Why you rock

You guys, I LOVE YOU!


I love that you're still dropping into comment and say hello even though I haven't been able to get around to your blogs nearly as much as usual this week. That's for two reasons: NaNoWriMo and a big talk I had to give on Wednesday that's done now.


But it makes me feel so good that you're not demanding I be 100% reciprocal and that I can have a loony tunes week now and then and you guys will still be my friends. Ahhhh, loooooooove! Yay, you! And you and you and you!


However, I'll have the teensiest bit more time to bounce around your blogs this weekend so I hope to get all caught up on the fabulous, ridiculous, sublime and wacky happenings out there in Blogland. Wheeeee!


Couple of things, everyone. First, if you're doing NaNoWriMo, tell me your screen name and I'll add you as a friend. I gots to create some more accountability for myself. Second, if you want to add me, I'm under Melanie_J. 


Next, my friend Crash is trying to win herself a job as the Good Mood Blogger for Sam-E and she needs votes. I would like for her to win the job because 


1) I like Crash
2) She's got way more sass than the other folks competing


but MOST importantly, I want her to be able to prove to her kids that GOAL-SETTING WORKS! Yay, for teaching kids.


Anyway, you can win cool stuff in the giveaway she's doing if you FOLLOW THIS LINK. And just so you know, when you click to vote for her, you just push one button. You don't have to enter your name or your email or sign up for anything. Nothing. You just click VOTE. So go do it, okay? I'm voting for Crash every day because I'm hoping that it makes up for the fact that for the first time ever, I didn't make it out to vote on Tuesday due to the mortal fear of Grant inadvertently sabotaging all the voting machines while he engaged in a Wild Rumpus.


Next you can win a copy of a cookbook I already own and love, Comfortably Yum, by hopping over to visit Kimberly at Temporary? Insanity.


I know I'm forgetting about some stuff and if I think of it, I'll come back and add it, but for right now, I've got some blog reading to do. Hooray!

You ought to know . . .

The Internets giveth and the Internets taketh away. I'm not exactly sure what it takes away (time, maybe?), but I definitely know what it giveth:

First, you can get Book 3 in the Sadie Hoffmiller series, iffn' you wanna. And I wanna. I've read and thoroughly enjoyed the first two. Spunky heroine, interesting mysteries, great recipes. It's a good Friday night. What more do you want? You can get a sample taste here if you want to read the first chapter, or if it looks so tasty you know you want to buy it (maybe you need a Valentine for a friend?) you can click right here and do that. Or just check out Josi's blog and enter to win a free copy.

Next...

One of my first and favorite blogs that I ever read was Sue over at Navel Gazing at Its Finest. I have been to her house, seen her cute children, witnessed her mad writing skillz and . . . I quite like her. A lot. You'll like her too when you find out what you can win: $100 Best Buy gift certificate. Just think, if you get it, she will have taken care of your man's Valentine's Day gift for you. See? Now you have a reason to read her, too.

Next to last...

Since I kicked anemia's trash, I actually feel like cooking again. However, I'm 33 weeks pregnant so it only goes so far. I busted out a copy of my 30 Minute Meals from Rachel Ray and I'm working my way through those. For no other reason than that I am a kind, generous, helpful and thoughtful person, I'm going to post my reviews of her recipes as I make them. You'll find a link in my sidebar where you can just click and go find the grade for the recipe and any notes about making it. I'm no plagiarist so I won't repost the recipes but if you have her book, hopefully it will help you make some dining decisions.

Last . . .

I'm glad so many of you felt my pain (okay, maybe more like aggravation) over the Big Love thing in yesterday's post. I did email the author and if you'd like to know what I said, then you can check it out here. I'm making it a seperate link since I figure it's probably not going to be that interesting to the general reading public.

Having said all that, may your Tuesday rock. I'm about to point Grant's stroller toward the beach. We'll eventually find our way to the pier where he will jump out and chase seagulls while I chase him. He will then proceed to make himself totally endearing to passing strangers which I will find so cute that I won't even be mad about chasing him. Much.

Tap, tap. Is this thing on?

Um, remember when you used to love and validate me with comments?

Me, either.

Sniff.

All right, I'm not doing a for real post today, but can you go vote on my sidebar poll for a subtitle? Cuz that would be nice. Thanks, man.

