good ol' google

I just had a funny thought:

I'll could possibly have a whole new demographic group of visitors to my blog via Google searches, now that I've posted extensively more than anyone ever wanted to know about our dog's unfortunate (read: painful for him, and EXPEN$IVE for me!) pork-bone-fragment-stuck-in-rectum incident.

(UPDATE: The vet was able to break up the blockage and get the bone chunks out without doing surgery. Now Ocho has food going in one end and poop coming out the other. Hallelujah!)

So, I would like to take a moment right now to welcome all of the dog-lovers whose puppies may have digested something they shouldn't. Maybe our mishap will save another family from suffering this same trauma.

Can I see a show of paws?

tell me...

...why do I always vent my frustration by writing blog posts that I would never actually post online?

"We write frankly and fearlessly, but then we 'modify' before we print."

- Mark Twain

in Life on the Mississippi

Yeah, that explains a lot.

re-connecting

One of my friends from my Journey Group invited me to sign up for Facebook. So I did. She warned me that it was completely addicting, and she was completely right. I've spent several hours setting up my profile and searching for friends. It's a pretty cool networking tool. I was impressed that it tells me which friends my friends and I have in common too.

It's been really fun, though, to re-connect with friends from high school and college, as well as some of my youth group kids who are all grown-up now, and a former youth pastor. So, if you're visiting from my Facebook page, feel free to leave a comment and say "hi" here too!

Oh, and here's a picture of our kids if you haven't seen them in a while. It was taken when we visited the new World of Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta this summer with my Dad and Grandparents.

And, if you're a blogger who happens to also be a Facebook member, let me know so I can add you to my list of friends there.

my first wedding cake

My cake decorating blog has moved to:

http://creativecakeworks.blogspot.com

You can visit over there to see photos of my very first wedding cake! It's finished, delivered, and paid for... and I'm exhausted! First, update your bookmarks, then GO see it and let me know what you think!

Creative CakeWorks is linked in my sidebar now under My Other Bloggy Pages. Come back anytime to check out what I'm working on! I have two more cakes next weekend (birthday cakes - SpongeBob SquarePants & an electric guitar). Compared to today, those should be "a piece of cake!"

I can quit anytime I want to...really!

This is funny, y'all... in a pathetic kind of way. I am a genuine blogaholic. I took that little quiz on some website, and I was "diagnosed" as being 78% addicted to blogging.

78%...but it gets worse...

I have 16 blog sites listed on my Blogger Dashboard.

16 blogs...but it gets even worse...

I only have a few regular readers (that I know of), and even fewer commenters. And most of them are on this page. Some of my blogs have no readers at all, they're just there for me. I read a bunch of other people's blogs too - it's almost like I have all these imaginary friends (& some real ones too).

Anyhoo... 16 blogs, but really only 10 or 11 of them are mine. Besides O2BNAZ (this page), I have:

• two created for church (one for Journey Group Leaders, and one called The Kindness Network)
• one for my homeschool group
• one for my son
• a private one between my husband and me
• a business one (that hasn't really been officially launched yet)
• one to write homeschool progress reports
• a cake blog
• a collection of quotes
• a photo gallery
• one for our Journey Group
• a Big Green Egg family blog
• an anonymous/secret blog
• a "test" blog (to try things out without messing up my O2BNAZ site)
• and a poetry one

(sorry...I'm not at liberty to share all of these links with the world-wide interweb.)

But I can quit blogging anytime I want to. You might not ever notice it, but I actually DO quit several times a week!

Kelley, Queen of Cakes

Well, I may not be the Ace of Cakes, but I'm pretty darn close. You can just call me the Queen.

Seriously, I've started doing a good amount of cake decorating lately. Not for money or anything, just for fun. It's one of those hobbies that I didn't talk about for a while after we moved here. I needed a break. But word has gotten out, and people know about my secret identity now.

So, I decided to start a blog about cake decorating, where I could "show off" (um, I mean "share") a few of my creations too. Go to http://queenofcakes.blogspot.com to check it out. Let me know what you think!

