However, my latest obsession Pinterest.com has surpassed them all.

And believe me, that’s really saying something.

I’ve gone from being a bored cook to being constantly inspired to try the onslaught of new, fabulous recipes. The endless barrage of crafts and styles motivate me to action and I am completely addicted to the holiday section where I have found a collection of the most innovative, creative and delicious offerings on the Web that are updated every second.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself here. If you’re not familiar, here are a few basics.

What is Pinterest?

According to Pinterest’s “About Us” page, it is a virtual pinboard — a place where you can create collections of things you love and “follow” collections created by people with great taste. People use Pinterest to collect and share all sorts of things — recipes, holiday ideas, travel, crafts, kid’s activities. You name it, people are pinning it.

Why I love it

I am a visual creature and my computer’s bookmarks just don’t cut it. The process is simple: if you see a Web site you like, simply copy-and-paste the URL. Or, if it is already on Pinterest.com, simply “repin.”

How Do I Get Started?

Sorta Crunchy posted a great tutorial here. It’s very simple to get started and so very worth it.

My Favorite finds (so far!)

Honestly, there are too many great finds to really count (and I’ve only been active for a couple of months). Go to my page to see a few of my inspirations but some favorites have included:

Sure, we’ve all heard of gingerbread men but why not flip them the other way around to make reindeer?

This amazing autumn salad with spinach, pears, craisins, feta, green onions, bacon, candied walnuts.

I am totally making this edible tree on Christmas morning.

Harry Potter would be so pleased with this recipe for Butter Beer that has been floating around Pinterest.

These Santa brownie hats are fun and easy.

I’m totally going to do a family tree like this for my picture wall.

I love this site that has many ideas for Crazy Hair Day.

Want to spend more quality time with your kids? At dinnertime, here are 30 questions to ask them, one for every day of the month. This blog writes a new set of questions every month; some are silly, some are serious.

I appreciate all the great organizational helps on Pinterest. I really love this idea.

There are so many funny quotes floating around that make me chuckle every day.

See? Funny.

And fashion. Don’t even get me started on my fashion finds. I love this necklace: one half is your fingerprint, the other is your significant other’s.

And these boots? To die for!

I could go on but the important thing is for you to get on Pinterest.com. And if you’re already a part of the Pinterest community, what are your favorite things to pin? Note: Since it is still in Beta, leave your email in the comment section below if you’d like an invitation. Updated: Rumor has it there is a waiting list to join (a testament of its popularity). Be sure to leave a comment to get on it now!

Happy pinning! (But don’t say you haven’t been warned….)

It’s been years since I’ve been able to sit through a movie without stopping for some reason.  The dog needs to go out, the dog needs to come in, a child is up for one-last-goodnight-kiss, a child is up for a second one-last-goodnight-kiss, changing out the laundry so that it will be done before I finally settle down to sleep, putting in another load because if I don’t I’ll have to wear my bathing suit the next day since I’m down to my last pair of clean underwear….

I burn more calories during a movie than most people do in a Zumba class.

The “to-do” list seems endless for work.  I used to write a few last minute things on my bathroom mirror with a dry-erase marker every night before I went to bed so that I would remember what I needed to do first thing the next morning:  Don’t forget to email these 10 people, this deadline was today (but if you send it early tomorrow maybe no one will notice), your light is blinking on your voicemail so check it first thing (probably you leaving yourself another “to do” list), what didn’t get signed, what you forgot to mail, what didn’t get mailed because you forgot to sign it….

I realized I was in trouble when I couldn’t see enough of myself in the mirror to tweeze my eyebrows in the morning.

My days of sitting still by the pool with nothing to pay attention to but a trashy magazine are long behind me.  Someone needs their floaties on, someone is hungry, someone’s floaties are chafing so they need to come off, someone went to the bathroom with a wet bathing suit and can’t get it back on, someone needs to go to the bathroom right now or they might “leave a floaty” so stop trying to put her bathing suit on and help me get mine off!!

And we all know, technology has made this even worse.  The high level of “reachability” that, in the past, has only been available to the President of the United States is now not only available to everyone…it’s required.  It is now impossible to sit down to dinner at a nice restaurant without excusing yourself to answer important questions like “can I have a snack?” or “can I hit my brother because he hit me first?” or “did you see that picture that I sent you?  Isn’t it amazing that I could stick that penny all the way in my ear?”