Changing stride

All right, kiddos.

Today I was going to tell you the most ridiculous story about my visit to the lady doctor yesterday but my husband said, "Do you really want to put that out there?" And no, I guess I don't, come to think of it. But it was hilarious! Just trust me, 'kay?

Instead, this is the blog post that I meant to put up yesterday but things got all nutty and two went up and so I took this one back down and....it was a big old mess because I got all confused and whatnot.

Anyway, my blogging fingers are tired so I'm giving them a break from their daily clickety-clack. I think I'm going do something a little more every other day-ish. Do you know until this week, I have never posted a draft? Meaning I think it, I blog it, I proofread it, I post it all in a one hour or less span of time. I thought it would be nice for all of us if I gave quality over content a shot and let things percolate a little more before I send them out into the world.

I know. It's revolutionary, right?

In the mean time, I'd love it if you'd hop over to my sidebar and vote in my poll. I put up some of my favorite submissions for my help-me-think-of-a-subtitle contest and I'd like some opinions because I'm having a hard time deciding. I may have to go with DeNae's suggestion of changing it up often. Stank you very much.

All right, here's your kisses for helping: Mwah-mwah! Except if you're a boy. No kisses. Unless you're my husband. Then it's lots of kisses.

Nuts.

That's what Sue gets. Lots of them. Because she won the See's Chocolate give away and I like lots of nuts in my chocolate.

I thought that I was going to be done with giveaways as of yesterday and I kind of am, but I'm kind of not. Because I'm going to have a little contest. And it's because I'm lazy and I'd rather walk to the post office and mail something to you than think of a solution for this myself.

Here's the contest: I want a subtitle for my blog. You know, where it goes right under the title at the top? Anyway, I want one but I can't really think of one. So far I have Write Stuff: Chicken Scratch and Nonsense. And that was a real attempt. Clearly, I need help.

So here's the deal. I'll leave this open until Wednesday with a little reminder every day to enter. And you just give me your best suggestion for a subtitle. Write Stuff: I talk too much. Write Stuff: A completely extraneous blog.

You get the idea. The one I like best will win its author either a cool notebook like I gave away earlier this week, or a copy of Annette Lyon's There, Their, They're: A No Tears Guide to Grammar, or a copy of Luisa's cookbook, Comfortably Yum. Just pick which one you like and I'll get it to you. So give me your ideas, okay?

There are other little minor tweaks and changes going on around here. You know how you decide to paint a room in your house and then it looks so good that you start painting every other room in your house? That's kind of what's going on here. I revamped the whole blog and then decided I wanted to tweak stuff like getting a blog subtitle and the little message in the comment box.

Oh, and I finally updated my blogroll. I've been such a slacker about that. And by the way, does anyone ever read my "Stuff I Love This Week" List? I think it might not matter and I'll keep it whether you do or don't, but I'm half interested in your opinion.

I need to go eat some oatmeal and do some cardio. I really, really don't want to. Really. But I already lost three pounds this week, and believe me, it wasn't by magic. It was by putting down the chocolate and backing away slowly.

That's totally not true. I ate a lot of chocolate. I did, however, not indulge in any fried foods.

Wait, that's not true. I had french fries last night and chips twice the week.

But I had less of everything and that pretty much did the trick. Oh, and thirty minutes of cardio every day. Definitely not magic. More like tragic.

And I eat sensibly. Mostly.

Hm. Write Stuff: I ramble a lot.

Okay, give me ideas and I'll give you a book of some kind. Deal?

I'm making kissy lips

You know how you walk in your kitchen and you're like, "Wow, that's a lot of dishes to clean up. I should get right on that," and then you go clean your blog instead? Because that's what I'm doing today. It's either clean my blog or clean my house. Like it's a contest. Whatever.

First, I'm giving away a MAC lipstick and gloss. Yippee! If you win, I'll send you the link to pick the colors you like but I suggest Viva Galm IV with the matching gloss. Why am I giving this away?

I have no idea. It sounds fun.

To enter, please tell me your favorite beauty product because I like to find new stuff. I finally found a mascara I love, but I'm open to more suggestions there. Shampoos, shower gel scents, eyeshadows....it's all good. If you're a dude and you want to win this lip business for your lady (or yourself but I'm totally judging), then you can enter by suggesting your favorite dude grooming stuff so that I might get an idea for what to get my husband.

