Problogger's Title Contest Follow up

Well, I did not win the contest. It was a random drawing, so I guess I do not have to take it personally LOL.



I thought I would share some of the titles that I found interesting. I was going to do my top 5 favorites, but there were too many good ones. What I came up with were six general appeal titles, seven titles that are more likely to appeal to bloggers, and one in the middle of the list that is a transition between the two!



Here they are ...




PL8 A TUDES: Vanity License Plates - 1 by Jeff Ross

9 Unigue Souvenir Ideas For Your Next Vacation by Robin Sue

Composting Toilets & Borrowed Plates: 14 Lessons from the Ultimate Green Wedding by Kimberly

Wildest Party Shoes Ever Created! by Lexi Sundell

Top Eco-Minded Restaurants by TheRestaurantBlogger

How To Diagnose Illness By Examining Your Tongue by Gina G.

Submission is a Dirty Word by GailPruszkowski

Can You Digg This? – Top On Google Search Engine In 24-48 Hours Or Less!!! by Abbas Shareef

The Audactiy of Blogging by Debbie

30 highest paid keywords in adsense for 2008 by iglowicki

Oh No - Unauthorized Sites Are Displaying My Ads! by Pat Doyle

My Top 5 Traffic Sources After 6 Months Blogging by Kacper

Autopilot Traffic: How To Generate Consistent Traffic For Your Blogs by Ankesh Kothari

How to Get Half a Million People to Visit Your Blog by Simon

McCain Chooses Palin

So, what a day in Ohio history eh folks?





John McCain announced today that his running mate will be the 44 year old female governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. The more they talked about her today, the more I wondered why we have never heard of her.

I am sure I will be talking more about her as November approaches.


Let's see how many voter categories she could appeal to:

Republicans

People truly looking for experience ( City Council, Mayor, Governor)

Female - Obviously

Mothers / Working Mothers

Military Families ( She has a 19 year old son deploying to IRAQ on SEPT 11th! )

NRA Members

Alaskans

Union workers ( her and her husband both union members at one time or another)

Teachers ( Her parents were both teachers)

Oil Workers ( Her husband)

Outdoor sports fans



I am sure I am forgetting something, but that is one wide range of demographics!


It will be interesting to see how this election plays out. History will be made one way or the other. Either we will have the first black president, or we will have the first female vice president.

TIGGER Woods?

My Dad has been a professional artist for over 30 years, but when he is not painting you can often find him on the golf course. He was repainting his woods the other day and was trying to think of a theme.




He was going to put Tigger on them all and call them all his "Tigger Woods"..get it? LOL But I talked him into doing Piglet and Eeyore on the others. Eeyore is my favorite! But hey they go great with his pickup truck too,,,,

Problogger Contest - Win the Title of Best Title

I like to stop in at Problogger.net whenever I get the chance. The sites creator, Darren Rowse, is such an inspiration to aspiring bloggers and site developers. On top of the great information, Darren often has interactive posts and contests.

He is currently having one to try and inspire people to write great titles to highlight the importance of a great title.

The post I will post right after this one is the one I will submit to the contest. I do not know if it as great as some of the ones I have seen posted already, but it is fun and I have fun entering these kinds of contests.

The winner will get a 2000.00 logo design by http://www.davidairey.com/. Hey it is worth a shot right?

What do you think of my title? Did it make you want to see what the post was about?

MISSING GIRL - ELIZABETH HAS BEEN FOUND!!

I wanted to let all of you know that Elizabeth's mother HAS located her, and has her back. They will be in Florida for a few more days sorting things out.

Let's wish them a safe journey home, and an eventual journey through their pain, and hopefully a closer bond on the other side of this sad event!

Don't forget you can help Laurie( Elizabeth's mom) recoup some of the cost of this trip by donating at ANY U.S. Bank Nation wide! Just refer to ELIZABETH GRACE STONEBURG.

Thank you so much!

