Sharing Is Caring

Share #1 - I took Luigi for his blood test this morning. They just called back with the results. 30,000 last week. 43,000 today. WooT WooT — I’m so happy!!

Share #2 - A link to the most hilarious thing I’ve read in a long time. This blog post set me off laughing and earned me quite a few puzzled looks from the family. What’s Your Last Name from The (After) Life of the Party (Formerly known as Life In The L O)

Share #3 - A story for you. One much like the one you hopefully just read. Harmony’s story is much funnier that mine. So if you choose to read only one, go read hers.  =D

On the way back from a baby shower, my mom, grandma, aunt and I stopped at a rest area. We’d been in the car for 2 hours and were all ready to stretch our legs.

We all headed into the bathroom to do our thang… The stalls were all full and the 4 of us had to wait our turns. One by one, we all went in and came out. All but my aunt who was taking forever.

Grandma left and went to walk around outside while Mom & I washed our hands and waited on the slow poke. Grandma came in a couple minutes later and was quite irritated at having to wait so long. She proceeded to yell out to my aunt, “Good grief!!!!  What crawled up your butt and died?!?  Hurry up!  We’re all waiting on you. I hope you didn’t die in there. OMG what a smell!!! … We’ll be in the car waiting.”

The three of us headed out to the car and… guess who was outside sittin’ on the curb smoking a ciggarette? No really… guess.

Bahahaaa…….  I miss my grandma. She was a riot!!!

Help Me Help Ya’ll

See those 4 blog ads over in the right column? The ones above the Google box? Well, that’s my way of helping out some of the bloggers I like. Those are only 4 of my ads. They’re set on a rotator and each time you load a new page, you get to see a different set of links. And hopefully, you (and other visitors) occasionally click on those links and check out bloggers you haven’t seen before.

Now, I know that my wee little ads aren’t making the bloggers rich. They might not even be helping them gain subscribers or get more comments on their posts. But, I feel like it’s my little contribution and my way of saying thank you for entertaining me and sharing your life with me.

Last night, I realized that I’d really fallen behind on my duties. I realized how many bloggers were out there that I really liked, but I hadn’t added to the rotator yet. Shame on me!! Shame Shame I say.

So…. I added some new links. But guess what!! Some of the people I wanted to add didn’t have little images. Ugh. Come on people!! I need pictures. How the heck am I going to link to you without a picture? Huh Huh??? Tell me. Come on…… I’m waaaaaaaaiting…..

I do actually send out some traffic believe it or not. By my count, I send out an average of 3 clicks per ad, per day. That’s not bad really for a little ol’ blog like mine IMO.

Wanna see? Do Ya?? Okay, here’s my proof. Here’s a screen shot of the clicks I’ve sent out from the ads over there. This was taken just before I added He Blogs She Blogs, Petra, Putnam, Stacie & Texan Mama last night. Notice how I put those in ABC order? LOL I’m slick like that. That way you don’t think I’m playing favorites.

Also, the counts are actually higher. But I got bored one day and decided to reset the stats. LOL Boredom+Chris=Not Good.

Anyways, here’s the screen shot.

Now… I need your help. I need more images to put over there. Here’s the list I’ve made of the people I’d like to have links from. AND!!!!!!! I may’ve somehow left you out!!! So if I did please tell me!! If I comment on your blog or if you comment here, hollah!!! Seriously!!! Don’t feel silly about requesting a link out. And if you feel weird about requesting it in the comments, then send me an email. I’m chris [at] textimps [dot] com.

Here’s my list of people I need images from. And, feel free to stop at their blog and pester them for me until I get my image!!!!!!!! Also, if you need an image made, let me know. I’ll see what I can do.

488 Miles Away
A Day In The Life Of
Allyson Lyon Photography
Barbara’s 365
Confessions of a Desperate Housewife
Life In The L O
My Very Last Nerve
Poop On Jelly
Raising Stink
Riding The Short Bus
Us And Them

By the way, while you’re over there pestering Captain Dumbass at Us & Them, check out his awards. I swear that man gets the most hilarious awards!

Outting The Powerful

I deal with ads a lot in my business. I do lots of research on affiliate links and ad programs. It’s mainly for the articles* that I write. And one day I’ll put that research to good use & make some money. LOL

But… in my research, I’ve found that some ad programs are very strict about how you’re allowed to advertise. Others have the “Yeah, whatever, just bring us some money” opinion. Personally, I like the yeah whatever-ers.

Last night, I came across a post that made me go “holy cow!!!” It was about blog ads and a particularly powerful, well known, you’re a nobody if you’re not part of it company. (That’s not how I personally see the company but, 1,000’s of other bloggers do.)

I’m all about outting the big wigs and thought I might just go ahead and share that particular post with you today. But then, the author of the post showed up and was all “you can link to me” So I was all “hey, don’t be conceited and try to snag away my 3,000 subscribers” and she was all “kiss my butt” and I was all……….

LOL — Sooooo kidding. Forgive me. I’m in one of those moods.

Anyways… ya’ll should go read this post! Even if you’ve never put an ad on a website or blog before, you should read it. You’ll be seriously surprised by what you find. It’s right….. over there *points* In the Trenches of Mommyhood.

* Sidenote: Yes, I write articles. Yes, for money. No, I don’t ramble on and on like I do in my blog posts. I’m actually quite informative. You’d be proud. =D (Anyone need a ghostwriter? giggles)

Anatomy of a Meltdown

A tantrum is like a snowflake. Every one is different and both can change your day’s plans, leaving you to question why you made plans in the first place.

However, I have been studying the inner workings of tantrums and believe I have identified about 95% of them correctly. (This result has a 95% margin of error.)