And for those of you who couldn't care less about lip gloss or lipstick, I have a second giveaway. It's a tag that goes like this:

The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive a handmade (or possibly store-bought) gift from me during this year. When and what will be a surprise. There’s a small catch though…Post this same thing on your own blog and then come back and leave a comment telling me you’re in. Remember, only the first 3 comments receive the gift!

This goes to the first three people who comment and then come back to let me know they've posted this on their blog to pay it forward. And even though it says when and what will be a surprise, I'll tell you the what. Pecan praline fudge, mint chocolate fudge or choclate covered cinnamon gummy bears as blogged about here. Who wouldn't want something that looks like this:

I used to console myself about my craft deficiences with the knowledge that I can cook. I didn't count on FOOD RELATED CRAFTS. So just know that despite the way they look, they're super yummy.

And if you don't want lipstick or handmade tasty bits, then how about a really cool food mandolin like the one my friend Jen is giving away on her Skinny Habits blog? I even post recipes I really like over there sometimes. And you guys thought I was just good for laughs. I'm good for laughs AND the occasional roasted red bell pepper and tomato soup recipe.

And if you don't want lipstick or handmade tasty bits or a really cool food mandolin, how about Josi Kilpack's book, Lemon Tart, being given away here? Huh? Huh? I want it. I'm entering.

And I was totally going to go off on a tangent here and explain about my no teeth pictures due to comments from Annette and Miss Heidi, but that would clutter my blog up and I'm trying to clean it. So maybe that will be tomorrow.

Whew.

And seriously, this is annoying, but after all that, I think I'm still going to clean my house.

When did I become a grown up?

I guess I'm kinda rude

Okay, three things:

First, I think I have bad blog etiquette. In the first instance, I know I do, because I forgot to link yesterday's post back to Sue for Very Funny Friday, so if you read the ridiculous series below, know it's part of her blog carnival. In the second instance, I'm not so sure. Question: is it true that I'm supposed to respond to everyone who leaves a comment on my blog? Either via email or in the comments? I don't mind doing it; I just didn't know I was supposed to.

Second, my friend Jen is doing a cool giveaway on her blog, just in time for Valentine's Day and to give your kids something besides candy for once. Check it out at Skinny Habits.

Third, uh...

I forgot. Let's just stick with two.

Don't worry, my gratitude doesn't lend itself to kisses...

Of course we had talks about gratitude today in church. I love the prinicple of gratitude. I have never once in my life been so far down that I couldn't find some kind of blessings to count. I like thinking about the little ones, sometimes, that maybe I take for granted. So I thought I'd count one of those kinds of blessings today.

It's a small thing, but I always feel good when I see my name on someone else's blogroll. So as a way to say thank you, I'm going to go alphabetically through the blogrolls I'm on and say why I'm grateful for their blog. There's lots more that I read, too, but this is an extra gold star to the ones that admit they read me.

Throwing out the linky love:

Alison Wonderland: this is a lady who tells it like it is and I get her writerly brain.

Away From It All: Lisa is a thoughtful, genuine individual who strives to do her best by her kids and to live her faith. And I enjoy her comments on other people's blogs, too, because we hang out a lot of the same places. And she's funny.

Mary Had a Little Glob: although....I have no idea what's going on with her blog today. It seems to have morphed into something else for the moment, maybe. But either way, each of her posts is a multiple laugh-out-loud gem. And ended up here in the list because right now, it's coming up as Crapstick. Huh?

Crash Test Dummy Diaries: definitely one of my favorite new finds. She sounds like a woman who seizes the opportunity to laugh at life often, although she has some introspective moments too. But honestly, it's like she has not a sense of humor, but a sense of the absurd. Which works really well for me.

The Extraordinary Ordinary: I know I don't need to explain this to any of you, but Heather is deep and funny, both. She's a great writer who looks at her life and mines it both for nuggets of laughter and pain, but the kind that you grow from. And her comments on my blog and others' are always heartfelt and cheer me up.

Gaining Equilibrium: This is acutally a brand new side blog for Stephanie, but I already know I'm going to love it. We have lots of things in common, but the biggest is our writerly ambitions. I like hanging out with "my people" because I get it and feel gotten, and the tone of her first posts is thoughtful, honest, and well-written.

