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You Can Catch Me There – April 10, 2011

Posted on April 10, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Spring may officially be here in the Capital District. As the weather warms up, I hope to be able to spend more time with my family outdoors. In addition to writing here, I have also been busy contributing to other places.

Since my last update, I have written two new posts on The Disney Driven Life:

Early Learning With Bear in the Big Blue House – Learning, growing, and teaching with Bear in the Big Blue House DVDs from Disney.
Disney Inspiration for National Poetry Month – April is National Poetry month. Stop by to learn about acrostic poems and read one from me, along with a hidden one by

NDM183

I have also been working on more articles for the KidsFunPlaza magazine. The April issue should be out in the Capital District within the week. You can check out the March Digital Issue here:

I have also had some new blog posts on the KidsFunPlaza blog:

My recent posts on KidsFunPlaza:

Some of the latest posts from my KidsFunPlaza colleagues:

Please stop by A Disney Driven Life and KidsFunPlaza to say hello to everyone else that writes there as well.

Categories:
bloggy friends DisneyDrivenLife Educational EduMICKation looking back me moments My Other Projects

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!

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 #146

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

Memories From Mother’s Day

Posted on April 7, 2011 8:03 am by TheAngelForever

This year, I will be celebrating Mother’s Day as a mother with a kiddo for the seventh time. My thoughts and feelings about the holiday have changed over the years. It used to be a day to gather with extended family for a nice brunch. Then, it became a day to spend quiet time with my family enjoying each other. It changed some in recent years because my little guy’s birthday is very close to Mother’s Day and we have had a family celebration on Mother’s Day at least once. This can easily make the day stressful.

Looking back, it is pretty easy for me to pick out the Mother’s Day that was the most special to me. It was two years ago and this photo is my favorite from the day:

In May 2009, we took our boys to Walt Disney World for the first time. Making it extra special, my parents decided to experience the magic with us. We arrived the day before Mother’s Day, making that Sunday our first full day at Walt Disney World. We woke up that morning and went to Disney Hollywood Studios. It was a magical day with my boys and my parents. Even though my glasses broke, it could not ruin the day. It was filled with laughter, smiles, memories, and milestones for my kiddos. It was also the day that both of my boys were likely bitten by the Disney bug and joined the ranks with the rest of our family.

No matter how our Mother’s Day celebration changes over the years, one thing stays constant. It is a day where we make sure to thank the mothers in our lives. This includes not only my mother and TechyDad’s mother, but my grandmother, sister-in-laws, aunts, and friends who are mothers. Now time to admit something, I am sick of going to stores to fight for a spot in a small display to pick our greeting cards to send people. This year, I plan on sending long distance cards via Tiny Prints.

Tiny Prints provides simple, modern and unique stationery from Fathers Day Cards to personalized greeting cards to thank you cards, business cards, and even custom wedding invitations or photo birth announcements. Offering exclusive designs from the nation’s top designers, easy card personalization, a powerful preview engine and top-notch customer service and paper quality, their designs have been lauded by numerous television networks, publications and celebrities. With Tiny Prints by your side, commemorating every holiday and momentous occasion is a cinch! They offer perfect party invitations for every occasion and memorable personalized photo-gifts like notebooks, photo books and calendars to commemorate the event.

Now, I best be off. I need to start my list of cards to make for special women in our lives for Mother’s Day 2011.

Disclosure: I wrote this post as part of a Global Influence campaign for Tiny Prints. By sharing this information with my readers, I will also receive a Tiny Prints gift code to thank me for my participation. No other compensation has been given.

Global Influence Network

Categories:
family holidays looking back sponsored post Web business

Hello UBP11

Posted on April 4, 2011 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Welcome to all who have traveled from the 5 Minutes For Mom Ultimate Blog Party 2011! I am a bit behind in joining this year. There has been a lot going on in recent weeks. Some of you may recall that I am familiar with the UBP. Last year, I was the grand prize winner of the Toshiba Laptop. It all seemed like a dream at the time.

Why?

Well, the night that they randomly selected winners, I had gone to bed early. I was not feeling well. Then, suddenly, my cell phone started going crazy. Tweets with mentions of my name were coming in one after the other. Half asleep, I noticed I was being congratulated, but I did not know why. Then I saw the #UBP10 at the end. Sure enough, I was the winner. Thank you again to Susan and Janice from Five Minutes for Mom for doing this fun event. I am not just saying that since I won last year.

