My Blogging Inspiration, Thank You's, and NoWannaBe's

I wanted to take a moment, or a few actually, to tell you about bloggers that inspire me. No pretty pics today, just pretty people!  I created and hosted the first ever Tattler Thursday Blog Hop yesterday! It was a success! To me anyway! I was thrilled! It took my Facebook likes to over 200(203), my Bloglovin followers went up, my page views hit over 7800, and Twitter followers are up to 133! Yay! These may not be the biggest numbers to some, but 9 people(besides me and my co-hostess) stopped by to hop, and I am stoked!

My co-hostess, Miss Cristyl over at CHill Thoughts , called me her blogging inspiration yesterday.  Wow...I am speechless.  Me? An inspiration? Are you sure? I am deeply touched, honored, and thank you from the bottom of my lil heart! Muah! Also a big thank you to Miss Cristyl for being a friend, an OLD friend(heehee her birthday was yesterday!), my bestest blogging buddy, and my partner in co-hosting all new ventures! I appreciate and luvya doll! YOU INSPIRE ME! You cloth diaper, raise chickens, and make your own baby food, have 3 kids, for gods sakes woman, I don't even have one little green freckle on either of my thumbs! Gahhh! And you are a beautiful old soul that has been through so very much, and still shines! And you pour it out there in your writing! And likes ME! Inspiration right there people. Beautiful!

So I started to think, what other bloggers inspire me? What keeps me coming back to their blogs and pages, again and again? Honesty.  I love to read a good post that touches my heart strings and moves me to tears.  A post that takes me along on the author's journey.  A post that makes me feel , or experience what that blogger has gone through!
 I also love brutally honest blogs! People that rip off all the band aids, and just pour it all out on paper. Real people with real issues sharing with the world.  Check out my sidebar; Guest Bloggers!

I love funny mommy blogs.  The ones that lay it all out there.  The good, the bad, and the messy!  Ones that let you know your not alone in this crazy adventure called mommyhood!  I love to laugh, and adore other wifeys and mommies that make me crack up with their take on this big 'ol blue and green planet we live on, and the tiny blue and green(and brown)eyed little monsters(blessings) that we live with!

We have all been about the numbers at one point.  We all start out  about the writing, I think.  Some of us may actually start out as number or attention whores from the beginning! I don't know actually.  I like to believe the best in everybody, until you cross me, or ignore me.  But it is really all about the writing.  And being human, sometimes we all forget! Sometimes, there are just no words, or there is no time! Life, GAH! How dare you get in my way! There is writing to write.....

So now it's time to tell you who doesn't inspire me.  And I have been waiting for an opportunity to write about these pet peeves of mine for awhile now!  I was a hard knock blogger.  Meaning that I did not have one bloggy friend in the universe, when I got started.  I had to research, discover for myself by trial and error, and look longingly at others blogs for things I liked and wanted to emulate on my lil bloggity blog.  I did not have a blogging big sis or fairy bloggie godmother, so to speak to guide me through the blogosphere.  I had to discover and sort through the facebook buttons, the twitter buttons, the linking and unlinking your blog and FB to twitter, the pages, the pictures, the, the, the all of it out by my lonesome.  I had to discover setting up my blog one step at a time.  I finally bought a gianormous book, Blogging for Dummies, which helped on a couple of things, but was no end all be all of things I wanted to know. 

I finally figured out Hops, and commenting on pages and blogs you like to get a return follow or like, I figured out copy and paste, I figured out wallpapers, and the mother of all beasties to figure out, the best kept secret in the bloggy universe when your new, how to create a button!  That one took me forever!  But I finally figured it out!

So I am going to share with you an ugly little story about another wicked step sister blogger, who will remain unnamed.  Because I am not like her.  I was dying to know how to make my own button, I had the perfect picture, finally, and just needed a resource to direct me to a tutorial or something.  One day I saw the wicked stepsister put out a public FB shout for a button swap.  I really, really wanted to do this so very badly!  I commented on her FB message that I would love to, but could she help/direct me to where I could make a button?  She not only did not answer me, help me, or send me elsewhere, but she committed the cardinal sin of all for one, one for all blogging sisterhood, the faux pas of all time, she deleted my message and ignored me! I was previously in awe of said blogger, and her big beautiful girl pride, and beautiful sailor themed blog.  No more.  It made me feel small, sad that a sister blogger wouldn't want to help me, a new fish in a big pond, out, and the rude, better than thou attitude of just deleting my obviously embarrassing to her message.  Geez.  I was bummed.  But like my resilient self, I was pissed! I was going to figure it out Dam%#$, I was!  So all on my own, I, through trial and error, finally figured it out! Just in the last couple of weeks, I noticed she sent out a similar button exchange request, and giggled to myself, cause my lil bloggy blog is the size of hers now! TeeHee! I am sure she won't think this post is about her, because I am not important enough for her to read! And if she does, I don't care!

