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A Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Kind of Day

Posted on April 29, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Imagine sitting on a beautiful beach front eating dinner with your family and good friends. Let’s say it may be at the Grand Floridian Resort at Walt Disney World during the Good Times Get Together during the start of a magical conference weekend. Suddenly, these gentlemen appear at your table:

They want to know what song you would like them to play at your table! Yes, this really happened back in March at the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. Lucky for us, Resourceful Mommy’s daughter selected an amazing song and I captured it on video. Sit back and enjoy:

So my question for you this week:

If you had been asked what Disney song for the band to play, what would it have been and why?

Disclosure: Although we paid for our own trip to Disney World, we were given an incredible deal thanks to Disney. The sweet conference fee included 3 nights at the Grand Floridian, several meals for the entire family, 7 day park hoppers for everyone, conference/meals for me and some other items to take home. Also note that Disney never asked us to blog about this event. As a long time Disney fan, it is my pleasure to share my experiences from the event.

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #149

Categories:
Aloha Friday Blogging Conference Disney DisneySMMoms friends fun looking back Music photos video

Facebook The Final Frontier

Posted on April 8, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Several years ago, I started working on a Facebook page for my blog. For some reason, I never pushed the publish button. At the time, I was more focused on other ends of the Social Media spectrum. The reality is that not everyone likes Twitter. A lot of people prefer to use Facebook. By not pushing that button and setting up the Facebook page, I was only hurting myself.

While at the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration, one of the guest speakers was Matt Jacobson.

Jacobson is the head of market development for Facebook. While listening to everything that he told us, I knew that I was going to have to go home and finish working on my Facebook page. One of Jacobson’s biggest points that hit home is separating your personal and professional Facebook identities. He showed us an example using Mark Zuckerberg’s two profiles. He also talked about Building your brand on Facebook.

Yes, I knew it was time to get to work on Facebook. There was a need not only to publish a public page for The Angel Forever, but to have my own personal profile for family and friends.

Later in the day, Chris Brogan took the stage.

One of the many items that Chris talked about was using different forms of social media as outposts to get people to your blog or home base. Yes, I was utilizing Twitter in many ways, but Facebook was something that I foolishly ignored for too long. I will be sharing more from DisneySMMoms in the upcoming weeks – there is a lot to process.

While home with a sick kiddo this week, I finally tweaked my Facebook page for this blog. Over on the left, I even put a way to head there if you would like to.

See, I even took time to get a button for the side of my blog like the one above. It is a work in progress, but so is everything else in life.

This week my question to you is:

Do you have a Facebook page for your blog? Any input on whether having one or not having one has made a difference from your experience. If you do have a Facebook page, I would love to know so I can stop by visit and say hello.

If you feel a little bit of love in your heart, I would love for you to like The Angel Forever on Facebook as well. Thanks so much!

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #146

Categories:
Aloha Friday Blogging Conference Conference DisneySMMoms looking back me moments photos

Dreaming of a Disney Wedding

Posted on April 3, 2011 8:29 am by TheAngelForever

The 2011 DisneySMMoms event began with the Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings & Honeymoons Platinum Soiree. I already wrote about how we were greeted. Now, it’s time to share the event that was held inside the Grand Floridian Wedding Pavilion. We all walked down the aisle and took our seats. Imagine being a bride and having this view before your eyes:

The first speaker was Michael Shettell from Alfred Angelo. He came to talk about the new line of Disney Princess inspired dresses. We had seen some on our way into the pavilion.

Shettell shared how he came up with the designs. Here is a video that Alfred Angelo made about the new line.

We were then in for a surprise. Everyone at the event was going to be the first to view the Cinderella Gown. To say that this dress could take your breath away would be an understatement. Here are a few photos courtesy of DisneySMMoms:

Next, we were told about the new options for people from Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings and/or Honeymoons. The new Disney Ever After Blog has a wealth of information, stories, memories, and more. They recently wrote about the trend in candy buffets at weddings – like the one they had for us at the soiree.

We were also introduced to a couple that had been married at Disney World two years ago. That is about the time that I knew we were going to see a wedding take place before our eyes. Suddenly, Kristen and Greg were whisked away and an energetic Carley Roney from The Knot and The Bump talked to us. She told us about the start of The Knot and how it grew from the original days on AOL to where it is now. She reminded all of us that in order to be successful, we have to find a way to engage our audience and ignite their passion. She showed us just how they used this in their online community to grow, expand, and mature.

Next up was David Tutera. I have to admit something here. I had heard of him, but never seen My Fair Wedding before.

Tutera was so personable, even hugging one of the fans within the crowd. Then he told us about an upcoming episode where he goes to Topeka, Kansas to do a wedding that is part of a Make a Wish Foundation wish. I know I want to see this episode now that I know the background behind it and the passion to making a magical wedding that Tutera has.

Next thing we knew, we were thrust into a party – a wedding was taking place before our eyes. Yes, Kristen and Greg were renewing their vows during the DisneySMMoms event. There were dancers, amazing gowns, Cinderella coach, fireworks, champagne toast and more.

Then it was time to head over to the beach front at the Grand Floridian Resort where our families were waiting for a fun filled evening that included a delicious dinner.

