PNW Blogger Meetup

Saturday was the PNW Blogger Holiday Party put together by the fabulous Paper Mama. Now I've already mentioned how nerve racking this whole thing was for me. Add on top of that having to have my husband drive me (OMG Can I just get a license already?! What the freaking frack is WRONG with me?!) and cart the kiddos with us? I was feeling like maybe it was all too much work for a little blogger meetup.

Well, first of all, it was not little. 75-80 people attended. Yeah. And you know what? I totally think it was worth it. Look, I'm not a writer and have no aspirations to be one. At best I'm a documentarian-y person. Just go with it. The point is, I don't really feel the need to network or grow my blog or crap like that. I just want to post pictures of my kids and silly stories so I don't forget. BUT- I do want to meet people and be part of a community. I know. Throw up. But it's true. And of course, the whole pushing me out of my comfort level is probably beneficial.

Hey shitty drink. You better get me buzzed anyway.

 Anyway, we ended up in Portland about 20 minutes before 6. So I hopped out of the car and set off to find a bar. Two overpriced shitty drinks later, I made my way to West Elm, where the even was being held. Can we talk for a second about the awesomeness of this place? I'd seen their website, but never had been in one of their stores. (I didn't even know until last Friday that there's one in Seattle. Like I could probably walk to it on my lunch break. Oh Shit is right.) Basically I want to live in one is the thing. So I go inside and get in line to hand over my ticket and what not, and thank goodness for the lady in front of me for saying hello. It was the lovely Lindsay from Hey Normal Day who I didn't know of before, but was glad to meet someone to nice right off the bat.


Hey ladies and one dude. I'm just gonna stand here all alone and take pictures of you

 
I managed to talk to quite a few people. I had a pretty good stack of business cards to prove to Shawn I had. I met some really nice ladies and talked to 1 or 2 I'd met before (Carlee, Mary Ann, Kendra, Gracey, Nanette, Jess, Mandy, & probably some more people that I'm forgetting). And it sounds like plenty of people were nervous and/or didn't know anyone. So that helps. I mean, if someone is preoccupied with being nervous themselves maybe they won't notice you just started talking about testicles. Kidding. I did not talk about testicles. (I did in a meeting at work the other day though I think, which is just weird.)


Adorable Chelsea giving away stuff! Including a pair of jeans, to meeeee



This snow globe? Awesome. I though it was a gnome, but I think it's supposed to be Santa. Whatever. Gnomey should have come home with me and I have sadness that he didn't.



In summary: I had fun, I met cool people, my Blog reader is out of control now, I will totally do this again. The End.

This week

Can you believe I STILL don't have internet at the house?! I mean. Come on. Thus, more blah blah blahing, and no pretty pictures.

Realized the other day that poor little Archer's room was getting pretty cold at night. Colder than the rest of the house actually. So Shawn bought a space heater yesterday to try and warm things up. And I don't know if the two are related, but for the first time in like, two weeks, Archer slept more or less through the night (4:40am to be exact). I could dance a jig from joy!

I've finally got back to reading again. The last couple of years with the having babies and all, I hadn't been reading as much. I've read a couple great books recently, and have a few more lined up (Thanks to some bday presents.) I might even blog about it. What? A post that isn't about my kids? Say what?

I really want to get out to a corn maze/ pumpkin patch soon. We were going to go a couple weekends ago, but the kids both fell asleep in the car so we kept driving. We didn't make it back that day, and I was bummed because it was PERFECT weather for it. Now we're back to the typical rainy rain and I'm afraid we'll have to sledge through the wet and the mud. Guess that just provides me the perfect opportunity to finally get my rubbers, as my mom would say. I'm speaking of rain boots, of course. AND more importantly I can finally get some for Q.

Did you see up there I said something about a birthday? Well, I had one. Again. Stupid having one every year. I'm still trying to decide if I will be one of those women that embrace my age, all "Look at me! I'm a *mumble mumble* years old woman and I love life! It's aging GLORIOUS!!" or if I've gotten to the point where I will just tell people I'm 21. My aunt was famously guarded of her age. She was an actress so of course she lied and always said she was younger than she was. One of my favorite stories of her: She was in a situation where someone needed to know her age, and not able to speak for herself at the moment the question was aimed to my uncle. Apparently the look she shot him was enough to make him stumble over his words, and I think probably lie a little. Anyway for now, we'll just say I'm thirty something. Like the show, except not. Ok fine, I'm 34. Blech.