That's the kind of blogger I never want to be.  The NoWannaBe like her blogger. Thinking that I am better, and 'more popular' than anyone else, too busy or above helping anyone out!  I will help anyone out who asks!  Just ask all the bloggers that have asked for my help, and buttons I have made for them! I am all about helping anyone out with anything. When I do a button swap, I will never put a restriction on only 'similar size' blogs need apply! Ridiculous! All important! This is not a contest or job interview, I do this because I love to write, make people laugh, share, have fun and meet new people! I am a stay at home mommy, I do this to hear myself think/write.  To stay sane some days!Aggravates the crap outta me! Holier than thou my foot! I don't need shallow, self-important people in my lil bloggy world!  I have had enough of those in real life, no more please!

  As my fellow blogging buddy Miss Sarah, over at The Sadder But Wiser Girl told me, "We're all in this together!"  She has offered me her help and advice on numerous occasions, and also has watched out for me when blogger was screwing up my posts, and had my back! She is the kind of blogger I want to be like! And Miss Morgan over at The Inklings of Life , she kindly answered a question or two, when I asked, when she has kids, a hubbie, an etsy store, a blog, a photo challenge, and a million other things going on!  I want to be like her, a kind heart who makes time for the little gals!  And even to listen to a complete stranger pour her heart out! I also want to be like Miss Joy over at ComfyTown Chronicles , who is my pimp buddy! We pimp each other out on short notice all the time, with a "Sure Kid!"  I also want to be like the excited bloggers that write a post around my blog hop theme, Tattler Thursday, like Miss Ali over at  High Heels and Coffee ! I also want to stay honest in following all the hosts and co-hosts when I sign up for a blog hop, comment when I am moved by a post, and help out all of my fellow bloggers when asked or needed! I want to be one of the kind of bloggers that scratches anothers back, helps a girl out, or that everyone just plain adores! Wink! Except for the NoWannaBe, I don't give a hoot if she ever adores me!

So if you have questions, ask!  Most of the bloggy universe will take the time to help you out! If you happen to get a NoWannaBe, just ignore them and move on! Unfortunately they are out there, no matter how sweetly they smile in their blog profile pics! Pretty is as pretty does! Everyone blogs for their own reasons, best I can do is fill my lil corner of the blogosphere with lovely ladies that do and do alike! SO to all my lovelies, and faithful snappers, I love you! You are my inspiration!

My Dreams

Hiya Snappers! It has been awhile! I have been super crazy busy! Even busier than before when I ignored you! Forgive me?  Will you still love me? Promise? Wink!

I have been my charitable, loving, giving self, and been helping several individuals make some really big things happen in their lives, been busy cleaning three houses, had some awesome play dates, library time, more play dates, and EVEN MORE play dates, kid, grown up, grandmother, family and otherwise! Pschew! I need a vacation! Or to sit down for an hour straight! Hah! Not!

So today I am inspired by a fellow blogger, dreams, and my dream of crazy abstractness from last night! I was trolling through FB last night before bed, after the family was asleep.  I came upon a bloggy buddies most recent post!  So, after reading, I soon fell asleep.  Which is I am assuming what prompted my crazy a$% dream. So this one is for you Miss Sarah! Go check her out at The Sadder But Wiser Girl .

So in the dream, I was living in a big house, a la The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.   My family slept upstairs in the attic.  There was another family living in the attic with us.  You  know how in dreams, there is a familiar place, with familiar aspects, but everything is different somehow Surreal?  Well the attic was ginormous! But our families king size beds were only three feet away from each other.  The dream was in a clear but hazy arrested state of reality.  A subconscious nod to Flowers In the Attic, from my Junior High days? Maybe The Diary of Anne Frank? Who knows! First of all, I have never lived in a house where the attic was habitable, and second, I have never co-habituated  with another full family of 4.  Odd. The day progressed with all of us fully dressed in old fashioned, white, church clothes, just hanging out in the attic.  Then there was the sad part.  For some odd reason, the other family was leaving the house,  moving out.  It seemed like we were oddly happy all living together, but then suddenly they had to leave.  They did not take their things, but their leaving had a feel of permanence to it.

The strangest part is that it was a blogging buddy that I have gotten to know, but never met.  She and her family were the other family in the dream.  No one spoke in the dream either.  Not one single word was uttered.  There was no noise whatsoever.  I feel a deep sadness as I watch them get into an old 1940's car and drive off.  Her family didn't really have discernible faces, but I knew who they were. I watched out the window as they drove away, and remember feeling such a deep sadness.