Lots more from the 2011 DisneySMMoms coming soon.

Disclosure: Although we paid for our own trip to Disney World, we were given an incredible deal thanks to Disney. The sweet conference fee included 3 nights at the Grand Floridian, several meals for the entire family, 7 day park hoppers for everyone, conference/meals for me and some other items to take home. Also note that Disney never asked us to blog about this event. As a long time Disney fan it is my pleasure to share my experiences from the event. All photos used before the final collage were taken by Disney Fine Art Photography & Video.

Categories:
Blogging Conference Disney DisneySMMoms fun interesting photos

Figuring Out The Answers

Posted on April 1, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Yesterday, I wrote a post called Are You a Good Enough Mother? At the start, I asked:

Have you ever had one of those moments where you doubt yourself, wonder what is happening, and question whether you are a good enough mother/parent/adult/human?

I explained that I am working on taking the words of Rene Syler, aka the head GEM/Good Enough Mother to task.

Now, thanks to Rene and some Rene-isms (also listed in my post yesterday), I have a lot of things on my mind, planned for my blog, and more importantly ideas for my life. The first is to be able to accept that nobody is perfect and know that being a good enough mother is awesome. Oh and thanks to a comment from Rene, I have another Rene-ism to add:

“You may not have all the answers, but you’re smart enough to figure it out.”

I know this statement from Rene is true, it’s just hard to sit by, be patient, and get those answers figured out – especially when your children are involved.

Today, my Aloha Friday question continues along with my quest to bring you along on my journey as I embrace my inner GEM and work on reinventing myself. The reality is that most of us do reinvent ourselves at least once in our lives. So my question to you:

If you had the chance to reinvent yourself right now, what would you want to do and why?

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the linky there if you are participating.

Aloha #145

Categories:
Aloha Friday Blogging Conference Conference decisions DisneySMMoms me moments

Are You a Good Enough Mother?

Posted on March 31, 2011 10:00 am by TheAngelForever

Have you ever had one of those moments where you doubt yourself, wonder what is happening, and question whether you are a good enough mother/parent/adult/human?

Welcome to my current world.

As I hinted at the other day, TechyDad and I are in the process of making some tough decisions for our family. I have shed a lot of tears since we got back home from the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. Let’s just say that coming back from a week of magic, where you can forget about reality, is harsh.

Fortunately, I am trying to remember some wise words that I heard at the conference. I am working on embracing the philosophy of the The Good Enough Mother. This means accepting that nobody is perfect, being able to let go of things, allowing for me time, and realizing that I am not failing my children. We all make mistakes, learn from these mistakes (not failures), and grow thanks to them. Still being a TypeA personality, it is not easy to let go of my ways.

So who helped me to see the light? This beautiful, amazing, and truly inspirational woman that I am standing with below:

Meet Rene Syler – the head GEM. What is a GEM, read more about what it mean to be a Good Enough Mother on her website. Here is a little biography that was provided to us before the event at Disney:

Rene Syler has had the opportunity to interview famous faces, political personalities and countless authors during her four year position as one of the anchors of The Early Show at CBS. In March 2007, Rene’s first book Good Enough Mother: The Perfectly Imperfect Book of Parenting was published by Simon Spolight Entertainment. From that her website, www.goodenoughmother.com was born.

Rene came onto the stage at DisneySMMoms and stole my heart and many others in the audience. She spoke to me on so many levels. Almost two weeks after hearing her inspirational speech, my brain is still going a mile a minute – not a bad thing honestly. Rene’s words have helped me during the moments where I wanted to quit being an adult and return to my childhood. Seriously, recalling her words has brought a smile to my face when there were tears in my eyes.

My plan is to bring you along on my journey as I embrace my inner GEM and work on reinventing myself. I will continue to explore more lessons from Rene and channel her energy here on my blog.

For now, I would like to share some of my favorite Rene Syler-isms from her talk. I Tweeted about many of these during DisneySMMoms, but think they deserve to be seen again:

Being washed up is just another word for reinventing yourself. You can always reinvent yourself.
Just because you used your womb doesn’t mean that you don’t use your brain.
Real growth hurts. You cannot grow when you are comfortable, and you cannot be comfortable when you grow.
Follow your passion, because you can never go wrong.
It is okay to say to your kids, “Come here. Listen, Mommy need a break from you.” It’s good for you and for them.
When you spit fire the message is lost.
People who make you feel bad have no place in your life. Do not let people get you down about not being perfect.
You only have so much energy and do not need to waste your energy on negative people.
Anyone who says they are perfect is lying!

To read more about Rene’s talk, head over to Cutestkidever, where Christina live blogged.

One more thing, Rene is a big fan of Dancing With The Stars. She actually Tweets along with people using #dwts during the live shows. The other night, she mentioned that she would love to be on the show. Cindy, The Mom Maven, listened and started a Twitter campaign and wrote a blog post to let the powers that be know that Rene has our support. Please help us to get Rene Syler onto Dancing With The Stars – the world could learn so much while watching this amazing woman strut her stuff.

Rene is a one of a kind woman who can teach all of us so much. Thank you, Rene, for being you, for sharing with all of us your gift, and for Tweeting and supporting Social Media and Moms in general.