It's officially the National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo), are you an inny or an outy?
It also marks my blogiversary.
One night when I thought I couldn't handle anymore that life wanted to spew at me, I got on the internet and did a couple of searches.
One was something in the way of, "I hate being a wife" and the other was "Why are my kids pooping their pants?" Believe it or not, I got hits for both.
With the second search, I discovered that what was currently happening to my boys was stress related (Dad was deployed to the desert) and could affect them for years after the fact.
So I'm here to tell you now, if out of the blue your normally potty trained, no-issues kid begins leaving deposits in his underwear resulting in your hands becoming cracked and your motivation to get up in the morning less than positive, don't freak out. It can begin with a constipation problem and result in the inability to recognize when those muscles are working. Ours began when I was too stressed to take on another thing, so I started buying cheaper underpants and threw the highly offensive ones out. One less thing for my hands to deal with.
The first search found me a few blogs. Mostly women who were in unrewarding relationships (that's an understatement), and since my relationship was fine other than the fact I was essentially a single mom, I refined my search to "military wife" and found Jen from Get in The Car! I laughed out loud for the first time in months. Clicking through her place took me to NaBloPoMo.
It was after the first week of November, so I knew I couldn't technically post every day for the month, but I thought I'd try to do as many as I could. I knew NOTHING about making my own blog, but met nice people along the way willing to teach me everything from linking to meme etiquette. I still see those people commenting on other blogs, they're still out here.
That's my beginning, and it's been a wild ride since. I have made connections that I hope I never lose. I know more about some of you than I know about my own family members and believe it or not, I'd much rather meet up one day with some of you than some of my family members (Disney World 2009 anyone?).
Again, I am coming up on the same stress that sent me out here and I approach it with dread (because I remember too clearly how close I came to that proverbial edge). But-- I have a different support system now (as opposed to NONE), and as Painted Maypole pointed out, "...but YOU... you have a BLOG. bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Yes. Yes I do. We'll be o.k.
So my nosy questions for you today are (feel free to answer any one or all-- notice how you weren't given the option of "none" hah!):
Why did you start blogging? Were you technology challenged, or was this like breathing to you? Do you remember the first blog that really hooked you?
Happy Anniversary. I don't even know why I started blogging. I guess I just enjoyed reading other people's blogs so much, I wanted to be a part of the blogosphere. I am a bit technologically challenged, but blogger does make it really easy. I think the first blog that really hooked me was woulda, coulda, shoulda. I love Mir. Now, of course, there are many, many more.
ReplyDeleteHappy Blogoversary! Great story, thanks for sharing. My blogging began within a couple days of my youngest son departing for BMT. I'm much more consistent these days!
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy my visits to your little piece of the blogosphere! Keep typing, and I will keep reading.
~AirmanMom returning to her blog...
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ReplyDeleteLove to hear about how you got started. Happy Blogiversary.
ReplyDeleteI started as a way to keep my family up with my new baby (#2) and keep up with the rest of the family.
I started because of a need for a creative outlet, I think. I think I have continued it because of all the wonderful and interesting people I have "met" as a result. Yes I was and still am technologically challenged, but I just keep going anyway and learning as I go.
ReplyDeleteHappy blogiversary!
ReplyDeleteI started blogging to keep the fam updated, but it turned into a total vice for ME. I'm technologically challenged, so its been a wild ride, but I've learned a Lot! The first blog I ever read was Dawn Meehan's Because I Said So, and then got hooked on Erin's Raising Country Kids. Now I'm a blogoholic, lol.
Blessings, Whitney
Let's see ... hmmmm ... I started blogging to cut down on my emails and save time on the computer. HA HA HA!!!! Discovered only two of my email buddies would blog and stumbled onto a TON of new friends who do blog -- hence I am more time crunched than before, but happier. : D
ReplyDeleteI married Einstein (sans the hair) so I became techincally brilliant by the miracle of marriage. (Actually what I lack in savvy I make up for in spunk and stubborn refusal to ask for help until I have exhausted all possibilites. I solve mysteries for fun. With techno-stuff I usually succeed.)