Not being able to settle down has become very unsettling.

In my rookie parenting years, I would wish for a vacation to “get away from it all.”  But once I realized the level of preparation necessary to take a vacation, as I packed three kids to go to a grandparent’s house, packed myself, dropped the dog off at the kennel, did the laundry I needed to go, did enough laundry so that I’d have something to wear when I got back, threw stuff away that would go bad while we were gone, went to the grocery store so that we’d have the bare essentials when we got home….

I realized I didn’t really want a whole vacation.  I just wanted to sit.

My dream of going to the Bahamas for a week turned into a fantasy of getting a room at a Motel 6 for the afternoon and just sitting.  Sitting on a bed I didn’t have to make.  Sitting and drinking water from a cup I wouldn’t have to wash.  Sitting on a toilet I wouldn’t have to clean.

Just blissfully…sitting.

I’ve decided we busy moms have become woefully inadequate in the art of sitting.  I came to this conclusion because I dared to sit the other day and my 5-year-old looked at me like, “What in the heck are you doing?”

Like tennis or the piano, we need to start practicing how to sit and just be. So I am going to start us off with a few helpful exercises to get the ball rolling.  Or to get the rear-end sitting, as the case may be.

Step 1 is sitting on the couch and holding up your hand while you calmly say, “No.  I’m sitting.”  For the beginners, this must be done after the kids are in bed.  I don’t trust you to try it in the light of day when there are so many temptations to stand running around.

I suggest 5 sets of 20.

Step 2 should be sitting on your bed, finding a hole in the wall (glossing over the fact that you need to fix it) and just staring at it.  Really studying it.  A practice in meditation, you must ignore the runny noses and tattling that run into the room for at least 5 minutes (this exercise should only be interrupted by the threat of blood or flood.  They rhyme so you should remember them).

Moving on to Step 3 is not for the faint of heart:  Sitting through an entire meal without getting up.  No refills, seconds or getting up to blow on something that’s too hot or reheating something that’s too cold.  This must last for at least 7 minutes as you do your best to actually chew your food and fully digest it for the first time in years.  Conversation is optional, but sitting is mandatory.

Now, after you have completed these 3 steps toward successfully sitting (which may take a few months), you may move on to the next level.

That’s when you get to put your feet up.

Catherine Tidd is a writer, widow and mother of three. She is the founder of www.theWiddahood.com, a free peer support website dedicated to anyone who has lost a significant other and has a Facebook peer support page under the name Widow Chick. Along with being published in several books on grief and renewal, Catherine is also a humorous motivational speaker who focuses on ” finding joy in a life you weren’t expecting.” She is also a volunteer speaker with the Donor Alliance of Colorado.

I signed my two-year-old daughter up for toddler gymnastics as a birthday gift. I was so excited to enroll her because she’s my little jumping bean. I counted down the days to the first day of class.  

Keira and I got to the center 15 minutes early. “I bounce,” she repeated on the way up to the doors. Inside, I settled in on a cozy couch near the wall-to-wall windows looking into the gymnastics room. I spoke with Keira about the class and described all the equipment her teacher was setting up—essentially getting her revved up for the 45-minute class in which she would meet new buddies and exercise her penchant for bouncing around.   

She was ready to rock and roll and showed her teddy bear Teddy Jr., AKA “Teej,” the landscape just beyond the glass windows. She was soon going to be unleashed. Mommy and Teej were going to get 45 minutes of downtime—Teej needed it more than I—to sit back and watch our little girl expend her early morning energy.   

Wrong.  

“Parents, you can take your shoes off and join us on the mat,” the teacher said as she welcomed us in.

“What?” my mind raced.

Oh no, I realized, it was a class for tots and parents. When I signed Keira up for gymnastics, I didn’t read the fine print. And the fine print had my name all over it: Mom as in “Tot and Mom” gymnastics. Meaning, I had to hit the mat, jumping, stretching and balancing as well.

I can’t even find time and energy to hit the dusty elliptical in my basement. How was I going to keep up with two-year-olds and a teenaged gymnast who was doing flips as we settled to start warming up?

However, like any mom (or even dad) would do, I quickly switched gears, shook the morning fog from my brain, took off my shoes and hit the mat jumping. I “planted flowers” up my legs and “patted the soil” down my shins. I cracked my back stretching out. And I cringed when I had to touch my toes, but I had to smile when I looked over and saw my little girl flexing to the floor, blonde hair sweeping the mat, giggling and loving every funny minute with her clearly inflexible mommy.