So what do I take from this weird random abstract dream? That I haven't written in a while, my creativity has been stifled, and that because I haven't written in awhile, that I will lose all of my lil 'Snappers, including friends.  Maybe? Maybe it because of the recent loss of close but not so close family members? Maybe it's from helping a dear friend move recently, after a life changing event. Who knows.  I will take a random abstract dream any day, over one of those dreams that comes true.

 Anyone else have those but me, the dreams that come true? The dreams that are in such vivid detail, that you could swear  that they were real?  Then six months later, after the dream is long forgotten, the events play out exactly like in your dream and you are left with an uneasy sense of deja' vu.  Then it hits you, you dreamed that this exact scenario was going to happen, only you dreamed it six months to a year, or several years ago? Yeah, I have those dreams.  They can really weird you out! Not very often anymore, but yeah I have them. Wait...Everybody doesn't have those? I stopped having them so frequently when I started paying excruciating detail to them.  Just like that they stopped. Maybe your subconscious cannot be too self aware of self fulfilling or self prophesizing dreams? Who knows!

Then there are the dreams about those closest to you dying.  The ones that leave you crying, and in such physical pain that they wake you.  You are sobbing so hard that it has woken you from a deep sleep, to find that your pillow is soaking wet, and your face is covered in tears.  These are the kind of dreams that allow you to remember every single detail. Mine two worst ones were of losing my mother and my grandmother. I have been through losing my mother, and it was every bit as bad as I dreamed and worse.  I cannot remember if I dreamed the exact scenario years in advance or not, I was too caught up in the grief of the moment and the things that had to be done, to even contemplate.  As I am writing this, I do wonder though. Did all those many recurring nightmares I had of losing my mother, actually  foreshadow her death? I don't know. I have had several of losing my Nana as well.  Again such pain and sorrow, I woke up sobbing my eyes out.  Is this just life's little way of reminding us that the inevitable will one day happen, not to get to comfortable? To appreciate every second of every day we have with our loved ones? I know I called my loved ones after those dreams.  And I did hold them closer, and I did cherish every single second. Well played my psyche, well played.

I also remember having this one recurring dream for years.  I cannot quite grasp the details of it now, but I remember that I couldn't quite reach something.  It was always the same.  I went through the exact motions of the last dream, and I am always chasing someone or something.  I always end up not quite being able to reach the person or thing that I am chasing.  This dream too seems all too real when I am in it.  Sometimes I wake up remembering exactly what happened, but most times, it all becomes a little fuzzy upon waking.  I tried to remember, and the harder I tried, the faster it slips away.

There are the random dreams that make no sense, and then there is the one dream I keep trying to re-create.  The most awesome dream I have ever had.  I will not go into too many details, as it is private, but I just have to tell you about the dream that blew my mind!  I did not even know that this kind of dream could happen to females! What happened in this dream between me and my husband was all too real.  I was awoken by the power of my orgasm from this dream! I had a wet dream! Let me tell you, I totally identified with teenage boys on this one.  I woke up shaking, and immediately looked over at my husband, to see if he was being ornery in my sleep, and he was snoring! I was still as a mouse while I processed what had just happened to me. It was so erotic and I felt incredibly sexy. As in the I'm Too Sexy song! I wondered if I could do it again!!! When he woke up, I told him about what had happened.  He thought it was awesome! I was totally impressed with my bad a$% self, and was stoked for my body and mind to do this again! Wowza! Alas I am still waiting! I guess the stars and my libido had aligned at exactly the right moment in the universe, and POW! I socked it to myself, and how!  Favorite. Dream. Ever!

The ADD Housewife of Rural Iowa

Hiya Whipper Snappers! Today we have my blogging buddy Miss Sarah at The Sadder But Wiser Girl , featured as my guest blogger of the day! She keeps me in stitches on a regular basis, and her post today will have you cracking up! Luvya Miss Sarah!

Awhile back I was DESPERATE!  Desperate for some time away from blogging while I wrapped up a long term substitute teaching job.  Ginger came rushing to my aid and wrote me a great post that made a lot of people a little nostalgic for their high school prom.  Now I'm repaying the favor by writing a guest post for her.  I hope you enjoy it!


