Happy New Year - 2013

.

Image Cedit

From my family to yours... wishing you all a new year filled with happiness, success, and love.  Looking forward to our friendships continuing.  HUGGLES!

.

The Singing Bloggers are Back... and I'm One of Them!!

.

 

 

 

Toni of A Daily Dose of Toni arranged for several of us to sing all these parts and worked her little tukus off to put it all together. (Thank you SO much, Toni!) We first present to you the traditional Twelve Days of Christmas.....

And now for our next performance:

 

 

Next, Toni arranged us all, with the help of Trisha and Lynsey, to sing The Twelve Days of Blogging. We all had SO much fun with this and I'm sure you will enjoy listening to it... make sure you listen to the end (it is a little long) because it gets funnier as it goes along.....

 

 

 

Don't forget to visit all the bloggers who participated in this amazing video:

Nicole Olea

The Shewbridges of Central Florida

Yellow Tennessee

A Daily Dose of Toni

Mostcato Mom

Mom Dot

The Blonde Critic

Frosted Fingers

Between The Kids

Dirty Floor Diaries

My Little me

Life With Levi

Joyful Musings

Momma D And Da Boyz

Serendipity Mommy

Mom Luck

 

Thank you so much to Toni again for all her hard work on the videos and for the great graphics  - YOU ROCK, MOMMA!!

 

.

National Day of Remembrance

Thank you to Carrian Cheney of the blog Sweet Basil for beginning this effort, and to Nike Peterson of the blog Nike Peterson Designs, for creating the beautiful graphic you see above.

The United Way of Western CT has set up a fund to help those affected by this terrible tragedy and if you would like to contribute to that fund, please head over to the United Way's Website.

Thank you for understanding my position. God bless you and your families. 

The Countdown to Christmas Begins.....

.

 

I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with those that you love.  I know I did, I spent the day with hubby, Bill, and all our little babies: Nano, Mia, Mandie, Mumbo, and Wiggles.  Everyone (and I DO mean everyone) loved my meal, which made me feel grateful for such a loving family.  Not to mention the leftovers we have for the next couple of days.

But, with Thanksgiving over, that means that there are only 31 days until Christmas.... AARRGGHH!!!  Have you got everything ready, are you still shopping, or are you pulling your hair out in clumps already?

To lighten you day, I'm going to (try to) post something funny every day until Christmas. It may be a joke, a comic, or just a funny photo of one of my doggies (I know there are a few of you out there that aren't sick of them yet).

So let the countdown begin, this first one if for all my lovely blogger friends:

Photo Credit

Stay safe and sane.... HUGGLES!

.

Thank You PR for Working with Me!!

.
  

Being a member of the Momdot.com Blogging Community is totally awesome. Not only do I get to meet some of the greatest blogging women and men, learn from them, and get their support in every aspect of my life; I am also able to connect with some fabulous PR reps from awesome companies and work with them to learn about exciting products. Then I get to share them with all of my wonderful readers.

 

Trisha from Momdot.com, along with several other bloggers (listed over on her site) put the following video together to let these fabulous reps know how much we appreciate working with them and how much we appreciate their value of our talents and time.... Please enjoy:

  

Once again, thank you to all the PR reps I have worked with in the past and I look forward to working with many more of you in the future.

If you are looking for a wonderful group of bloggers to hang around with, grow with, and learn from, come and join the Momdot Community.... and if you are a PR firm or business that needs bloggers of any size or any niche for upcoming campaigns, contact Trisha(at)Momdot.com.

.

My Blogging Buddy

As I work on my blog during the day, I have little buddies that hang out with me. I just adore having all the snuggles and love surround me.

Posted from Blogger for iPad

Wordless Wednesday: Helping Mommy Work ~ June 22, 2011

.

Welcome to Wordless Wednesday..... I'm looking forward to to seeing all of your photos, so if you leave a comment, please leave your email address so I can come on over and take a look.

For more Wordless Wednesday posts, head over to the WW Hub, leave your link, check out the other participants, and don't forget to leave a nice comment - you know you like comments, they do too!!

And don't forget about our recipe sharing meme tomorrow: "Recipe Swap Meet Thursday" - have you got your recipe ready??? Don't forget to grab our button and play along... Happy cooking. 