I knew at that moment, “Mom and Tot” gymnastics was going to be a good way to kick off the weekend, and I was glad I didn’t have to be relegated to the creaky old couch just outside that window.

Let’s just see what next Saturday brings.

Trish Grodzicki is brand new to the Mile High Mamas. She is the proud momma to a two-year-old named Keira and two rambunctious dachshunds. She likes to say she is the mom of three little girls—-some furrier than others.

Many widows will tell you that during a certain time of the year, they find that their milestones are clustered.  Their spouse may have died near the holidays or near their wedding anniversary.  It’s really weird how that happens.  And I’m no different.  Father’s Day starts my “cluster.”  After that, my birthday, the anniversary of his death and our wedding anniversary (2 days after he died) come at me in rapid succession, all within 30 days of each other.

It’s like being bombed by grief with no where to hide.

I’ve gotten into a routine with most of it.  I can grin and bear it on my birthday.  I spend the anniversary of his death with friends.  And by the time my wedding anniversary rolls around, I’m usually so drained by all of the milestones that that day is very anti-climactic.

But Father’s Day…that’s different.

We usually spend the day up in Buffalo Creek, CO, where he is buried.  The cemetery is set in the woods, overlooking the Platte River and I can honestly say that my kids enjoy going.  It’s become just another outing and they love running around and exploring, throwing rocks in the stream and looking for mud to track into my car.

I remember the first Father’s Day we celebrated without him.  I knew it would be hard and I tried to prepare myself the best that I could for such an emotional day.  He had died almost a year before and I really thought I had gotten past most of the shock of him being gone (I would find out later that that shock would revisit me again and again as the years passed).

But I wasn’t prepared for actually sitting at a headstone, while my children, who were 6, 4, and 2 at the time, played and ran around through the woods.  One thought kept running through my mind over and over again.

“I can’t believe we’re here.  I can’t believe this is how we’re celebrating Father’s Day.”

Even though I’ve come to terms with a lot of how my life is now, Father’s Day will never be easy.  I have that same shock, year after year.  That same feeling of how utterly unnatural it is for my children to be visiting their dad in a cemetery…instead of watching him burn burgers on the grill.

After 4 years, I can’t believe that’s how we spend the day.

I’m so fortunate that my kids don’t look at it with the same grief that I do.  They hop in the car, excited to pick up balloons to release to their dad and ready to try and build a dam in the slow moving part of the stream.  Later in the day, we’ll celebrate with my own dad and brother-in-law and it’s just become a normal part of their lives that their dad isn’t with us.

That sense of normalcy for them is something that I’ll always be grateful for.

I wanted to share this with you, not to bring a depressing thud to your own Father’s Day, but to really make you think about what Father’s Day means.  You can give your husband a card.  You can give him gifts.  But really, truly try and celebrate it in your heart.  Be grateful for his partnership, his parenting and his support.  Do your best to overlook the times he played “Angry Birds” while you loaded the dishwasher or watched football while you bathed your kids and put them to bed on your own.  Remember the times he patiently tried to explain to them how to fish or sat with them for hours trying to teach them the “new math” that even you didn’t understand.

I’ll be remembering those good times too.  And wishing we had more of them.

Catherine Tidd is a writer, widow and mother of three. She is the founder of www.theWiddahood.com, a free peer support website dedicated to anyone who has lost a significant other and has a Facebook peer support page under the name Widow Chick. Along with being published in several books on grief and renewal, Catherine is also a humorous motivational speaker who focuses on ” finding joy in a life you weren’t expecting.” She is also a volunteer speaker with the Donor Alliance of Colorado.

I just returned from taking my kids to the Magical World of Disney thanks to a sa-mokin’ deal I got from my travel agent. Five days of park hopper passes, accommodations and meal plans for kids 3-9 years old…free. That’s right, people. The only person I had to pay for was myself. My parents, who were kind enough to come with me, actually had to pay more for the two of them than I did for my family of four.

Sorry, Dad.

I didn’t tell my kids we were going ahead of time. I had visions of creating that “Disney commercial” moment, waking them up on Monday morning for school and then saying, “Guess what? You’re not going to school today! You’re going to Disney World for a week!” while they screamed and jumped around with excitement.

