Big News and More News!

Happy Monday!

I’m so excited to finally launch MissLuluBlogs.com and here we are!
There are some new things, and also some great news too!
This new site layout is similar to ‘BoardingtheMOTHERship’ but I want to be much more interactive and involve you, the readers!


I am happy to announce that I will be attending BlogWorld and New Media Expo courtesy of IZEA, The Social Media Company.  They’ve provided me a Full-Access pass that I plan on using to the fullest! I have so much to learn & so many people I am excited to meet.















If you’re headed to BlogWorld Expo follow me on Twitter [@MissLuluBlogs] & let’s connect at the Expo! Since I’m sort of new to the bloggosphere I look forward to learning new things and becoming a more active participant in the blog community.


Are you headed to BlogWorld? Check out: ProBlogger’s 15 Tips for Getting the Most Out of BlogWorld Expo and did you know there are 130 Women Speaking at BlogWorld?

I have packed my BlogWorld schedule and will be attending quite a few scheduled talks as well as different Tweetups, Meetups and events! This year’s conference is in Vegas and there are a lot of parties planned. Here are some BlogWorld Safety Tips from the BlogWorld Blog.


Once I return, I look forward to sharing things I learned, adventures and great new people I meet and blogs/sites I discover.


Feel free to grab my new button & subscribe via e-mail in the sidebar to keep up to date on the latest from Miss Lulu!

Why NOT me? IZEA, send me to BlogWorld Expo! -UPDATE

A HUGE Thanks goes out to IZEA for selecting me as one of the lucky few to attend BlogWorld New media Expo 2010! I'm sooooo excited and cannot wait to share my adventure with you all! CLICK HERE to see all the winners announced.  




 


IZEA is partnering with BlogWorld New Media Expo to send 10 bloggers to their conference in Las Vegas this October!

If I am chosen, this would be my very first blog conference experience ever!


Going to Blog World would be a dream come true! 

There are 10 passes up for grabs! Why not me?

Over the past year I have become a social media addict! I love that our global community is getting closer and more connected!


I'm a mom, a wife, daughter, blogger and sociocultural anthropology student...I need a weekend in Vegas!


Were I to be selected, I'd sing the praises of IZEA from California, all the way to Nevada and then some! Because I'm such a new blogger, I don't have any other conflicting sponsors, so IZEA...I need a tattoo of your logo or something! 


I look forward to the great potential learning experience this conference will be! I hope to learn new things about blogging, branding, make connections with other bloggers, get new ideas and of course...have a little fun!


I'll actively keep my readers and followers posted all weekend long and bring back stories, tips, great blog posts and news!


So, what else can I say?

"Pick Me!"  

Going Back to School...finally!

Tuesday was my first day of school.


I'm going to our local community college, and to be honest...I've been so nervous!
I'm not really worried about the difficulty of the classes, or the people...I worry about myself and my ability to stick with this to the end.


I had started college, but I quit after finding out I was pregnant. After that, we moved so many times in the past 4 years that I couldn't get resident tuition rates anywhere! 


Now...I'm finally doing it!


Somewhere in between being a stay at home mom and becoming a working mom, I lost my mind. I'd forgotten the things that I used to do for me!


I never really liked school, but I love learning! I'm a geek....I have come to accept it and acknowledge the fact that I need this! I need to be in an environment where I'm learning and am able to challenge myself. 


Being 23 I realize I'm on the lower end of the age spectrum when it comes to a community college, but I feel  a lot 'older' than classmates my age.


I am older! Maybe not physically but life has made me older...I think about everything so differently than they do and it's evident even after a short conversation.


But the good thing is I'm setting reasonable goals! 


I spent a lot of my teenage years setting unreachable goals, failing (inevitably) and then wallowing in my failure & self pitty. 


..sad and ridiculous I know. 


Setting goals I can reach...and then reaching them is going to feel great! 


So...I pledge to YOU readers of my blog: I will do my absolute darnedest (including extra credit) not to get anything below a B- ever! ...that's reasonable right?


I'll post my grades in December for all to see :)

Words of encouragement are greatly appreciated!

you can't believe EVERYTHING they say in movies...

*Hint: you really only need to watch the first 55 seconds of this video...then read my post below 







For some reason today a little experience from some years ago popped into my head and made me giggle to myself...I wanted to share & hopefully someone finds it as funny as I did.