Enjoy!

blog design giveaway

I just found out about this blog design giveaway over at Everyday Mommy at Everyday Design. I would be SO excited to win a new design for my blog! Wouldn't you?

Blogging Chicks

I've never officially joined a blogroll before, so I'm trying this one out. Hopefully I'll have lots more interesting blogs to read, as well as many more visitors to my site.

Blogging Chicks unite! Let me know what you think if you stop by.

O2BNAZ

The name of my blog says a lot about me. There are many times I wish I had never left Arizona, or wish I could go back to visit more often. I'll always be an Arizona girl at heart. It's my home, and it's where most of my family lives.

Actually, I came up with "O2BNAZ" as I was trying to come up with a personalized license plate for my truck when we moved to Georgia. My husband talked me out of actually having the license plate made, because he felt it would send the wrong message to our new friends and neighbors here. He thought it would make them feel bad or something, like they were not my first choice as friends, or that I was insulting their home state.

I think I am going to have the O2BNAZ license plate made this year, though. I'm in a different state of mind now, really. It's not that I'm sitting around pining for AZ all the time, but I think those people who matter to me know that I do like it here in GA and I love the friends I've made. I don't think of it as making the statement that I'm wishing I wasn't here, or wishing I were somewhere else, but just saying that I'm from AZ, and everyone knows it, and I'm honoring that part of myself.

change your linkies!

To the 6 ever-so-faithful people who link to my blog... (you know who you are...) I have some BIG, exciting, bloggity news - effective immediately!

My blog is now being hosted on a new site. Same blog, new URL. Long story short: Blogger offered a new feature (for free, no less! FREE!), GoDaddy was having a sale, and I'm trying to learn how to do some new fancy bloggy things, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

http://blog.O2BNAZ.com

I think you'll be automatically redirected if you continue to use my old blogspot address, but this one is so much more catchy, don't you think? So, just humor me and change your links, OK?

By the way, that "O" is the letter, NOT a zero.

And there's still NO "www" at the beginning.

I also postdated this post so that it will stay on top for a while. So, in the meantime, be sure to scroll down to see if I've actually written anything else worth reading. Hopefully it will be a while before I write another post that has some form of the word "blog" in it 8 times. OK, 9 now.

an anniversary to forget

A year ago today, I did something I'd rather not remember, but I can't seem to forget. Something that changed the course of my life forever. I posted a blog entry. Sounds harmless, right? People do it every day. But this time was different. I wrote some thoughts that certain people didn't agree with, feelings they didn't understand and couldn't deal with. The reaction was so explosive, I thought I would never recover from "the blog that hit the fan." (Don't try to go back and look for it - I took it offline long ago.)

True, my life hasn't been the same since, but it's not as devastating as it sounds. I may not be totally recovered yet, but it consumes a lot less of my time and energy. The life I have now is a life that I couldn't even visualize when I published my feelings online on May 22, 2005. God is good, and I give him the glory for getting me through that ordeal in one piece. I am a lot more careful about what I write these days, though.

In the year since my blog, so much has happened in my life. The biggest events that happened were my husband closing his business and taking a job; we moved our family 2,000 miles away from home, to a place where we knew no one; and my mom was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer. Everything felt out of our control, and it was. With all of the stress, shame, loneliness, anger, depression and grief I went through, I thought 2005 would never end. I was glad to wake up on New Year's Day feeling some hope.

You see, before, I was just going through life, but now I feel as if I have woken up, I've become "real." This past year, I've definitely experienced some of my highest highs and lowest lows, but all the time I've been growing in God's love. He has become more of a reality to me than ever.

Family is precious; true friends are a rare treasure. My love for my husband has multiplied because when I went out on that limb and others wanted him to discredit my thoughts, he backed me up and shared the consequences of my actions with me. He never made me feel as if I had done anything shameful. But God gets the credit for all of those things too, because He has given me His love, His Spirit, His forgiveness, salvation and an inheritance, even when others condemned me.