But since my kids are not “morning people,” instead all I have is a video of them looking at me through sleepy eyes and slowly saying, “Huh?”

The excitement started to rise about mid-way through our 4-hour plane ride to Orlando and by the time we got to our hotel, we were ready to go. We couldn’t wait for the kids to get their first glimpse of that magical castle or step onto Peter Pan’s ship for the first time. So as our Disney shuttle neared the Magical Kingdom that first night…we were all squirming in our seats a little bit.

As we started walking around, my dad and I took notice of all of the people who were dragging reluctant toddlers into lines for rides and the kids who were just flat-out laying on the cement pitching fits. We saw parents standing in lines with children dead asleep on their shoulders and we wondered to each other, “What kind of parent would force their kid to get on these rides? What’s the point?”

Little did we know that in about 48-hours…we would become those people.

I hadn’t been to Disney World in years and my parents hadn’t been since I was 5-years-old. I quickly realized that they were using this opportunity with my kids to make up for all of the rides they wouldn’t take us on (or we chickened out of) when my sister and I were little. It seemed like after many of the rides, my dad would say with pride, “Don’t forget to tell your sister we did this!!”

It’s good to know that grandchildren can be a way of easing parental guilt later in life.

It’s easy to get caught up in the “magic” of Disney. Everyone is moving at such a break-neck pace and as an adult, you have this constant feeling that you should be somewhere right now, standing in a line for a ride that will forever change your child’s life. After awhile, it wasn’t the kids saying, “MOM! I have to get on a tea cup!” It was me saying, “I don’t care how tired you are! Get in this hour-long line for Splash Mountain and like it!!”

It wasn’t pretty.

As the days wore on, the kids wore out. I started realizing that we might be in trouble when, after our character breakfast, my youngest daughter fell asleep on the bus on our way back to the theme park.

At 10:30 in the morning.

I started getting a little punchy myself. By the fourth day, the kids seemed kind of “over” seeing all of the characters. I, however, never missed an opportunity to take a picture of them with someone in a plush costume. I’m embarrassed to say that I even had them in line to take a picture with a character they didn’t even know. I listened to the three of them have a quiet conversation amongst themselves in line, saying, “Now…who is this? What movie was it in?”

I swear that if someone had been walking around dressed as a Disney tampon, I’d have probably made my kids get a picture with it.

By the fifth day, we were done. I realized that I hadn’t really seen my reflection in a mirror for a week because (and I’m sure there is a very Disney explanation for this) there are no mirrors in the bathrooms. When I did manage to catch a glimpse, I was horrified at what I saw.

A ring of zits around my mouth because, in the Magical World of Disney, it’s okay to have a funnel cake and a Coke for breakfast every day. Make-up smeared in sweat and sunscreen. My hair curling in the Florida humidity and looking like a tight poodle “do” with wings on the side.

Lovely.

My dad started getting concerned that, once we got back home, my kids might see a person standing still and automatically go stand in line behind them for no reason. I was more worried that they might start walking in a permanent zig-zag, thanks to all of the lines we had been through.

It got to the point (and I don’t know if I have PMS or the Disney experience to thank for this) that I was just over hanging out with the general public. I sighed with impatience when a scooter had to be loaded on the bus to the park, delaying my “fun” for an extra 10 minutes. (Incidentally…I think that’s why they don’t have a “Wall-E” ride. When you see all of the scooters rolling around, you’ll realize that we’re living it.) I was done seeing the multi-layered-muffin-tops with the no-bra chaser. I wanted to belt the “newbies” getting on the bus who gasped with glee upon first seeing the top of the castle because I had lost my “gasp” somewhere in a line to see a Disney princess who was probably counting the minutes until she could take off that pancake make-up and grab a smoke.

And that’s when I knew it was time to go home.

In reality, I know that what my kids will remember about this trip in the years to come is all of the fun they had. The fireworks, the rides, the stores with everything a kid could ever want. They won’t remember the crazed look in my eye as I dragged them to grab a Fast Pass for one ride so that we could go stand in line for another one while we “waited.” They won’t remember my mom’s green complexion as she stepped off a particularly unforgiving space ride at Epcot with my son. And, hopefully, they won’t remember the week after the trip when I had to slowly reintroduce their little bodies to fiber.