Navel Gazing At Its Finest: Here's another one I'm sure needs no introduction, but any time Sue posts, it's a highlight of my blog day. Hilarious. And sometimes not, but that's a good thing. The post that won my eternally loyal following: Ghetto pinata.

Pulsipher Predilections: Um, Kristina is out of her mind. And frickin' hilarious. A personal recent favorite? Her post on internet dating.

Temporary? Insanity: Kimberly keeps it real, sometimes painfully so, but it's always honest. Plus, she's one of "my people." And is incredibly super helpful when I'm blog stupid.

The World According to Little Fish: I'm pretty new to Mina's blog so I haven't read that many posts yet. But I can tell you what I love about reading her comments. She is sharp. Really sharp. And I know I'm pretty much always going to enjoy what she has to say.

My Imaginary Blog: Another really sharp lady. She tells funny stories about her kids but has a great way of laying out what she's thinking in an articulate, thoughtful way.

If I forgot someone, mea culpa. It just means I don't know that I'm on your blogroll. And if you're not here in my thanks yous, then you know why, but if you see my comment every time you post, you know I love you, too.

Thanks to all of you for being a bright spot in my day.

Now I feel all cheesy and stuff so I'm going to find my misplaced cynicism...

Oh, yeah...I don't want to beg but I'd think you were mighty nice if you clicked to "Follow My Blog" so I can feel even more validated and stuff. You'll be in great company over there....

I'm ellipsesed out now....or not...

I like lists

I don't have a ton of blogkeeping today except for

1) the primary sacrament meeting program is the best and funniest Sunday of the year and Kenny and I almost got reprimanded for laughing too much but oh.my.gosh. it would've hurt too much to keep it in.

2) and that's not really blogkeeping but this is: I'll post the giveaway winner tonight and

3) that's because I'll be gone all afternoon chasing around Laguna Beach on a non-Sabbath approved scavenger hunt that my heathen (and diabolical) brother has devised for his birthday and

4) that's followed by pumpkin carving and homemade soup by the harbor with James's cousins.

And you should check out the baby G pictures below for a good smile.

Oh, and

5) I finally got around to reading the My Super Hopeless Romance blog on Friday (got sucked in and read it in one sitting) and...

6) For pity's sake, check it out if you haven't

7) and tomorrow I'll tell you all about how I had a five minute window this week where I entertained the notion that I might be a robot.

I totally scored.

I'm coming up on a blogging milestone and this might be the week: I almost got twenty comments on a post the other day and only like two of them were mine! On the day I get twenty comments, I'm doing a little happy dance and I'll have Kenny record for it photographic evidence. So that just means I'm going to have to come up with super exceptional, brilliant, spiritual and hilarious posts, so....yeah. No pressure.

Oooh, and I just realized that I made it onto two more blogrolls (Heather of the EO: good for a warm fuzzy every day, and *Mary* who keeps the funniest blog I read that's by a real person. Whoo-hoo! Mini-happy dance!

Oh, and I scored lots of swag in the last couple of weeks in blog giveaways, like my super cute Fro Yo shirt from Seriously So Blessed that I won through Annette Lyon's blog and the blissfully peaceful Sara Groves CD I won from Heather of the EO so I'm showing my thanks with links to their cool blogs.

Also, I know why we're advised that maybe watching football on Sunday is not a great idea. Because I'm watching the LSU game from yesterday on my DVR and I'm ready to kill me some people, which kind of doesn't feel very Sabbath-like.

And my Google Anayltics tracker thing died. It turns out that no one has been to my blog since October 9. It's just a flatline. So I don't know how you freaky stealth posters are getting through the oh-so-vigilant Google gatekeeper without it knowing you're there, but props, yo. You have mad covert op skillz because Google is soooo airtight.

I have extra children in my house today due to VT drama so I need to go peel one toddler off of another, but I leave you with a Sunday wish that your children will be good. Or at least quiet. I think it's time to teach my little one how to cry without making noise. Then I will love him more.

A Bit of This and That

So I can't participate in Soap Opera Sunday today because

1) I've had an excessive number of long-distance relationships but
2) I can't remember the details of half of them and
3) even if I could remember, it makes my hubby sad when I tell stories about other boys I dated past the age of 16. In fact, I never dated anyone after I was sixteen until I met my husband. That's the truth (we choose to believe).