Please note: neither the subject nor the researcher were harmed during the course of this experiment. Safety goggles were utilized.

The hot flash: As soon as you tell her “no” to a request, spoken, grunted or pointed, she takes a face plant or a back dive to the floor without warning, trying to make contact with something on the way down so her cries of pain and frustration will increase to an almost banshee level.

To read our Post of the Week in its entirety, please visit Sprite’s Keeper — Home of The Spin Cycle.

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Violence UnSilenced

We are going to switch gears this week.  We won’t be talking about one particular author.  Instead, we will be featuring a group of people.

These people have found the strength to speak out about domestic violence and sexual assault.  They have more courage than most of us could ever hope for.  They are the men and women of Violence UnSilenced.

This blog was created with the sole intention of shedding light on the epidemics of domestic violence and sexual assault by giving their survivors a voice.

This blog, like domestic violence, is not limited to opposite-sex relationships. The intent is not to limit anyone at all, in fact. Domestic violence and sexual assault affect everyone they touch in myriad ways. The idea here is to enlighten the blogosphere on just how pervasive this problem is.

Please help support these brave men and women by visiting Violence UnSilenced and by taking the pledge to hear and honor what they have to say.

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Breasts

Breasts! was written by Gina at My Very Last Nerve.  I’m not going to offer any excerpts this week.  I’m just going to ask that you go read it in its entirety.

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Stinky John Jones

Often times I find myself reading a new blog and wondering why no one told me about it sooner.  I wonder why this author isn’t on every single blogroll.  And then, after a few dozen comments, that author starts wondering why this crazy woman is stalking them.

I stalk because I love.  I stalk because I must.  And I stalk Val because she reminds me that even though our kids are “bouncing off the walls, ate a tub of sugar” nuts, they’re still perfect in every way.   Our parental worlds wouldn’t be the same without giant toilets, naked butts and 3-foot tall bed hogs.

Stinky John Jones is one of those blogs that should be on every blogroll.  When you sign up for a feed reader, it should be added as default.  Even if your kid is a closet sippy-cup user, I suggest you check out Val’s blog.  You’re gonna love it.

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You Don’t Know What You’ve Got Til it Almost Gets Chopped Off by Flying Wood

PigHunter has this “cabinet” that he’s been working on for his “tools” in the garage. He’s been building this “cabinet” for about a year. I have come to believe this is something he does to get out of having to do any kind of housework (”I can’t help with the laundry because I’m building my cabinet! For my tools! So I have room to do things in the garage, like, build imaginary cabinets!”)

I used to get pissed off about his stupid cabinet. Especially when he’d be like “I’m going to plant grass this weekend!” And hours would go by and grass wasn’t planted because he’d wasted hours in the garage “cutting wood” for his “cabinet.” But, I’ve come to accept the “cabinet” for what it really is.

His escape.

I have the computer. He has “the cabinet.” We’re even.

Last Friday night, he was in the garage working on “the cabinet” for most of the night. Just before 8, I heard him walk into the house. He walked into the kitchen and stood there. He looked a little pale, so I was all “You okay?” And he was all “yeah, I’m fine.”

So I dropped it.

Later that night, we were sitting on the couch and he turns to me and says “Honey, please don’t freak out. But…”

Read the rest of our Post of the Week at Joy Unexpected
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Cynical Dad

History books will be recalled so that this amazing day in history may be added to our children’s curriculum.  Students will put on programs at school, dressed in their cute little costumes with too much rouge on their cheeks so as to be noticed from the back row.  Employers will close down their businesses and their employees will shout from the rooftops that this is indeed, the greatest and most important holiday of the year.  Mark your calendars.  Plan to spend the day with your friends and family.  Rejoice and sing for the time is upon us.  Tuesday marks our first annual Cynical Dad Day.

Who is this Cynical Dad of whom I speak, you ask?  Well, Cynical Dad is Chag.  He is the stay at home father of two children & he’s the author and owner of Cynical Dad.com.  Chag is the host, DJ, commentator, operator,  Twitter-er, producer and mastermind behind Chag’s Nameless Twitter Radio Show.  He is a friend, a confidant, a …. okay, now I’m just getting carried away.

Let’s just put it this way.  He’s a blogger and one of my favorites.  In honor of his “thirty-ninth birthday and the start of his final year of blogging (because no one’s allowed to blog once they reach 40, right?), February 10th” shall henceforth be known as Cynical Dad Day.

What better time to honor a great author than during the week of his birthday and his self-proclaimed holiday?  So I present to you, our fine readers, Cynical Dad. A blog created by Chag because “the world needed another look-what-my-cute-kid-did-today web site.”

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Ode To Hubby

“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me.”  How many times have you uttered those words?  How many times did you wish they were actually true?

Chances are, that if you’re a blog reader, you understand that words can have a huge impact on a person’s life.  Whether those words are written for a general audience or spoken straight to your face, they can change the way you perceive your surroundings, your life and even yourself as an individual.

Even though we understand the impact that a simple sentence can have on us, often times we fail to realize that we too are capable of changing the lives of others.

Our Post of the Week comes from Sarah at In the Trenches of Mommyhood.  This tearjerker was written in honor of her husband.

Our 7-year old has learned an important lesson.

He learned that a child can, indeed, hurt a parent’s feelings.

Yesterday afternoon, Hubby and Eldest, Nike bat bag and baseball gloves in hand, excitedly headed to the indoor batting cages in town…even though there’s a foot of snow on the ground and spring in New England seems eons away…

They were gone for about an hour. But when they returned to the Trenches, both trudged dejectedly in the back door, heads down, eyes lowered.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, knowing that something must have happened.

Hubby answered tersely, “Ask your son” and left the room.

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