Alright so,


It was a few years back that I watched this movie [Undercover Brother] with a group of my friends. I'm the only 'ethnic' one in the group (not that it's an issue but its part of the story). Any-who, I don't know what made us pick this movie but it is hilarious! We all laughed and had a good time & went home.


The next day I'm going to meet up with those same friends and on my way I get a phone call and it goes something like this:


(for the purposes of this let's call friend "A")


Me: "hello?"


A: "hey, I know you're on your way but I'm at Submarina do you want something?"


Me: "yeah sounds good, just get me a veggie sandwich on wheat bread...OH! and avocado please!"


A: "ok cool see you when you get here"


Me: "ok bye"


...about 30 seconds passes and the phone rings again...


Me: "hey"


A: "hey! ummm.......I just wanted to ask you.......do you want mayo on your sandwich?"


Me: (while in fits of laughter) "Haha! yes I do want mayo thank you."


A: "haha okay sorry I just wanted to make sure"

I love my friends...do YOU have a random funny story? SHARE in the COMMENTS! 

"Same Kind of Different as Me" by Ron Hall and Denver Moore

Same Kind of Different as Me is a story about faith, friendship and wisdom found in unexpected places. Ron Hall and Denver Moore are two men who's lives were so vastly different from one another, it seemed impossible that they could be friends.

Ron Hall is a wealthy art dealer and Denver Moore a homeless man. Both of their lives are brought together by Ron's wife Deborah who encouraged him to form a friendship with Denver, and although at first slightly reluctant...Denver and Ron did become good friends and learned a lot of life lessons from one another.

This book inspired me in a way no book has. It proves that no matter what your beginnings, or what negative things may happen in life there is always tomorrow and a chance for something better. 

I read this book in 2 days and didn't even want to put it down the first night. Each turn of the page either had me on the verge of tears or laughing aloud. 

Along with being a glorious testament to Faith, this book also highlights the issue of homelessness in a whole new way. To see a homeless man on the street, we don't know how he got there. One man is quoted in the book as saying "...you just think about this: You miss a coupla paychecks and your wife leaves you and you'll be homeless-just like us!" 

This book opened my heart and my mind, I feel blessed to have read it.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 

"From the mouths of babes..."

The other day while getting ready for school, munchkin stepped on one of his toys and it took a big 'ol chunk out of the bottom of his foot.

*ouch*



He was wailing, so I cleaned the cut, put on a band-aid and we continued getting ready to go. Over the nest half our, munchkin took his band-aid of TWICE! I kept telling him to keep them on his foot because otherwise it wouldn't heal (and I was running low on band-aids).

At preschool that day he took off his band-aids 3 or 4 times and then when school was over he wasn't wearing one, so I put on another.


That evening at home, I replaced the band-aid 4 more times and each time told him "do NOT take this OFF!"


So...at night I usually lay with munchkin in his bed & we talk about our day. 


Here's how the convo went that night:


Mom: "Today was a good day, wasn't it hun?"


Munchkin: "Yeah mom but I hurt my foot."


Mom: "I know you did & that was unfortunate but we learned a lot from that experience! We learned that our toys need to be in their place so we don't step on them, and we learned that shoes protect our feet from things on the ground that can cut us."


Munchkin: "Yeah..."


Mom: "So what did we learn...?"


Munchkin: "Don't take your band-aid off!"




*Haha! I had to stifle my laughter*


Well at least one point stuck with him from that experience...right? ;)


Do you have any funny stories? Share them in the comments & I'll post them on my blog in a few weeks!

5 PARENTING THINGS I SAID I'D NEVER DO..yeah right!

Maybe it's just me, but I told myself I was going to be SUPERMOM when I was pregnant. I had this list of things I'd seen others do and told myself I wouldn't do them once my munchkin came along....YEAH RIGHT! I've learned over the past 3 years that certain things aren't up to me and I had to give in.

Here's my list...try to hold your laughter because I know it's ridiculous!

"I will never....."

1. let kids sleep in our bed. [FAIL] - Ha! This one started off well. The munchkin slept in his crib every night until he was about 6 months old & we moved back to California from Louisiana. We sold the crib because we couldn't bring it with us and then we took way too long to get him a new one once we were in California. Finally, we got him out of our bed at age 2 & he does well in his own room too! (Phew!)