The only thing that might keep ringing in their ears is my impatient voice saying, “Get over here! We’re making a memory!!!”

Catherine Tidd is a writer, widow and mother of three. She is the founder of www.theWiddahood.com, a free peer support website dedicated to anyone who has lost a significant other and has a Facebook peer support page under the name Widow Chick. Along with being published in several books on grief and renewal, Catherine is also a humorous motivational speaker who focuses on ” finding joy in a life you weren’t expecting.” She is also a volunteer speaker with the Donor Alliance of Colorado.

As she fights to keep her job at Central Bucks East High School, 30-year-old Natalie Munroe says she had no interest in becoming any sort of educational icon. The blog has been taken down, but its contents can still be found easily online.

Her comments and her suspension by the middle-class school district have clearly touched a nerve, with scores of online commenters applauding her for taking a tough love approach or excoriating her for verbal abuse. Media attention has rained down, and backers have started a Facebook group.

“My students are out of control,” Munroe, who has taught 10th, 11th and 12th grades, wrote in one post. “They are rude, disengaged, lazy whiners. They curse, discuss drugs, talk back, argue for grades, complain about everything, fancy themselves entitled to whatever they desire, and are just generally annoying.”

And in another post, Munroe — who is more than eight months pregnant — quotes from the musical “Bye Bye Birdie”: “Kids! They are disobedient, disrespectful oafs. Noisy, crazy, sloppy, lazy LOAFERS.”

She also listed some comments she wished she could post on student evaluations, including: “I hear the trash company is hiring”; “I called out sick a couple of days just to avoid your son”; and “Just as bad as his sibling. Don’t you know how to raise kids?”

Munroe did not use her full name or identify her students or school in the blog, which she started in August 2009 for friends and family. Last week, she said, students brought it to the attention of the school, which suspended her with pay.

“They get angry when you ask them to think or be creative,” Munroe said of her students in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday. “The students are not being held accountable.”

Munroe pointed out that she also said positive things, but she acknowledges that she did write some things out of frustration — and of a feeling that many kids today are being given a free pass at school and at home.

“Parents are more trying to be their kids’ friends and less trying to be their parent,” Munroe said, also noting students’ lack of patience. “They want everything right now. They want it yesterday.”

One of Munroe’s former students, who now attends McDaniel College in Westminster, Md., said he was torn by his former teacher’s comments. Jeff Shoolbraid said that he thought much of what Munroe said was true and that she had a right to voice her opinion, but felt her comments were out of line for a teacher.

“Whatever influenced her to say what she did is evidence as to why she simply should not teach,” Shoolbraid wrote in an e-mail to the AP. “I just thought it was completely inappropriate.”

He continued: “As far as motivated high school students, she’s completely correct. High school kids don’t want to do anything. … It’s a teacher’s job, however, to give students the motivation to learn.”

A spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association declined to comment Tuesday because he said the group may represent Munroe. Messages left for the Central Bucks School District superintendent were not returned.

Sandi Jacobs, vice president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, said school districts are navigating uncharted territory when it comes to teachers’ online behavior. Often, districts want teachers to have more contact with students and their families, yet give little guidance on how teachers should behave online even as students are more plugged in than they’ve ever been.

“This is really murky stuff,” she said. “When you have a teacher using their blog to berate their students, maybe that’s a little less murky. But the larger issue is, I think, districts are totally unprepared to deal with this.”

Munroe has hired an attorney, who said that she had the right to post her thoughts on the blog and that it’s a free speech issue. The attorney, Steven Rovner, said the district has led Munroe to believe that she will eventually lose her job.

“She could have been any person, any teacher in America writing about their lives,” he said, pointing out that Munroe blogged about 85 times and that only about 15 to 20 of the posts involved her being a teacher. “It’s honest and raw and a little edgy depending on your taste. … She has a deep frustration for the educational system in America.”

Rovner said that he would consider legal action if indeed Munroe loses her job.

“She did it as carefully as she could,” he said about her blog. “It’s so general that it applies to the problems in school districts and schools across the country.”

___

Mile High Mamas is one of the leading mom blog sites for the Denver metro area. We are looking for a self-motivated,
enthusiastic intern who will help expand our audience.

The internship duties include:

*Writing a weekly newsletter and blog postings.
*Working with Social Media.
*Researching hot topics for parents in the Denver metro area.
*Engaging readers in online forums.
*Helping to organize MHM correspondence.