First blog that hooked me was EYES OF WONDER by Jewels who tends hearth for a delightful family of 10 kids (9 at home, one married with darling wife and two babies), one hubby, and a passle of praise amidst the trials and tribulations of trying to remain faithful and live simply each day. She posts rarely, but each one is a gem. : )
My flaky internet repeater connection makes blogging a non-daily joy (daily would mean teeth-grinding horror). I will not be participating in the marathon, but I'll sit around and sup on the fruits of all your labors. ; )
I pray for you daily. Bless your freedom-protecting family.
I have so wanted to do this SAME post for a while now...(Can I steal it for my one year too??)
ReplyDeleteMine goes like this: I loved the idea of blogging but figured I wasn't a writer, soo... and wasn't sure I could figure it all out. but then. my very NOT technologically adept SIL was all blogging away, and I said: if she can do it....
i'm an outy. and I wish there was no such thing. I curse it. my reader curses it, too.
ReplyDeleteJen M is awesome! I love her, and her recent return to blogging is a joy.
and blogging was a bit of a whim, and Beck was my first inspiration. I wrote all about it on my blogiversary in June.
Happy Blogiversary! I started a year and a half ago as a way of connecting with all of my Florida friends I'd just left behind. My Hunny actually suggested it (he rues the day). He said something about it at breakfast and by lunch I had a blog. It's been a long learning curve ever since.
ReplyDeleteSeveral blogs became favorite friends nearly from the beginning, including Kidzmama, Sports Mama, Burgh and Rocking Pony. But the first to really capture my attention and hold it, giving me something to aspire to, is Mir, of Woulda Coulda Shoulda.
And then you came along! I'm so glad you're out here blogging. :) I know exactly what you mean, feeling like family to people you don't even know. I feel like we're sisters separated at birth. :)
I was sitting in my living room and writing shorts a year before I started blogging. At the time I had no idea what a blog was. When I found out I thought, yay, I can write and maybe I'll be read a bit. All the rest, the big and complicated relationship with blogging developed and is still developing. I had no idea I'd meet people I'd care about.
ReplyDeleteHope you guys are well and good.
Happy Anniversary!
I'll try to be an inny.
ReplyDeleteI got hooked on the blog of a friend of mine and finally decided it was time to start my own. It's been two years this month, and I think it's been my salvation. Sometimes I complain, sometimes I tell stories, and sometimes I share pictures. Great stress reliever, especially when the comments start flowing in.
Oh hon, I know all about kids pooping their pants, believe me! This deployment must be so stressful, people tend to forget that it's not only the soldiers who are making all the sacrifices here (hugs).
ReplyDeleteI didn't even know what a blog was. I left most of my friends behind in London when I moved over here. (Well, okay, the two I had), anyways, guess my emails got a little much for poor Ally to handle, she urged, nay BEGGED me, to start blogging. Ihad to get my kids to clue me in on what she was on about. Anyway it worked, I've been deflected and don't bombard her nearly so much now!
I started blogging June 2006, in the middle of the adoption process for our daughter. It took me a month or so to get comfortable. I never dreamed it would become such a part of my life. Being a homeschooling SAHM can be isolating, but the blogging world helps keep me connected. I cherish my blogging friends.
ReplyDeleteAnd I hope this time that the blogging community can help keep you sane!!!
Happy Blogaversary to you!
ReplyDeleteI am an outie, but post daily regardless. I'm mostly an outie because I am not able to get the stupid link thingy to work. Yeh.
I started blogging for reasons so stupid that you don't really want to know, and thankfully have deleted those posts. I've since become hooked because, duh, blogging is such a great community.
oh my, I started after reading through our ward blog. I was so impressed and inspired by all the sisters in my ward. So, I started mine thinking it would be a way to joural my family's day to day activites. It quickly changed into an outlet for me to vent, or just blabber about whatever I wanted.
ReplyDeleteI think the first blog I got addicted to is my buddy, Merrianne's. I've never met her in person, but feel I've made a true friend. Several actually.
So anyway, Happy Blogiversary!!
Oh, and it didn't seem too challenging to me. Blogger seems to be pretty user friendly for the most part. There are still a few things I've got to figure out though. Maybe I'll post about those one day--and see who can help me.
