Archive for July, 2011

Yeah, this post is about BlogHer.

1 Comment
Posted 27 Jul 2011 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category blog bidnass, I am awesome, other people are awesome, paparazzi

Out of curiosity, I just looked back on my OMGBLOGHER post I made last year, and weirdly enough, I could just copy and paste that post here and it would convey the same thing I feel right now. Except the thing about worrying about being mugged in New York. Or seeing a jumbo sewer rat. Now I’m worrying about drowning in the pool at the hotel in San Diego.

(No seriously. Someone keep an eye on me. Or bring me some water wings.)

Anyway – here I am again, a week away from being in sunny San Diego for BlogHer ’11 and I haven’t done ANYTHING to be prepared for it. Except probably piss off a bunch of my Twitter followers by blabbing about it. What’s worse this year is that I’m heading out of town tomorrow for the weekend (AIR SHOW IN WISCONSIN! FAMILY REUNION! EXCITEMENT! CAPS LOCK!) which essentially leaves me Monday to, you know…shop, pack, figure out which sessions I want to attend, and throw myself into a complete panic attack. With Abbers as my sidekick.

Can I pause for a moment to note that it is NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE to pack a suitcase with a toddler in the room? At least with mine it is. I’ll put like, 10 things in the suitcase, turn around to grab a pair of shoes and suddenly I’ll see Abby run by wearing my just packed underwear as a hat and all contents of my suitcase emptied out on the floor. It’s completely non-productive. Just pack when she’s sleeping, you say? Fat chance. I have one hour of “me time” after she goes down for the night before I personally pass out for the evening. So, I don’t want to start thinking about that shiz before I go to sleep. That’s when I start having panic dreams about forgetting all my party invites and not having a matching pair of shoes for the whole weekend away. (Yes, that can happen. Just ask my mom. Hi Mom!)

In reality, I don’t need to go shopping or panic. I know I’ll be meeting some new people this year, but last year I was so worried about fitting in and whether or not anyone was really even going to like me that new clothes seemed like the solution to all my problems. This year, I am most excited about seeing the friends I made last year. Friends who I KNOW don’t give a shit about what I wear to Sparklecorn or whether or not I re-wear the same pair of jeans the entire weekend. Or if I smell funny. Because I’m pretty sure it was hotter than a two-dollar whore on the 4th of July while we were in NYC and it’s safe to say I was sweaty. And probably a little gamy.

see? sweating. and I haven't worn that dress since then.

Regardless, my plan this year is to relax more, go to more sessions, spend as much time with my bloggy friends as possible and just HAVE FUN. Did I mention the hubs & Abbers are staying behind this year? I’m basically going to summer camp for the weekend, but instead of making friendship bracelets and dreamcatchers, I’ll be drinking wine and gabbing with the ladies of the interwebs that I love. (Seriously, my gal pals from last year? I love you.)

there's some ladies missing from this photo - but look! the bloggess!

All in all, I’m in an excited-panicky state. Which will probably grow more panicky as each day ticks by.

If you’ll be there this year, look for me! I’m really pretty friendly. A sarcastic asshole, but friendly. Unless you’ve got something against people who wear glasses. Then we’ll box.

If you’ll just look up my sleeve…

2 Comments
Posted 21 Jul 2011 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category blog bidnass, I am awesome, motherhood, other people are awesome, RAD

…you’ll see one of the things I’ve been “keeping a secret” around here…

I’m a contributor at a new site called “Liberating Working Moms!” Loverly Tracy (formerly of Mommyhood at Thirty fame) approached me a while ago about the idea for the site and I was excited from the beginning.

Liberating Working Moms: One Voice at a Time was founded by Tracy who wanted a place to commiserate with other working mommas. Ultimately, we are a group of moms, trying to get the word out about all the trepidations and rewards that come with being a working momma. It’s liberating to share our journeys of figuring out what works, what doesn’t, and what’s simply best for right now. Though the guise of this blog is under the working momma category, we hope that all moms will find something to read. Because really, all moms are moms. We all struggle. We all have rewards. We all need some advice. And we all have antics to tell about.

So come join our community: Liberating Working Moms: One Voice at a Time. Read about who we are. Subscribe to our feed to get up to date postings. Follow us on Twitter. And join in our antics on Facebook.