Some Great Blogs

Here is a list of some fun sites. It is amazing how fast you can meet new people on the net. I have only been blogging for a few weeks, and I have met all these friendly people! Stop by and check some of them out.... (Updated 10 -2-08 to alphabetize and add new finds!)

A Little of This and That


All in a Blog

Angies Silly Stuff

Baby Luvin

Blog About it


Blog Fogg


Bloggie Mommie

Busy Bee Village

The Cajun Blogger

Candle At Both Ends

Cat-o-nine Tales

Claudette's Words

A Christian Marriage

Confetti by:Kateedyd

Coodas Corner

Cypress TX Mom

Da Boss And Bryguy

Different World

Domesticated Diva

Drizzly Blog

Fat Girl Goes Fit

Feelings Just Are

Flipping Adentures

Florida Travel Spots

4 Cats Make Me Crazy!

The Fuzzbutt Files

The Geeks Girl

Godly Woman

Good News

Green 'n' Pink

Have Your Health

Healthy Home Blog

Here On Columbia Avenue

Hillbilly Heart

House of Bargains

House Wife Wom

Huckle Buckle and Other Mom Stuff

A Hunter's Wife

I Don't Commute

I Feel Like A Woman

I Love My 3 Boys

It's Just My Thoughts

Kateedyd What?!

Kimmi's Krazy World

Kim's Kountry Kitchen

KKB Mom of 3


Kookie Krumblez

Lipgloss N" Pinups

Luxury Lifestylez

Making My American Dream

Mia's Motivation

Mix World

Mad Mommy

Momas Life

Mommie’s Marbles

Mommy Mia's World

Mom Tidings


Moon Babyz

My Big Fat Battle

My First Steps With Jesus

My-Junk-Drawer

My So Called Blog


My Name is Not “Mom”

My Song of Joy

My Wahm Life

My Weekly Beef

Not Just In Your Head

Paradise Fiber Studio

Photos for the Fun of it

Postcard from Somewhere

Pure Jade Home

Raising a Girl


Remotely Mommy

Saving With Tracy

Savvy Business Moms

Secola‘s Space

Secret Thoughts and More

Shrinking Pamelalala

SlickMom

Something Witty to Say

Success Factors


Surgical Nurse Musings

Talk Time with Kim

That‘s What I am Talking About

The Geek's Girl

Thrifty Momma Ramblings

Thrifty Thoughts

Vibrant Healthy U

Wahm Adventures

WAH and Loving It

WICBlog

The Work From Home Blog

Work from Home Options

World of Homemaking

World of Mom

Allowance in Minutes

I just saw a commercial for a cell phone company that has a new idea that I LOVE. They have a computer interface of some sort where you can adjust the minutes and texts your kid(s) can use. So instead of paying them a monetary allowance, you allot them minutes or texts. How cool is that.


I love the idea of teaching modern day kids that all these gadgets and electronics they have now days are a privilege not a right. I hope they still have this when my kids get older!

MISSING GIRL UPDATE

Hello,

I wish I had some good news, but all I can do is pass along this newer poster of Elizabeth http://www.mcc.ag.state.oh.us/P2.aspx?PQID=ELISTO

I have found out that her father's name is LOUIS W. STONEBURG.

People are supposed to contact the Pinellas County Sheriff's department if thet see anything. at 727 582 6200

Thank you for reading,,,Please pass this on to anyone and everyone.

As if things were not bad enough, they are supposedly going to evacuate the area for a pending storm!

More Help for Elizabeth and Others

In my quest to use the internet as much as I could to try and help locate ELIZABETH STONEBURG, I came across a noteworthy site that is dedicated to helping find lost children. http://www.angelsthatcare.org/alert.html is a link to the page with Elizabeths photo and the photos of many other missing children. You can go to this page , and then visit the home page, you never know who you might be able to help!