<br /><a href="http://wmjshewbridge.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="Photobucket"src="http://i814.photobucket.com/albums/zz61/xmasdolly/Female-Chef.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /><br /><br />
.

Sorry I Haven't Been Around... I'm Having Laptop Trouble

.

UGH!!  Again I am having trouble with my laptop. I'm hoping it is again just my adaptor, but hubby thinks it is where the adaptor plugs into the computer (I sure hope not) so I'm going to order ANOTHER adaptor - this makes my third for this HP laptop since November 2009.... BLECH!

So, I may be away from the blog for a bit, I have a desktop (it is in pieces right now) that I can't sit and work at for too long because of my spinal issues and I will try to answer emails via my iPhone.... please be patient with me.

Hope to see you soon... HUGGLES!
.

Wordless Wednesday: My Workspace... with Lots of Little Ones ~ 5/18/11

.

WORDLESS

Welcome to Wordless Wednesday.... This is where I do my blogging with my little babies, there are a couple missing because I got up and they followed me to get the camera and were standing next to me while I took the photo. Otherwise there would be one on the ottoman and another one on the couch. They protect me all the time... gotta love them!

For more Wordless Wednesday posts, check out the WW Hub, leave your link, check out the other participants, and don't forget to leave a nice comment - you know you like comments, they do too!!


And don't forget about our recipe sharing meme tomorrow: "Recipe Swap Meet Thursday" - have you got your recipe ready??? Don't forget to grab our button and play along... Happy cooking.




<br /><a href="http://wmjshewbridge.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="Photobucket"src="http://i814.photobucket.com/albums/zz61/xmasdolly/Female-Chef.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /><br /><br />
.

An Important Message from Life is a Sandcastle

.
A fellow blogger has posted this and I wanted to pass it on.....

Life is a Sandcastle: Important!!: "Here is the real deal, anyone one of us could wake up to find their child has cancer tomorrow. I know a scary fear right, and for other mom's it is the nightmare that came true. A child has it right now, Coupon Mommy of 3 daughter. I can only imagine the shock and pain the family is under right now."

Please head over to Life is a Sandcastle to find out what everyone can do to help this devestated family.

Thank you for your taking the time to read this post...

.

WooHoo!! First Event for Brandcation: Adventures in Orlando Announced

We are all SO excited to hear that our first event is being held at Florida EcoSafaris... and thanks to them, it will be at no cost to any of us attending - thank you very much!  They have a 4700 acre eco-ranch and wildlife conservation area preserved just as nature intended. This beautiful site boasts 9 distinct Florida ecosystems and an endless array of natural flora and fauna including alligators, black bears, nearly two hundred species of birds and the endangered Florida panther.

 

There will be the opportunity to take a Zip-line Safari  - the perfect aerial vantage point to learn about Florida’s ecosystems on a one-of-a-kind adventure. Along the two and a half hour journey, you’ll soar trough the tree tops, 55 feet off the ground, and make your way across sky-bridges while learning about Florida’s natural flora and fauna from your expert guide - all at speeds up to 25 miles per hour!

 

For those of us who are unable to do something quite that adventurous, there is the opportunity to take a Coach Safari, a trip through a picturesque Florida ranch, featuring a living museum of Spanish Colonial Cattle and Florida’s unique Cracker Horses, an endless array of natural flora and fauna including alligators, black bears, white-tail deer and nearly two hundred species of birds. An expert guide to take us up-close to everything over land and water onboard our special open-air safari coaches, elevated 5 feet off the ground for a fantastic view of everything.

You all know how much I LOVE taking nature photos, so I am really excited about this adventure and about all the pictures I might be able to take and share on my blog.  I can't wait until November for this blogging convention to meet all these fabulous women and this wonderful adventure.  I'll let you know as soon as I do what other terrific things are in store for us during our Brandcation conference.

Thank you so much to Trisha from Momdot and Florida EcoSafaris for making this possible.

What an Incredibly Busy Week

Image Credit

This past week, on top of dog-sitting the three dogs for my girlfriend, we have been doing a favor for another friend who owns a dry cleaners in town.  Bill used to work there two years ago and the woman who took over when he re-retired (TeeHee) wanted to go on vacation and there was no one to cover for her, so they called Bill to see if he would work there for the week.  So we bartered and agreed to work the week in exchange for the cleaning and pressing of our 68 pieces of dry cleaning that needed to be done.

