My kids love hearing the stories behind their namesakes and each still pretty much like their given names, except for our youngest: while playing a name game at a friend's baby shower, Hope insisted she wanted to be called Robin. "How come my name doesn't start with a H, like the girls?" For two reasons: naming your children with the same letter sounds harmless enough, until you try hollering for one of them, and can't seem to remember their names, without sounding like an idiot...each and every blessed time...because, I'm smart like that. There is also a pretty neat and... Read more →

I feel extremely lucky to have experienced (what I consider to be) once-in-a-lifetime type moments, via my little corner of the internets and feel very blessed to have a strong online network of friends and peers (yes, they know about it!) most especially, when dissing them during the Type-A Advanced blogging conference in Philadelphia to spend the rest of the weekend, with my oldest daughter. it's our first mother/daughter weekend away, can you tell?!? While my friends Amy Clark and Jo-Lynne Shane fed my inner-squirrel...I mean, what I meant to say was...encouraged my love of Pinterest (heh) and Maria Bailey... Read more →

Song: "More Than A Feeling" by Boston Runners Unite to Remember: we walked 3 miles, in 40 minutes on our high school's track, last night. #prayingforboston. © 2003 - 2013 This Full House New and improved with a fan page on Facebook and everything! Read more →

Working in social media, I get to watch a lot of "how to" videos (YES, it's a job!) and I have learned some really interesting stuff along the way: like, how some beauty bloggers can make putting on their make up look soooooo easy. So, I was over-tweezing my eyebrows the other day and started thinking to myself; you know, maybe it would be a whole lot easier if someone showed me what NOT to do...and...HEY!!!!...wait a minute...I can do that!!! So, I present to you, the first in a series of "how NOT to" vlogs. A few post-production notes:... Read more →

Get thee to the bus ON TIME!!! With multiple kids in school for the last thirteen years, we are at that point in our lives when -- rather than referring to pregnancies as a timeline -- my husband, Garth (not his real name) and I are beginning rely on graduations to help us remember stuff. Don't even get me started on the years when we had kids attending four different schools (redistricting, halfway through, yeah, THAT was fun!) and, well, a large chunk of that time is still a little fuzzy. I do, however, remember spending at least two hours...every... Read more →

PEDIGREE CTNC Blog Post: This post is sponsored by PEDIGREE Brand, which compensated me to develop this content and reader giveaway. I wanted to share a quick update with you on the special feeding project I've been working on with Pedigree and Miranda Lambert (love her)! With your help, Pedigree has received more than 14,000 nominations, from all over the country, for their Choose the Next Communities program: a new initiative to feed more shelter dogs while they wait adoption. The top five finalists are in and now we get to tell Pedigree which city's shelter dogs to feed next.... Read more →

The 50 nifty, funny states. With all the technology available at their fingertips (even our school district started going paperless, two years ago) it is sort of refreshing to see my kids revert to using low-tech, old school study tools. For example: making up their own vocabulary flashcards. What's so funny about vocabulary, or flashcards, you ask?!? Absolutely nothing, I say. Unless, I am helping my youngest study for a BIG test on naming the capitals of all 50 states, using flashcards she made up with special keywords (in parentheses) to help her remember and then acts all surprised when... Read more →