I Promise I'm Not Seeing That Skanky Blog Down The Street

My poor little Blog. I've neglected you. Really it's not you, it's me.

Yeah, yeah, we've all heard THAT line before.

But I swear I'm ready to kiss and make up.

If you'll have me back.

I Would Like To Thank The Academy....

So maybe it's not really an Academy Award. Unlike Kate Winslet, I'm pretty sure I'll only be making my acceptance speech in the bathroom with a shampoo bottle for the rest of my life. It's hard to be discovered when you're almost 40 and more Frumpy than Fabulous.

But I am pleased and honored to receive the Kreativ [sic] Blogger Award from Mary at The Adventures of Mommy Maestro. Thank you Mary!

The rules of the award state that I must list seven things I love, and then to pass the award on to seven bloggers I love to read.

In no particular order:
Seven Things Irishembi Loves (besides husband, children and assorted pets):

1) Grocery shopping by myself - No joke. I enjoy grocery shopping solo. I'm not sure if that's because that is the rare place that I do sometimes get to be by myself, or if I really just enjoy grocery shopping. Maybe a little of each. When the kids are with me, it's a trip guaranteed to produce a nervous breakdown, tears and snot, and at least one temper tantrum. And then sometimes the kids have a rough time too. But when by myself, I stroll through those aisles. I read packages and labels. I check out new products. Look over all the items in the $1 bins just in case I might need a miniature size can of foot powder some day.

2) The smell of my kids' hair, clean or dirty - I'm sure that will change once they enter puberty and dirty hair smells less like the syrup they got in it at breakfast time, and more like sweaty teenager.

3) Music - I love music of all eras and genres. I have completely random taste. There are certain artists or genres I might be more familiar with or prefer, but for me it's all about the way a particular song makes me feel. Could be the melody, a certain turn of phrase in the lyrics, or even just that a particular song reminds me of a certain time in my life. A song can bring back a memory to me in such a way that I can feel that memory with all of my senses. I love music from Classical, to the cheesiest of Pop, to Disco, to Rockabilly, Jazz and Heavy Metal. There is a finely tuned string somewhere inside my soul and certain songs make it resonate. Music, especially played in a public forum such as a concert hall or marching band, can bring tears to my eyes. Not to be confused with making me cry, it just plucks that inner string and the emotion and sheer feeling overflows from my eyes. I also love to sing. I'm told I should never do this, but my singing always sounds far better inside my head than out of it.

4) Kennywood - I've promised a full blog entry about this local Pittsburgh Amusement Park in my post about Pittsburgh. But the short version is that I love the sounds, the smells, the foods (three words: POTATO PATCH FRIES). I love the build-up of anticipation to the annual Kennywood trip. It still feels almost the same as it did 30 years ago when I couldn't wait to go.

5) Really Good Coffee - Nuff said.

6) My friends - I am blessed to have wonderful friends that would do anything for me at the drop of a hat. Unfortunately those hats are mostly in different time zones to the tune of several thousand miles away. Even my BFF that I grew up with right here in Pittsburgh had the nerve to move to England. Hmmm, maybe I should shower more often......

7) Books - I have a love affair and passion for books. It's cerebral, it's sensual. The smell of a new book, the cracking feeling when you open it for the first time, the feeling of the paper pages; both smooth and slightly scratchy at the same time. The moment the book opens up I can escape to a world that is "other." I have looked at a Kindle on Amazon, and while I like it in concept, I am reluctant to give up my real books. I cannot understand people that don't enjoy reading. Cannot relate at all. It is a love affair that has not wavered since I learned to read approximately 35 years ago.

Seven Blogs I am passing this award on to (again in no particular order, and I love ALL my blogs on my bloglist) :

1) Welcome to the Snug
2) The Chronicles of Blackheart Lola (since giving her an award seems to be the only way I can induce her to write)
3) Been There - Done That - By Jo (because I haven't heard all her stories yet and I never get tired of them)
4) Say it Ain't So (because I'm waiting for her to tell ANY story ;-) )
5) The Other Side of the Fence
6) Confessions of a Mommy Blogger
7) Life's a Journey...Not a Destination

Serves As A Handy Message Board

There are three areas where I regularly express myself via the written word on the Internet. First and foremost, I have a group of friends that I am in almost daily contact with via email. It's rare that I neglect this area, unless I am actually physically disconnected from the World Wide Web. As in placed in a straitjacket and locked in a padded room. Or on vacation. But since we don't have disposable income for vacations, it's most likely the former.

These girls know more about me than my own husband, and I probably talk to them twice as much. No, don't worry, Dave and I are just fine. It's just that he's at work all day not talking to me, and since two of these girls (soon to be three) are in different time zones, someone is available to talk to at almost any time of the day. This may explain why I have piles of laundry higher than my head and I couldn't find the fish in the fishbowl the other day, not to mention the fact that I swear I saw "MBM hearts DJM 1998" written in the dust on my bookshelves.

So I'm not Martha Stewart. We've established that.

But I am also active on a message board at Babyfit.com. I found this message board (and consequently the above mentioned four friends) when I was pregnant with Meredith and discovered a group of loving, caring, helpful women from all walks of life and all areas of the country, as well as many living in other countries. These girls were my lifeline, and while I was in labor I was busy texting one of these girls so they could post updates on my progress.

And of course the third way that I express myself is Blogging. When I say Blogging, I include both writing here, for my own blog, but also reading and commenting on other's blogs. I know some people follow as many as 200 blogs on their reader, but I have no idea how they do that and still have a life, let alone ever sleep. But every blog you see listed here on my blog page, I follow regularly and often comment on.

The dilemma is, I cannot seem to do all three at once and still manage to keep one husband, three children, a dog, a cat, and fish fed, bathed, and clothed. Okay so maybe not so much with the clothing and bathing for the cat, the dog and the fish (although Taffy is starting to smell a little "doggy"), but you get what I mean.

So if I seem to disappear from blogland from time to time, I am probably attending to one of those other venues of communication. Or I might just have writer's block. OR I decided to finally tackle that dusting.

Nah, probably not the dusting.