Requirements

*Strong writing skills.
*Somewhat tech savvy with social media know-how.

The MHM internship is a great opportunity to work for The Denver Post, Colorado’s leading news provider. Our digital media offerings – including milehighmamas.com – continue to grow and garner national recognition.

Hours: 10 hours per week
Compensation: School credit only
Contact: Korene Gallegos – kgallegos@denverpost.com

It’s not every day a stay-at-home mom like me gets on the news, so it was quite exciting.  As soon as the segment came on I screamed for the whole household to come watch. Did I mention my first-born Jack was also around when Fox 31 was about to make me famous?  He came running downstairs, hoping to see himself.  I was hoping to see me.   When it was all over, one of us was happy, and one of us in a Darth Vader tee shirt was not.  My words were his only comfort.

“But Jack, at least MOMMY was on the news.  Isn’t that exciting?  You could see me clearly and even if it was only from behind, everyone has to know that was ME!”

Jack said, “That doesn’t help me feel better mom.”  And off he went pouting to his room.

Even though I felt like a celebrity that night, I cooked dinner and helped with homework as any normal mom would. I had to cut up about 40 pounds of carrots, shuck 8 bags of corn, and wash 124 potatoes.  And all that food was the reason we (well, mostly me) were on the news.

The 5^th grade class at our beloved school takes an annual field trip each fall to Miller Farms.  The farm is east of I-25, very close to Platteville.  You might be as happy as I was to discover that Platteville is a real place, and not a fake place the news people talk about whenever tornados touch down in our state.

The very first thing we got to do on the farm was load up on open trailers and go into the fields to pick vegetables.  The first crop we picked was corn, then potatoes, cabbage, onions, carrots, and pumpkins.  The nice people at Miller Farms gave the kids as many bags as they could carry and let them go nuts!  Jack brought me a 20 pound bag of white onions—which was a little overwhelming as I hate to cook, and when I do use onion, it’s only the red kind.  It’s not that I’m not biased or anything.  The white ones just seem so big and smelly.

After our time in the field, we headed to lunch, or “dinner” as the farmers like to call it.  All of us were hot, dehydrated, and windblown as we sat down in the shade to eat.  I regretted my choices for lunch that day, as I’d worked up quite a sweat in the fields (one small bag of Doritos, and a Fiber One bar).  Anyway, after lunch, the kids were free to roam.  There was a HUGE hay bale tower to climb, a corn maze, animals to visit, a jumpy trampoline thing, and a tractor train to ride.

I watched Jack and his friends run crazy on the farm, and relished the moments he was in my view as I sat under a canopy visiting with other moms.  He came by every so often to tell me he was thirsty or bored, and all seemed right with the world.

Before I know it, I’ll be taking him on field trips to visit colleges, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Today I will celebrate the crops, the wild independence of a 10 year-old-boy, and a mom who is slowly learning to release her grip.

Be a farmer for a day!  Check out Miller Farms Fall Festival—opened daily thru November from 9 am to 6 pm.  Also in the month of October, they have Haunted Hayrides—check it out at www.millerfarms.net

You can do that?
Yes, you can, and I do it before every trip I take.

Will things work perfectly? No. Do I expect them to? Absolutely not. Would I want them to? Of course! Casual or not, I am a perfectionist, after all.

Does any of this matter on my final evaluation of the trip? No, not in the least.

If the perfection of a trip decides my happiness, I’d never be a happy camper. If I never got to dip into my Bag o’ Plan B Tricks, things would be rather boring, right?

So, before every trip, I decide that I’m going to have a good time regardless of what the reality of the situation dictates. It’s my Travel Zen Mentality, and it’s worked like a charm all the years I’ve been traveling.

This trip was a little different, so I knew I needed to really take a full dose of it this time, because for the first time ever, I’d be traveling by myself.

Well, as “by myself” as I could be with thousands of people around me at any given moment.

The potential to think too much about that and all the What Ifs could eat me alive if I wasn’t careful.

I was going to explore NYC by myself, and I couldn’t wait!

Going to BlogHer10 in NYC was my excuse to get there. I studied the itinerary of the conference to see when I could fit in my own adventures. As luck would have it, all of Saturday could be devoted to BlogMe, rather than BlogHer.