So, for those of you who played a part in judging and ostracizing us, you wounded us, but you did not destroy us. I can finally say that I forgive you as Jesus forgives me. And for those of you who love me and have stood by me and encouraged me through this year, THANK YOU! I love you more than words can say.

spring break

We're going to Orlando for spring break - leaving Saturday for a week. Lots of work to do this week to prepare, but I'm really excited. We're going with our neighbors, the Stricklands. We're all doing 5 days at Universal Studios together. When they invited us to tag along, I jumped at the chance. Hey, it's better than sitting home for a week listening to my kids whine, "When are Chase & Allie going to come home?"

Nathon & Chase are afraid of most roller coasters, but Chase is making it his mission to get Nathon to ride all of the ones at Universal. So, we'll see how that goes. Maybe a little peer pressure will make them braver than normal. Nathon already told me this morning that he had a dream about the Incredible Hulk roller coaster and another one, and they didn't seem as bad as he thought they would be, so maybe he would be willing to try and ride them next week. That's progress, anyway -- last year at Disneyland, we had to make him go on Indiana Jones and Big Thunder Mountain. I don't think he ever went on Splash Mountain.

I'm really looking forward to this time away to warmer weather, just hanging out with Bryan and playing with the kids. (Bryan and I have some pretty fond memories of Universal Studios from our college days too.) I don't know if I'll be able to blog while we're gone, but I'll definitely post pictures when I get back, if not sooner.

happy blogiversary to me

I was just making some updates to my blog this morning, and I realized - by looking at my archive list in the sidebar - that I'd started my blog in March 2005. Curious, I went back to my very first post and found that it was dated March 16th. So, today is my blogging birthday. Or blogging anniversary, whichever. Maybe I'll call it my "blogthday," or my "blogiversary." Is there a proper term for this concept? I have no idea.

Anyway, what would a blogiversary be without a few thoughts about what blogging has meant in my life this past year? Here goes...

• I started blogging as a way to express my emerging feelings and thoughts, as well as stay connected with my friends and family. I was having all of these emotions bubble to the surface, but they didn't have anywhere to go. I didn't really set out with a message, or theme, or target audience.
• I love reading what's on other people's minds in their blogs too. I have tried to get other friends to start blogging, but without much success. It has been fun to make new connections with people in the blogosphere, and even re-connect with some old friends.
• Blogging is a huge blessing, but it can also be dangerous. I say this because writing my blog has gotten me into some very tense situations, has hurt some relationships, and made me question myself. I don't mind questioning myself sometimes, but blogging makes you truly take responsibility for the things you say. Others may feel justified to hold you accountable, and it's no fun when friends use your own words against you. Trust me.
• Blogging has absolutely changed my life. Some people just don't understand blogging; maybe some people just don't understand me. But I've grown so much as a person and as a friend. I'm glad I didn't quit blogging when it got tough.
• I've felt disappointed in myself for the months when I only posted cute kid stories. My fear of jumping back into blogging was paralyzing for a long time, but it is finally starting to subside. There is still some fear in my heart, but I am trying to overcome it with every click of that "publish" button. I've written too many drafts saved for a braver day.
• Speaking the truth in love is difficult for me. I can speak the truth just fine. The love part usually comes too late though. I feel love, but it just doesn't get communicated very well for some reason. Whether people love me, disagree with me, or whether nobody reads a word I write, I'm just here to grow through writing about my daily life, my emotions, and my journey with my heavenly Father.
• I have learned a lot this past year. Obviously, I still have a lot to learn -- about blogging, about writing, about loving other people, about myself, about life, and about freedom in Christ.

Happy blogthday to me!

just curious

Does anyone ever read my quotes page, or look at my pictures page? They're linked on the sidebar, under my picture and profile. I get very few comments even on my main blog page, but I've never had any comments on the other two, so I was just wondering...

my metablog

Metablog = a blog about blogging

Blogging is a dangerous thing to do. Take it from me.

Being real can be a real mess.

PS - If you're here to read the now-infamous blog "seething below the surface," I have two words for you ~ it's gone.

hello, blog world...

Well, this is my first "blog" and I'm wondering where in the world to start...

I can already tell this is going to be an addicting pasttime for me. I think being able to articulate my feelings is really going to help me grow -- I pray that God will use some of the things I write to help others too along the way.

Until next time.....