I started a blog to connect with far away friends, but that is not really what it is used for anymore. So bizarre how it all happened really.
ReplyDeleteThe first blog that really caught me was Frog and Toad Are Still Friends. I love Beck. Still do.
I'm joining NaBloPoMo again this year. I think I've lost my mind!
I started because all the cool kids were doing it. Well not really. I wanted a place to post photos for my mom and complain about everything.
ReplyDeleteHeya. Is that really how you started? Amazing. And, congrats on making it to the 1 year point. Please, if you get the chance, visit my last post. I'm trying to share the love.
ReplyDeleteWhoo-Hoo it's a celebration!! So cool....well I started...Because. Is that good enough?tehe
ReplyDeleteFor my family to stay in touch..have most of them on board now..so it's been a good thing for that..among other great reasons..
Like meeting new friends..many very inspiring for me!! Thank you.
My genius (I use that word liberally mind you) is not very tech savvy..but I like to think randomly pushing buttons has gleaned me some interesting and helpful results..Not a new computer..PHEW!!
First of all ~ being new here, I didn't know that your husband was deploying again. -sigh-
ReplyDeleteWhy start blogging? I've been blogging for years. Began in Live Journal, because I had a friend in a Mailing List Group, who was into LJ. He {young man living in Dublin Ireland} gave me a link, to join LJ. {Way back then, you needed someone in LJ, to do that!} And so I made an LJ blog. :-)
Was I technology challenged? Hell yes! I stilllllllllll am!!!! >,-)
Nope, way too long ago, for me to remember that. Naturally, I read Drew's LJ blog... But I'd not say it 'hooked me,' in the way you mean.
Btw, I've been on Blogger for a couple of years, now. And I'm still on LJ. LJ has evolved into mostly following mil blogs there. Again, for years. :-)
And of course, my LJ blogging is NOT 'Pretty Blog Land' blogging, like it is, on Blogger. -grinnnnn-
Remember, I'm in my later years so I have the time! :-)
Miss Mari-Nanci
Happy Blogiversary to you!!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE the way you got into blogging. I for one am so GLAD you typed in those Google searches that fateful night!! :)
My story is so lame...I started blogging for work (I went to a conference on business blogging and came home and started my own). I wrote about once a month (if that) for several months, had one reader and then didn't touch it for a year.
Then in August of 2007 I needed a creative outlet, a place to write and so I started it up again. It's been a great ride ever since. I've made some friends who are really important to me (you included) AND it's given me my newest obsession (guess what that is...)!
Happy Blogaversary!
ReplyDeleteI'll be in Orlando in Jan! When are you going?
I started blogging because I was reading my cousin's blog, which led me to some others. I did this for a few months, and every thought in my head was "If I were blogging, this is the picture I would take," or "If I were blogging, I would write about THIS in this way..." It was a whim on a Sunday afternoon when it really started. I sat down to work and wound up with my first post.
I am STILL tehcnologically challenged with blogging. I need to hire someone to just do simple HTML things, but I guess overall it isn't that important to me. I'm not a tehcnological idiot, but I appear to be when it comes to blogging.
My cousin's blog hooked me before I started. After I did my own, I can't count. Because my blog is a bit (a bit?) eclectic, my readership is quite varied. Photographers, writers, mommy bloggers, etc. But I think I could say what the first one was in each category... I think. But the answers might have changed now.
And YOURS is SO. MUCH. FUN!!!!
I started blogging because all of my friends were doing it. Truly. But it was a Xanga (if that really can be considered a blog at all). That was 3 1/2 years ago. I pick up new technology pretty easy, and I love to write so it was a perfect match.
ReplyDeletenice trail of infro on blogging....i actually started bloggin b/c my sister told me that i should. i reluctanly began and like you and every other woman out there: foung a network of sympathetic ears plus a better way to stay in touch with friends and family across the miles.
ReplyDeleteblogging is a blessing i am surely thankful for!
I am an outy I am afraid. I can' barely post once a week these days. I started by reading Catherine Newmans Journal and blog years ago. The more blogs I read the more I felt I had things to say. Then one day (just over year ago) I started my blog. I love it. Even though I neglect it these days :)
ReplyDelete