2. let my kid watch TV. [FAIL] - Whaaat? My son is an extremely active kid, so 99.9% of the time I'm chasing him around or trying to figure out where he's wandered off to. He's never still and really wouldn't even pay attention to TV until he was over 2 years old. I can't deny it...I need a breather sometimes & he loves PBS kids, not to mention his adoration of Zoodles games online. Major kudos who keep their kids brains TV free!

3. buy my child loud toys. [FAIL] - My hubby's grandmother doomed this one from the start. She has this adorable collection of dancing and singing stuffed animals and dolls. ANY-WHO, whenever Benny would go to her house she'd bring them out & he really got a kick out of them so she bought him a little penguin that sang "Ice Ice Baby". (and that was just the start!) I'm convinced that my son is like genetically predisposed to love the loudest & most repetitive toys ever made!

4. go out with mismatched clothing. [FAIL] - Oh MAN! Not only have I let go of this insanely impossible ideal, but nowadays I don't even care whether he has clothes on at all! Maybe it's even better that way & they can stay clean a bit longer! LoL My son has also made it quite clear that when he's home he likes to be "in the nude, dude!"

5. use conventional diapers. [FAIL] - I was born in Brasil & we lived in S. America for the first 3 years of my life. My mom used cloth diapers on me and said it made potty training that much easier (I was fully potty trained at 14 months)...so I decided to do the same. I lasted about 6 months and then I just couldn't keep up with it and opted for Pampers. Maybe next time!






Can you identify with anything on my list? What are some things you said "I'd never..." about raising kids before having them? Share it in the comments! I loooove comments :)

Huggies Commercial Banned from TV?!

Yes, the stories are true and below you can see for yourself the 'banned' ad.

When I heard about this on my local news I was quite surprised. The newscaster said the audio/song on the ad is what was thought to be 'innapropriate'. They aired a clip of the commercial without sound and I just had to find the actual version.

I don't find the ad innapropriate at all. In fact, it almost makes me with I had a child in diapers! (Ok, maybe not because potty training is quite an ordeal.)

What are your opinions? I'd love to hear!

Finding Support & Strength

It has been a little under two months now since my miscarriage. I lost Samantha on April 12 at nearly 5 months pregnant. My miscarriage was violently painful and and the experience is one I would never wish to happen to anyone else. I'm on my journey to finding a silver lining or light at the end of the tunnel...

My EDC (estimated date of conception) was December 18 and I didn't know I was pregnant until late February. My period had been irregular for some reason since September, so I didn't even think to take a pregnancy test for the longest time!

My 1st pregnancy was so easy. I hardly had morning sickness, and never were there any problems at all! I took care of myself, but no more than usual. I'd forget to take my prenatal vitamins sometimes and I didn't really feel terribly connected to the child growing inside of me. I was 19 and so many people in my life didn't 'approve' of my pregnancy and it was such a surprise that I think I spent a lot of time in a fog.

When we found out that we were expecting #2 I was excited and terrified all at once. Hubby and I have been married for 3 years now and although we hadn't planned it, we were looking forward to growing our little family. I worried about space, money and time, and with another child I wondered how our family dynamic would change and being an only child I wondered how my son would adjust to a sibling.

Even with all the worries I had, I felt this amazing joy! I was somewhat glad that I was already 12 weeks when I found out because it meant I only had a few weeks left to find out the gender and choose a name.

It seemed that when I finally felt at peace, things went wrong. I started bleeding a lot one night and decided to check myself into the ER. I left hubby and munchkin at home assuming it was no big deal but I wanted to be sure. That night they called it a 'threatened miscarriage' and told me there was a blood clot stuck in my cervix. They removed as much as they could and explained that the rest should reabsorb into my body.

Things seemed fine because my bleeding stopped a few days later and stayed that way for the next month.

My doctor was very busy, and during all this we moved about 30 minutes away.

The weekend we moved into our new place the bleeding started again, I was so confident that nothing was wrong & I had finally gotten an appointment with a high risk specialist for that Monday. I just rested on Saturday, but Sunday morning I woke up to the most painful cramping of my life. I couldn't walk, so I dragged myself to the bathroom. I took some of the Ibuprofen they'd prescribed me & went back to sleep.

Sunday night the pain came back and I couldn't take it. I was having contractions and the pain was so extreme I couldn't even talk. Hubby rushed me to the ER and spoke for me as they tried to assess what was going on.