MISSING ELIZABETH STONEBURG UPDATE

Hello all,

The only update I have right now on Elizabeth "Libby" Stoneburg is this, her mother is still frantically searching for her. She is getting little if no help from Libby's extended family, or the local authorities.

There has been a fund set up at U.S. Bank to help defray the costs of this search. Libby's mom Laurie just got done spending what little extra money she had, and took time of work to fight for custody of Libby and to get her up here to Ohio. Any donations would be appreciated. Laurie said that if there are any funds left over from the donations that she will see that it goes to help other families in crisis.

You can click on this link to find the U.S. Bank branch nearest to you. Tell them that it is for Elizabeth or Libby Stoneburg, and that the account was started this August in Ohio.

Thank you for reading this, and please pass on the information to all that you know, so that we may help this family!

BLOG CABIN on DIY Network

How is this for blogging.... DIY is getting ready to air its second season of a show called BLOG CABIN. I forgot all about it, so I didn't follow it in the blogging phase this year. The first episode airs tonight on DIY channel.

I guess bloggers designed the cabin, and a bunch of DIY experts designed it. Now we all have a chance to OWN it! You can ENTER up to once a day for a chance to win this awesome cabin. It may seem like a long shot, but someone has to win it right?!

I over course can not watch this tonight because MY cable provider decided to switch channel packages around, and now DIY is not included in my package,,,the package that I signed up for,,,that I am still paying the same for,,,that they are taking channels away from.....

Sorry, had to vent! LOL

Missing Girl Update

Unfortunately, I don't have anything great to report, I got this email from my friend, and a copy of the girls official poster that The National Center for Missing and Exploited Kids made.

Email said..It has been over 48 hours and still no word on Libby. Laurie believe she has headed back to the Largo Florida area where her father is, who is not supposed to be around Libby. Please forward all info to EVERYONE you can to help get word out to find Libby,,,end of email

I went to missingkids.com to make a link to her poster and found out that I could get a code to put a banner for missing kids on your site or blog. You just have to enter your email address, and it will give you the code to put a banner like this one where ever you want it..



The link to the girl we are looking for is here for her poster,, I think you can even print these if you want to.

MISSING CHILD ALERT !! Please pass on...

I got this email from a friend of mine today, about a friend of hers who has had her daughter run away or talked into running way, they are not sure of all the details yet,,please read and look at the pictures. Pass this on to your friends. Maybe with the power of the Internet we can find this young, pregnant girl before anything bad happens!

Laurie's daughter is still missing, I have been trying to send out pics for Laurie and now have all the info correct (I hope). please pass this on to ANY one you can think of, this is not a joke.

• Full name is ELIZABETH STONEBURG, goes by Liz or Libby.




• She is 14 years old




• 5' 5" tall




• 130 pounds




• Blondie hair




• blue eyes and braces




• she also is 3 1/2 months pregnant

From Laurie: Liz didn't meet the requirements for the amber alert because she wasn't abducted from like walmart, etc. A BOLO ( be on the look out) was sent to law enforcement as well has been placed in LEADS!! We have contacted National Center for Missing & Exploited Children as well. She was placed in my custody not long ago due to an abusive environment. Her father has used Parental Alienation against me and my family. She was doing well and looking forward to her temps and her car we were getting ready to purchase for her. We don't believe that she left to just leave. We also believe that she was not alone due to the fact she was worried about her pregnancy as well as not feeling well. In June her father tried to orchestrate an abduction and we learned about it which stopped and prevented the abduction.

There is a Civil Protection Order against her father (restraining order). So to all Law Enforcement from Ohio To Florida.... Please look at her pic on my default... she's out there and possibly being hidden as well as traveling with a young boy who drove to Ohio from Florida. She left the Akron area and heading to the Largo Florida area. If you have any information regarding my child please contact: New Franklin Police Department at 330-882-3281 Or the National Center For Missing And Exploited Children at 877-446-2632 ext.'s 6449 or 6295 case no.1102798.

Thank you very much for your help everyone!! Liz's very worried Mom, Laurie

Other bloggers will miss Bernie too!