**Today my post (originally published on Blogged Bliss) titled “Where Separation Anxiety Meets Mommy Anxiety” is the featured post. Boo-ya.

Mr. Marbles?

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Posted 15 Jul 2011 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category not so much

I’m on no sleep. NO SLEEP!

(In case you’re missing the reference – here’s the clip from Seinfeld.)

Oh, I’m stressed.

Seriously though – my life for the last week has been like this episode of Seinfeld where Jerry & Kramer switch apartments and Jerry can’t sleep because of the Kenny Rogers Roasters sign. And Mr. Marbles. Except in this instance, the Kenny Rogers sign is Abby’s wraspy breathing and Mr. Marbles is my random night sweats.

Ladies and germs – Abby and I have the summer cold. Abby’s been sick for a week now, with both a double ear infection and pink eye in both eyes (which I’m thinking is just the cold virus in both eyes). I got sick on Tuesday…and since then it’s been nothing but muscle aches, sweats & chills, and copious amounts of snot & chest congestion. Grossed out yet?

It’s been SUCH A DRAG – this week and the next two are my busiest of the year at work and I have all these deadlines I’ve missed for people outside of work that I owe stuff (you know who you are, you’ll be getting emails soon) and then a pretty serious drama involving some friends that I don’t even have time to get into…

Hold on, grabbing my paper bag to breathe into…

Long story short, I haven’t had a serious good night’s rest in a week. And I’m close to punching my own lungs back to where they came from (that doesn’t make sense) with all this coughing.

So…yeah. Sorry for the delay with shiz and lack of posts and inability to form complete and proper sentences.

 

Happy, eh…10th of July!

1 Comment
Posted 10 Jul 2011 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category Abigail, paparazzi, The Hubs

(Just pretend I got these up five days ago.)

Happy splashes

the tongue out means she's stoked

semi-enthused about patriotism

viewing the (not famous) john phillip sousa band on dada's chest

What to do in my free time…

2 Comments
Posted 06 Jul 2011 — by Mrs. Jenna
Category house stuffs, LadyCave, RAD, retail therapy

(And by “free time,” of course I’m eluding to the hour I have after Abby goes to bed and when I go to bed every night.)

So, Summer’s nearly half over. Go ahead and punch me in the e-face for saying that. I just did. Regardless, this means a few things:

  • BlogHer is less than a month away and I haven’t ordered business cards yet, procured an outfit fit for SparkleCorn or had my third mental break about how HOLY CRAP IT’S LESS THAN A MONTH BEFORE I SEE ALL MY FAVORITE BLOGGY FRIENDS.
  • I haven’t gotten ANYTHING done on the house that I was hoping to. (This includes but is not limited to painting our bedroom & putting up curtains or painting the exterior of the house. Or planting flowers. Or getting rid of that damn dog kennel.)
  • It finally just got nice out. And summer is almost over. (Go ahead and punch me again.)

Anyway, since I clearly have nothing else to do-slash-worry about, I’ve decided to add a few other endeavors to my never-ending to-do list. Two of which I don’t want to talk about yet lest I jinx myself and then they don’t happen because I’m SUPER excited about both of them (stay tuned). HOWEVER, the one I can talk about is this:

I plan on creating a LADYCAVE in my attic space.

No, that was not innuendo. As much as it sounded like it was. Maybe we should just pretend it was innuendo because it’s funnier that way.

Right now we have a full finished atticspace that is currently functioning as a spare bedroom/dumping ground for old baby clothes & gear/dumping ground for my purses, doll collection…

Okay – it’s just a dumping ground with a bed, desk & dressers that is totally not working for me.

I really want to create a space where I can disappear to if I need to write a blog post, or load picture to the laptop from the camera, or just relax for some “alone” time. In 18 years when Abby’s out of the house. Hopefully.

SO. I’ve armed myself with a new subscription to House Beautiful magazine and a new pinboard on Pinterest, titled LadyCave.

I’m super serious about making this happen. Well, as serious as I am about painting our bedroom and getting rid of that dog kennel. BUT I’M FOR SERIOUS. I will make this change happen. I’m sure IKEA will be my muse.

Anyone see anything awesome I need to pin? Let me know.

 

(oh, and a post with pictures from the weekend and one of the new ink to come. PROMISE.)