This was my first BlogHer conference, and I couldn’t wait to see what all the hooplah was about. I loved it! The people, the energy, the food, the information, the camaraderie, the whole experience was top-notch for me. I loved meeting people I’ve admired from afar in person! It’s a huge boost to your confidence when someone recognizes who you are, too!

But the best part of my experience was exploring New York City itself, specifically The Statue of Liberty. I’d made reservations in advance to see her up close and in person. Claire, my four-and-a-half year old daughter, has been smitten with Lady Liberty for over a year now. I’m not sure where the infatuation came from, but she LOVES her. In fact, one reason Claire was so willing to let me go on a trip without her was the promise that I’d send photos of the Statue of Liberty while I was there.

I’d seen glimpses of Lady Liberty in 2003, when my husband and I had explored New York with some friends. They were locals, so getting around the subway was just second nature to them. We were just along for the ride and had an awesome time. At that time, tours of the Statue of Liberty were on hold, and so we just took zoomed-in photos of her from Battery Park.

Now, the lines to see the Statue of Liberty are INSANE if you don’t have advanced reservations. I was able to sit in the shade in Battery Park and eat my little picnic lunch (okay, it was just a granola bar and fruit snacks), and then leisurely walk up to the security line and be let in the Fast Lane.

I had tickets to explore the Pedestal. I tried to get tickets to explore the Crown, but those are sold out months in advance. I was lucky to get one of two time slots remaining as it was, and I made my reservations almost a month in advance!

The weather was perfect. The sun was shining and it was warm. I didn’t find it to be too uncomfortable. All over the island were signs about staying hydrated. “Be sure to drink water!” all the signs warned.  So, imagine my surprise when the officers guarding the entrance to the Pedestal requested that I either dump out or chug my water. I couldn’t take it past security! So, I drank it all. Right there.

Then, I literally laughed out loud when I was greeted by the “156 Steps to the Pedestal” sign. 156 steps with no water?? Great!

But, I did it, and I’m so glad I did.

I still get chills when I think of seeing the Statue of Liberty from this vantage point. As statues go, she’s rather large, but compared to the image in my head, she’s a lot smaller than I thought she’d be in person.

I highly suggest a trip to see her if you’re in NYC, but only if you get the advanced reservations. Unless you like waiting with thousands of your new best friends…in the hot sun…for hours and hours.

I was able to take photos with the “real” camera and with Glenda, my BlackBerry. I texted those photos back home to Daddy and Claire and to my sister in California.

“That’s so cool! Two strong beautiful ladies,” she texted back. Seeing that response not only made my day, it resonated with me:

It summed up my BlogHer NYC weekend perfectly.

Yes, it’s time for the BlogHer Conference!

This will be my first BlogHer Conference, and I can’t wait!

Years ago, before I had a child, I was part of an organization that held a yearly conference. I’d hop a plane with some girlfriends from Colorado, and we’d meet up with people from all over the country. It was crazy. It was insane. It was inspiring, exciting, and exhausting.

In other words, it was a typical women’s conference.

Needless to say, I’m not new to the whole conference scene. I’m new to a conference this size. I realize that 2,400 sounds like a big number, but the conferences I’m used to involve over 35,000 women. Yes, for real. Did I mention it was crazy?

I’m really excited to check out a conference like BlogHer, and I’m even more excited to explore New York City. My husband and I had the opportunity to explore in 2003, and I’ve been anxious to go back ever since. When I found out BlogHer was going to NYC this year, I jumped at the chance.

Yes, I’m paying my own way. No, I don’t have a sponsor. …unless you count my husband. In fact, this is where I give a huge shout-out to him. He volunteered to pick up the slack while I go gallivanting across the country. I couldn’t do this trip without him, and yet I’m doing this trip without him.  In fact, this will be the first time since having my daughter that I’ve traveled without at least one of them by my side. That in itself will be weird, but I think I’ll get used to it. (I’ll try not to skip and whistle a little tune as I go through Security.)

Claire is excited for me to go on my trip. Her only request is that I bring her something, anything, everything with the Statue of Liberty on it. For some reason, she’s been obsessed with Lady Liberty for over a year now, and she wants me to take pictures when I “meet her in person.”

I think I can handle that; I’ve already scheduled my tour. All I have left to do is pack!

So, what about you? Are you going to BlogHer in NYC? Have you gone in the past or will this be your first time? Tell us in the comments, and maybe I’ll see you there!