The main reason I blog is because Brenda told me to.

:: The End ::

Just kidding. But this post almost could be that short. The main reason I finally started a blog, three years after abandoning the personal website I’d lovingly hand-coded from 1997 to 2004, was because Brenda kept telling me I should do it. She told me that I’m such a writer, and I take good photos, and I should just do it because I would be good at it and have a blast.

I already read and regularly commented on a few blogs, and had been part of the 7 Days community on Flickr for a while, so I knew that it would probably be fun, but I still hesitated, worried that non-internetty friends and relatives wouldn’t understand why I wanted to dedicate a website to talking about my life, that they would see it as a weird, navel-gazing kind of thing to do. I hemmed and hawed for months before I finally took the plunge (assisted by Heather and Jessica‘s excellent tutorials about how to ditch my blogging training wheels) with three posts about making my friends Erin and Rocco’s wedding cakes.

Once I’d started, I wondered why I’d been dragging my feet. Brenda was right; blogging was super fun, and useful! I could post photos and write about what we were up to for my and Troy’s parents, and all the friends and family we lived far away from thanks to the Navy. I could record moments and crafts and recipes I wanted to remember for future reference. I could ask questions and my readers would respond with advice, funny stories, recommendations.

But the best part of being a blogger is how many good friends I’ve made because of my blog. Comments led to emails, to hilarious late-night IM sessions, to in-person meet-ups, to exchanging Christmas cards and care packages, to stopping on road trips for a quick meal of Chinese with old friends I was meeting for the first time. Because of blogging, I have a friend like a sister who will help me unpack my house when I move and come stay with me for three weeks when I’m about to have a baby; and there is a woman in Australia whom I count as one of my best friends, on any continent. Because I blog, I have friends all over the world whom I otherwise never would have met or even known existed.

For a long time, it was seen as slightly shady and downright weird to admit that you had met a friend or significant other online. But as Brenda says (she says lots of good things, which is probably why she’s such a good blogger herself), the internet is better than homeroom. It actually makes more sense to meet friends online in communities you’re both into (blogs, Flickr, Star Trek forums, whatever) than to befriend people who just happen to be sitting next to you in your 3rd-period history class. The internet acts as a filter and leads you to the people who share common traits and values and interests with you. I’ve always had to laugh when I read news articles about the concern that people spending so much time online will lead to them not knowing how to interact with the real world. For me, the internet—including my blog—has been an amazing portal to the real world and some wonderful people.

I’m taking part in a blogging group called Reverb Broads that will be suggesting daily blogging prompts this December. I won’t do it every day, but I’ll be using them occasionally throughout the month as they tickle my fancy. If you want to join in, feel free! Go here or here to learn more.

Friday wrapped up another fantastic run of 7 Days. I wasn’t really in the mood on Day 1 last weekend. But as usual the week of taking self-portraits; viewing everyone else’s creative, silly, honest, fun shots; and commenting up a storm worked its magic and brought me right out of my funk. It’s a fact: 7 Dayers are the defunkifyingest group on Flickr. I’m already looking forward to the next one in December.

This was my alternate for Day 7. I felt left out of all the dottery photos, so I took a photo of me, drinking my tea, looking out at the rain. This photo has two 7 Days connections: I was with Lauren C. when I painted this mug, and the tea that I’m drinking is the PG Tips that Lauren H gave me when we met up with her last summer.

Just for kicks, here’s a short video I shot at the Ontario airport in California last month, right after Elliora learned to play peekaboo. It cracks me up how she doesn’t quite get that she needs to cover her face for this game to work, though she’s gotten better since then.

Part of the reason I’m randomly posting this second video now is because I was scrolling through old blog posts today, looking for one I was sure I’d written about our three-day power outage last January when my parents were here…and I didn’t find it because I never wrote it. I also never wrote about Elliora’s baptism and Rachel coming to visit! I can’t believe how many things have gone unblogged in the past year. Sheesh. I need to just start blogging things, even if the posts aren’t well-organized and the photos aren’t all edited and uploaded yet.

While we’re being random, we might as well end this post with an adorable photo of Elliora and Annalie driving a grocery cart at the store recently.

Cute baby pictures!

Hooray for cute baby pictures! Especially ones with fun expressions.

What’s that? No, you’re not imagining it; these photos are fairly similar. I would probably be more selective and post fewer of these to Flickr, but I know the grandmas want to see every last one of ‘em.

No, seriously, they do! And the aunts and uncles and various friends want to see them too. My mom even wants to see the ones I reject because someone’s eyes are half-closed or moved at the wrong moment. But she has to deal with not seeing them because I usually delete those without downloading them.