The hours all week were 7:30am to 6:00pm and we alternated which dogs we took with us each day (Nano went with us every day). {Photos to follow once I get organized again.}  But it was totally exhausting and my back is killing me. I was unable to get on the computer during the day as there was no Internet connection available, then by the time I got home at night, I was just so tired and in so much pain, I ended up sitting down (after Bill either took me out to get something to eat or brought something home so I wouldn't have to cook - gotta love that man!!) and watching about an hour of TV and then falling to sleep.

I am SO behind at visiting peoples blogs and responding to emails {I have about 1500 to go through}, but I hope to catch up this weekend and by the beginning of next week.  I hope you all had a fabulous week with your families and if any of your children started school, I hope it went fabulously, if you didn't yet, enjoy your last few days/weeks of summer. Thanks for always being there for me and for your encouraging words on Twitter.  Talk to you all soon as I catch up on my emails.  HUGS!!

Brandcation Event: Global Getaway Nov 5th-7th!

I am so excited to be going to the Brandcation Event put on by Kim and Trisha of MomDot. There are going to be no formal classes at this event, instead it will be "real life conversation in an environment conducive to learning and growing" {from the MomDot blog}. I am so looking forward to meeting all of these wonderful bloggers and learning so many new and exciting things; plus, the event is going to be here in Orlando, FL.  I think there are only a few spots left, so if you are interested, head on over and check it out soon!  For more information, contact kim@accidentalmommies.com or trisha@momdot.com.  Hope to see some of you there!!

Look What I've Got.....

 

I'd like to thank my good friend Erin from Slice o' Heaven for so generously offering to help me with my very own custom signature for my blog.  She made this wonderful graphic for me today for which I am eternally grateful. I have met some of the BEST people while blogging and am awed by the generosity and love that has been shown to me and my family over and over again.

Please head on over to Erin's blog to let her know how fabulous I think she is and see her absolutely terrific blog and her terrific family, including the most beautiful daughter, Charlie.

Thank you so much, Erin... I really appreciate all your hard work and love you lots!!!

Happy First Blogiversary to Me

 

   

I couldn't believe it when I looked back on my blog and saw that this week marked the one year anniversary of my regularly blogging.  I cannot believe how quickly it has gone by and how much has changed - for the good! 

I first started blogging quite sporadically in 2005 and really just let it fall by the wayside.  Then in 2009 after my spinal surgery while I was recuperating on the couch and couldn't do much of anything but watch TV, my darling husband {who is the most wonderful man in the world, by the way} suggested I try entering some giveaways on blogs that he saw on a sweepstakes site that he was entering other giveaways.  He told me I had a "flare for that kind of thing," and it might keep me from being bored for the next 3 months.  So, I started to enter the giveaways and then I won a few... but more than that, I started to read other posts on the blogs.  I started to learn about the incredible women (and a few men), some who where a lot like me, some who where nothing like me, but had these interesting lives and these great families with whom I started to become friends.

Then I thought, maybe, I could start to write about what we were doing and start posting photos of us and even post things that others might find interesting.  So, I started posting, first about my doggie, Nano - my little baby and love of my life, and then some info about nutritional supplements I learned from other sites and then a Father's Day post.  Interspersed with posts about other people's giveaways, I did my posts about what we were doing and uploading photos of our daily life here in beautiful central Florida.

I remember how excited I was to get my very first follower and my very first commenter - they were both the same person ~~ Crystal from Simply Being Mommy.  Crystal has been there for me since then as a follower, commenter and most especially as my friend.  I was so lucky to meet her at the Disney Social Media Moms Conference this past February.

I continued to make new friends and read other people's blogs with their wonderful reviews and enter their giveaways... then I was offered MY very first review.  I was so excited and I gave it my all, as I continue to do with each and every review I do to this date.  Then came my first giveaway and I felt like a giddy school girl with my first crush... I still get this way each time I'm fortunate to represent a company and giveaway one of their products.