However, you should check out Soap Opera Sunday here.

Now, on to blogkeeping: Did you notice it looks a little different around here? I thought I was going to move away from the pink but I liked this template too well. Even though I'm afraid it might look a little bit like panties. Which I probably shouldn't say because that's what all of you will think of now every time you see it: that you're digging around someone's underwear drawer.

But that aside, do you like it? Will you leave me a comment if you do? I think so far only Charrette and Heather and Alison Wonderland have said anything. Is it because the rest of you can't say anything nice so you can't say anything at all? That's sweet and I appreciate it, but I don't mind if you tell me how you really feel. Really. It's not like I can't easily change to a panty-less template.

Wait, that didn't come out right.

You know what I meant, right?

Also, I've had some super pretty blog bling I've meant to post for a while and it's now over in the sidebar.

Oh, and Lisa at Away From It All gave me a shout out on her blog and it made me all smiley. Thank you!

And I updated my blog roll so go check out some of the super cool blogs listed.

Labor Pains

Still need three more comments. Sheesh. And I was going to wax on and on about tattoos today, too.

I have been giving birth for two weeks and this stubborn baby will not come out. I feel like I started this delivery all set to roll with an epidural and then found out my insurance won't cover it and I have to push it out the old-fashioned way or some nonsense like that.

See, I started a new manuscript. I forgot that it's hard to start. It's because I finished my first one in August and by the last month of writing it, I could barely stem the tide of the words. The only reason I didn't do more than 1,500 words a day is because that's as fast as I could type while baby G slept.

I guess I forgot how hard that one was to start, too. Between January and May, I wrote about 32,000 words and in the next two months knocked out about 50,000 more. But that's because I knew my characters. I understood their motivations and exactly how they would react in any situation. I knew what my protagonist needed to experience growth and how her friends and family would contribute to that growth.

But this new baby...you'd think I didn't already have two kids and know to expect the unexpected. My first human baby came two weeks early. My water broke but he didn't want to come out, so after copious amounts of pitocin and about 24 hours, he finally showed up. With a little help from the forceps. Second babies, are so much easier, though. Right? The labor is supposed to be faster, blah blah blah.

Ha.

Baby #2 came five weeks early and gallons of pitocin and 27 hours later, with the midwife tugging like crazy on his head, decided he would come out, too.

Kind of like my manuscripts. This second one has its own distinct personality and even though I thought I had my writing groove down with Click, I am learning this baby has a mind of its own. I started it in first person, tortured out my first two thousand words, and now have discovered that it needs to be third person. This is the, "Ha, ha you have to push this sucker out the hard way" part of the metaphor.

Grr.

I am clinging to the naive hope that it will get easier faster than it did with the first manuscript, but I feel like I'm starting out for the first time again.

In other writing news....this is a picture of me with author Kate Jacobs, author of The Friday Night Knitting Club and a new release, Comfort Food. She came to our local library (which is a kick butt library) and did an author talk. My friend Gina (in the green dress) got Kate to agree to call into our book club next week to talk to us about the book. (We did it for our RS book club this month). And I got a picture with author Jane Porter but I look stupid so I'm not sharing.

And in other other news, a blog update: due to an astonishing number of comments and emails on the subject, I'm reinstituting the seven comment rule. Kind of. There's some stuff that I write (oh, soooooo rarely) that comes from a totally deep and honest place inside me somewhere that I stumble across every now and then, and I would never want to coerce comments on those posts. There's also some really stupid stuff I write about that just can't be commented on unless you live inside my head and understand my fixation on things like goat-riding monkeys. And I won't make you comment on that. But there's a ton of stuff that falls in between and I'll stick to the seven comment rule on those things before I move on. Fair warning...

Also, I'm going to change the color of my blog (maybe green? The pepto bismol pink was a total aberration for me) and maybe the name. I originally wanted to call my blog "No Arithmetic" and I think Write Stuff sounds like I couldn't think of anything else because I started my blog late at night one night when I was out of good ideas and it sounds like that because that's exactly what happened and this is a really long run-on sentence. Any opinions? (Not about the run-on sentence).

Seven comment rule in full effect, y'all.