I have gotten to the point where I really need to trim my bangs (Oh yeah, I got bangs! It's weird!) but I'm afraid to do it myself. Shawn has volunteered, but I declined that train wreck waiting to happen.
I got my nails done for the second time ever a few weeks ago, and tried the shellac polish. I freaking love it! It's perfect for me since it lasts so long and I don't really care about changing color all the time. The only problem? It does eventually wear down and needs to be redone. If anyone can think of a way to justify paying $30 every three weeks to get it redone, lemme know.

I'm going to the PNW Blogger meetup next month in Portland! Well, I should say I bought a ticket and might go. I might also freak out and come up with an excuse why I can't go. Which, let's face it, is more likely.

I'm getting to the point that while I'm not necessarily done with breastfeeding, I'm pretty done with pumping. Archer will be 1 at the beginning of December, and I might just stop pumping then. Well, if I can make it that far. I have, I hope, a post coming about that too.

This was too long, wasn't it? Oh well. It's lunchtime now, and that means wandering aimlessly through stores looking at things I can't/shouldn't buy. It's one of the awesome/sucky things about working in the city. Hope you're all having a lovely week my dearies!

PNW Blogger meetup, or that time I went to a thing and tried not to suck too much

This last weekend was a PNW Blogger meetup. The event was put together by Mandy from Harper's Happenings, Chelsea from The Paper Mama, and Melissa from Hi Baby, who did an awesome job. There was a daytime event for families at Greenlake Park and a nighttime event just for the bloggers, at Telaricos (which I hadn't been to in quite awhile, but I really like.)
I thought the daytime event would be good cause I'd have Q with me as sort of a distraction. Turns out all I was really able to do was chase him around (HA HA-Blog Title! oh, to laugh) while everyone else chatted. I felt so stupid. Eventually Shawn came back, so I was able to try and chat a little while he wrangled the little man. Of course everyone was SUPER nice but, by my own fault completely, I felt out of place. This isn't a new thing for me though, in new situations, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

After that Shawn and I got breakfast-lunch. Pancakes helped and I decided to still go to the nighttime event. Then it was back home for a little while, and a slight wardrobe change. Then out to West Seattle with Tenacious D on the radio courtesy of Shawn, which I'm surprised didn't cause me to say lewd, inappropriate things all night.

Anyway, there was pizza, prizes, a photographer & a photobooth (the pics are sooo funny! I couldn't gather up my nerve to take a silly picture myself- boooo me) and lots of awesome ladies to chat with. And although I didn't make my way around to meet any people, those I did get to meet were lovely, as I'm sure everyone was.

A few pictures, courtesy of Jessica May Photography :

HUGE Pizzas

Awesome prizes, none of which went home with me (BTW- I missed most of what was going on while these were being handed out because some drunk dude kept trying to ask me what was going on. I explained it, like 3 times, but he was not getting it. He came back to me again later and asked again. Random. He was probably just trying to meet some hot ladies, so I guess I can't blame him.)

Cool people

Dorks (okay, maybe just the one) (I'm trying to decide if anyone would notice if I ate the whole thing)

I didn't take many pictures myself, but I wore cute shoes:

And I wore makeup (gasp!)

And here's my little name tag that I ripped in half at some point (and I wasn't even drinking)

I'm glad I decided to go. Sounds like lots of other ladies were a little nervous too. I'll definitely go next time around and just unleash my weirdness on everyone. Well, maybe after a drink or 3. Look out! 

This is not my first time

Blogging I mean. What did you think I meant? Anyways, weirdo. So before this I've had, oh about 5 blog attempts in the past. The first was a Live Journal. Remember Live Journal? Yeah, well I had a paid account for about a year and posted maybe 10 times. Fail. I think there was something on Diaryland too, but I'm not sure if I ever really posted there. Then came MySpace. Remember MySpace? Hahaha.... Anyway, I blogged there for awhile. I went to check what the hell I ever blogged, but mostly it was those questioners and maybe song lyrics when I was feeling especially lame and emo. Then a Blogger blog that got three posts before I got pregnant and stopped. Which is dumb, cause that would have been a great time to start documenting things that I've now probably forgotten. Then I had a New Years Resolution! That was to blog and take more pictures. So a Tumblr account was created. And quickly was forgotten. So. Huh. Did I have a point? Maybe not. But I will say that I obviously have this desire to write silly things and document things in my life. So even though I may quit again, I'm really trying this time. Onto another week of trying.  Fingers crossed for me?