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Well, imaginary friends. It’s that special time of year when I come begging for your help, support, and votes.

That’s right. It’s Bloggie time.

If you’re new ’round these parts or to the blogging world, let me explain the Bloggies to you. If blogging were as cool as music, the Bloggies would be like the Grammy’s It’s the blogging community’s way of highlighting bloggers who are working hard (or, bloggers who beg their readers for votes).

This year, Marriage Confessions has been nominated for TWO Bloggies! We’re up for Best Topical Blog this time, which I’ve never been nominated for before. That’s super fun, and it has led to many interesting conversations around our house as to which “topic” my blog addresses. Perhaps the topic of how to successfully get two children crying, two dogs barking, and one husband yelling all at the same time. Because I’m a pro at that one. Or, perhaps it’s the topic of how to throw a dinner party without going grocery shopping because you took a nap instead and then have to figure out how to feed a group of six people with string cheese, leftover tuna salad, and three cucumbers. Or, perhaps it’s the topic of how to take two kids grocery shopping, get all the way to check out with a full grocery cart, and then realize you left your debit card at home. I’m a pro at that one, too.

Marriage Confessions has also been nominated for the mac daddy of the Bloggies…WEBLOG OF THE YEAR! Which is pretty stinkin’ awesome. I’ve basically been walking around telling total strangers that I have been nominated as Goddess of the Internet. Which kind of freaks people out when I phrase it like that. Chris said I have to stop saying that. At least to total strangers. Anyway, you get the idea. It’s pretty freaking awesome to be nominated for that and I’ve been on Cloud Nine since last week.

The only reason I have these nominations is because I honestly have the best readers in the entire world. A blogger without readers is like a chalkboard with no chalk. So, thanks for showing up here every day and giving me a place to air my thoughts, rant and rave, make mistakes, learn and grow, and just be myself. The fact that you all are on this journey with me has made it all the more sweeter.

Now.

As if you all haven’t done enough simply by being here, I’d like to ask two favors of you. First, please go vote! I’m a long shot to win (especially against The Bloggess for Weblog of the Year, who is, by the way, one of my favorite bloggers…), but I’m an even longer shot if no one goes to vote! But secondly, please spread the word about the award voting. Anything you can do to help spread the word about the voting would be so appreciated. Put it on your personal Facebook pages. Link to it on Twitter. Send an email to your friends. Blog about it. If you have a Facebook fan page for a company, link up. If you put a link up anywhere, leave the link in the comments section here so I can be sure to send you some link love later this week in a blog post!

(P.S. Do you think I could say “link” one more time in that paragraph?)

For a lot of you, blog awards probably seem pretty lame, so let me tell you why they are so important to Chris and me. As a teacher (in Florida, no less) who is married to a person who works in theater, our income is not what I would call fruitful. It gets the job done, but just barely. Which is one of the reasons that I blog. I love writing and I love blogging, but there’s definitely a financial aspect to it for my family. It helps us pay for daycare and diapers and an occasional date night here and there. When we get exposure like the Bloggies, our numbers really grow, which helps my income grow. I get some flack occasionally from readers who, as one reader recently put it, believe that I have “sold out” to companies by doing reviews and blogging for income. I could lie and say that I blog 100% for myself, but that’s not really the truth. I blog to help support my family. Plain and simple. It is a part-time (sometimes even a second full-time) job for me. So, these awards are really important to us and anything you could do would really make a huge difference in our lives.

So, here’s what you do. Click on the link here or the picture below and it will take you to the Bloggies website. Scroll down (pausing to check out some really awesome blogs along the way, of course) to the Best Topical Blog category and put a little click-er-oo in that box. Then scroll down to the very last category, Weblog of the Year (a.k.a. “Goddess of the Internet,” to me) and put a little click-er-oo in that box as well. Then, scroll down a bit further and enter your email address. Finally, click submit. You’ll be sent a confirmation email address, so you’ll have to go check your email and click the single link they send you, just confirming that you are, in fact, a live person. After that, you’re all done. (Unless you want to repeat with every email account you’ve ever had access to… I won’t object…)

Out of all the touchy subjects I talk about on this blog, asking for your votes is the hardest for me to write. Know that I truly wouldn’t bother you unless it was just that important to me. As always, I appreciate your support, your presence here every day, and your patience as I grow up. One day, maybe I’ll grow into a mature adult who would never grovel and beg for things like this.

Eh…probably not.

I’m pretty sure I have the maturity of a middle schooler and I don’t see that changing any time soon. At least, not until the Bloggies are over.

32 comments | posted in blogging, Marriage Confessions | tags: Bloggies Awards

Well, I have run out of things to blog, which can only mean one thing.

It’s time for a LIVE video chat!

Join me and Chris tomorrow night at 9:00PM EST for a live video chat. They are super easy to participate in and super fun for me and Chris because we get to hear directly from you! You can either show up tomorrow and grab a “seat” in the live chat room (come about 5 minutes early to make sure you get in) or you can head over to our channel on U-Stream now and RSVP your attendance, which saves you a seat. Like always, we’ll be answering your questions about whatever is on your mind – marriage, blogging, parenting, Girl Scout cookies.

So, show up with a lot of questions, a lot of patience, and a lot of popcorn and we’ll have a rootin’ tootin’ good time! I can’t wait to talk with you guys! Hope to see you there!