Spoonful of Chocolate Sistah: Bernie Mac Dies at 50#links

Bye, Bye Bernie 2

More details are now being released on the passing of Bernie Mac. Mr. Mac was hospitalized for 3 weeks for pneumonia, his family and doctors fully expected him to get well and go back home. they said his condition was made worse because of his preexisting sarcoidosis ( an inflammatory lung disease. This hits home for me because I have a close family member that has this condition.

Bernie's daughter, Je'niece Childress, said there was always laughter in their home.
"Because that's just who he was," Childress said. "I'm sad that my daughter will never know or be able to feel how much he loved her." She also went on to echo my feelings from my first post....

Childress said.. "I think he will always be remembered as one of the original kings of comedy," "I think what made him so special to people was that even though he was a celebrity he just seemed so down to earth and so much like a part of your family."

The interviews on Popeater.com and People.com contain more details of the last touching moments between Bernie, his wife of 32 years, and their daughter. I can't even bring my self to type that part, so check out the articles for more details, and more tears.

My heart goes out to the family.

Are We Ready To Blog?

When I decided to take the plunge in to blogging, I decided to take someone with me..my Mom. She helps me all the time with my three little ones, she is more like a second mother than a traditional grandma ( or Meema as the case would be).

We always apply a tag team kind of approach to taking care of the kids and the house. Oh, you are making dinner, ok I will change the baby..sure you do not want to trade?

We have been working on ways to get blogging time and had a brain storm. We are lucky enough to have a big car port outside where the kids usually play and we hang out with them. We decided to take our laptops out there while the kid play. Ok the girls have chalk, the baby is in the exersaucer, they are all happy for the next two minutes at least,,LET'S BLOG!

Check back and see how we do, as we learn to navigate the Blogiverse.

Bye, Bye, Bernie

I wrote a post the other day on one of my other blogs about Christina Applegate being diagnosed with breast cancer. (GreenNPink.com)I went on to talk about how some celebrities wind up feeling like friends in a way even though they are strangers to us. For whatever reason some celebrities work their way in to our hearts more than others.

When I was writing that post I was also thinking about Morgan Freeman. I was driving when I heard on the radio that he had been in a bad car accident and had to be life flighted to a hospital. It made me sad instantly. (I have not herd any updates on him lately, I need to check on that)

Now today I get an email alert saying that Bernie Mac has died from complications due to pneumonia. I feel almost like I lost a friend, even though I have never met the man. I guess it is just that some celebrities come across as genuine, friendly people.

With the Bernie Mac Show, Bernie gave us a parental view us not so perfect parents could relate to. His character had a heart of gold and did the best he could for those kids even if he sometimes missed the mark. Then he would vent to "America", about his fears and frustrations about being a parent. "Come on America, BEAT YOUR CHILDREN, you know you wanna!" It was HILARIOUS! You knew Bernie the character did not want to beat the kids anymore than you wanted to beat your kids, but just to have someone say it out loud made us all laugh knowingly.

Bernie Mac made us all laugh for many years, now there will be tears for him. I can only imagine that anyone who enjoyed making people laugh so much would not want us to cry for long. You will be missed Bernie!

*Photo from photobucket.com

Hunting the late night snack

Ok, I just took a break from blog research to hunt down a snack. Locating snacks late at night always presents special challenges and risks. You have to evaluate your craving level carefully, and decide what you are willing to risk.

If I get something out of the hall pantry, it is not likely that anyone will wake up. Do I want anything that is in the pantry? hmmm nope, time to venture in to the kitchen.

In the kitchen you have the drawers, the fridge and the cereal cupboard all with their own levels of risk and reward. You have to REALLY be craving cereal to commit to going after all the cereal paraphernalia. If you can get the bowl out of the cupboard without causing an avalanche, the spoon out of the drawer with a minimum of "clink,clink"....oooh don't drop the spoon! Then you have to face the creaky cereal cupboard door, the fridge for the milk, and then the final task,,pouring the cereal.