The ADD Housewife of Rural Iowa

He even has a Superman t-shirt.  He might as well wear it every day to work…

 

My husband, aka Evil Genius, works 4000 hours a week saving  the day pretty much every day.  He is an engineer for an agricultural company in Iowa, and apparently that's what they do.   Since he’s been on a couple of major projects at work, he gets up in the wee hours of the morning, drives an hour to and from work, and sleeps occasionally.  It makes sense that he’s a wee bit tired/grumpy/off his rocker these days. 
Meanwhile I’ve been a SAHM for a while other than a brief subbing job that I just finished.  Just because I stay at home does not mean 1) I have tons of time on my hands and 2) My house is neat and tidy.  This is because I am a horrible manager of my time.  I’m not a big fan of housework either, but I know when I just have to do it.  Time gets away from me and the next thing I know it’s after five and it’s time to get supper going.  Things get left undone and I feel horrible about this.
Yet I think that Evil Genius wonders what I really do all day while he’s gone, especially when he comes home to me not having done the things I SHOULD do.  I certainly don’t play video games like he does to pass the time.  He knows this.  But I wonder what HE thinks I do all day while he’s gone.  So naturally I wrote about, because that’s what I do.
(Keep in mind that no actual husbands were consulted for this post.  It’s all based upon a very scientific system that I use to surmise just what he’s thinking, called guessing.)

Wheeee!  Look at me!  This is what I do ALL DAY LONG…

 

*My day as I think Evil Genius probably sees it

I get The Professor up for school, then go back to sleep for the rest of the time he’s getting ready.
The Princess practices world domination while I doze on the couch.
The Professor heads off to school, I fall back to sleep.
I eat a well balanced breakfast of bon bons.
I play on the computer for 9 hours, telling everyone near and far about personal stuff I shouldn’t share.
I eat a snack-more bon bons.
I miss seventeen phone calls because I forgot to turn the ringer on my phone.
I laugh maniacally at the dishes piling up in the sink.
Lunch is whole grain pasta with cheese (no one eats bon bons for EVERY meal).
Whoah, I’m eating again-even more bon bons.
I play My Little Ponies and Hello Kitty legos with The Princess until the **cows come home.
I go diving in the mountain of laundry now residing in the living room.
I allow The Princess to run around like a wolverine all day, hair unbrushed, wearing only her underwear.
When The Professor arrives home, I give both kids large quantities of food so they won’t eat supper.
I plot the easiest and least exciting dinner ever, five minutes before Evil Genius arrives home.

Iron Maiden?  There are some strange things going on in my house…

 

How my day really goes

In the early, early, early morning I Iisten to Evil Genius's alarm go off 57 times.  I have dreams about smashing the alarm clock.
The Princess gets up at 6 am.  I tell her to go back to bed.  She comes in every five minutes wanting to know if it’s time to get up. I finally give in.
At 7 am I wake The Professor up for school.
I play a rousing game of “Please hurry up and eat” with The Professor.  He eats even slower.
I shove The Professor out the door and tell him to run so he won’t miss the bus.
I work on my blog, check social media, and look for a job.
I try to keep my eyes open as the same episode of Abby’s Flying Fairy School that has aired 5613 times   comes on.  AGAIN.
I put laundry in the washer, see the dishes in the sink and make a mental note to wash them later.
Macaroni and cheese is requested for lunch AGAIN.  Ok.
I conclude that Caillou really would be better off dead.
I work on my blog for a few minutes and check all my social media.
Once again I kick myself for not going to bed on time the night before, fall onto the couch and doze off. 
I make a foolish attempt to drag The Princess out for a walk. I remind her that when she’s five there will be no more stroller.  She's not buying it at all.
The Professor arrives home-healthy snacks are distributed.  This is when I realize that I never put the clothes in the dryer.
I work on all online stuff a little more.
I make a mad attempt at folding clothes.  They may or may not be put away.
I realize how close it is to suppertime and I finally start on the dishes.  I also try to figure out what we want/have ingredients on hand for supper. 
Evil Genius arrives home and I greet him with a smile and ask him how his day was.  There is incoherent grumbling and then he almost falls asleep in the chair with his laptop.  And here I thought love was dead…
So that’s what REALLY happens… Do you ever feel like you never get anything accomplished during the day?  Do you think your husband thinks you lay around all day eating bon bons?  Do you even know what a bon bon is?
*Remember my highly scientific system… guessing.
** Cows don’t actually come to your house in Iowa.  That only happens in Missouri.

Sarah The Sadder But Wiser Girl lays around the house in her pajamas and eats bon bons all day. She also writes a blog, which severely cuts into her bon bon eating time.  Visit her blog at http://sadderbutwiser.wordpress.com and maybe stage an intervention on the whole bon bon eating thing.  She’ll thank you later.

Oh, she’s also a pretty pretty princess…


Thanks a bunch Miss Sarah! Be sure to give her some love, and follow her at

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