LIVE Chat Details:

Where? Click here, then scroll down to where it says, “Scheduled Events.”
When? Tuesday, January 24, at 9:00PM EST
What? Live video chat with Chris and me!
Why? Cause we’re bored. And I’m out of blog fodder. And I’m scared of meeting people in person, so this seemed like the next best thing.

7 comments | posted in blogging, Fun Things, Marriage Confessions, Videos | tags:

Saturday morning we got an early start and headed to the Atlanta Zoo for “Boo at the Zoo.” It was FREAKING FREEZING at the zoo that morning! I bundled the kids up as best as their Florida wardrobes would allow. They looked like little, fat sausages!

“Boo at the Zoo” was pretty awesome. Bean and Gracie got to wear their costumes around and go trick-or-treating at different parts of the zoo. Not to mention, all the animals they got to see. Bean was in heaven!

Bean really loved the petting zoo, too. Chris and Ginny took him in there to pet the goats and sheep and when they started to “baaaaa,” Bean thought it was the funniest thing ever!

Aunt Ginny, however, was a very baaaaaaad girl in the petting zoo. She started fiercely petting this billy goat on his head. She kept yelling over to me, “See, kids can’t get in there and pet them this good!” And then she’d keep on scratching his head. The goat actually seemed to really like it. He kept lowering his head and leaning into her hand, just like our dogs do when they’re getting scratched.

Then, all of a sudden, the zoo keeper came running up to Ginny, yelling, “That is not acceptable behavior! THAT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR!” Apparently, the goat was about to head butt Ginny or something. Anyway, Aunt Ginny was asked to leave the petting zoo area.

And we all died laughing.

After the zoo, we loaded up in the vans and began the TWO HOUR journey to find turquoise and yellow damn balloons. NO ONE had turquoise and yellow stinking balloons! We went to grocery stores and florist shops and everyone was either out of helium or out of turquoise balloons or out of yellow balloons.

Oh! And did I mention that at this point in the day, both kids were tired and cranky and crying? Yeah. It was loud and frustrating and, yet, still very funny.

Finally, we found balloons at a grocery store, but they were the ones with the grocery store logo on it. And, to of the four of them popped on the way out to the car, so that left us with only two balloons for the meet and greet.

Add that to the fact that the park we planned to meet in was REALLY hard to find and it made our little shindig more like a destination wedding. You really had to hunt us down to come meet and greet, so if you had trouble finding our area, sorry about that!

Other than that slight mix up, the meet and greet was a huge success! I got to meet such sweet people! Like Arden and Anne (with an E or without?) and Linda and Jessica and Lauren. And it turns out my suspicions were true. My readers ARE normal people!!!! WHO KNEW!?!?!

This is Arden. She brought cupcakes. Ergo, Arden is awesome.

And this is Lauren. She and her sweet husband hung out with us while Bean had a total meltdown and demanded that Emperor Zorg not touch the ground, even though he threw Zorg on the ground in the midst of his temper tantrum.

(By the way, I stole this picture from the post Lauren wrote about the meet and greet…Sorry, Lauren…)

I really loved having the chance to meet people face to face, to hear real voices, and to have people talk back to me. You don’t get that with a blog. We’ll definitely do more meet ups in the future. They aren’t nearly as scary as I thought they would be! It really was like hanging out with people I’d known for years.

So, I can’t write about this without sending a big THANK YOU to my seester and publicist, Ginny. And by publicist, I mean she gives me unsolicited advice on what I should be doing that I’m not and then she bosses me around until I do things her way. She’s bossy and a know-it-all and she would drive me crazy if she weren’t right on about 98% of the unsolicited advice she gives. So, here’s me. Thanking my sister for pushing me out of my comfort zone, for like, the one millionth time in my life.

Thanks to everyone who came out to meet and greet in Atlanta! I really loved meeting you all and can’t wait to meet more of you soon!

29 comments | posted in blogging, Marriage Confessions, travel | tags: blogging, Family, life

My people have informed me that I have not been specific enough in my plans for the Atlanta meet and greet.

And by people, I mean Chris and Ginny.

Those people say that I need to be more definite in my blog post and not just stick the information in at the end of a long post about nothingness. To which I replied that my entire blog is one long post about nothingness, so where else was I supposed to put it? But they called me a smarty pants wimp and told me to man up and write a decent post about the Atlanta meet and greet with real details and information so people know I’m serious about this shindig.

So, this is me, manning up. But I’m just manning up while my toenail polish dries. After that, the manliness is over and I’m going to shrivel up in a tiny ball and whine about how I’m going to be all alone at a park in Atlanta with nary a person to meet nor greet…

(Chris just read this over my shoulder and told me I was definitely NOT manning up if I am writing about how I have to man up. To which I replied, “I’m sorry, did you blog today? No? Then SHUT IT.”)

So, here are the actual, real deal details of the Atlanta meet and greet:

WHERE? Triangle Picnic Area at Stone Mountain Park – We’ll get there early and pick a gazebo to set up camp. Look for the turquoise and yellow balloons.

WHEN? 3:00 – 4:00 PM

WHAT? Chris, Bean, Gracie, and me will be hanging out at the playground and gazebo with my sister and her husband. Bring your kids, your family, your boyfriend/girlfriend/grandma/best friend/preacher/creepy roommate. (Actually, leave the creepy roommate at home…) I’ll get to put some names with faces and we can kick the “imaginary” from our friendship! It’ll be super casual, super laid back, and lots of fun!

So, there. That should make my people happy. And now, to make myself feel better, I’m going to post two terrible pictures of my people.