If you are like me and are often trying not to wake up a baby or other sleeping relative, you take the box, and the bowl into another room with a door. If you get the milk and cereal into the bowl, and everything put away with out waking anyone, you have survived your snack hunt for the night. You win the right to slink off to your quiet corner of the house and enjoy your yummy reward. Don't chew too loudly and wake the baby now LOL!

Summer Reading With The Kids

I signed my girls ( ages 3 and 4) up for the summer reading program at our local library a few weeks ago. Now, they obviously can not read themselves yet, but they are great listeners. My husband and I have always read to them, even when they were brand new and all the words we said probably sounded like "blah, blah, blah". We hope that this is fostering a lifetime love of reading. I remember how much I hated reading that you "had" to do in school, but things you wanted to read were always fun.

I think all the reading is having a good affect already. They ask to get read to, they ask good questions about what we are reading, and they seem to retain much of what we read about. The program was about 6 or 7 weeks long. We had to read about 13 books a week to get to the 100 book goal by the end. The girls got different rewards at different milestones, such as stickers for reading 10 books, a bug ring for 20 books, etc. For reading over 100 books the girls got to pick a book to keep.

I wish I would have thought of this at the beginning of the program, but I think I am going to start doing book reviews from time to time on here. Mostly kids books I am sure because that is all I get to read these days, but I thought the other parents out there might appreciate the reviews. I love reading to my kids, but some books just drive me nuts as a parent. I will try and let you know if they seem like something you could read again and again,,,because kids LOVE repetition!

We have not read the one book yet, but the one we did read so far I really got a kick out of. It was called APPLES TO OREGON It gives a writer's creative flair to the true story of a pioneer family with eight children, that hauled 700 plants and baby fruit trees all the way to Oregon. The book has lovely full color illustrations and phrasing that is just as colorful and imaginative. Phrases such as " we came to a river wider than Texas, thicker than Momma's muskrat stew, and muddier than a cowboy's toenails." LOL with verbal imagery like that, we almost don't need the illustrations.

There is some interesting apple trivia on the back cover too. For instance, I did not know apples were related to roses...did you? Well we do now, and my girls were thrilled with the idea since they love roses so much!

I think this is a book parents and children will both like, and if you have to read it once a month or so from your child's stack of favorites I don't think it will make you too crazy..enjoy!

eHow, Here I Come..

I finally wrote my first eHow article the other day. I signed up a few weeks ago, but I just got up the nerve to write something. I decided to write an article on how to refurbish "Dorothy Shoes", or those glittery little girls' shoes. The ones I repaired weren't traditional Dorothy red, they were pink. This is because my one little girl loves pink, and if there is a pink option when buying something, she will choose the pink! She also has red ones, but I think that is more because they did not have pink ones when I first got her the red ones. Our oldest daughter has red ones, but I think I am going to try and make her some green sparkly shoes since that is HER favorite color. I think she would freak out if I showed up with a pair of green sparkly shoes. My pink girl was so happy that her shoes were all sparkly again.

Since these shoes normally cost between 12.00 and 20.00 new, "reglittering" them is a BIG money saver. Even if you get them on clearance like I try and do, you can extend the life of your daughters' favorite shoes by miles! You can check out the article if you want to know how to do this, it has step by step instructions and photos.

If you haven't heard of eHow.com, you might just want to check that out too. It is an interesting site where you can sign up for free,, write articles about whatever you are interested or knowledgeable in, and if the articles becomes popular you can make a few bucks on it. I think the more popular the article becomes, the more you can make per month. Like one lady said to me, it may only be pocket change or a few dollars,,,but the more articles you write, the more that can add up. There is even a section you can access once you sign up, that gives you ideas for articles you can write. These are things that others have requested to know "HOW" to do..pretty neat I think.