The pain medicine they gave me wasn't working and they kept telling me there was nothing they could do because Samantha's heart beat was strong and they had no idea what was going on.

Then, I lost her...at 4:30am on Monday morning (only hours away from my appointment with the high risk specialist). My beautiful baby girl left this world and there was nothing I could do.

When one suffers a loss, the first question to mind is "why?" I held that question in my heart and mind constantly while waiting for pathology reports from the hospital. And anger...so much anger.

When I met with my doctor, she told me there are no reasons "why"; Samantha was healthy, no chromosomal abnormalities to speak of and her body was developing at the appropriate rate. The woman was actually almost speechless.

My mind had been stuck on "why" for so long, that answer just wasn't good enough for me.

Losing Samantha has taught me a hard life lesson: I AM HUMAN.

There are so many things in our lives that we can control, but life in itself...we cannot.

I'm learning that even if I can't answer "why"...someone knows the reason. Hopefully in time He will let me in on the secret.

If you've suffered a loss, you need support. Not everyone deals with grief in the same way and there is no 'wrong' way. If you live in the San Diego area there is Empty Cradle. Find a pregnancy loss support group near you or start one. You're not alone...no matter how lonely this pain feels.

Love the Gulf!

The issue of oil streaming into our water is something we should all be concerned about!

Just because we all may not live in the area, this affects us all equally.

My husband was born and raised in New Orleans and I had the pleasure of living there for a little over 2 years. We lived on what they call the 'West bank', the side of the city that lies east of the Mississippi river.

Living in New Orleans, I learned a lot about the city and the people who live there.

Most men work in at jobs related to import, export, fishing, construction and at Naval shipyards. Louisiana's state motto is "Sportsman's Paradise", but what now? That paradise is slipping away with each gallon spilled into the Gulf of Mexico.

I was listening to PBS radio in the car (as I often do), and they played audio clips of residents at a town hall meeting. One man stood up and said, "You might be able to replace my lost wages, but what about my heritage? What about me being able to teach my son to fish in the same waters I fished in as a young boy?" The crowd all mumbled in agreement.

And it's true, when we lived in New Orleans we spent many weekends fishing at Bayou Signet or travelling to Lafitte or discovering new places we could go & explore the outdoors.

On every body of water sit shrimping boats, and those boats and shrimp provide a way of life and an income for people and their families, not to mention the delicious shrimp & craw fish that make New Orleans cuisine so incredibly delicious!

The images of the BP oil spill are devastating and it makes me wonder how we will recover.

So many jobs, families, lives and businesses are affected.

And after all...our planet is about 70% water....how can we not be outraged?!

What can you do?

1. Write. Write how much you love the Gulf. Or about your memories of splashing on its shores as a child. Or maybe you need a place to vent your anger about what could happen. Or maybe you know a family whose livelihood is being deeply affected by this. Or maybe you have some breath-taking and beautiful pictures of the Gulf that must be shared. Bring it here, link it up, let’s collect our mutual love for the Gulf and make lots and lots of noise about it.

2. Post your link using the Mr. Linky widget at MorningsideMom.


3. Pick up a Love the Gulf badge to put in your post or on your blog.



4. Spread the word. Share the Gulf love. Tell folks to come join this carnival on twitter, facebook or in the coffee line at Dunkin Donuts. Whatever. Just tell people to come and write. All are welcome.



5. Consider donating, signing up to volunteer or sharing links about where you can help such as: Earthshare, Network for Good, Oxfam, Serve.gov or the Florida Audubon.



And finally, thank you. Thanks for directing your attention towards the Gulf. And thanks for recognizing the collective power of words.

Happy Memorial Day

Growing up in San Diego which is a military town and having several friends and family members in different branches of the military, I have an enormous amount of respect and appreciation for those that serve our country.

My grandfather was in the Navy for 25 years and my grandmother did her absolute best to raise 6 boys. I don't know how the military wives do it, being away from their loved ones...you women are strong!

Whenever the local news shows troops coming home, it gives me the chills seeing all their happy friends and family waiting for them. It also makes me think of those who's family members didn't make it.

I remember the first time I saw this video...it's I think it's perfectly appropriate for today.

Today we honor all those who served and died, and those who still serve our country & keep us safe.