then our laptop in the span of two weeks during Computer Meltdown 2008.
In 2009, I really started spreading my blogging wings. I shared our Steelers family with you, my daughter had a laundry party and I wasn’t invited, I started a Splenda Experiment, which ultimately helped lead me to begin my weight loss journey. I went to Disney with a bunch of Mom Bloggers (awesome!), our favorite hanging tree fell in our backyard, I won a much-needed BlogHer scholarship, and was rushed to the hospital on my son’s fifth birthday (the scholarship was NOT the cause, by the way). Instead of feeling as old as I look, I kicked feeling old’s ass. And yes, I even interviewed Kelly Ripa (yes, THE Kelly Ripa!!). And fitting into a size 6 for the first time since before babies? SCORE! I decided to poll my friends for some hair-do advice, which subsequently ended up being cut way freakin’ wrong, then recut again to be fixed, finally (sigh!). My toddler was bitten over 150 times by fire ants, my husband posted for the first time here, we drove the Rotten Meat Van™ around town unknowingly (bleh!), and I finally hit the 30-lb weight-loss mark (wahoo)! We ambushed my daughter for her birthday, teenage room makeover-style! Baby Dude and I went to Asheville to the Type-A Conference, then came home and celebrated Halloween and Veteran’s Day, military-family-style. I was called a racist for this post about my son’s resemblance (I know, what the hell?), we visited Disney as a family for the first time during Thanksgiving, and my then-kindergartner made a collossal chore mistake! (I still laugh about that one!)
2010 started out pretty rough for us. I went on a hiatus for a bit because I was being tested for a rogue lump in my neck, along with my son being tested for growth problems. In the meantime, I got sick and went through many adventures with my pharmacist, which lead to this hilariously popular post of mine. But we got the all-clear on our tests, thank God! I chronicled an entire week of our family life, every minute of every day was covered in crazy (holy cow!), and I vowed to redecorate our home to create a home to love. Baby Dude was rushed to the ER for stitches on July 4th (the first child of mine to ever to need ’em), and we proved in this video we are THOSE Target shoppers. Our ugly home got an outside facelift (holy crap!), and I showed the dork I really am by dancing by myself on camera. {shakes head} We went on a thirteen-state summer road trip, and I went to Blogher and my family met Jennie Garth and I hugged Padma Lakshmi! (OMG!) We came home to learn we’d face jail time if our kids missed too much school (fo’ realz), I made Oreo Cookie Cakes for my teenager’s birthday, and announced my goal to run my first marathon in 2011. My weight loss story was published, my son got schooled by me Halloween-style, and unfortunately we were flooded, again. Hugely proud, we attended my son’s first band concert, and shared with you all our homemade Christmas tree.
As for 2011, so far, I’ve scared the crap out of my toddler making Dora Cupcakes, written about military deployments hitting WAY too close to home, recapped my mornings in a nutshell, and shared the single most hilarious handmade kid’s Valentine’s card known to man. And, coming up? In mid-March, my family will be heading back to Disney for the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. End of March I’ll be heading to Seattle to visit Nintendo Headquarters (can’t wait to see the other Nintendo Ambassadors, woohoo!). In June, we’ll be saying goodbye to Louisiana as we make another move, this time to San Antonio, TX. We’ll be taking more trips, attending more conferences, and chronicling it all here, just as I have these past three-and-a-half years.
Thank you so much for reading and getting to know me and my family over these thousand posts. I am beyond grateful for this space, for having the chance to get to know you, too. Here’s to a thousand more together!
Now, what about you? Are you celebrating this week/this month? Do you have a post you’d like to share with me? Maybe a “getting to know you” post I may never never read? Or, if you’re a reader and not a blogger, leave a few fun facts about yourself in the comments. I really love getting to know you all.
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