Hair update

Ok, I am basically happy with my new perm. I am very happy that my hair did not just finish falling out, or frizz like Bozo the Clown. I just got to wash it yesterday for the first time ( you have to wait two days after a perm to wash it), I can not wait for it to relax some...or a lot! When I would get perms before my hair was a lot thicker. With my hair as thin as it is now, it got a bit kinkier than I would like ( Wierd Al Yankovic comes to mind)













PHOTO FROM WEIRDAL.COM , yes I am old enough to remember Weird Al...are you? LOL!

The ironic part to all this hair stuff is this... When you are the mom to three young children you do not get out much, especially WITH your husband WITHOUT the kids right? Well my mom has been in the mood lately ( taking pity on me I believe), to watch all three at once. This has made it possible for my husband and I to go out as a couple about 4 time in the last 6 weeks or so. This is a record worthy of bragging, let me tell you! Now since my husband is the one that works outside the home and goes to college he meets more new people than I do. He is always telling me about this person or that person and tries to keep me up to date on the goings on "in the real world" Well since I was on parole ,,err, I mean had a sitter for all three kids, I got to go out and meet some of these people that I had only heard about. The first week I had my regular tired hair. The next time we went out around some of these people I had the newly permed, kinky hair. I figure by the time my hair relaxes, and I get it all highlighted and presentable it will be another year or so before I get to go anywhere. It is just Murphy's Law..Murphy has a sick sense of humor!

Hurray I got a perm Thursday!

I originally planned to call the post "Hurray I got a perm TODAY", but this is the first chance I have had to blog since I got it done. I have been dying to get my hair done. I have not been able to get my hair permed in about 5 years. Why?, you may ask... because I have had 3 babies in a little over 4 years, so I have not been allowed LOL. I know some women get their hair permed or dyed while they are pregnant, but it freaks me out. Of course I do not think I could even have taken the smell of a salon while I was pregnant anyway.



Since I have been pregnant so much lately my hair has not been happy. It is common for you to lose a little hair from hormone changes, the drain on your system vitamin wise, etc. Well evidently you can lose A LOT of hair from back to back pregnancies. I have literally been shedding all over the place, and covering my family in hair. The hair that I do have left is partially dried out and some of it is gray! AHHHH! I use to pull the few gray ones, now I talk to them nicely and thank them for staying in my head.


I use to get a spiral perm every few years, but now I really, really wanted one in hopes of it fluffing up my hair so it would not look so thin. Doesn't it look better?...........

Ok, so I am kidding with this picture, but is it not hilarious!? I have gotten a handful of perms in my lifetime, but I have never seen anything like this. These curlers look like those glow in the dark bracelets. the way you snap them together to make a circle. I had the lady take a picture of my head full of curlers to show my kids. I knew my daughters would get a kick out of it.

Unfortunately you do not get a discount for having less hair than you use to have when you got your last perm LOL. Now I have to wait a week and a half or so to get highlights added. I said I would talk nicely to the gray hairs and not pull them out of my head, I did NOT say that I would not try an turn them a different color!

I was a little girl once....

I was nervous when I found out I was having my first girl because I was never really a girly girl myself. How would I teach them the girly stuff, if I never really did much of it myself. I had Barbies and other "girl" toys, but I played more often with my friend's G.I. Joes.

A wonderfully unexpected thing happened. Over the last 3 or 4 years I have relocated that little girl inside me. I get to rediscover the joy of playing dress up, playing with dolls, creating hairdos, giggling for no reason....whatever.

I may have been more of a tomboy back in the day, but I have gained a new appreciation for being "a silly girl". I love seeing the world through their eyes, and I am trying hard to learn to relax and have fun with life again

I think my husband and I are doing a pretty good job of letting the girls experience a wide range of things. Our daughters ( ages 3 and 4) are now a wonderful mix of princess and pirate. They may act like tomboys on any given day, playing ball, or digging in the dirt, but they will be playing ball wearing a baseball cap and a tutu!