At the end of the UBP last year, I wrote about people that I met and blogs that I loved. One of those was Kelly’s Lucky You. Little did I know that I would meet Kelly at DisneySMMoms a few weeks ago and participate in the Wild African Trek with her.

Please say hello to my family. Here we are with Minnie Mouse after our recent adventure to Disney Social Media Moms Celebration.

So who is The Angel Forever? Here is a little bit about me:

I started blogging in February 2007 while I was pregnant with my youngest son.
For almost four years, I have been at home with my boys. Although I love this special time with them, I do miss teaching.
My blog webmaster is also my hubby. You may know TechyDad from his blog or Twitter. This June we will celebrate our 10th Wedding Anniversary. The two of us had our honeymoon at Walt Disney World for 10 magical days.
I am a HUGE fan of all things Disney – check out my category list on the left and you will see what I mean. Still processing all things from our recent trip there for the conference.
It was only a year ago that I came out of my bloggy shell. Before this I was pretty anonymous, never said where I lived, and was happy with that. Now thanks to recent opportunities, I am reinventing my online self.
The teacher in me loves to read books and share what we read. Most weeks I have a Tuesday Tales segment where I share some of our recent reads.
In addition to writing on TheAngelForever, I cover Education on The Disney Driven Life (I am NDM183 and proud of it) and am a columnist/blogger for KidsFunPlaza.

I love meeting new people in real life and online – so please explore and leave some comments, link up to your UBP blog below, and I promise to stop over to say hello and get to meet you. You can also catch me on Twitter and ~~I am still working on my Facebook fan page~~ I just finished/published my Facebook page.

Enjoy the 2011 Ultimate Blog Party and see you around!

Categories:
Blog Hop Disney DisneyDrivenLife DisneySMMoms fun looking back me moments photos TechyDad

Our Splash Mountain Adventure

Posted on April 2, 2011 11:41 am by TheAngelForever

Dear NHL,

On our last day at Disney World, we decided to spend time at the Magic Kingdom. We knew that there were a lot of rides that you wanted to go on, but that JSL was still too small for according to Disney. One of these rides was Splash Mountain. After arriving at the park, we went to get some Fast Passes. When it was time to head back, we got a Child Swap pass so Daddy could go back on with you later.

The two of us immediately went through the quickly moving Fast Pass lanes. Before we got to the area to board our log, I sent Daddy a text message. I had goofed and left my prescription sunglasses on, which made it hard to see in the darker areas of Splash Mountain. Before we knew it, they were looking for a party of two to move even further up the line. Within minutes, we were on our way to the back of a log and starting our adventure.

This was not our first time on Slash Mountain together, so we knew what to expect. We just went around a corner and were heading up the giant mountain. Suddenly our log STOPPED. We were way up the incline and about 3/4 or more of the way in a pretty dark area. We sat there for a bit and then you wanted to know what was going on. I had no clue and could not get my cell phone out of my pocket. Turning around to look was next to impossible thanks to the steep incline that we were at.

After about five minutes, we heard them cut into the PA system asking all cast members to immediately go to Tower 3. I have a feeling we were stuck in that area. They never told us much at that point, just to stay seated and not attempt to get out of our logs. After another five minutes or so, our log started to move into the first animated section of the ride. As we left that area we were hopeful. Then we stopped again with a bunch of logs unable to move in front of us.

We were baking in the sun and crowds were forming below. There were no logs going down the mountain and people knew something was up. More messages on the PA system to stay still and know they were looking into the problem. By this time, I had pulled out my phone and the two of us worked on sending photo messages and Tweets.

Daddy knew that we were stuck and was trying to find out more. We could see him from where we were, but he did not realize that at the time. Here is a photo that I took with my cell phone:

We were both getting a bit worried because we had no clue what was going on. Plus we had another little issue with the other people in our log. I think this photo sums it up:

Then, a cast member appeared along the edge of the ride.

We thought perhaps that we were going to be rescued, but we were wrong. People asked what was going on, but little was said except that we would be moving soon and the ride was safe.

After what seemed like an eternity, our logs moved again. 30 minutes after we started the adventure, we were able to get off the Splash Mountain. NHL, thank goodness you were there. I was shaking quite a bit and my back hurt. You led me through the maze to find our golden fast pass ticket for our trouble, and then out to Daddy.

At first, you said you were never going on Splash Mountain again. Much to my surprise, after dinner at Chef Mickey – YOU asked Daddy to go back on Splash Mountain. I was so proud of you.

Thank you for being so good while we were stuck and not letting this experience ruin the magic of Splash Mountain. I love you my brave big kid.

Love,

Mommy

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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