The sad part is, I’m not even near being caught up on photos with this post. I haven’t written about Annalie’s gymnastics show, or when Annalie was blowing bubbles using her hand as a wand, or a couple of recipes I promised to blog, or the pottery I’ve painted recently.

I dunno how those of you who read this blog for the crafts or the recipes feel about all these baby pictures, but I guess you can just skip these posts.

But can you really resist this face? Come on.

Hey, there’s me! I’m actually in a picture with Elliora. I need to start handing Troy the camera more often. Time is flying by.

I suggested to Annalie that she could make another video of herself reading for my mom to show to Aurora. She thought that was a great idea. I think I might have her make weekly videos of herself reading. It will be a fun way to track her progress throughout the year, and a way for her grandparents, other relatives, and friends to peek into our homeschool.

Should I keep posting these videos every week, or will that get boring? Should I just post one every 3-4 weeks? What do you think?

(I’m writing this post from an airplane by the way. Just thought you should know.)

Remember my post on how Brenda and I painted flower t-shirts using freezer-paper stencils for party favors for Annalie’s 5th birthday? That post is being featured today in the InsideBayArea’s Kids Crafts Column, aPARENTly Speaking!

UPDATE: Comments seem to be getting emailed to me just fine. Thanks, everyone! I’m closing comments on this post now.

As you will probably be able to tell if you have looked at my Flickr lately, we’ve been keeping busy. And now, as you might infer from that photo of Annalie and Aurora above, we’re in Omaha for a visit and we’re still busy. I’m hoping I’ll have time to blog about some of the fun stuff keeping us busy very soon.

I suppose I should write something, anything, to get that broken-blog post off the top of the page. I’m too tired to write a proper chatty post all about how we’ve been spending our days, but I’ll post a few photos to give you the basic idea.

I mentioned that International 7 Days Meet-Up we had at my house on Saturday. That was lots of fun.

I made Lamingtons, which are an Australian treat composed of spongecake, chocolate and coconut. They are as delicious as they sound.

My mom’s sister, brother, and sister-in-law drove down Sunday afternoon for a short visit. We went up to Snail Mountain and admired the view.

After lunch at our favorite local Italian place, we walked around the little downtown a bit. I saw this funny sign in the window of a martial arts studio: FEAR NO MAN. Inquire Within.

Lauren and I visited this fantastic little yarn shop. Lauren tried to control her yarn lust.

My Aunt Kathy and Uncle Bill checked out a secondhand store while Annalie, my Aunt Julie and my mom relaxed at the children’s bookstore down the street.

Back at home, we had a Vegemite tasting. Oh yes we did. Lauren says the problem most Americans have with Vegemite is that they treat it like peanut butter, spreading it on too thick. So we buttered toast and spread the Vegemite thinly on that.

I’m here to tell you, Vegemite is pretty darn tasty. It’s salty and tangy and I’d really like to try it with some cheese. I’m actually quite interested in acquiring more Vegemite and attempting to make a cheesymite scroll.

It’s sort of a tradition for my mom to take us to dinner at Outback Steakhouse when she visits us. I thought Lauren would get a kick out of it, so we took her there and she was amused. The food was delicious as usual, which probably made the archaic Aussie slang on the menu seem slightly less offensive.

Annalie made some crazy faces for my mom while we were waiting for the food to come to the table. She’s a nut.

I’ll have to write more about the zoo and the Air & Space Museum and the International 7 Days Meet-Up 2 (now with more internationality!) later, because now I’m tired and am going to bed. Tomorrow is Lauren’s last full day here and we deliberately planned a day of nothing so we could sleep in and Lauren could organize and pack. If we’re feeling really crazy we might go to Joann’s to buy Lauren some more stitch markers to go with all the yarn she bought so she could knit socks and things.

Now how about I end this post with our Day 157 photo for Troy?

UPDATED: OMSH fixed it for me because she is a web genius and wonderful friend. Thank you so much, Heather!

I poked around a bit and figured out how to bring my blog back (whew!) but not the pretty theme. Which means my photos are all squished and my awesome Chuck banner that Brenda made for me isn’t up (boohoo!) and several other things are missing as well. I don’t want to poke around any more right now for two reasons: I might make it worse, and it’s after midnight and I have to get up early in the morning so we can go to the zoo. If I start tinkering now I could accidentally stay up till 4am trying to fix my mistake.

For now, I’m going to bed and hoping I’ll figure this all out tomorrow or the next day. In the meanwhile, if you want to see photos of the awesome International 7 Days Meet-Up we had yesterday in Lauren‘s honor with Summer, Katie, Elaine, Bonnie & Brenda (Sonja and Jen couldn’t make it but we’re seeing them Tuesday), click the photo for the set.