Now as I continue to write and upload my photographs, which have gotten better thanks to the most wonderful man in the world for getting me a MUCH better camera, I want to thank all of you for your support and for continuing to visit my blog and reading what I write - for reasons I still don't understand!!  I am so lucky to have you all as my friends and look forward to continuing this relationship and growing it for a very long time into the future.  Hugs to you all!!

Until next time..... Lorie

Photo Tagged!!

I have been photo tagged by my friend Dolly over at Xmas Dolly for this really cool meme. The rules are as follows:

1) Go to your photo files, select the 8th photo folder.
2) Select the 8th photo in that folder.
3) Post that photo along with the story behind it.
4) Then challenge 8 blogging friends to do the same!

So here is the 8th photo from my 8th folder in my photo file.....

This is a photo of the shuttle Discovery's final night launch on April 5, 2010 taken from the balcony off our bedroom. It is so amazing that we can see the launches from our house - we are really going to miss them. I sure hope that the President does something to continue the space program and save jobs for the people in central Florida and in lots of other areas (shout out to my friend Connie!).


So... now that you've seen my photo, I'm tagging the following 8 women, who I believe are fantastic photographers, to share their photos:


1. Maria from Maria's Space
2. Connie from The Young and Relentless
3. Beth from Manic Mother
4. Michelle from Flying Giggles and Lollipops
5. Karen from 3 Garnets & 2 Sapphires
6. Grace from Sandier Pastures
7. Lisa from Crazy Adventures in Parenting
8. Kailani from An Island Life



Thank you Dolly for thinking of me and asking me to share my photo. Now I ask my readers to visit the above blogs and see their wonderful photographs.



Until next time..... Lorie

The Best Part of Blogging Conferences

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of meeting two of my bloggy friends at Downtown Disney for Dinner: Connie from Brain Foggles and Jennifer from The Dirty Shirt. I have been a fan of their blogs for quite some time now and met them both briefly at the Disney Social Media Moms Conference, plus we have all been Twittering away since then. We all live in Florida, but not really that close {Florida is a really BIG state} and our schedules are all so busy, that it isn't that easy for us to get together.

Bill came with me, Connie came with her husband and her daughter, Samantha and Jennifer brought her daughters Ashley and Abby plus her son and his girlfriend (I'm really sorry I don't remember their names). We all had a fabulous time laughing and talking and getting to know each other even more. It really is just like we had know each other all our lives. I am so happy to be a member of this wonderful bloggy community that has given me such fabulous friends who feel like family. Here are some photos of our fun time together.....

[left to right: Abby; Samantha & Ashley; Ashley & Connie]

[left to right: Connie, me, Jen; Abby & Jen; Ashley & Samantha]

Thanks to Jen, Connie and their families for a terrific time - can't wait until we get to do it again!!

Until next time..... Lorie

Kid's Say the Darndest Things

A group of young children were sitting in a circle with their teacher. She was going around in turn asking them all questions:

"Davy, what noise does a cow make?"

"It goes moo."

"Alice, what noise does a cat make?"

"It goes meow."

"Jamie, what sound does a lamb make?"

"It goes baaa."

"Jennifer, what sound does a mouse make?"

"Errr, it goes… click!" {She must be he daughter of a blogger!!}

Until next time..... Lorie

New Blog I'd Like You to Visit

These are my friends Dan and Jeanette and they are really great people. Jeanette just started a blog called Happily Confused Navy Wife and her very first post was today! If you get a chance, please head on over and leave her a nice comment. I know that she would really appreciate it, I remember how much I LOVED my first comment and I'm sure you all did, too.

Thanks for indulging me.... have a great day.

Until next time..... Lorie

Internet Issues - ARGH!!!

Just wanted to let you know why I've been a bit absent. I'm having Internet issues at home and am fighting with my provider. I know ther are a couple of you out there who TOTALLY understand how this goes (Sissy) and have some empathy for me. Please stand by as I will have some great posts coming up including a wonderful book giveaway (one I know my Disney fans will LOVE).

Thanks for sticking with me and forgive me for not visiting you all this week, this has been such an extremely busy week and today was the day with no appointments and I was going to catch up, the BAM - no Internet, damn! Hugs to you all and I'll talk to you soon.

Until next time..... Lorie

{written on my iPhone}