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3 Years of Blogging today

Posted on February 4, 2010 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

On February 4, 2007, I was about 6-7 months pregnant with my second son. I had just had quite a medical scare with my pregnancy and was trying to enjoy the time with our oldest son NHL before the new little guy’s arrival.

For several months, I had been following along while a few of my friends shared their blogs. I would check in to see what was new in their lives. That night I was tired, uncomfortable and did not feel like lesson planning for school. Rather than do work, my friend helped me to set up my first blog (originally on LJ). The first post was nothing big and exciting. Simply testing things out and stating my purpose of sharing events of the day. As I was getting to know LJ that evening I made a second post. As you can tell, back in those days I liked the flashing, funny saying buttons. You know like this one that helped to inspire my tag line:

That same evening, I decided to write about the events of the day. We had taken NHL to his first ever Sesame Street Live. We were all in love with the show and I figured it was a great chance to try and put photos of ours onto the blog. Nothing fancy was done, but I eventually got them there. Over the last three years, I have outgrown using the flashy buttons (thank goodness) and focused more on sharing memories through photos in creative ways.

Although my blogging style has matured over the last three years, the purpose of my blog has not changed. Blogging is a creative and fun way for me to capture memories of my family, share items with family/friends and meet fabulous new people. My blog has long since moved from LJ and I now have my very own header that I adore. These days I not only do I write about my family, but also about events of the world, reviews of products we have bought/been asked to try, and do giveaways.

I am a Mommy Blogger and proud to say it. Being a Mommy blogger has given me opportunities that never would have happened other wise. I have met wonderful people, formed great online friendship for people that I genuinely care for, and found something that I truly enjoy doing. If it was not for blogging, I never would have gone onto Twitter and beyond and be heading to my first conference in a short time and to BlogHer ’10 in NYC with TechyDad.

Thank you to my family, friends and readers that have been there supporting me since day one. To all of the wonderful PR people and companies that I have worked with – thank you for the amazing opportunities past, present and in the future. Without all of you, your inspiration and comments, I would have stopped having fun and quit long ago. I have always promised myself that the minute blogging becomes a chore, it will be time to stop. Here is to wishing that that time never comes!

I am working on something special for my readers to celebrate my 3 years of blogging. For now, I will open up to questions you may have for me. So feel free to ask away!

Categories:
birthday bloggy friends decisions fun looking back me moments milestone web fun

Scanning old picture memories

Posted on February 2, 2010 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

I have always loved looking at old photos. Growing up, I remember pulling our old photo albums that my parents had made. They ranged in topics from when I was first born, growing up, birthdays, Disney World vacations and beyond. My parents collected items to do 70’s and 80’s style scrap books. I love looking at the attention to detail in the books. Unfortunately, the old albums contained chemicals that are damaging to the memories within them. We now need to figure out a way to rescue them.

Last year, JL’s grandmother passed away. When this happened, he wanted to help and preserve the photos from her past. He agreed to get a new scanner and capture them onto DVDs for all of his relatives. That project involved scanning over 200 photos. I always figured when JL was finished we would move onto the photos that my parents have.

The other night after dinner, I asked my father to help me find the old albums in the basement. We brought up my baby album, along with two from Disney World. In addition to that, there was a shoebox filled with a variety of photos. These ranged from when my brother and I were little, trips to Disney World, Hershey Park, Circus World, fun with neighbors, and Girl Scouts. My father wants us to figure out how to work on the photos that are in the albums without ruining them. So for the time being I took home the shoe box to work on.

Thanks to getting ready to go away, I pulled out 30 pictures that I really wanted scanned. The other night, JL did them for me. I now have photos scanned of my Nana & Papa, special times with my cousins (whoa the 80’s hair), and little me getting autographs of characters at Disney World and more. Below are a few to preview.

This would be my family at Disney World. We were staying at the Contemporary Resort. This is the day bed in the room. My mother is hiding behind me and that is my little brother just before he turned three.

Here we are waiting for Dad to fix his big camera on the concourse at the Contemporary Resort. This is basically right outside of where Chef Mickey is now located.

This would be my little brother taking a nap in the really old style Disney strollers. Holy cow have these suckers changed over the decades! I believe we were waiting outside a garden at EPCOT waiting to meet up with family friends.

Those are just a few of the photos that were scanned. I will be sharing more in the next few weeks.

Do you scan your old photos to preserve them for future generations? Always curious to see what others are doing.

Categories:
Disney family interesting looking back me moments photos

Disney’s Celebrate Today Parade

Posted on January 27, 2010 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

Categories:
Disney looking back vacation Wordless Wednesday

Cousins then and now

Posted on January 22, 2010 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

TechyDad and I are both the oldest of two families’ children. His sister has two little boys that are similar in age to our sons, yet we are not very close with them. They live a few hours away, but things are strained at best. My brother has a little girl that is only a few months younger than JSL. They are also about a month away from welcoming a little boy into their growing family. We live about five hours away from Uncle I and Aunt M, but the boys adore them. They talk about Cousin S and Baby Peanut all the time. When they are together, they play really well, even NHL who is almost four years older than the current little ones.

Hubby was not very close with his first cousins; a fact that makes me sad, especially when I see what is happening on one side with our boys. My family was very different. My mother’s brother and his family lived in our city. I babysat them when they were little and was my one cousin’s Secret Pal for years. Although I am not close with them anymore, I have wonderful memories from years gone by. My mother’s sister lived cross country. We did not see Cousin M and D often, but when we were older (and I was not a bratty little kid) we really clicked. I have fond memories of them spending time during the summer here with our Nana and Papa. My father’s sister moved back to this area when I was older. I babysat for Cousin A and J and got to be very close to them. It amazes me that they are college graduates and so grown up. My father’s brother lived relatively close over the years. Aunt A, Uncle J and H, H, B and Y would come here for Thanksgiving and Passover without fail. Those holidays were always special seeing everyone together.

As my boys are getting ready to welcome a new first cousin into the family, my question for this week is:

How many first cousins do you have and are you close to them? For those with children, how many first cousins do your kids have?

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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 MckLinky there if you are participating.